The Hum Babe Dynasty 2020 Preseason Power Rankings have been created using Fantrax’s projected point totals for the players on each team. The projected points for one catcher, four infielders, three outfielders and four utility and/or bench players were added together to determine the best hitting teams in the league, while five starting pitchers, two relief pitchers and four utility pitchers were summed for the pitching rankings. The Power Rankings shown below were determined by the total projected points of those hitters and pitchers; positional ranks are included just for reference.
1 – ST. PAUL SPLITTERS
HITTERS: 3rd (C: 10th | INF: 1st | OF: 5th | UT/BN: 6th)
PITCHERS: 1st (SP: 1st | RP: 8th | P/BN: 1st)
The best fantasy team during the 2019 Hum Babe regular season is still loaded with starting pitcher and poised to make a run at the 2020 Title. Gerrit Cole, Shane Bieber and Brandon Woodruff lead a formidable staff, while SPARPs Ryan Yarbrough, Yonny Chirinos and Vince Velasquez make the most of St. Paul’s relief pitcher roster spots. Surprisingly, the Splitters also find themselves touting the best starting infield going into the 2020 season. Ketel Marte, Anthony Rendon and Xander Bogaerts are all familiar names on this roster but the addition of Paul Goldschmidt near the Trade Deadline last season (sending Bryan Reynolds and others to the El Paso Border Patrol) solidifies the first base position, where once a weakness for the Splitters. Certainly a contender to win it all this season.
2 – PABLO AND THE SECRET WEAPONS
HITTERS: 2nd (C: 3rd | INF: 11th | OF: 4th | UT/BN: 1st)
PITCHERS: 3rd (SP: 4th | RP: 7th | P/BN: 3rd)
The reigning champs are back. Led by Alex Bregman, Kris Bryant and Yasmani Grandal, Pablo and the Secret Weapons is just a flat-out deep team. Cavan Biggio backs up Keston Hiura at second base while Kris Bryant, Marcell Ozuna and Kyle Schwarber hold down the outfield. Yordan Alvarez locks up a utility spot without position eligibility but J.D. Davis and Nate Lowe should still be able to find playing time in the roster around him. The pitching staff is led by Jack Flaherty and Jesus Luzardo, and although at first glance you’d think Pablo would need to add an elite arm in order to win their second title in a row, who are we to question the defending champs?
3 – LEBRONTO BLUE JAMES
HITTERS: 4th (C: 15th | INF: 3rd | OF: 2nd | UT/BN: 5th)
PITCHERS: 2nd (SP: 6th | RP: 6th | P/BN: 2nd)
The LeBronto Blue James have been one of the best teams since the start of the Hum Babe Dynasty League, but not only are they good now, they’ll be a force to reckon with for years to come. The oldest player in this 4th Ranked group of hitters is Max Muncy at age 29. Rostering Bryce Harper (27), Max Kepler (27), Victor Robles (23), Rhys Hoskins (27), Adalberto Mondesi (24), and so on, makes the most of this Dynasty League format to say the least. The biggest question mark for this team will be which Jose Ramirez (27) shows up in 2020? Ramirez’s 604 points during the 2019 season ranked 16th among third basemen and certainly did not provide the return LeBronto was looking for from the 5th overall pick in the Hum Babe Inaugural Draft. The year prior, 2018, Ramirez was by far the best third baseman in the league, recording +77 more points than the second best player at the position. If Ramirez, and the young arms of Jose Berrios, Blake Snell and Dinelson Lamet come through this season, it’ll take a miracle to stop this team from taking home the trophy.
