Fantasy baseball draft strategy: AL or NL only league rotisserie

Single-league fantasy baseball formats such as AL-only and NL-only rotisserie leagues present a unique challenge. Designed to have the kind of competition that each league actually has with 23 players on each of 12 teams closely mirrors the effective players on each of 15 teams.

With roughly half the available player pool of mixed leagues, managers must adjust their draft strategy significantly. Instead of chasing stars alone, success often depends on understanding positional scarcity, managing the player pool, category balance, and finding undervalued contributors late in the draft or auction.

We will dive into how to draft and manage a winning AL-Only or NL-Only Rotisserie fantasy baseball team, including scarcity strategy, budgeting, making multiple plans, and category management.

Understanding the Unique Structure of AL-Only and NL-Only Leagues

Smaller Player Pool Creates Scarcity

The first thing that you need to do is to identify what positions are the most scarce. With a smaller pool of players available after the draft and during the season, you want to make sure that you have the least drop in replacement value for players who get hurt or lose playing time.

The equation for success in “only” leagues is:

Desired Player = Talent + Opportunity

Positional Scarcity is the Biggest Draft Factor

Catchers

In almost all leagues, it is critical to examine the catcher pool to decide how to invest. Smart plays here can win you the league. A deep pool of catchers can allow you to save a lot of draft capital getting players who will not hurt you. With most rosters containing TWO catcher positions, that means that there are more catchers than teams. Deciding if dominating the pool is a smart “defensive” play or getting value is critical. If you take two great catchers, you deplete the pool and allow you to take advantage of a position that has to be weak.

Closers

With the ever-changing landscape of pitcher roles, it is more difficult to determine whether a pitcher will have the role of closer and if he can keep it. The most successful strategies for getting your needed saves is usually a mix of a steady closer and at least two shots at the most talented bullpen arms behind unsteady closers. It is the “R” in the SMART System.

For our LABR Only league drafts, we identified enough candidates in the AL and rostered David Bednar, but could not in the NL and drafted lower level closers and set-up men.

Anchor Pool: Starting Pitchers

The “A” in SMART stands for Anchor. Getting a front line starting pitcher to anchor your staff is important. The pool needs to reflect that and you cannot ruin your whole team by paying $45 for Paul Skenes or Tarik Skubal. If the pool doesn’t have the level of starting pitching, you need to go with two sub-anchors to succeed. We will discuss this in budgeting.

For our LABR Only league drafts, we identified enough candidates in the AL and rostered Max Fried, but could not in the NL and took three middle level players to be our “anchors.” This is not desired, but you will see how it happens in the budget section.

Hitting Positions

This can be a lot harder since before you label a position as “scarce” you need to examine the entire position. That can also change with a couple of signings or a couple of inter league trades. So be ready for that.

For our LABR Only league drafts, we identified first base in the NL as scarce and both second and third base positions in the AL. This of course goes along with the analysis of the

Managing & Tracking Categories During the Draft

There are three mechanisms that I use in order to track the categories and decide how to pivot if needed to get more saves, steals, home runs or tight the ratio categories.

Here are the category targets that I use for ONLY leagues. I do not get nuanced here with league differences year after year. There are slight differences, but WAY less than there were when the designated hitter was only in the AL.

Batting Average: .255
On Base Percentage: .325
Home Runs: 235
Runs Scored: 900
Runs Batted in: 900
Stolen Bases: 135
Wins: 75
Saves: 60
Strikeouts: 1100
ERA: 3.60
WHIP: 1.20

During the draft, I keep a simple team sheet and plug in projections from my favorite service. I use BaseballHQ as a choice for consistency since I have used them since I started playing in 1989.

It is important not to panic as if you come out short somewhere in a category, you have time to trade or add players to address. It is always better to do that in the draft.

Spending and Value Strategy in Auctions

Spending Patterns in Expert Single-League Drafts

Generally, in auction leagues, team owners want to know what the market is for each different type of player so you will often see the best players at each position come out early to set the market and allow people to figure things out. Often the more experienced drafters will use tactics to throw people off. Be aggressive early as many will not want to set a high market number in an area and you can get bargains.

In the middle of an auction draft, you should generally just stay active in bidding and get as many bargains as you can.

