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Kyle Bishop reflects on what the return of baseball means after an...eventful year, in this edition of Friday Focus.
It's good to have baseball back.
To call the past 12 months challenging would be a masterpiece of understatement. The pandemic has taken so much away from the world, from the trivial to the unfathomably important. There is, at last, light at the end of that particular tunnel. We are not there yet. Even the joy of Opening Day was tempered by the postponement of the Mets-Nationals game due to COVID protocols. But the other games felt like the latest sign that we will get there, sooner than anyone could reasonably have expected. The crowd noise was real, with nary a cardboard cutout in sight.
Things weren't perfect. The crowds were still small (the Texas Rangers' dumbassery aside). A few northern locales had the usual early-season weather issues. Blackouts continue to be a pox on the fan experience, especially when the alternatives present technical issues as they did for some. MLB is still making pitchers bat and putting a runner in scoring position for extra innings because Rob Manfred is hopeless. But baseball, for better and for worse, is still baseball. And in one of the weirdest years ever, there's some comfort in that.
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2020: Cascading Failures
Truth be told, I probably watched less baseball last season than I ever had before, due to a confluence of factors. The ersatz nature of the shortened season made it difficult to feel invested, as did the early-season outbreaks. The Phillies' bullpen was an insult to dumpster fires and cost the team a playoff berth in a year where simply floating around .500 could get you into the dance. Personal tragedy and bodily injury also played roles in dampening my enthusiasm for the game. And my fantasy teams, in a chicken-or-egg scenario, were mostly lousy. For the first time in my life, I straight up missed a draft and suffered the ignominy of an auto-drafted roster. For the first time in almost a decade, I didn't win a single league.
I still played, and followed closely enough to provide some measure of sound advice to other managers, even if I couldn't save myself. The usual passion wasn't there, though. In tough times of yesteryear, fantasy baseball represented an oasis, an escape from whatever trials and tribulations might be currently befalling other aspects of life. In 2020, that simply wasn't the case.
Fortunately, this year is back to business as usual. Baseball has been on my screen all day (flipping between White Sox-Angels and Astros-Athletics as I write this), and the week leading up to Opening Day included five drafts, the culmination of a full month of devouring content, mulling over strategies, and mucking around in Excel. I have an appointment to get my first dose of the vaccine this weekend, and that means I can catch a game at Coors Field on my birthday in June. Like normal. I can't wait, and I hope we're back to packed ballparks as soon as possible.
2021: A Fresh Start
One of the many benefits of getting back to a standard 162-game, April to October season is having more time to work with. 2020 didn't afford us that luxury, and that's one of the reasons why my personal success was limited. My preference for a more stoic approach is no secret, and it has served me well over the long haul. Last year demanded a more reactionary style, though, and my adjustment was insufficient. And despite past success, I've made plenty of mistakes motivated by minimizing downside that have cost me in the end.
Like a lot of people out there, Breaking Bad is among my favorite TV shows. One of the techniques their writers' room used was to write themselves and their characters into corners and force themselves to devise ways to wriggle out of seeming inescapable situations. I applied this principle to my drafts this spring. Rather than take my usual tack and focus primarily on building a well-rounded, high-floor roster, I chose to take more risks, employing more unbalanced and aggressive approaches with an eye toward not simply slipping back in my usual comfort zone.
Will it work? As the saying goes, any strategy can work if you pick the right players. But in tweaking my draft approach, I've put the onus on myself to make further adjustments in how I manage my rosters in-season. In the early days of this season, spare some thought for how you tend to operate and whether there's anything you might be able to improve.
Opening Day/Night Observations
There was some handwringing on social media about Freddy Peralta being used in relief on Opening Day. First of all, they don't need him as a starter until next week and he'll take his turn then as expected. Second, guys bouncing between the rotation and multi-inning relief appearances is something we may well see a lot of this year, so you'd do well to get used to it. For certain arms - like Peralta - this could ultimately boost their value by aiding their ratios and more importantly, keeping them healthy and fresh.
One game is one game, but here are some dudes who popped and might be worth a flyer if your trigger finger is already itchin': Kyle Isbel, Nate Lowe, Adam Frazier, Tyler O'Neill, Tim Locastro, Raimel Tapia, Jonathan Loaisiga, Julian Merryweather. Check out our weekly waiver wire rankings, updated every Friday afternoon by yours truly, for more suggestions along with analysis from our deep stable of talented, possibly handsome contributors.
We got to see Miguel Cabrera sliding into second base with a home run, Cody Bellinger homering for the second out of an inning, a 14-10 slugfest, the hapless Rockies beating the juggernaut Dodgers, and multiple games going into extra innings. Opening Day weirdness is always welcome in my book (except when it's Pablo friggin' Sandoval hitting a pinch-hit homer against my team, did anyone else forget he was still in the league? When will this man leave me and my team alone?!)
Speaking of extras, though...the "runner on second to start the inning" rule? Yep, still hate it.
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