4 – JACKAL ATTACK
HITTERS: 1st (C: 14th | INF: 4th | OF: 3rd | UT/BN: 2nd)
PITCHERS: 7th (SP: 2nd | RP: 2nd | P/BN: 14th)
Jackal Attack is stacked with tier-one pitching, including Max Scherzer and Aroldis Chapman, allowing a lack of depth at the position to not sink their hopes of winning games. While Jackal currently holds zero pitchers on their bench, hitters like Bo Bichette, Randal Grichuk, Dansby Swanson and Justin Upton lead a group of seven hitters to platoon between the utility and bench roster spots, the 2nd best group in the league. Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Freedie Freeman and George Springer will be relied on to carry the thin pitching staff to another playoff-worthy season. Jackal Attack may find themselves searching the waiver wire early this season though, as Aroldis Chapman, Freedie Freeman, Keone Kela and A.J. Puk all currently reside on the MLB Injured List.
5 – SAN FRANCISCO STUDS
HITTERS: 7th (C: 12th | INF: 5th | OF: 8th | UT/BN: 8th)
PITCHERS: 4th (SP: 3rd | RP: 12th | P/BN: 4th)
San Francisco’s third ranked starting pitching staff is led by Patrick Corbin, Aaron Nola and Luis Castillo while the lethal combination of shortstops, Trea Turner and Fernando Tatis Jr, headline the hitting group. The Studs could easily leap-frog to the top of the league standings if young prospects like Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert live up to their potential, while veterans Matt Olson, Nick Castellanos and Mike Mousakas swing the bat like in years past. In the bullpen, Jose Leclerc, Emilio Pagan, Sean Newcomb and Aaron Bummer may not top the relief pitcher rankings individually but the combination of those four arms may play to San Francisco’s advantage during the 2020 season, given most of the MLB’s starting pitchers will start the season at less than full strength.
6 – SOMALIA PIRATES
HITTERS: 6th (C: 11th | INF: 8th | OF: 7th | UT/BN: 4th)
PITCHERS: 6th (SP: 5th | RP: 4th | P/BN: 9th)
After barely missing the 2019 playoffs, the Somalia Pirates are ready to bounce back with NL MVP, Cody Bellinger and hopefully a healthy Mike Clevinger. Alongside them will be the bats of J.D. Martinez, Elvis Andrus and Javier Baez to round out the Preseason’s sixth best group of hitters. Somalia’s balanced roster also sports the sixth best pitching staff in the league heading into the 2020 season, with Zack Greinke and Frankie Montas complimenting Clevinger. Even with those big names rostered, Somalia will need to see guys like Cesar Hernandez, Carson Kelly, Zac Gallen to surpass expectations if they want to be champs of the 2020 season.
7 – SUPER SAYIN SHANOBI
HITTERS: 8th (C: 1st | INF: 14th | OF: 9th | UT/BN: 12th)
PITCHERS: 10th (SP: 15th | RP: 5th | P/BN: 6th)
Perhaps the surprise of the Hum Babe Preseason Power Rankings, Super Sayin Shanobi finds themselves in the playoff picture for their first season in the league. Mookie Betts and DJ LeMahieu top the projected points totals for Shanobi but undoubtedly, the most impressive part of this team is the strength at the catcher position. While most Hum Babe teams only hold onto one catcher during a season, Shanobi is able to put both J.T. Realmuto and Mitch Garver’s bats into the everyday lineup, taking advantage of the most scarce position in the league. Health will certainly be something to watch with this team as LeMahieu is currently out with COVID-19 and Giancarlo Stanton always brings an injury concern into the equation. But not only that, Super Sayin Shanobi, after just completing a trade for David Price, will have to do without his services this season as he has opted out of playing in 2020. Will Bumgarner, Tanaka, Minor, Kimbrel and the rest of this seasoned pitching staff provide enough to take this team to the playoffs when it’s all said and done?
