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The best 2020 fantasy baseball team is a misnomer. Thankfully, none of us know what misnomer means. Sounds to me like someone tentatively wants to date the Travelocity Gnome’s daughter, “Miss Gnome, er, you wanna grab some boba and chill?” Miss Gnome brushes back her hair and bats her eyelashes that are almost as long as her two-and-half foot body, “I’d love to,” but her voice is high-pitched, which is a turn-off, so you cancel plans with her repeatedly until she gets the hint. Sorry, Miss Gnome, I like my women’s voices low like their stature. Any hoo! So the title is a bit of a superlative. What was I gonna say, “The Mostly Kinda Good Fantasy Baseball Team?” You’ll get over your scoffing; I have faith in you. This is the best 2020 fantasy baseball team that I can put together when drafting from my top 100 for 2020 fantasy baseball and top 500 for 2020 fantasy baseball. Honestly, I could draft another 25 teams from those lists, and they’d all be different, but equally terrific… Well, one of the twenty-five would only be sorta terrific, but it would be really hard to tell which one that is. If I took Adalberto Mondesi in the 2nd round, everything after would change. If I took Trea Turner in the 1st round, everything after would change. I’ve previously gone over my 2020 fantasy baseball draft prep for the first few rounds and pitchers pairings. For this exercise, I’m taking Fernando Tatis in the first, because, well, people complained previously I always did this post by taking the first pick, so I’m switching it up, like when you combover your hair right instead of left. Until pick 100, I’m taking one guy somewhere in every fifteen picks. It would be nice if I was in a league where someone drafted Gerrit Cole and deGrom in the first two rounds and I was able to take Trevor Story in the 2nd round (which is likely), but since Tatis and him are in my first 14 picks, according to the rules I’ve set up for myself, I can’t take them both. Then, as we all know, once you get into the 100s, there’s wide gaps between ADP and where players are actually taken. People tend to look at team need over value. So for this exercise, once I get to pick #101, I’m going to pick two players every twenty picks. Finally, because there is so much latitude in the last 300, I gave myself free rein to fill up my team after pick 200. Throughout the draft, I also gave myself the ability to reach to a lower draft pick, but not reach forward. Or reach around, if you’re feeling frisky. It should still be my ideal team…or not. Let’s see, shall we? Bee tee dubya, this team is a 12-team, 5×5, one catcher, 5 OFs, MI, CI, 1 UT, 9 P, 3 bench, just like the Razzball Commenter Leagues (go sign up). Anyway, here’s the best 2020 fantasy baseball team:
C: Mitch Garver (20)
1B: Christian Walker (10)
2B: Scott Kingery (11)
SS: Fernando Tatis Jr. (1)
3B: Rafael Devers (2)
MI: Paul DeJong (16)
CI: Michael Chavis (15)
OF: George Springer (3)
OF: Ramon Laureano (5)
OF: Oscar Mercado (6)
OF: Lourdes Gurriel Jr. (13)
OF: Bryan Reynolds (17)
UTIL: Austin Hays (21)
P: Lucas Giolito (4)
P: Lance Lynn (7)
P: Brandon Woodruff (8)
P: Craig Kimbrel (9)
P: Kenta Maeda (12)
P: Edwin Diaz (14)
P: Ryan Yarbrough (18)
P: Mitch Keller (19)
P: Seth Lugo (22)
Bench: Freddy Peralta (23), Yoshihisa Hirano (24), Brandon Kintzler (25)
SO, THIS TEAM IS BETTER THAN GETTING PAID BY THE GUY FROM THE FYRE FESTIVAL WHO PAYS IN ORAL SEX FAVORS, BUT IS THERE ANY CHANCE YOU CAN DRAFT THIS EXACT TEAM?
