To say the least, the 2020 fantasy baseball season will go down as a one-of-kind. A late start led to a 60 game sprint. Seven-inning double-headers. Weeks of rescheduled games because of COVID-19 positive tests. The National League DH. Twenty-eight-man rosters in September. Each of these on its own would fill the headlines. With the changes coming all at once, they felt overwhelming. I’m hoping to calm everyone if any and hopefully not all of the changes happen again. Here is some advice on how to handle the changes.

The help divided up into league setting and individual manager focus. While I inserted plenty of my own advice, I wanted to make sure as many people as possible contributed so Tweeted out and asked during my chat for input.
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Transcript is live!

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How my week is going:

same pic.twitter.com/hYtC9ANCp4

— Cut4 (@Cut4) September 23, 2020

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The 2020 version of Bullpen Report includes six different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

1. Notable Workloads: Primary closers or valuable members of a closer committee who have been deemed unavailable or likely unavailable for the current day due to recent workload.
2. Injury News 
3. Outlier Saves: Explanation for a non-closer earning a save during the previous day.
4. Committee Clarity: Notes on a closer committee that clarify a pitcher’s standing in the group.
5. Losing A Grip: Struggling closers who could be on the hot seat.

The “RosterResource” link will take you to the corresponding team’s RosterResource depth chart, which will give you a better picture of the full bullpen and results of the previous six days (pitch count, save, hold, win, loss, blown save.)

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It’s hard to really break up a 60-game season into pieces since the whole is a relatively small sample on its own. That said, Byron Buxton seemed to be getting off to his normal slow start with a .221/.225/.456 line through 21 games (a small sample, but 35% of this year’s season) and that was only buoyed by a 3-game homer streak in games 9 through 11 (.401 OPS before that). Again, that is a relatively small number of plate appearances (71), but it was fitting Buxton’s pattern so I know I had some confirmation bias around that time like “here we go again!”.

He then suffered a left shoulder injury (inflammation) that sent him to the IL for the fourth straight season and it was the same shoulder that he hurt in 2019 so the “here we go again” vibes kicked into overdrive at that point. After missing 11 games, he returned on September 1st and he’s been on fire since then with a .340/.353/.800 line with 7 HR, 13 RBI, and 8 R in 51 PA including hits in 12 of his 13 starts (there are two defensive replacement appearances in which he has 1 PA and went 0-for-1). The power surge is the most impressive part of the run with nine of his 17 hits going for extra bases highlighted the seven dingers.

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09/22/20

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2021 OUTLOOK OF LATE ROUND PITCHING GEMS

• Corbin Burnes
• Dylan Bundy
• Marco Gonzales
• Zach Davies
• Aaron Civale

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We have a 11 game slate on DraftKings for Friday! Don’t forget to check your lineups before lock.

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Running towards the finish line in the fantasy season like:

The unit that could. 🏃‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/iMfA8MExEh

— MLB (@MLB) September 22, 2020

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The 2020 version of Bullpen Report includes six different sections, as well as the closer chart, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

1. Notable Workloads: Primary closers or valuable members of a closer committee who have been deemed unavailable or likely unavailable for the current day due to recent workload.
2. Injury News 
3. Outlier Saves: Explanation for a non-closer earning a save during the previous day.
4. Committee Clarity: Notes on a closer committee that clarify a pitcher’s standing in the group.
5. Losing A Grip: Struggling closers who could be on the hot seat.

The “RosterResource” link will take you to the corresponding team’s RosterResource depth chart, which will give you a better picture of the full bullpen and results of the previous six days (pitch count, save, hold, win, loss, blown save.)

Read the rest of this entry »