8 – BROOKLYN BRIDEGROOMS
HITTERS: 9th (C: 5th | INF: 7th | OF: 13th | UT/BN: 10th)
PITCHERS: 11th (SP: 10th | RP: 14th | P/BN: 8th)
The Los Angeles Dodgers may be the best team in the MLB for the 2020 season but that doesn’t necessarily mean they make the best fantasy roster. Now be it, the Bridgegrooms unfortunately can’t call Cody Bellinger or Mookie Betts their own, but twelve of their players wear Dodger hats in real life, and eight of those twelve are pitchers. Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw present a pair of aces while, Urias, Jansen, Stripling, May, Graterol and Gonsolin round out the Bridegrooms bullpen and will have to battle for innings this season. After finishing second best during the 2019 season, the Bridegrooms will once again look to their band of Dodgers plus Jose Altuve, Eugenio Suarez, Gleyber Torres and Austin Meadows for a successful season.
9 – PEBBLE BEACH MULLIGANS
HITTERS: 5th (C: 7th | INF: 9th | OF: 6th | UT/BN: 3rd)
PITCHERS: 15th (SP: 11th | RP: 16th | P/BN: 12th)
As the second best first-year team entering the 2020 season, the Pebble Beach Mulligans put together a well-rounded roster during their expansion draft. Home to Mike Trout, Ozzie Albies and Josh Bell, Pebble Beach will need some luck on the mound this season while trotting out Dallas Keuchel, Corey Kluber and Griffin Canning. If those three can pitch at the top of their game, along with Rich Hill, Anthony DeSclafani and Justus Sheffield, they may have just enough to get the job done. Having bats like Jose Abreu and Khris Davis in the utility slots certainly won’t hurt that effort either.
10 – SUPER SMASH ‘STROS
HITTERS: 11th (C: 2nd | INF: 12th | OF: 11th | UT/BN: 12th)
PITCHERS: 8th (SP: 9th | RP: 11th | P/BN: 7th)
The combination of Francisco Lindor, Gary Sanchez and Justin Verlander would surprise no one at the top of the league standings. Unfortunately, the Super Smash ‘Stros just haven’t developed that second tier of talent yet. Starling Marte, Michael Brantley and Alex Verdugo certainly provides a team with hope in the outfield, but the projected numbers stack them up as just the twelfth best trio in the league. This could certainly be the team to make the biggest splash in the 2020 season, and if Jon Gray, Tanner Roark and Luke Weaver beat their expectations along with the Smash ‘Stros’ hitters, there’s no reason this team can’t be in the conversation
11 – STRAIGHT OUTTA DEGROMPTON
HITTERS: 14th (C: 16th | INF: 6th | OF: 15th | UT/BN: 9th)
PITCHERS: 9th (SP: 8th | RP: 1st | P/BN: 13th)
Showcasing Jacob deGrom, Trevor Story and Anthony Rizzo coming out of their expansion draft, Straight Outta deGrompton took a heavy hit before the season even started with the news of Buster Posey opting out of the 2020 campaign. As they go to the waiver wire to fill his void at the catcher position, deGrompton will also look to players like Kyle Seager, Adam Eaton and Robinson Cano to step up in his absence. There are some solid potential catcher options currently in the free agent market; Robinson Chirinos, Reese McGuire and Tony Wolters to name a few. Filling that hole comes first, but finding another top-tier starting pitcher may be just as important to get this team into title contention.
12 – MORNING WOOD
HITTERS: 12th (C: 4th | INF: 2nd | OF: 16th | UT/BN: 15th)
PITCHERS: 12th (SP: 16th | RP: 3rd | P/BN: 11th)
Morning Wood ranks surprisingly low, 12th, in the Preseason Power Rankings compared to their showing last season. All-Star’s Aaron Judge, Manny Machado and Rafael Devers apparently aren’t enough to overcome a pitching staff without it’s ace in Luis Severino, victim to an elbow injury. Not to mention, the young stud of this staff, Michael Koepch opted out of the 2020 season due to the global pandemic. Even with those blows to the pitching staff, Morning Wood was a playoff team just a season ago and certainly has the bats to compete with the best in this league. If we learned anything from the 2019 season, there’s a lot of different ways to piece together a competitive pitching staff so we will have to wait and see if Morning Wood finds that formula in 2020.
