This year, I was once again invited to the Head-to-Head Mixed Auction draft at Tout Wars, which is a group of drafts featuring several fantasy baseball experts.
In my first year in the Head-to-Head Auction, I made the playoffs but lost in the first round. Let’s try to take home the championship this time around.
On this page, you’ll find insights and strategies on how to build a strong team in Head-to-Head Auction points leagues, using my Tout Wars draft as an example.
Head-to-Head Fantasy Baseball League Rules
H2H Fantasy Baseball Roster
The Tout Wars Mixed Salary Cap Head-to-Head league consists of 12 teams. The starting roster looks like this:
- 2 catchers
- 1 first baseman
- 1 second baseman
- 1 third baseman
- 1 shortstop
- 1 corner infielder
- 1 middle infielder
- 1 utility (any position)
- 5 outfielders
- 9 pitchers (need at least two relievers)
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Each participant has $260 in budget to bid on their starting lineup.
This was followed by a six-round reserve draft in a snake format. These bench players can be inserted in your starting lineup each week. There is also a weekly FAAB period, where we can bid on players on waivers.
H2H Fantasy Baseball Scoring System
This is a Head-to-Head fantasy baseball points league, where you face one other player per week.
The team that amasses the most points during that span gets a win. The top eight win-loss records make the playoffs. The winning team is crowned champion.
Not only is this league unique because it’s head-to-head instead of roto, but it’s based on points rather than categories. Instead of trying to out-score your opponent in each category for the week, you need to win in points. Below you’ll find a breakdown of the scoring format.
See our full slate of 2024 fantasy baseball draft tips:
H2H Fantasy Baseball Hitter Scoring
Offensive scoring rewards power hitters who can steal bases and draw walks while limiting strikeouts. The negatives for strikeouts mean that you can’t just stack your lineup with power hitters — they need to have good plate discipline and contact skills as well.
- Single: 1 point
- Double: 2 points
- Triple: 3 points
- Run: 1 point
- Home Run: 4 points
- RBI: 2 points
- Stolen Base: 2 points
- Walk: 1 point
- Caught Stealing: -1 point
- Strikeout: -0.5 points
H2H Fantasy Baseball Pitcher Scoring
Pitchers who can go deep into games while maintaining strong ratios and high strikeout rates are optimal. You still get significant points for saves, which helps maintain value for relievers.
It’s great to have points for quality starts, in case your pitcher performs well but doesn’t get the win.
- Win: 7 points
- Save: 7 points
- Innings Pitched: 3 points
- Strikeout: 0.5 points
- Quality Start: 3 points
- Hit Allowed: -1 point
- Walk Allowed: -1 point
- Hit by Pitch: -1 point
- Earned Run: -1 point
Tout Wars Head-to-Head Auction Results
| POS | Player | Tm | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| C | Sean Murphy | ATL | 8 |
| C | Shea Langeliers | OAK | 3 |
| 1B | Rhys Hoskins | MIL | 5 |
| 3B | Royce Lewis | MIN | 16 |
| CI | Max Muncy | LAD | 5 |
| 2B | Gleyber Torres | NYY | 17 |
| SS | J.P. Crawford | SEA | 4 |
| MI | Christopher Morel | CHC | 8 |
| OF | Juan Soto | NYY | 41 |
| OF | Fernando Tatis Jr. | SD | 33 |
| OF | Seiya Suzuki | CHC | 14 |
| OF | Jordan Walker | STL | 4 |
| OF | Giancarlo Stanton | NYY | 1 |
| UT | Eloy Jimenez | CHW | 2 |
| P | Tyler Glasnow | LAD | 22 |
| P | Dylan Cease | SD | 15 |
| P | Michael King | SD | 15 |
| P | Nathan Eovaldi | TEX | 15 |
| P | Cristopher Sanchez | PHI | 9 |
| P | Hunter Greene | CIN | 8 |
| P | A.J. Puk | MIA | 7 |
| P | Louie Varland | MIN | 5 |
| P | Carlos Rodon | NYY | 3 |
| BN | Whit Merrifield | PHI | |
| BN | Jordan Westburg | BAL | |
| BN | Jose Siri | TB | |
| BN | Griffin Canning | LAA | |
| BN | Chris Paddack | MIN | |
| BN | Shane Baz | TB |
My favorite bid was Fernando TatÃs Jr. ($33), who I got at a cheaper price than Corbin Carroll ($39) and Aaron Judge ($35). Let’s not forget that Tatis put up an elite 21.3% barrel rate back in 2021. The tools are there for a 40 HR/30 SB type of season.
I also locked in Jordan Walker ($4) at a terrific price, getting him for less than Masataka Yoshida ($9) and Taylor Ward ($6). The Cardinals outfielder put up a .342 OBP as a 21-year-old rookie last season. There’s upside for 20+ HR and 15+ steals for Walker in 2024.
