I am stuck playing fantasy baseball in 2020. Back in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, I got really bored and partook in a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball public league draft. That was an ordeal in and of itself, and it’s something that can’t be undone. Things were so much simpler back then.
Now we know that baseball will be played, the question must be asked: how the hell do you play fantasy baseball in 2020? MLB is scheduling 60 games over nine weeks. That’s right, there is only nine weeks to fit in an entire fantasy baseball season including playoffs. The solution, whatever it may be, is probably not going to be very fun.
Let’s start with the most obvious issue. It takes forever to un-jumble fantasy baseball standings. Regardless of if you are playing roto or head-to-head, the first ten weeks of the season usually see one really good team and one awful team emerge and the rest are just sort of cobbled together. It’s not unusual to see a team fall four or five places in the standings during those first ten weeks just because the margins are razor thin.
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In roto, two steals or three saves could make a massive difference in the early stages of a season. With one nine weeks, the entire season will be early stages. Pitching statistics are going to be a real sore spot due to over-inflated ERAs from one bad outing and starters potentially going less than 4 2/3 innings.
At least roto leagues can just play through the nine-week season and be done with things in a manner the resembles some sort of fairness. Head-to-head leagues are going to be a total nightmare. Playing fantasy baseball in 2020 might as well be shooting craps because you don’t know what to expect.
It would seem the most logical solutions would be either an eight-week regular season with a one-week championship between the first and second place team or a seven-week regular season with a two-week playoff. Neither option seems particularly good or fair.
There is no good way to play fantasy baseball in 2020. I’ll still do it because I already drafted that stupid team. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
