How to Play Rotisserie Baseball

How to Play Rotisserie Baseball
by Ray of RotoPicks.com

Rotisserie baseball is the standard format of fantasy baseball. Although there have been many variations of this format, it has at it's root, kept the same form over the 30 plus years since play began. That is one of the best things about playing in Roto leagues because they give you a base and a core set of rules that is unmistakably timeless.

In a traditional Rotisserie baseball league, the format is broken down into just 10 categories. Five for pitchers and five for hitters. That is it. Players are now either paper champions or paper failures. While a large part of their value on paper is determined by how they actually perform on the field, there is somewhat of a disconnect. Compartmentalizing a player's value into just 5 traditional categories can easily become cumbersome. Especially when the argument can be made that some of the statistics being used are primitive. Fantasy owners are now using advanced statistics and metrics to predict home runs and strikeouts. But there is a reason why the standard Rotisserie format works.

Back in 1982, information was not nearly as readily available as it is now. The internet did not exist. Cable was a relatively new novelty. MLB Extra Innings was not available. Things were a lot more primitive. But just because all of those things are available now, it does not mean that the format should change. At its root, Rotisserie baseball is supposed to be fun and easy to follow. All of those innovations make fantasy baseball both easier and harder, but it is still the same game. Let's take a look at how Rotisserie baseball is played and some potential strategies.

• Teams earn points based on how their team performs over the course of the season in each of ten statistical categories (Referred to as 5x5 leagues) The amount of points available is based on the number of teams in the league. For example if there are ten teams in the league, first place in each category is worth ten points; second place is worth nine points, and so on. Last place in a statistical category would net you one point. So for simplicity sake, the objective is to draft the best players and have the most points in every category. But that is easier said than done.
• The standard Rotisserie scoring system consists of five categories for hitters and five categories for pitchers. The offensive categories are home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, stolen bases and batting average. For pitchers, the categories are wins, strikeouts, saves, ERA, and WHIP. What this is saying, is that these stats are the best measures of how good a player truly is. This is how players are evaluated and these are the stats that are often most closely tied to winning games. As the game has evolved and sabermetrics has taken hold, the categories are not as standard as they used to be. While these categories are the easiest ways to judge a player's worth, we now know they are not the best way to see how good a player really is. If you are using advanced statistics to rank and forecast player performance, why can you not use some of those categories in your league's scoring system? That is the beauty of this format, it provides you with a solid base, but you can customize it based on the tastes of you and your league.
• Although leagues are various different sizes based on the desire of the league and how many teams you want to include, a standard league includes twelve teams. Each of those teams will then start a 23 man roster consisting of 16 hitters (2 C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, Corner Infielder, Middle Infielder, 5 OF, one Utility (any offensive position) and 9 pitchers. These pitchers can be either starters or relievers. Of course too this can be changed, but this is the standard format.

The scoring system is self explanatory, get the most possible points, but there are many ways to do it. First you must be aware of the categories that are trying to compile, and then be aware of the setup of your league. Issues such as position scarcity often present themselves depending on how many teams are in your league and how deep your starting lineup must go. You can either embrace the scarcity, or just take the best available player and figure out the logistics of your starting lineup later. Not to be too non committal, but a strategy somewhere in the middle most often works best.

It is not efficient to take a player a few rounds before they should go based solely on what position they play, but you also have to keep the opportunity cost in mind. How much production are you really sacrificing by reaching or passing on the last elite catcher? You want to get a good player at each position, but you also want to balance that urge with fielding a team that does not have any weak spots. The same logic applies to specific statistics.

This is not meant to advocate punting, or foregoing a category, but you have to be careful not to over pursue any one category. The goal here is to build the most well balanced team. It is a more efficient approach to target a team full of well rounded players as opposed to players that are only contributors in one category. But drafting for value is still the most prudent strategy and you give yourself a smaller margin of error by taking yourself out of the running in one category.

Rotisserie baseball is the perfect building block. You can either enjoy it as is, or customize it as you and your league see fit. These customizations will impact your strategic and management decisions. If you still have questions about how to play rotisserie baseball, feel free to drop us a line at rotopicks@hotmail.com and one of us will be happy to answer your questions.

And for those of you who are getting bored with the annual draft thing and being locked into having the same team for a full season... Say hello to daily fantasy baseball. Draft a fresh team each day and get paid once the final games are over each night. It's a fascinating-fresh new way to play the game we all know and love; fantasy baseball.

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