The Start of the Season is Delayed … Now What?

While moving the MLB season back was the best possible action with the given information, it leaves the fantasy game and analysts like me in a little bit of limbo. Today, I had planned on writing about closers or just do another addition of Mining the News. Also, I was supposed to be off to New York for my Tout Wars auction (moved online) and my NFBC Main Event draft (moved back). After both those drafts, it was to be a week of absorbing as much news as possible and then covering games that matter while scouring over lineups and pitching debuts. Now what?

At its core, fantasy baseball allows people to escape their real-world problems and that diversion has been taken away when they need it most. While many people will have more pressing matters as the COVID-19 spreads, it would have been nice for them to enjoy their favorite escape. And most other live entertainment is on hold for the time being. I don’t know what other options people have to keep themselves entertained but it might be a good time to spend some time with your family and learn a new skill or even read one of those “book” things.

Getting back to fantasy baseball, if at all possible, don’t draft this weekend. Wait at least a week to see how the situation unfolds. The season is delayed just two weeks right now but that time frame could increase depending as the public and MLB player infection level grows. No one wants to manage a team with so many possible changes.

For those leagues who have already drafted, MOVE BACK YOUR FIRST FAAB/WAIVER WIRE PERIOD from the upcoming weekends. It’s best for teams to make needed changes as soon as possible to the season’s start. Multiple FAAB periods between now and the season’s start makes ZERO sense.

As for the content available at RotoGraphs, it’ll be a learning period. A lot depends on if games will be played and there is access to them and interviews with the participants. There is a little bit of information I can grind through and few multi-inning starts available at MLB.com for analysis, but mainly the game is heading to pre-Spring Training mode. Otherwise, I’m thinking of doing a full reset to create a few tools to help pinpoint regular season values. Also, I may create the world’s simplest projection.

I’m sure I won’t be as efficient during this transition providing useful information. If anything would be useful, please let me or any of the other writers know. Doing the next couple of months, please let us know how we can provide an escape from a scary situation for everyone. Until then, stay safe and hopefully, the games will begin in a month or two.