4 years agoAfter putting together an ace-level 2019 season, Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Shane Bieber took things to a whole new level in the shortened 2020 season, bringing home the American League Cy Young Award. He posted a monstrous 41.1% strikeout rate while keeping the walks at a strong 7.1% rate. As if that wasn't enough, he raised his ground-ball rate to a career-best 48.4%. Our main question for 2021 is how much of this repeatable? The strikeout rate being above 40% is not going to happen again, but there is room for the walks to improve, as his 7.1% walk rate was more than two points higher than his 2019 rate of 4.7%. Bieber seems to have benefitted massively from two things in 2020: the first being a really high 35.9% chase rate, and the second being lots of weak contact (his xwOBA came in at an elite .242). His improvement in ground-ball rate is more believable when you see that he increased his curveball usage last season at the expense of some four-seamers and sliders, but the other quality-of-contact numbers will be much tougher to repeat. There is regression coming in 2021, but he'll remain a strong SP1 for fantasy managers after his incredible 2020 campaign. It may not be justified to take Bieber as the first pitcher off the board, but you will not be disappointed if you end up with him anchoring your pitching staff in 2021.--Jon Anderson