Shallower formats encourage more aggressive bidding
Mar 3, 2026 at 10:54 am ET • 17 min read
The biggest selling point for a salary cap draft, otherwise known as an auction, is that you're free to build the team of your dreams, no longer being confined by the turn order of a traditional snake draft. It's a pitch that promises too much -- particularly since, as I've written recently, the democratization of analytics has made it so everyone basically wants the same things -- but it might be the most true when the format is Head-to-Head points.
Head-to-Head points leagues are generally among the shallowest. In a standard 12-teamer, only 252 players are drafted, and of those, only 192 are started in a given week. With smaller lineups, the opportunities to differentiate yourself are few, but with an abundant waiver wire, the fallback possibilities are ample. It's the perfect scenario, then, to swing for the fences -- to spend freely knowing that you'll have plenty of opportunities to pivot later, but also wisely knowing that you have only so many lineup spots to make your case.
In the more common scoring format for auctions, which is traditional Rotisserie, I've stressed the need to make every dollar count, believing that value is the best way to distinguish yourself in a format where you can scarcely afford to miss. But in Head-to-Head points, the only disaster scenario would be to cling to your dollars when the few genuine difference-makers are coming off the board.
So that's what I've been doing as we've played out this league in recent years -- and to great success, I think. I buy as many of the impact hitters as I can -- the highest quantity of the highest quality possible -- and fill in the gaps as needed, knowing that most of those gap-fillers will be swapped out on the waiver wire over the course of the season anyway. That's basically what I did this year as well, as you can see below:
I deduced that Cal Raleigh and Ketel Marte represented two of the biggest advantages I could get at any position, so I made them a priority. I tried to do the same with Jose Ramirez, but since he ended up going for $54, I instead redistributed the savings across multiple positions, which is how I ended up with Corbin Carroll, Pete Alonso, Mookie Betts and Geraldo Perdomo -- i.e., the highest quantity of the highest quality possible. I permitted myself a little bit of cushion at starting pitcher with Max Fried and Kyle Bradish while I work out the rest of my pitching staff on the waiver wire.
It could be that some of my lower-dollar pitching bids pan out, but I know from experience that I don't need them to. The scoring format is forgiving enough for starting pitchers that going the patchwork route can work, and the volatile nature of pitching means that a certain number of breakouts are sure to emerge off the waiver wire as well. To a certain extent, the same holds true for the outfield, mostly because this league requires each team to start only three, so while I do think Jakob Marsee and Daylen Lile are well suited for this format, I trust I can pivot off them if things don't pan out.
I say this, though, as someone who aggressively plays the waiver wire and is comfortable working in the margins at starting pitcher. Not everyone is that way, and in a league that allows for more diversity of thought when drafting, I thought it would be fun to compare what everyone did. I'll go through the other 11 teams alphabetically, offering a quick comment for each.
Brant did a little of everything, going all out for Juan Soto, who's about as impactful of a hitter as you could get in this format, paying face value for players like Brent Rooker and Jackson Merrill, and also bargain hunting, namely by biding his time at catcher and shortstop. Head-to-Head leagues, with their smaller lineups, requires teams to start only one of each, and there are way more than enough deserving options to go around at those positions. Drake Baldwin and Jeremy Pena won't be the last bargains you see there.
Nick also capitalized on the bargains found at catcher and shortstop and got a nice price on Matt Olson even though he was the last available at a loaded first base tier. Nick probably devoted more than he should to relief pitcher in the format where they're most expendable, and also made some curious choices for his bench, tripling down on third basemen when he already landed one of the best in Riley. I suspect he'll end up shedding some of the excess as his pitching needs develop in-season.
The defending champion took a similar, though maybe less aggressive, approach to me, devoting nearly 50 percent of his budget to three of the most impactful hitters he could get. He made a bigger investment in pitching and is strong 1-4, but his lack of depth there will likely require him to be aggressive on the waiver wire as well.
A former champion himself, Nathan also took a studs-and-duds approach with regard to hitting, making the biggest splash with Ohtani. He lurked quietly for the middle portion of the draft, which gave him extra funds to prioritize his preferred lower-dollar targets, like Brandon Lowe and Ian Happ. His pitching staff offers intriguing upside in a large enough quantity for him to be reasonably optimistic about it, but there are few sure things there.
Greg Lathrop, Triple Crown Fantasy Baseball
Greg has won the Memorial Magazine League four times in the past seven years and is a brilliant Rotisserie player, but this league is Head-to-Head points. He beat me out for Jose Ramirez, who may well be worth the splurge, but got a little carried away in the bidding for Yordan Alvarez, who went for $3 more than Kyle Schwarber. Trevor Story at $2 is, on paper, the single biggest bargain of the draft but also serves as a prime example for why thrift is less important than impact in a league with so few lineup spots to fill. If the shortstop you're starting is worse than most everyone else's, who cares how cheap he was?
Jeremy made a bigger investment in pitching than most, even sparing a few extra dollars to have better options on his bench. He was economical on the hitting side, apart from Bobby Witt, but was careful to target either promising bounce-back candidates like Ozzie Albies and Bryan Reynolds or format specialists like Jurickson Profar and Gleyber Torres.
There's real downside risk for this team, on both the hitting and pitching ends, but if Oneil Cruz, Jacob Misiorowski and MacKenzie gore deliver on their higher-end outcomes, it looks a lot stronger. There's a case for embracing volatility in a league as shallow as this, showing proper appreciation for everything the waiver wire has to offer, but I'm just not in love with many of the gambles Chris decided to take.
Jeff Nix, former champ of CBS NL-only Analysts' League
The pitching staff has about as much upside as any in the league, and Jeff was careful not to spend a fortune on relievers, which I like. He secured a genuine stud in Ronald Acuna and made a point to invest in weaker positions like third and second base. He also managed to secure the upside of players like Sal Stewart and Jac Caglianone without breaking the bank for them. Overall, I like it.
Though it's been a few years, Phil has won multiple championships in this league and is always competitive. And whew, his roster looks strong on paper. He took more of a spread-the-love approach, which is sort of the opposite of what I'm recommending, but he still secured plenty of impact, particularly on the pitching side. I'm not handing him the championship or anything -- his roster has some injury risk and a couple obvious weak points -- but I like that for as careful as he was, he didn't reserve excess dollars for spots that don't really matter, like relief pitcher and the bench.
Chris was probably the best at zeroing in on the best value buys, with a $10 C.J. Abrams, a $10 Christian Yelich and a $3 Adley Rutschman standing out in particular. But are they actual difference-makers in a league as shallow as this one? They're good, yes, but are they setting his team apart? I think his starting pitcher depth will go further to doing that. I'll add that Chris was very excited about this team, practically cartwheeling out of the room after making his final pick.
Kayla Walz, former Podcast League participant
The most dramatic thing Kayla did was bid $7 on Konnor Griffin early, which stands out all the more given the obvious bargain picks that came later at shortstop, but it's a reasonable gamble to take in the name of upside.The hitting side of her lineup is strong enough, and her top three starting pitchers might be the best in the league. I just wish she had devoted some of the $24 she spent on relievers to padding out the rest of her pitching staff instead.
So yeah, I like some of these rosters more than others, as I'm sure you do as well, but the bigger takeaway is that they're all workable in a league as shallow as this one, even for as off-the-rails as the bidding was. If the most appealing part of an auction to you is the ability to chart your own course, this format offers the most flexibility to do so.
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