Major League Baseball finally decided to get their season underway. July 1st will mark the start of Spring Training, while the regular season will start July 23. With baseball ramping up again, Fantasy leagues will be revving up before the first pitch is thrown. Find out how to handle a shortened season in the 2020 Fantasy Baseball - How to Run a Fantasy League in 60 Games.
A short season can wreak havoc with leagues and their settings. How can you run a H2H league in two months? How long will the playoffs be? What about the universal DH? Solutions for those problems can be found below. Hopefully one works for your league and you can enjoy what little baseball we'll get this season.
If you have not done it yet, now is a good time to check out our Fantasy Dynasty rankings to get you ready for what will be an incredible season. Our Redraft rankings will be updated soon to account for 60 games, so be sure to come back for those.
2020 Fantasy Baseball - How to Run a Fantasy League in 60 Games
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Make it Rotisserie
With only being 60 games to fit in an entire fantasy season, it makes it impossible to do weekly head to head matchups in an eight, ten, or twelve-person league. The simplest solution to this is not to do head to head at all and change the settings to rotisserie.
Rotisserie is a less common form of fantasy baseball where teams compete weekly against everyone else in the league in order to be the top in each category. For instance, if you are in a ten-person league and finish second in hits for the week then you would receive nine points for that category. You add up the points for where you rank in each category each week and that's where you are in the total standings.
If you decide that your league is a Head to Head league, the simplest answer is to shorten the weeks. Based on the way the schedule is looking you will most likely need to change matchups every four to five days. This is obviously not ideal, however, it does give everyone in the league the opportunity to play everyone else in the limited amount of games.
You're talking about Playoffs?
Yes, indeed I am. Because of the limited amount of games, you will need to shorten your playoffs to be the last two weeks of the season. possibly with only the top for teams making the playoffs.
The good thing about the shortened season is that every game matters. More teams will be in the hunt for the playoffs so more teams will start their good players thus maximizing their fantasy results. This year, more than most years, you will see guys like Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw actually pitching the last week of the season in order to get a top spot in the playoffs.
Adding Player Slots
With the universal DH happening in both the AL and NL. It only makes sense to add a second Utility spot.
This gives more opportunity to have more hitters on your team. It also gives moe value to players like Yoenis Cespedes and Charlie Blackmon who are aging hitters and cannot play their positions at the highest level. For more players read Jonathan Chan's Players to Target with a Universal Designated Hitter.
You can throw them into the Utility spot and just watch them hit. This will create more excitement and higher numbers in the shortened season.
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Get Creative
Heck, even MLB is getting creative.
Also this year the MLB plan is to use the Minor League rule with the runner on second to expedite extra-inning games ending, since the spring will be short, the schedule will be tight and there’s a desire to avoid 15-inning games and longer.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 23, 2020
So why shouldn't you take a risk this year and try some new ideas in your league? A couple of ideas that come to mind are putting in a Taxi squad of players. You could also make holds a category (I think there will be plenty). Regardless of how your league is run, imagine this year being just like college where you "experiment". Many leagues can use this a launching pad for next year.
These are just a few ways to make a successful fantasy league in a 60 game season. If you have other ideas I would love to hear about them. Tweet at me @MantelJosh. What we do know is that this will not only be an interesting year for the MLB players. I will also be interesting for fantasy owners.
