2012 Fantasy Baseball H2H Points League Strategy: CBS Expert Draft Analysis

Last week Scott White and various other fantasy baseball writers and experts from CBS Sportsline participated in a 12-team H2H mock draft. If you’re interested in reading the article in its entirety, it can be found here.

I thought it might be interesting to compare some of the results of the CBS Sportsline expert mock draft with the most recent ADP report from Mock Draft Central (MDC) in order to illustrate just how different some players are valued in H2H points league scoring as compared to standard roto formats.

Therefore, I’ve provided the first 100 selections from that draft as well as the first 100 players in the most recent ADP report. See the spreadsheet below followed by my observations:

Observations:

Albert Pujols, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki and Robinson Cano were valued equally across both CBS and MDC, meaning there's little difference at the top regardless of the scoring format. In fact, of the first 12 players for both, 10 were the same, with Justin Verlander being the only SP to appear in both.

There were 31 SP selected in the CBS draft as opposed to 27 in the MDC report. However, there was not a single RP selected in the CBS draft whereas four appeared in the MDC report. This tells me that SV are of little value in the scoring format they were drafting for. It's important to know your league's scoring format verbatim in order to know where to find value in the draft and what positions you can avoid.

There were 17 players from CBS that didn't appear in the MDC report. Perhaps the most notable being Billy Butler who found himself in the Top 50 in the CBS draft. Butler has outscored first basemen such as Lance Berkman and Ryan Howard over the course of the last three seasons.

Nick Markakis was another such player that didn't appear in the MDC report. Markakis has outscored outfielders such as Justin Upton and Hunter Pence over the last three seasons.

David Ortiz does not appear on the MDC report, but was drafted 83rd on CBS. It leaves little flexibility in your lineup to roster Ortiz as he only qualifies for DH, however, in 2011 he outscored premiere hitters such as Andrew McCutchen, Carlos Gonzalez, Adrian Beltre, Evan Longoria and Mark Teixeira.

Ervin Santana was selected 86th overall in the CBS draft but does not make the Top 100 ADP for MDC. If you read my thoughts on Santana in my Top 50 SP then you won't want to forget him come draft day.

Carlos Santana was the first C to be selected in both. However, he was drafted 20th overall on CBS as compared to a 35 ADP on MDC. Catchers such as Santana, Mauer and Napoli that qualify at multiple positions or find themselves in the lineup almost every day are much more valuable in H2H formats as their increase in ABs can gain an edge over your opponent.

CBS experts played it much safer with drafting Ryan Braun at 66 compared to 28 on MDC. If you can weather the 50 game suspension and still make your H2H league playoffs, Braun could be a pivotal piece to a championship run in September for the cost of a 5th Rd. selection or later.

As should be the case, Mike Stanton was drafted much later on the CBS draft than on the MDC report, however, not late enough. Assuming the scoring format for CBS penalizes for strikeouts, the 38th selection is for too early for Stanton as 30 outfielders outscored him in 2011. At the time he had been selected, only 8 OF had been drafted - Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Gonzalez, Curtis Granderson, Andrew McCutchen, Justin Upton and Matt Holliday, Simply put, there is a 0.01% chance Stanton will be the 9th highest scoring OF in 2012.

I have no possible explanation for why someone on the CBS draft selected Dustin Ackley 73rd overall. I imagine Ackley to be a much better MLB player than fantasy player in his career as he offers little opportunity for points with his limited power, surrounding lineup and home stadium.

Share your thoughts on this post, the CBS mock draft or any other fantasy baseball H2H questions in the comments below.