No. Sorry, I don’t mean to be short with you. Here, let me explain it to you with a long-form answer: Noooooooooooo. As I said in the opening, this is an exercise to give you an idea of a team I wouldn’t kick out of bed. With this exercise, I don’t look at ADP, so it’s nice that I think I can draft Brandon Woodruff after the top 100, but he’s regularly being drafted prior to that. On the other hand, I can draft Adalberto Mondesi as late as 75th overall in ESPN leagues, but since we were going off my rankings, I wasn’t able to draft him for this exercise. So, Grey’s rankings Gwyneth and they taketh away her acting career after the age of 40. Because I just have to share with you this little tidbit — a tiddiebittie? — my “best” team post last year was insane. Here’s my team I wrote up in this post last year:
C: Jorge Alfaro (22)
1B: Cody Bellinger (3)
2B: Rougned Odor (8)
SS: Trea Turner (1)
3B: Miguel Andujar (6)
MI: Jonathan Villar (7)
CI: Luke Voit (17)
OF: Aaron Judge (2)
OF: Michael Conforto (5)
OF: Harrison Bader (13)
OF: Ramon Laureano (15)
OF: Ian Happ (16)
UTIL: Nick Senzel (19)
P: Walker Buehler (4)
P: Shane Bieber (9)
P: Luis Castillo (10)
P: Sean Doolittle (11)
P: Jose Alvarado (12)
P: Nick Pivetta (14)
P: Matt Shoemaker (18)
P: Ross Stripling (20)
P: Brad Boxberger (21)
Bench: Dellin Betances (23), Diego Castillo (24), Pedro Strop (25)
That team would’ve beat you in a 12-team league. I’m sorry. I would’ve. I won my RCL last year, and would’ve won yours too. Stop giggling about Pivetta! He wouldn’t have mattered in a 12-teamer. Also, you can come for me saying I don’t know what I’m doing by not drafting starters early, but that shizz is water off a duck’s back. You only need to get three starters right. If I had Bieber, Buehler and Castillo last year, I was winning the league in pitching, and Turner, Villar, Bellinger and the rest of that mess on offense could’ve been fixed in-season, and I would’ve fixed it and won. Don’t believe me? Sign up for an RCL, sucker! It’s free. Here’s the Razzball Commenter League signup.
PARDON ME, FANTASY MASTER LOTHARIO, BUT DID YOU FORGET TO DRAFT A FIRST BASEMAN?
Well, due to my rankings weighing Matt Olson so heavily at 21 overall, he didn’t work for this team, because of false constraints I put on myself. If we were in an actual draft, my 1st three rounds here likely would’ve been Tatis, Devers, Olson, because Olson’s ADP is much lower than my ranking. The reason why I wanted Devers after Tatis is because he balances FTJ’s possible average issues. Then, as we know from my top 20 1st basemen, the position gets bare-ass cold for many rounds in the middle until the end of the top 100, then we get back into sleepers after the top 100. I wrote a Christian Walker sleeper, and think he’s way undervalued. Some time in the middle of 2020 people are gonna start saying stuff like, “Christian Walker is the new Paul Goldschmidt,” and I’m gonna say that I said that nonsense four months ago.
GREY, YOUR MUSTACHE IS YOGA PANTS ON THAT HOT MOM PICKING UP MY FRIEND FROM DETENTION, BUT WHAT GIVES WITH THE BENCH? NO BENCH BATS?
First off, welcome to the site. Get comfortable. That doesn’t mean put your feet on the furniture. What’s wrong with you? I’m saying welcome because I’ve been saying for years I don’t draft bench bats. If you didn’t know that, you’re new. It’s okay. We were all new once. Shoot, I love that new person smell. Don’t draft bench bats in 12 team and shallower leagues. They’re useless. You’re not going to hold them for longer than a few days after your draft. Now, if you draft a few middle relievers with your last few picks, maybe — just maybe — you’ll luck into a closer getting injured during the preseason, and, if that doesn’t work out, then you can drop the middle relievers without any hesitance. It’s more of a hindrance to have someone like, say, Mauricio Dubon on your bench because, then this happens, “It looks like Edwin Diaz might be hurt, who should I grab in the Mets’ bullpen for saves? Hmm…Actually, who should I drop? Should I drop Dubon? He’s seems like he could breakout– Forget it, it’s too late, someone else grabbed Seth Lugo and Betances and Gsellman and Justin Wilson and, damn, the Mets have a lot of good relievers.” And then Lugo (or Betances) goes on to save 40 games and win the Rollie Rolaids award. Oh, and in deeper leagues, bench bats are okay (within reason). This does not mean I wouldn’t own a bench bat all year, just no reason to draft one.
CAN I TAKE A PICTURE OF YOUR TEAM AND SEND IT TO MYSELF OVER ELECTRONIC MAIL AND PUT A RED FLAG ON THE EMAIL INDICATING IMPORTANT?
Yes, be my guest. The only thing is you don’t want to get too caught up in trying to replicate my draft because if someone else takes a guy you want, you’re gonna start scrambling and then sweating and then sharting your sweatpants. Just build the best team you can and use my example as a guide. For s’s and g’s, go to my top 500 and put your best fantasy baseball team into the comments below.
