Saturday Evening Reside celebrated its 50th 12 months this previous weekend. Did you watch it? If not, go discover it…or no less than watch the clips. Nice stuff! SNL has been certainly one of my favorites ever since I found it two rating and several other fortnights in the past. Okay, perhaps not THAT way back, but it surely’s been a minute! There have been years when the forged was implausible and naturally, there have been years to neglect. These 10-year anniversary exhibits are implausible although and the 50th was no totally different. Considered one of my all-time favorites is “Lazy Sunday” so that you see the inspiration for the title.
Quick ahead, it’s a brand new baseball season as nicely and I’ve a brand new task right here at Razzball. For the 2025 marketing campaign, I might be taking on the weekly column on Fantasy Baseball Factors Leagues. That’s proper, every week (or one thing near that), I’ll be offering perception and strategies on how you can grasp your factors leagues. Factors leagues are available in all sizes and styles, so I’ll be relying on you to offer loads of suggestions in your particular league so we will work collectively to win that title. That’s what it’s all about, proper? It’s for me! Let’s do it collectively.
When you’ve adopted my content material right here at Razzball, you recognize I like information and analytics (keep in mind my “Analytics Nameless” sequence?). There may be a lot info on the market at our fingertips. We simply want to make use of it as a lot as we will. The trick is to know what to do with it, and the way a lot to depend on it, as we navigate the season. As I mentioned, I’ll be offering perception alongside the best way. This might be a blast!
To get began, let me ask: What actually makes a Factors league totally different than a Roto league? This isn’t a trick query and I’m not attempting to insult your intelligence right here. When you’ve made it this far, I do know you perceive how they’re scored, respectively. What I’m getting at right here is…STRATEGY!
Don’t get me flawed, Roto leagues are plenty of enjoyable. However they’re additionally rather a lot more durable for the common fantasy baller. Drafting a profitable crew is absolutely onerous to do – particularly in case your league mates know their stuff. Additionally, you may have an A+ draft but when your roster suffers in a pair classes, whether or not by damage or another cause, the chance of a prime end (league or mixed) could also be nearly inconceivable. In lots of circumstances, you’ll additionally discover half the house owners within the league aren’t all that engaged after the All-Star break as a result of they’re thus far behind in a number of classes. Fantasy baseball is a grind as it’s, however no person advantages if half the league loses curiosity and drops off midway by the season.
Not like Roto leagues, Factors leagues offer you rather more flexibility find a pathway to a title (or extra doubtless, “the cash”). Whether or not you play in a straight Factors league or a Head-to-Head Factors league, the objective is identical…accumulate extra factors. Fairly easy, proper? The actual fact is, it doesn’t matter WHERE the factors come from, you simply want to seek out them. Right here’s the place it will get slightly trickier. What’s the easiest way to build up essentially the most factors? The reply to that query is the #1 factor each fantasy baseball proprietor must do, no matter format – KNOW THE RULES!
On this case, it’s the SCORING RULES that matter most. Have a look at the offensive scoring for these two leagues and inform me what you see:
Earlier than we go any additional, I simply need to say I didn’t make these up. These are the precise scoring codecs for 2 of my present Factors leagues. Fairly a distinction, huh?
The primary factor that stands out to me is the variety of classes. League 1 is fairly normal, however League 2 breaks down H (Hits) right into a tiered construction, so the astute drafter may need to search for gamers who rack up doubles and triples. League 2 additionally contains BB (Walks) and HP (Hit by Pitch), which supplies a slight enhance to gamers like Juan Soto (BBs) and Anthony Rizzo (HBP). Yet one more distinction is the destructive factors of League 1, tamping down gamers with huge swing-and-miss, who should not punished for that in League 2. So, what does this imply in actuality? Let’s have a look at a number of participant projections (utilizing free Razzball projections):
You’ll observe the 5-tool gamers, like Ohtani and Witt Jr., will nonetheless rise to the highest in each codecs. Nevertheless, as instruments diminish or flaws are uncovered within the scoring, like Schwarber and Olson in League 1, their relative draft rank drops. You’ll need to let another person spend the draft capital on gamers like that.
The great thing about Factors leagues is that you could doubtless discover (or create) the league that matches your preferences. When you like to emphasise energy and/or velocity, go for it. When you like balanced scoring or introduce a number of the distinctive batting stats (2B, 3B, and many others.), you are able to do that too. The world is your oyster!
Now, the identical train for the pitching classes:
W (Wins) and Ok (Strikeouts) are about the identical. Alternatively, SV (Saves) are pushed up larger in League 1, making CLs slightly extra useful. You’ll observe IP (Innings Pitched) are slightly totally different right here and similar to what we noticed with the offensive classes above, League 1 penalizes pitchers for H, BB, and ER (Hits-, Walks-, and Earned Runs-allowed, respectively). Lastly, League 2 expands the pitching alternatives by including 2 factors for HD (Holds) and when you’re so fortunate to have a pitcher toss a CG (Full Recreation), you get a 6-point bonus. Fairly distinctive, proper? Once more, let’s have a look at a number of participant projections (utilizing free Razzball projections, after all):
On the prime, there’s slightly shuffling of positions however usually, all of them slot in the place you’d anticipate. As regular, it comes down to non-public desire. As we transfer down the record, you see a shift in pitchers like Sale and Crochet who venture larger in League 1 than League 2. That is primarily because of the IP (Innings Pitched) scoring.
You’ll additionally observe pitchers usually rating larger relative to hitters in League 2.
I dug deeper to see the scoring results with RPs. As you’ll observe, RPs who’re projected to be late inning, however not essentially CLs, obtain a rating bump in League 2 scoring. In actual fact, I simply drafted Jason Adam in a Finest Ball Factors league for this very cause! The enhance shouldn’t be an amazing quantity however keep in mind one of many key facets of Factors leagues
It doesn’t matter WHERE the factors come from, you simply want to seek out them.”
When you take nothing else from this text, make this the lasting message…and let me kick the rostrum as soon as once more: “KNOW THE RULES”!
Abstract
Anyway…for these of you who haven’t tried Factors leagues earlier than, I hope this received you a bit. There are many positives and a few negatives to Factors leagues. For my part, there are two huge advantages to Factors leagues: (1) it offers a format for all these fantasy footballers to dip their toes in fantasy baseball with out overwhelming them (TRUTH: fantasy soccer is EASY, however fantasy baseball is MORE CHALLENGING), and (2) your league will stay extra engaged all through the season.
Within the coming weeks, I’ll share my prime 100…or prime 150…or prime 250… pitchers and hitters for Factors leagues. In actual fact, since these leagues are available in all sizes and styles, I’ll in all probability offer you two lists: one for typical NFBC scoring (with destructive factors) and one which pushes up the worth of RPs.
Within the meantime, you will discover me on Twitter/X (@Derek_Favret) and on BlueSky (@dfavret.bsky.social).
Till subsequent time, my associates.
