Last week, some under the radar points league players were highlighted while touching on the general principles that walks are underrated and stolen bases aren’t as important compared to roto formats. While these guidelines are typically true, they vary depending on the scoring rules of your league. For instance, a huge difference is ESPN has a full point strikeout penalty for hitters and Yahoo doesn’t have a penalty at all. On the pitching side, Yahoo awards a 2-point bonus for a strikeout while CBS only awards 0.5. Realizing these minor discrepancies and exploiting them to your advantage can have a large net impact on player evaluation. In this article, the scoring rules for the top five fantasy baseball websites, ESPN, CBS, Yahoo, National Fantasy Baseball Championship (NFBC) and Fantrax will be compared, to understand how to use their differences to your advantage.
HITTING
The table below outlines the points distributed for every hitting statistic among the five most popular websites. On the surface, there appears to be no major differences, especially for ESPN, CBS and Fantrax, while NFBC stands out as having a unique format.
| Website | AB | 1B | 2B | 3B | HR | R | RBI | BB | SB | CS | K | HBP |
| ESPN | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0 |
| CBS | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | -0.5 | 1 |
| Yahoo | 0 | 2.6 | 5.2 | 7.8 | 10.4 | 1.9 | 1.9 | 2.6 | 4.2 | 0 | 0 | 2.6 |
| NFBC | -1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fantrax | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Most websites award one point per total base, with Yahoo and NFBC being the exceptions. Yahoo’s total base points are scaled evenly so the increase is moot, however NFBC format clearly puts an emphasis on home runs, making power hitters more valuable than any other website. NFBC by design mimics roto by emphasizing BA, power and speed (5 points for a SB and no CS penalty) which makes players like Starling Marte, Trevor Story, and Ronald Acuna more valuable.
The other four websites hitting rules are similar, the main differences being valuation of K’s and SB. Yahoo and Fantrax do not penalize strike outs which makes players with high strikeout rates more attractive. In addition, neither website has a CS penalty and Stolen bases are worth more than a total base so running is encouraged. High strikeout guys and those who can steal bases such as Joey Gallo, Adalberto Mondesi, Jonathan Villar, and Fernando Tatis get a boost.
That brings us to ESPN and CBS, which, like Yahoo and Fantrax, have comparable rules. SB are worth more in CBS if the player has a steal percentage above 50 (most players). Strikeouts are worth -0.5 so guys with high K rates should be avoided somewhat in favor of high OBP players. For ESPN, this concept rings even more true as a strike out is -1. For both these websites, you want to target names like Alex Bregman, Carlos Santana, Joey Votto and Andrew McCutchen, all of whom are owners of high walk and low K rates.
PITCHING
Drafting pitchers is always a tricky endeavor as there are numerous quality options and finding the balance between upside and consistency can be a challenge. Understanding how league rules favor certain types of pitchers is paramount in distinguishing their value. The below table summarizes how the main five websites allocate pitching points.
| W | L | QS | SV | IP | SO | H | BB | HBP | ER | |
| ESPN | 5 | -5 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | -2 |
| CBS | 7 | -5 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0.5 | -1 | -1 | -1 | -1 |
| Yahoo | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -0.9 | -2 |
| NFBC | 6 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 1 | -1 | -1 | 0 | -2 |
| Fantrax | 10 | -5 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 |
Fantrax stands out as the most unique from the pitching perspective. They only award 1 point for each inning pitched, compared 3 points that is most common, however, they do not subtract points for baserunners. In addition, the penalty for an earned run is only one point, not 2 as is also most common. Finally, a win is worth more than a save while there is a 3-point bonus for a quality start. These rules put an emphasis on starting pitchers, especially those on good teams (who are therefore more likely to win), with higher WHIPs as baserunners are not a net negative. Because WHIP doesn’t matter, it’s better to focus on K’s and ERA over the ability to go deep into games. Some perspective: 7 innings and 4 K’s is worth less than 5 and 8. You’ll want to target pitchers with higher WHIPs than their contemporaries, names like Trevor Bauer, Robbie Ray, Eduardo Rodriguez and Aroldis Chapman.
NFBC stands out as the only website where a save is worth more than a win, and worth 8 points for that matter, which makes closers more valuable and brings up the question of whether it’s even worth it to own a non-closer. While these options often emerge in season, it makes selecting a reliever from a team like the Rays or Nationals (to name a few) riskier. The other stat of note here is there is no loss penalty which ever so slightly boosts the value of pitchers on bad teams. In formats with a loss penalty, the point swing between winning and losing is at least 10. For NFBC it’s only 6, a 40 percent decrease. Starters on bottom teams like Matthew Boyd, Marco Gonzales and Caleb Smith get a small boost.
Yahoo is the only website that awards more than one point for a strike out which obviously puts a premium on high K/9 guys across the board. This rule affects starters more than relievers as most roster worthy bullpen pieces already sport high K rates, but it’s still something to consider if you’re looking for cheap save options late. Starting pitchers who are more valuable in this format include Yu Darvish, German Marquez, and Joey Lucchesi.
While Yahoo values strike outs the most, CBS marginalizes the stat by only valuing it as an extra half point. That is 4 times less than Yahoo! This makes strikeouts much less valuable. Contrary to most other formats, an earned run is only a 1-point penalty, so a higher ERA is not as impactful. Finally, CBS has a quality start bonus of 3 points, meaning overall it’s best to prioritize low WHIP pitchers who can go deep into games. Names like Zack Greinke, Madison Bumgarner, Kyle Hendricks and Masahiro Tanaka are worth the investment.
The scoring rules for ESPN appear to be the most balanced as ERA, WHIP and K’s are all important. My recommendation would be to target pitchers who can contribute steadily in two out of these three categories and go deep into games. This makes starters like Charlie Morton, Mike Soroka and Corey Kluber more appealing. The easiest way for relievers to contribute is to notch saves, and there are always cheap save options available late. Wait on the position and take someone locked into the closer role for their team, such as Ken Giles or Alex Colome.
The goal of this exercise was to highlight how a league’s scoring format can impact player’s potential contributions. While we did this with the five most common websites, many points leagues have their own custom scoring rules, so it is paramount that you know exactly how your league awards points as part of your draft prep.
