How to Dominate an ESPN Fantasy Baseball Draft

So, you've signed up for an ESPN fantasy baseball draft. They may not be the pinnacle of fantasy competition, but they can still be fun.

Here's my approach the standard ESPN formats.

1. Remember holds

In 2023, ESPN added holds as a scoring category to their public leagues.

For points leagues, this isn't a big deal, as relievers mostly still score less than starters. Holds are also only valued at 2 points, compared to 5 points per save.

But for categories and rotisserie, adding HLD (instead of switching SV to SV+HLD) fractures pitcher value. Starters contribute in 2/6 categories, closers 3/6, and middle-relievers 3/6. Everyone becomes less valuable compared to hitters. (I'll come back to that in a minute.)

Here's the most important thing: ESPN's rankings and ADP are completely ignorant of the existence of holds. Sources of holds are available at the draft and in-season for essentially free.

So that brings me to my next rule:

2. Know who is undervalued

Even though players are valued quite differently in points leagues and in rotisserie/categories leagues, ESPN combines all drafts into a single set of ADP.

This means that ADP will be off for both types of leagues, but on different sorts of players.

For categories/rotisserie, you can enjoy tremendous bargains on speedsters, especially young, aggressive players who also strikeout. (Strikeouts are a negative in points, but not in categories/rotisserie.)

Points scoring, by contrast, rewards patient hitters who accumulate walks. These players get a bump in ADP, but the categories/rotisserie leagues still drag down their value. Look especially for patient hitters with a low-batting average, as their value can be many rounds higher in a points league.

On the pitching side:

In categories/rotisserie, as I said, middle relievers are basically as valuable as closers, and yet they often come for free.

In points, target high-strikeout SP with poor ratios. SPs contribute a lot of points in this format, and so they are also expensive in drafts. The relative bargains are the late-draft guys who get strikeouts. These are guys who put up starts with 5 IP, 9 SO, 4 H. Not great, but even that is worth 8 points in ESPN's scoring (and 10 points if they get the win).

Remember, in points scoring there's no concept of protecting your ratios. In categories/rotisserie, one disastrous start can wreck your ERA/WHIP for the week or even the season. In points, there's some downside from ER, H, and BB, but it's much easier to move on from.

3. Pound hitting

This ties in to my previous advice.

Points leagues offer cheaper sources of pitching points (the aforementioned high-strikeout, poor ratio SPs). Use your extra draft capital that you save on chasing expensive SP (whether auction dollars or early-round picks) towards piling up hitters.

Keep in mind that ESPN leagues give you 7 P slots that don't require you to draft RP. In points, RP are often not as valuable as SP, meaning you can often pass on them altogether.

Rotisserie/categories leagues offer cheap middle relievers who contribute in 3 of the 6 pitching categories. This gives you some breathing room on the pitching side to go a bit hitting heavy.

Actually, I'd consider taking this to the extreme: Punt W and SO. That is, punt SP.

Pour your resources into hitters plus maybe a couple of closers. Middle relievers are basically free. You ought to be able to dominate the 5 hitting categories, plus 4 of 6 pitching categories.

This solves the problem of the three-way fracture in pitching value. It's really hard—given only 7 P slots on ESPN—to allocate your resources between starters, closers, and middle relievers. So forget starters, and just split those slots between closers and middle relievers.

Also, expect some of your middle relievers to move into closing roles. I'd start with maybe 2-3 closers, and expect to be at 4-5 by the end of the year.

An extra bonus of punting SP is that you free up your bench slots. ESPN leagues only give you 3 bench slots, which never feels like enough. With daily transactions, it's tempting to try to rotate SP in and out of starting slots on the days they are pitching. Punting SP lets you carry extra hitters instead, giving you a potential AB advantage and letting you run up 4 of the 5 hitting stats.

Conclusion

Just to summarize:

• No matter the format, invest heavily in hitting.
• In points, get cheap SP who can give you IP and SO. Don't worry too much about bad ERA and WHIP.
• In categories/rotisserie, consider punting SP and getting cheap closers and middle-relievers instead.