Fantasy Baseball 2020: How to prepare for the shortened season
By Bill Pivetz
Baseball is scheduled to start at the end of July for a 60-game season. How does the shortened season affect fantasy baseball?
After months of the MLB and MLBPA going back-and-forth with their proposals on how to restart the season, both sides finally agreed on a proposal. The season will start either on July 23 or 24 and conclude on Sept. 27. With just 60 games to be played, the fantasy baseball landscape has changed.
We were already seeing a change to the game with more home runs and strikeouts from the hitters and starting pitchers not going deep into games. The 60-game schedule may make it even worse.
MLB released the schedule for the upcoming season. Teams will play 40 games against their four division rivals. The other 20 games will be interleague games based on region, (i.e AL East vs. NL East, etc.). Some teams and players will benefit from the regional play, especially the East with the hitter-friendly parks.
The NL will also have the DH for the first time. Some teams are prepared to fill in that slot with an in-house option while others could be looking at the free-agent market for their new hitter. Players like Yasiel Puig, Scooter Gennett, Yonder Alonso and Mark Trumbo are just some of the players still available. Those players will have a huge impact on fantasy baseball if they’re signed.
The thing everyone has to worry about is the potential of coronavirus infecting a player or two during the season and shutting the whole season down. There were reports of multiple clubs having at least one case. The Colorado Rockies reported that Charlie Blackmon and two other players were diagnosed with coronavirus. They have a month to clear the infection before any major implications take effect.
There are three things that stand out over everything else that will make this fantasy baseball season different than any other season. The first is possibly the most crucial, the drafting process.