Fantasy Baseball H2H Categories draft results, recap: How this format impacts the value of Jacob deGrom, more

Every Fantasy Baseball draft is different, because every Fantasy Baseball league is different. And before you draft, you always need to make sure you understand the format you're playing in and how that should change your approach. 

So let me walk you through what my thought process was in drafting our recent H2H categories mock draft. This is a bit of a hybrid format, as it uses head-to-head, weekly matchups, but with traditional 5x5 Rotisserie scoring. Of course, it's not quite that straightforward, because there are also some roster wrinkles: You play with pretty standard H2H lineups (one each of the infield positions, three outfielders), but with two DH/U spots instead of one; and on the pitching side of things, you have four P spots, plus two each for RP and SP. 

It's a fairly shallow lineup for a 12-team league, though a bit deep than in a traditional H2H points league, with one extra hitter and one extra pitcher. And then, there's the weekly aspect of it, where you are putting your team's 5x5 production up against only one other team's every week, rather than trying to compete with all 11 other teams at once. 

All of those wrinkles bring me to my strategy, which is that I want to focus as much as possible on weekly impact potential when building my team. That means I'm willing to take on risks I might otherwise pass on with the hope of putting together the best possible team I can for each given week. That exposes me to increased risk, sure, but the replacement level is going to be relatively high in a league with only 276 total players being drafted. I mean, just look at some of the names of players who weren't even drafted in this league: Logan O'Hoppe, Max Muncy, Yandy Diaz, Ceddanne Rafaela, Kutter Crawford, Charlie Morton, Chris Bassitt, Frank Montas, and more are all players who could very well be viable starters in 2025, and they're all just sitting there on the wire, freely available to anyone who needs them. 

With a relatively high replacement level and a focus on maximizing weekly impact, I was willing to be the one to reach for the biggest edge at the catcher position, taking William Contreras 35th overall. And I paired him with Corey Seager with my next pick, a big injury risk, but also a guy who finished second in MVP voting in 2023 in just 119 games. Impact. 

And so, of course, I followed that up with Mason Miller in the fifth round, Jacob deGrom in the sixth, Royce Lewis in the seventh, and Felix Bautista in the eighth. Injury risks all, and that much consecutive risk might be enough to give you heartburn. But if I get lucky enough for them to stay healthy, especially in the Fantasy playoffs, that could be a tough team to beat. 

It's not the safest way to build a team, and I certainly wouldn't recommend it in a traditional Roto league, where you are competing for a season-long prize and can't afford to go through long periods without your best players if you want to compete for first overall. But in a league like this, where you just need to be in the top half of the league to make the playoffs, it's a viable strategy. Risky, but with the potential for a huge return.

Here's who I was drafting against in this one: 

1) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
2) Zac Morain, Driveline Baseball (@makeitmorain)
3) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
4) Nick Fox, NBC Sports (@CT_FOX)
5) Matt Morris, Scout the Statline (@Matt_E_Morris)
6) Joe Orrico, FanGraphs (@JoeOrrico99)
7) Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Company
8) Nick Francis, Nick's Picks (@nicksMLBpicks)
9) Jeremy Heist, Pitcher List (@heistjm)
10) Blake Meyer, Fake Baseball (@Buhhlockaye)
11) Chris Towers, CBS Sports (@CTowersCBS)
12) Chris Mitchell, FantasyData (@CJMitch73)

And here are five more observations from the rest of the draft: 

• Drafters in high-stakes leagues are willing to push Paul Skenes into the first round, but that's not something we're necessarily seeing in other places. His ADP in CBS Fantasy leagues is 18th overall, just one spot ahead of Tarik Skubal, who actually went one spot ahead of Skenes in this one – Skubal was 18th in this one, Skenes 19th. Meanwhile, Zack Wheeler continues to go off the board about a half-round or more behind both of them, making him the best value of the top pitchers, in my view. 
• Ronald Acuña's price continues to be held down by concerns that he won't be cleared to return from his torn ACL in time for the start of the season. We're not clear exactly what the timetable is at this point, and we probably won't know until Acuña reports for Spring Training, but he went 30th in this one, and that feels like it should be a pretty excellent value. Especially in a format like this, where it should be relatively easy to find an outfielder who can fill in for the first month if needed. If Acuña is himself by midseason, you've got a first-rounder on your team at a discount. 
• I didn't regret taking William Contreras with the second-to-last pick of the third round, but the price of some of the other catchers did make me wince a little. Most notably, Adley Rutschman lasted until the first pick in the seventh round, which is a tremendous value for a guy who was the consensus No. 1 catcher a year ago. 
• What about the U/DH-only guys? Well, Shohei Ohtani was the first overall pick, which is what we've come to expect at this point – though I rank him third, for whatever that's worth. After him, we saw Kyle Schwarber come off the board with the fourth pick of the fourth round, followed in quick succession by Marcell Ozuna at 4.12 and Brent Rooker at 5.2. Rooker is my favorite of that trio, both because he provides a bit more five-category production and because he's the most likely of the three to play enough in the outfield to gain eligibility there relatively early on. In most leagues, people are wary of filling their DH spot too early, but that shouldn't be a concern in a league with two DH spots to fill, and all three of them went ahead of their ADP. Even then, all three look like good values in this format if they make it to the fourth round. 
• One anxious drafter pulled the trigger on Josh Hader in the fourth round, but he was an outlier, as the RP run didn't truly start until the fifth round. But despite needing to start at least two RP (and having the flexibility to start as many as six), that run in the fifth round that saw four come off the board in a span of six picks, relievers weren't really highly valued in this one. That's pretty typical of a H2H points league, where relievers inherently score fewer points than starters. But in a league like this with a weekly 5x5 scoring, you can lock in an edge in saves, ERA, and WHIP with a handful of elite relievers, so I'm surprised we didn't really see any kind of inflation on prices here. For my part, I did take two closers with my first eight picks, a move I typically wouldn't make outside of a league with these scoring rules.