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The Major League Baseball season has dropped from 162 games to just 60 this year due to the Covd-19 pandemic. That drop in games gives us fantasy baseball players some interesting hurdles if we want to have a competitive and fun season. Recently, Yahoo! Sports unveiled their plan to deal with the change.
The new rules are fairly straightforward and can also give those with customized leagues something to build from. The schedule for most head-to-head leagues will break down s such: 9 week season — 7 week regular season and 2 week playoffs, meaning only four teams would make the playoffs and no bye weeks.
Should you still play with the teams you drafted before the season crumbled? Yahoo! will take the approach of canceling all leagues and giving everyone entry fee refunds. This makes sense. Gameplay has been altered by too large of a degree at this point.
For roto leagues, Yahoo! has changed their default max innings pitched to 525 while position players will have a max of 60 games played.
They won’t be changing the position eligibility requirements.
There will be no changes to position eligibility requirements. Players will need five starts or 10 total appearances at a position to qualify while pitchers require three starts to be a starter, or five relief appearances to qualify as a reliever.
I could see knocking this down if you have the ability in your customized league. We’ll have plenty of players getting rest, but in such a short season, it will be hard for their replacements to land in one position for a long stretch.
Some other important changes include:
- The default trade deadline has been moved to Sept. 6.
- If a game goes to extra innings, a runner will start on second base in extra innings. The pitcher will not be charged with an earned run if the player scores.
- All games that begin and are later postponed will be considered suspended and stats will count. Previously games had to be official (4 1/2 or 5 innings)
For many, fantasy baseball was just too much of a grind, but with a shortened season, this might be the time to dip your toe back into baseball. It’s not like you have anywhere to go!