Some friends and I were throwing around the idea of setting up an NL-Only league this year. We thought about doing it in conjunction with a points-based H2H scoring setup as well. We've never done either before and thought it might be fun to try them both out.

Well, I sat down today and, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with settings that I thought really worked. Has anyone out there had any experience with this? Are there any recommended scoring settings? Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I'm pretty much going to be no help here because I'm not much of an H2H player and I've never been involved with points leagues. I do offer one bit of advice, though: Set max-IP-per-week limits. It'll be way too easy to abuse the system if you don't.

I was in one H2H league for the first time last yr and I probably will not do it again. We played the style where you use a 5x5 category format where you went head to head with another team each week. Those categories worked as well as anything else I could imagine. You received a point for each category that you won for that week up to 10 pts. The player with the most points for the week received a win for the week.

Problem was, during each week ,if a manager was winning batting categories and losing pitching, he would usually just load up on starters for that week to come out on top in wins and Ks and gain the win. You could solve this of course by limiting innings as Bob suggested.

Although the championship matchup lasted 2 weeks, it just seemed to suck the meaning out of all the hard work from the regular season. I also hated the fact that I had to bench Howard, Utley and Werth in the final 2days of the playoffs cause the Phillies had clinched and they were resting them most of the time. It is the same thing that kills H2H fantasy football although I play it anyway.

Sorry to be so gloomy regarding H2H, but my participation last yr made me realize why the 162 game daily transaction fantasy baseball season is the holy grail of fantasy sports. I have several friends who continue to play H2H yr after yr though. My theory is that they like talking shit to whomever they are going up against for that week. Good Luck.

@Bob T: Your advice here is well taken. I ran a points style league once (just to do something different), but it wasn't H2H. I set firm limits on games and innings to keep it fair and it worked fairly well. If I do go through with this league, I'll certainly implement similar restrictions as well (albeit on a weekly basis).

@Glenn: I know what you're saying from my own prior experience is true. In the H2H league I run, I've solved it by incorporating more than the standard 5x5 categories, so it makes it harder than just streaming pitchers to take Wins and Strikeouts and, thereby, winning the week. Also, Yahoo allows you to end your fantasy season prior to the last week of the MLB season, so you don't have to worry about having your starters benched.

Thanks to both of you for the feedback. If anyone else has any suggestions on points scoring, I'm all ears.

try this setting then adjust for year 2 to suit tastes . Hitters = + 1 point for single , walk, run , rbi , and hbp . +2 points for double or SB . +3 points triple . +4 points HR. -0.5 per K. Pitchers = + 7 points win or save, +2 points per inn , +1 point for K , -2 per loss, -1 per ER , -0.5 BB , -0.5 hit . weekly rosters set monday before mlb games start. total transaction limit( @25 or so per season) should be set to prevent contant add/drops of double start pitchers(streaming)

@Spike: Thank you so much for that idea about setting weekly rosters! I never would've thought of that. I'm so glad you mentioned it because I discovered that (for whatever reason) Yahoo doesn't allow maximum games or innings in the H2H format -- even if it is a points league. Hence, I was quite scared it would be held hostage to constant pitcher streaming. The weekly roster limit is the perfect work-around. Thank you!

As for the points system, my de facto co-commish and I worked out something very similar to what you proposed, except that everything will be for less points (but the proportions are similar; e.g., Singles = 0.25; Doubles = 0.50; Home Runs = 1; RBIs = 1; and so on).

We'll see how it goes. I'm nervous. I'm skeptical (about the whole points genre, not your suggestions). But hopefully my managers will be able to have fun with it.

If anyone's interested, I'd be willing to post the scoring system in detail and let you critique it. In any event, thanks for the helpful advice, all!