Late in the draft, target the exact players that you want and ONLY bid on those. With so many values available, you want to get the biggest values and that comes with patience.

Budgeting or Drafting for Success

Targets Players for Budgeting

We discussed above how you identify the scarcity of the positions. You need to apply the rules of engagement in the SMART system to remove all players that you should discount or not draft. This should remove more than half the players. You should then value all the remaining players and decide your “TARGETS.” Unless something goes wrong with your plans, these should be the ONLY players that you roster at auction.

Create a Budget for Your Style

The way to start this process is to understand your scarcity. With spending or not on closer and anchor, you can create a pitching budget. Also, you should budget more for pitching if you do not know the deep part of the pool.

Do you know all those set-up men who may get the job?
Do you know all the 4th and 5th rotation job battles?
Do you know the breakout candidates?

Start by honestly answering those questions. Hitting is more predictable and one in three pitchers gets hurt for some IL time every year.

Based on that decide two choices:

Pay more for hitting: You know the pitching pool well. Then, your budget should be between $60 and $70 for the nine pitchers that you need. Get an anchor starting pitcher ($25 or third round in draft) without health issues, a premier closer ($20 or 4th round in a draft), Then, focus on hitting spending no more than $10 on any starting pitcher and $4-5 on any relief pitcher. Also grabbing high upside pitchers on your bench. You spend on power speed combinations especially at scarce positions on offense and you are set to win.
Pay for pitching to protect. You don’t know pitchers that well. Then, you budget for more pitching money and draft more top end pitchers who can carry you and then one more high strikeout relief pitcher as your starters. This doesn’t mean Skenes or Skubal or bust although starting with them may help. It means that you back up the $20 starter with two more starting pitchers at $20 where you will get HIGH value. Taking a $20 closer and $12 on two closer types or players who get some saves gives you assurances there. Then you have $8 for 4 pitchers to make $80 on pitching. You can target late rotation upside and a high strikeout middle reliever.

Make Multiple Plans

I always make four plans in a fashion similar to this.

Plan A uses the target players and the budget you feel most comfortable with to target two hitters, an anchor and a closer. Write down the players’ names specifically in a short list and these are the ONLY players that you can draft in plan A. Usually, it is 5-6 hitters, 3-4 starters and 3-4 closers only. If you get all four players, then you stick to plan A.

Plan B includes contingencies for all four players if they are too expensive, again, it is a list. So if in an AL only league, you targeted Aaron Judge for $48, and he went for $50. You could change the plan to be Julio Rodriguez at $38 and add $10 to another lineup spot to make up the value.

Plan C is if plan B players are too expensive, possibly overpay to get last targeted players to stay close to the plans you made for success

Plan D is a strategy change which in every case this has happened to me, it is many more VALUES in the middle of the draft since we were beaten on our targets. This takes patience and I rarely let it get this far. When we review the LABR AL ONLY draft, you will see the three overpays to keep Plan B. This takes patience, studying on the fly and watching each opponent’s tendencies and budgets.

Conclusion

This is the type of league that I have been playing for more than 35 years so it is the one I like the best. Working with Glenn Colton has allowed us to perfect some of the strategies. The player evaluation is super hard when you are not analyzing it every second. The SMART System helps a ton, but can’t solve evaluation mistakes at high draft capital.

Remember, it is supposed to be fun. For me, it is more fun with the challenge and Only Leagues are the most challenging. They reward discipline more than boldness. Scarcity drives value. Playing time drives stability. Balanced category builds win championships.

Baseball is Life.

People Want to Know Lots More About "Only" Fantasy Baseball Leagues

What is an AL-only fantasy baseball league?

A fantasy league where only American League players are eligible to be drafted and rostered.

What is an NL-only fantasy baseball league?

A fantasy format limited to players from National League teams.

Are AL-only leagues harder than mixed leagues?

Yes. The smaller player pool increases scarcity and requires deeper knowledge of MLB rosters.

How many players are typically drafted in AL-only leagues?

Most leagues draft around 260 players depending on roster size and league structure.

What positions are most scarce in single-league fantasy baseball?

Catcher, second base, and shortstop often thin out quickly because there are fewer everyday starters available.

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