Fantasy Baseball 2020: How to prepare for the shortened season
By Bill Pivetz
Starting pitching could be even worse
As I mentioned in the introduction, managers are pulling their starting pitchers sooner now than ever before. Starting pitchers lasted just 5.2 innings per start in 2019 compared to 5.8 innings per start in 2015. That’s just barely over the minimum requirement to qualify for a win.
With the shortened season, I expect managers to pull the starters more often. They don’t want to risk their arms in 2020 when a full season is expected in 2021. There will be a few exceptions that last seven or eight innings, like Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom and Justin Verlander among others. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough of those pitchers to go around for fantasy owners.
The fewer innings pitched affects strikeouts as well. When you pitch just five innings instead of seven, your opportunities to strike out more batters start to evaporate. That’s already two of the five major pitching categories affected by the shortened season. Plus, with fewer starts, one bad outing can ruin your ratios.
Inversely, relief pitchers will see a lot more action this season. With just 60 games, managers likely won’t be afraid to over-utilize their relievers, especially when teams have eight or nine relievers in the bullpen. Those are the players you want to stock up on for this season.