Change typically scares people away in general. This reaction is for good reason, as it takes work to change what one knows and understands. However, change is not always a bad thing, it just takes some time to get used to it.

Same thing with fantasy baseball, leagues used to be 4×4 or 5×5 roto-style leagues, because they were easy to manage. This is back before websites, such as ESPN and Yahoo, were offering free league software.

So before computers did the work, commissioners would scour newspapers and do the stat tracking for an entire league on their own free time, not often daily. This would have been enough of a chore on its own tracking 8 or 10 categories, let alone dozens more.

Fortunately, we now have computers, so its time to start bucking the trend and scrap the old roto-style league away, even if tradition rings through.

I guess it may just be personal preference, but I prefer seeing David Wright hitting a double and thinking, yes! 2 points! In a roto-style league, (some do count slugging, or OPS, now…), likely I’m more upset as his double helps his average, but now he can’t steal 2nd base, if there was no one on base, he doesn’t get any RBIs, and he did it with two outs, and when Carlos Beltran strikes out, he doesn’t score a run either.

David Wright hit a double, and my example is the worst case scenario of hitting a double, (for roto-leagues), but I much rather enjoy that I got as many points as I could get from David Wright’s double, and I do not have to worry about what situation the rest of the Mets are in. I don’t have to cheer for the Mets in fact, because I only care about David Wright’s contributions.

So in the newer style of leagues, I get to pour my passion into the Mariners like usual, and then care about the other games only enough to see my fantasy players, or my opposing players duke it out.

So I ask the roto-style player, what’s not to like about points versus categories? Isn’t winning in baseball based on runs scored/prevented? If the scoring system is based upon a formulas that calculate that, it is a better solution for a better immersion experience in my opinion. Roto-lovers please let me know how you feel.