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Remember fifty years ago before anybody had ever heard of the word “Coronavirus”? Those were the days…
A lot of you out there had probably already drafted before the league announced that the season would not start on time, and if you hadn’t drafted yet, you certainly had your league setup already locked in. After a few brutal months of uncertainty, we are now headed for a drastically abbreviated MLB regular season of 60 games.
In this man’s opinion, unprecedented changes like these call for radical action from league commissioners, at least just for the 2020 season. Here are some ideas to consider as you ponder how to play out your fantasy baseball season this year.
2020 Draft Kit: View printable cheat sheets, sleepers & mistakes to avoid 
Re-do the Draft
Of course, most decisions should be made with a league-wide vote and not an executive decision. However, it seems silly not to re-do the draft if your league drafted before any of the COVID-19 developments. It’s a completely different season now, and no serious fantasy player would draft the same way when comparing a standard season and the one we are about to see.
Once again, it should go to a vote, but I would encourage every player to vote for the re-draft, even if they still like the team that they drafted.
Expand the Rosters
You will only be able to do this if you are re-drafting, but this is another way to make the season a bit less random. The bigger the daily starting lineup, the more data you generate, and the less random things become. It also will be an added competitive angle, as there are going to be larger MLB rosters this season. By expanding your fantasy roster, you give the more knowledgeable and more strategic players an advantage, which is always a good thing for competitive integrity.
Scrap the Head-to-Head Schedule
In a 60-game season, you’re looking at about 9 or 10 weeks of fantasy matchups. While so few baseball games will result in a largely random fantasy season, it’ll be even more arbitrary if you stick with head-to-head. Say you have a twelve-category league, and your team puts up a monster week but falls victim to terrible luck, ending up with a 2-10 loss while you would have clocked the rest of the league. Normally, you could stomach that because you know you have a team capable of getting those wins right back. However, with single-digit weeks to play, that single 2-10 loss could end your chances right there.
The true best teams are much less likely to come out on top this year, regardless of your league setup, but doing a head-to-head schedule makes that much more pronounced. You’re just asking for a season completely driven by luck if you stick with that setup. I recommend that leagues move to a standard rotisserie format or one based on total points scored.
Lower the Entry Fee
Given the sheer randomness and the likely lack of enthusiasm you and your league-mates now have towards the 2020 MLB season, it makes a lot of sense to give everybody a break on the finances this year and just play for a small prize. As we’ve already mentioned, there will be a lot less skill involved in the outcomes this year, so it makes sense to just play for a small pot. That makes it a little less stressful for everybody.
Don’t Log this Year in League History
If your league keeps historical data, it’s pretty much a no-brainer to just ignore this season in the history books. Winning a title in 2020 will bring significantly fewer bragging rights than any other year, so just go ahead and get your league to all agree on forgetting about this season once it ends.
Play a DFS League
If you really want to get competitive and see who can outsmart and outplay the rest of the league in 2020, playing a DFS contest every day and keeping a running tally is a great alternative. Start a league on the DraftKings or FanDuel app and have contests each day of the regular season. This should give you a solid 65-66 contests, so the best players are still very likely to come out on top.
There are a few different ways you can score this. You could simply assign a point total for every daily position (first place gets 10 points, second gets 9… etc.). You could just count wins or top two finishes — or something of that nature.
My scoring system of choice would be to score every lineup based on how far above or below the average score each lineup finishes. So if the average score was 90 and the winner posted a 140, they would get a +50 for that day, while someone posting a 70-point dud would come in at -20. This gives more weight to the truly great and truly terrible lineups, and it makes exciting swings possible in the standings.
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