Fantasy Outlook: Week One

What a great first weekend of the new 2020 season! The first game of the season won by the Yankees despite mother nature cutting it short and the Los Angeles Dodgers having dominant performances against the San Francisco Giants.

We also saw some shockers in the first weekend like the Miami Marlins ruining my chance of winning $100,000 with the MLB Opening Day pick em’ contest by beating the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday.

As promised, I will be giving tips on your fantasy baseball team every Monday during the regular season and this is the first one. First, we’ll be looking at the players that could be key to winning this week.

Key Players of Week One

1. Get at least two of these three: Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Bryce Harper

The Phillies and Yankees will start a four-game series tonight with the first two games at Philly and the last two games being played at Yankee Stadium. Both teams usually produce some fireworks against each other, so expect some home runs from both sides.

Tonight’s pitching matchup is J.A. Happ for New York vs Jake Arrieta. I expect Harper to be a tough out against Happ. Arrieta might give the Yankees a good battle, but Stanton has been a huge threat at the plate so far this season. For the rest of the week, if you can get all three of these guys, you might have won your fantasy league already.

2. Grab as many players from the Red Sox/Mets series as you can

It’s not the Yankees vs Red Sox, but it’s still New York vs Boston. These two teams do not face each other often as they have only played each other twice in the last ten years (2015 and 2018). Expect some great pitching matchups in this four-game series starting tonight at Fenway Park. 

The top pitcher from the series should be Jacob deGrom. Although he has never beaten Boston, the Red Sox are so far tricky this season. They dominated the Orioles in their first game 13-2 then lost to the O’s the next day. With that being said since these two teams don’t play each other that much, expect some fireworks from both teams in the first two games of the series.

3. Get a couple of Dodgers against Houston this week

We knew it was coming and we are getting it on opening week. The 2017 World Series rematch featuring the Dodgers and the Astros. Despite this being a quick two-game series at Houston, the outcome might be a lot different from three years ago. Now that the Astros can no longer get away from stealing signs, the Dodgers will look for revenge and they will probably get it after a dominating series against the Giants. The ideal players from LA to get this week will be Max Muncy and Enrique Hernandez.

Players to Bench this Week

1. Every player on the Blue Jays roster

Toronto has a tough schedule this week. They start this week on the road tonight at Washington and then have their first home game at Buffalo, NY against the world champions on Wednesday. They follow the four-game series with a three-game series at Buffalo against the Phillies. With Toronto playing the world champions and at a different home field, there could be a different mindset for them.

2. Although it’s very tempting, stay away from Miami

The Miami Marlins have an interesting four-game series against Baltimore, they play the world champions this weekend. A couple of Marlins batters might have a good series against the Orioles considering these were two of the worst teams in the MLB last year, but these could be very low scoring games.

Just four days into the new season and it has already been exciting, and it will get more exciting as the season rolls on. How did your fantasy team do this past weekend? Let us know in the comments or message us on Twitter (@TheBullpen12), Instagram (@thebullpen_), or on Facebook. Feel free to message me on Twitter (@AlexWahlReport) for advice and more helpful tips!