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It’s Day “Thinking about Delilah of Hey There Delilah meeting Virginia from Meet Virginia and what they’d say to each other” of the Quarantine. You know the normal stuff you think about it. The top 60 starters for 2020 fantasy baseball were updated with new projections for a 100-game season. With this series, I will take a look around the 2020 fantasy baseball rankings to see if there’s any differences now that we might only play a 100-game season. Projections have been updated on all my positional rankings. Anyway, here’s thoughts on the top 60 starters for 2020 fantasy baseball with the new Corona timeline:
43. Marcus Stroman – No change whatsoever for him, but he’s the epitome of me being bummed about baseball taking forever to get going. I am actively rooting so hard for Stroman this year, that I’ve had dreams of me, Pete Alonso, Stroman and a marsupial in a German bathhouse. No idea what the marsupial is doing there, but marsupials have been appearing in my dreams recently. Stroman has the perfect mix of ground balls and strikeouts, and, for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why no one else was as excited about him in The First Preseason. Still feel all that about him, but, in a shortened season, more unlikely things can happen, and Stroman doing well might be written off to weird anomalies. It won’t by me, but it might by others. Okay, all this is to say, I want to be able to say, “I told you so,” and not have people say, “Meh, it’s because of a shortened season.”
44. Julio Urias – So, I still love Urias, but with a shortened season, do I love him more? I’ve been struggling with that question, and I still don’t have a good answer for you. It’s like this: If a guy who was supposed to be great for 120 IP in 162-game season is in a 100-game season, will he throw a tremendous 120 innings still? It’s like this, Pusha T is great on features, but is he great for a whole album? The answer for that is yes. But Steve Buscemi is great as a co-star, but is he a great leading man? No, and don’t come at me with Boardwalk Empire. It was an ensemble and overrated. Just because Julio Urias could throw 120 IP this year just as Gerrit Cole could, does it mean they are equal? Well, I think they’re closer in a 100-game season, but I have Urias projected for only 88 IP in a 100-game season. He could throw 120 IP, but more than likely he’s a five-inning starter who gets skipped.
46. James Paxton – Was moved back up in the rankings since he should be healthy by the time the season stops stopping and starts starting, but not quite as high as pre-injury in the top 500. Don’t really have as strong feelings on him being okay in the new timeline, as I did prior to his injury. This is purely anecdotal, but he feels like the type to even miss time, due to injury, in a 100-game season.
48. Jesus Luzardo – Pretty much samesies as Urias. Podcaster Ralph and I were discussing this on text the other day. There’s gonna be a lot of Middlers this year. Or Openers who throw three to four innings. The A’s aren’t gonna be like, “Cool, we only have 100 games, let’s throw Luzardo for 8 IP every start for 20 starts. I have him projected for 65 IP. Steamer pitcher projections have Luzardo at 83 2/3 IP. That’s a decent difference in only a 100-game season, so I might be a tad too low. My thoughts on it are the A’s have Puk, Bassitt, Blackburn and others who are going to see some innings, and the definition of ‘some’ might vary there too. Luzardo won’t see a full-time run of innings just because now a “full-time run of innings” is only 120.
50. David Price – Here’s someone who’s prolly adjusting well to quarantine, because he’s spent at least two months during each of the last three seasons doing nothing but play video games. I’ve been against drafting Price this offseason, and I’m still not sold on him. Now, I can see the case for him a bit more clearly. In a shortened season, he doesn’t need to throw 170+ IP to have value. He’s still lost velocity for three straight years, and last year, he threw 107 1/3 IP with a 4.28 ERA. I get it: Fenway sucks. Well, we don’t know he’s going to be pitching in Dodger Stadium (I think he will, though), but he was a 3.46 ERA pitcher in Fenway. That wasn’t the issue. People were hitting him hard, that was a problem.
52. German Marquez – As mentioned in the Price blurb, I think teams will play in their own stadiums, but, if they don’t, I might move Marquez up a little. Counterpoint: Marquez’s ERA in Arizona for his career is 4.54 in 81 1/3 IP. Are we all forgetting that Chase Field was so offensive for, uh, offense they put in a humidor? You know what will be interesting if the league goes through with a Grapefruit/Cactus season (and I don’t think they will, but…), pitchers in Florida are going to have a huge advantage vs. ones in Arizona, based on climate alone.