My top pitching bid was Tyler Glasnow ($22), who went for less than Aaron Nola ($25) and Logan Gilbert ($22). I know that volume means a lot in this format (three points per inning pitched), but I’m bullish that Glasnow will set career highs in innings along with elite ratios as a Dodger.
Aside from locking in my targets at reasonable prices, it was important for me to secure starting pitchers with reliever eligibility. While closers have a nice floor in this league, starters have more upside. I was happy to be able to lock in Michael King ($15) and A.J. Puk ($7).
You’ll find out more about my auction later on this page, including some of my regrets. For now, let’s dive into some more fantasy baseball head-to-head league tips.
Fantasy Baseball Head-to-Head League Tips
Here are some general fantasy baseball head-to-head auction tips that you can use for any format.
Choose your level of aggressiveness with top players
There are two common strategies within salary cap leagues. You can roll with a “Stars and Scrubs" approach, which is my preferred strategy. This is where you bid heavily on stars while searching for value by saving your budget on other players. It’s more of a top-heavy roster build.
- Click for more tips on how to play a fantasy baseball auction.
The other option is to just target value, capping yourself at a certain number (ex. $25-30). This ensures that you have more depth. It can be effective because you have a chance to secure high-end talent at undervalued prices, especially as your opponents scramble to save money.
Know your scoring system
Be sure to draft according to your scoring format. In Tout Wars, strikeouts for hitters earn -1 points. That means that hitters who can hit home runs while keeping their strikeout rates in check are highly valuable.
This is why I made sure to pay up for Juan Soto ($41), who has 40 home run upside with a projected 16.1 K%. Add in .400+ OBP and you have an elite asset, especially in this scoring system.
You get points for strikeouts and quality starts, which is why I took Tyler Glasnow ($22). The Dodgersace can provide elite ratios (ERA and WHIP) along with one of the highest strikeout rates in baseball. This can help him rack up points while limiting negatives for walks and hits.
Bid aggressively on undervalued players
You may notice that as you get through the auction, some players start to become undervalued. This is because your competitors may have spent too much of their budget earlier, so they’re going with a more conservative approach for the remaining picks.
If you see that only two people are bidding on a player, you can swoop in to try make a move. This is what happened with me when I was able to get Jordan Walker ($4).
Most of my opponents had already filled their lineups at this point, so they were unwilling to bid higher prices for the Cardinals young outfielder.
Walker has the ability to hit 25-30 home runs, so getting him for only $4 felt like a major win.
Make a list of every bid to help determine market value
As I drafted, I recorded each winning bid on a spreadsheet, which was organized by position. This was to determine market value for every player. It was a great guide to use as I was deciding how much of my budget to use on a player.
If I saw that a bid was getting too high or if I didn’t want an opponent to win on an undervalued player, I’d jump into the action.
For example, Julio Rodriguez ($43) Corbin Carroll ($39) both went for auction early in the draft. This gave me a range for what I’d bid for Juan Soto.
Soto is one of my favorite targets this year, but using this range, I knew that I’d go no higher than $40 for the Yankees’ outfielder. That’s because while I prefer Soto over Carroll in this format (+1 for walks), I’d rather have Julio than both, so $42 was my limit.
Listing each bid in a spreadsheet helped me avoid going overboard with my bidding — I was able to land Soto for $41.
Tout Wars H2H Auction Results
While I’m pleased with the final results on a team flush with talent, I do have a couple of regrets to report. For one, I got too conservative towards the end of the draft. After spending a large portion of my budget on Soto, TatÃs Jr, and Glasnow, I emphasized cheap bids to get some value.
While that mostly worked, I feel like I went too far. That’s because I left too much money on the table for my last few picks, when the player pool had dried up.
This is why I had to overbid on Nathan Eovaldi ($15) and Louie Varland ($8).
It was a mistake that I made last year as well. Next year, the third time will be the charm, and I’ll make sure to spend more money earlier on in the draft.
Fantasy Baseball Auction Salary Cap Strategies
Calculated approaches can dominate the board
I’m a big fan of what Ariel Cohen did with his team here. The creator of ATC projections did a great job of building a balanced team, spending no more than $25 (Framber Valdez).
Cohen also got some terrific prices on Michael Harris II ($21) and Jazz Chisholm Jr. ($10).
Punting closers can pay in the right format
Since this is a points league where you don’t need to win categories like saves, it’s viable to avoid closers entirely in this auction. You may ask, how can you do that when you need two relievers on your roster? Well, there’s a loophole where some starters are eligible as relievers.
I like getting as many starts for the week as possible because a quality outing can be quite lucrative in fantasy points, so going with starters as relievers is my preference.
Nick Pollack of PitcherList joined me in this strategy, grabbing Cole Ragans to use at RP.
