A shortened season poses challenges to the head-to-head points format that are easily overcome with the original rotisserie-style scoring system. Why not take the 10-week plunge to see how you like it?
Well, it looks like things are finally falling into place enough where we will actually be able to take part in fantasy baseball leagues in 2020. That’s the good news. And, while there are still potential hurdles out there to be overcome before we quite literally get back in the swing of things, the optimism is — for the first time in a long time — deserved.
Yes, some baseball is better than no baseball at all. However, it is only going to be some baseball; 60 games spread out over 66 days, assuming that there’s no health issues that derail the season once it has started. Quite frankly, that means if you had been planning on taking part in a head-to-head points league, there are some things you should consider before you follow through with that plan.
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After all, even in a 10-team league, there’s just not going to be enough time for your team to play each of the other teams more than once and also have more than one round of postseason. It’s a compromise you’re going to have to make. In ESPN public 10-team leagues, we’ll be featuring a two-week postseason (two rounds) which leaves only eight weeks of regular-season play, and therefore each team will play against only eight of the other nine teams. We’re already dealing with an environment where the abbreviated MLB schedule and small sample sizes are going to play havoc with the overall statistical production of your fantasy rosters. Why compound that uncertainty with the randomness of an unbalanced fantasy schedule?
To me, this is the perfect time for all leagues — regardless of what you’ve done in the past or what you plan on doing going forward — to use a roto format in 2020. With what essentially amounts to a two-month sprint to the end of September, even if you pulled rosters randomly out of a hat, odds are good that no single team will be able to run away with the title in such a short amount of time.
