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Fantasy Baseball: 3 takeaways from 60-game MLB season

By Sean Millerick

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 25: American League MVP Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels poses for a photo at the 97th annual New York Baseball Writers' Dinner on January 25, 2020 Sheraton New York in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 25: American League MVP Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels poses for a photo at the 97th annual New York Baseball Writers' Dinner on January 25, 2020 Sheraton New York in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Images) /

Fantasy Baseball, take two: You’ve never cared less about eastern division pitching.

Next up for fantasy baseball advice in this shortened 2020 MLB season: don’t even think about drafting Gerrit Cole, Max Scherzer, or Jacob deGrom.

Okay, that’s an overreaction.

However, you should absolutely be slightly lowering your expectations for them. Baseball’s Eastern divisions are scheduled to square off in 2020. Meaning Cole, Scherzer, deGrom will be spending most of their seasons battling six teams that went .500 or better in 2019. And these aren’t just any winning teams, but some of the most dangerous lineups in baseball. Sure, the Baltimore Orioles and Miami Marlins will be there too. But that’s not enough to mitigate the damage to ERAs an unhealthy serving of Ronald Acuna Jr., Aaron Judge, and Juan Soto will cause.

As far as the elite arms mentioned above go, you might be better served to let them pass you by in drafts. Go hitter first, then “settle” for Justin Verlander, Walker Buehler, or Shane Bieber. Anyone of those three ending the season as the No. 1 pitcher wouldn’t surprise me.

Admittedly, this is more about adjusting expectations for the pitchers that aren’t the Top 3 SP options in fantasy though. Plenty of other Top 40 names can be found in the AL and NL East, as well as several intriguing prospects. That’s where you really want to take a moment to think about what those ratios are going to look like by season’s end. If you do, I think you’ll drop them in your projections accordingly.

Really, it should also be noted that starting pitching across the board might take a hit, as they could spend effectively half the season finding their groove. Just one more reason to fade those Eastern pitchers.

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