Normally when we talk about Head-to-Head leagues here at CBS Sports, we mean leagues that use Fantasy Football-style points scoring, where every contribution goes into the same bucket, just in different quantities. But there is a form of Head-to-Head league that uses Rotisserie-style scoring, where each of five hitting contributions and five pitching contributions has its own unique bucket, and the winner is whichever team claims the most buckets. This format is more Yahoo's specialty.
So we've styled our latest mock after it. Some of the quirks include two utility spots instead of one, four flex pitcher spots in addition to two SPs and two RPs, and ... daily lineup changes.
That's right: we all drafted with the assumption we could change our lineups once a day rather than once a week. This upped the interest in relievers, even the non-closing variety, as well as pitchers in general.
But there's no single player who benefits more from daily lineups than Shohei Ohtani, at least in leagues that treat him as one player. Interestingly, Yahoo splits him into two players -- a hitter version and a pitcher version -- so it doesn't make a difference there. On our site, though, daily lineups offer the only way to get virtually all of his contributions on both sides of the ball. He was the fourth player selected in this draft, but he really should have been first, right?
Here's who all took part in the draft:
1) Tim Kanak, Fantasy Aceball (@fantasyaceball)
2) Phil Ponebshek, Patton & Company
3) R.J. White, CBS Sports (@rjwhite1)
4) George Kurtz, Sportsgrid (@GeorgeKurtz)
5) Frank Stampfl, CBS Sports (@Roto_Frank)
6) Doug Roe, defending Podcast League champ
7) Jake Wiener, Prospects1500 (@GatorSosa)
8) Scott White, CBS Sports (@CBSScottWhite)
9) Daniel Preciado, Six Man Rotation (@DanJPreciado)
10) Jake Holland, formerly The Toss Up podcast (@jakebaseball17)
11) Nick Mimikos, Stack Attack podcast (@NMimi)
12) B_Don, Razzball (@RazzBDon)
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And here are five takeaways:
- Confidence in Fernando Tatis may be on the rise following reports of him swinging a bat again. He went 15th overall in this one, a couple spots ahead of Rafael Devers. Ronald Acuna, who was on a similar timeline last year, ended up being a first-round pick by the end of draft season, and the same could happen with Tatis, especially since he'll get a chance to participate in spring training.
- I didn't love my team in this one, and my big mistake, I think, was drafting J.T. Realmuto in Round 3. That's the point where I'd like to take a second baseman, but they were all gone by the time I picked -- even Jazz Chisholm, who I don't put in the same tier as Jose Altuve, Marcus Semien and Ozzie Albies. Meanwhile, William Contreras and MJ Melendez hung around until Rounds 18 and 19. They were two of the biggest bargains in the draft, and I couldn't take advantage.
- Closers were priced fairly reasonably at first, but then came a run beginning with Raisel Iglesias in Round 8 that saw seven fly off the board in a span of 14 picks. I was on the wrong side of it and wound up reaching for Camilo Doval.
- Willy Adames has consistently been undervalued in the drafts I'm a part of, to the point I keep taking him as a utility option rather than a shortstop. The same happened in this draft at Pick 113, about 25 picks later than his FantasyPros ADP.
- Vaughn Grissom and Miguel Vargas, two up-and-comers whose playing time is looking more assured as spring training approaches, went as early as I've ever seen them go, in Rounds 12 and 14, respectively. I like them both to break out this year, and it appears I'm not alone in that regard.