Fantasy Baseball Scoring Rules

Baseball is a game of statistics. This is no different when scoring your fantasy baseball league. Pitching, hitting and base running statistics can make you do more homework for your league's draft, but also can help you in finding the winning formula at season's end.

  1. General Scoring Categories

    • Fantasy baseball has a variety of different categories from which to choose. Some of the more well-known categories include batting average, home runs, RBIs (runs batted in), runs scored, strikeouts, ERA (earned-run average), wins and WHIP (walks-plus-hits per innings pitched).

    Scoring Types

    • There are two popular scoring systems in fantasy baseball. One is rotisserie scoring, also known as "roto," which scores each team in each category from first to last. For example, if your team has the third best team ERA you'll get the third-highest points. Conversely, if your opponent has the worst team ERA, it will get the lowest score. Add the points up per category and the teams will be ranked cumulatively from highest to lowest.

      The second scoring type is head-to-head. In this format, there is a league schedule in which you'll face various opponents. Instead of tallying a cumulative score and competing against the whole league as in rotisserie scoring, you'll face one opponent for a set time. If you have a higher total for that set amount of time, you gain a win. Standings are established and the teams are ranked by "wins."

    Customized Scoring

    • Whether you are playing rotisserie or head-to-head, the scoring determines how you set your team. Some leagues may value home runs higher than runs scored, while others might value pitching ERA over wins.

      Adding points as opposed to gaining "roto" points per category might help you with one category to offset another. For example, if you gain more points for home runs, your total points for home runs might help you if you lack in team ERA in a head-to-head system.