13 – PED-CO PARK
HITTERS: 10th (C: 6th | INF: 15th | OF: 1st | UT/BN: 14th)
PITCHERS: 14th (SP: 14th | RP: 9th | P/BN: 15th)
Christian Yelich, Charlie Blackmon and Andrew Benintendi, there it is folks, the best outfield trio in the Hum Babe Dynasty based on 2020 season projections. Adding on to that, PED-co Park flexes the bats of Wilson Ramon, Matt Chapman, and Joey Votto. Much like the other teams in the middle of these Preseason Power Rankings however, PED-co’s pitching is a question mark. Lance Lynn had a great 2019 but can he repeat that effort in his age 33 season? J.A. Happ comes off the injury reserve in time for the start of the season but Julio Teheran, Will Smith and Giovanny Gallegos are all still inactive for now. What’s promising, is this fifteen ranked infield could see Luis Urias and Nico Hoerner jump into starting roles and turn this team into a contender very quickly.
14 – WISCONSIN NECKBEARDS
HITTERS: 16th (C: 9th | INF: 13th | OF: 12th | UT/BN: 16th)
PITCHERS: 5th (SP: 7th | RP: 10th | P/BN: 5th)
How in the world does the third seed from the 2019 playoffs rank fourteenth in the 2020 preseason polls? In this case, the explanation seems to be age. Nelson Cruz (40), Edwin Encarnacion (37), Josh Donaldson (34), Jake Arrieta (34), Andrew McCutchen (33) and Stephen Strasburg (32) just aren’t projecting the same numbers they’ve put up throughout their careers. That’s not to say these guys are washed up, quite the opposite in fact, and there’s a case to be made that this power ranking is flat out wrong. Ronald Acuna Jr. is obviously a player to build around in a dynasty league, but when does the neckBeard’s roster turnover and rebuild process start taking shape? We could see a lot of those veterans get dealt at the deadline this season if the opportunity presents itself.
15 – THE THOR AND HIS HAMMERS
HITTERS: 15th (C: 8th | INF: 16th | OF: 10th | UT/BN: 11th)
PITCHERS: 13th (SP: 12th | RP: 13th | P/BN: 10th)
Thor’s Hammer will have to be carried by Joey Gallo this season since Noah Syndergaard is on the Injured Reserve (elbow). The Thor and His Hammers have unfortunately filled all five of their DL roster spots (Syndergaard, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jakob Junis, Hector Noris, Lewis Brinson) and the season started yet. Thankfully everyone except Syndergaard shouldn’t be out longer than 10 days or so, but nonetheless, no team can survive that many injuries especially in this shortened season. Joey Gallo, Luke Voit and Hunter Dozier will look to carry the team’s bats while Charlie Morton, Mike Soroka and Jordan Yamamoto will be heavily relied on for the pitching staff. Royce Lewis in the minor league system may get the call to the Show this season, and we could get a glimpse of what the future Thor and His Hammers look like in years to come.
16 – EL PASO BORDER PATROL
HITTERS: 13th (C: 13th | INF: 10th | OF: 14th | UT/BN: 13th)
PITCHERS: 16th (SP: 13th | RP: 15th | P/BN: 16th)
The El Paso Border Patrol has a core group of players in Nolan Arenado, Pete Alonso, Byron Buxton and Trevor Bauer that could win a championship someday. Unfortunately, as of today, the supporting cast just isn’t up to the league’s par. Ryan McMahon, Bryan Reynolds, and Eric Lauer provide some young potential that could develop into that supporting cast, but veterans like Miles Mikolas, Brett Anderson, Anibal Sanchez, Yuli Gurriel and Andrelton Simmons may need to depart from the Border Patrol at the trade deadline if contending teams are willing to swap them for youth. Referencing the Paul Goldschmidt trade last season, El Paso has been the first team to embark on an intentional rebuild and the first steps have been very promising. The rest of the league watches closely as the strategy unfolds but if things continue the way they have been, the rest of the league may be watching El Paso top the league standings in the seasons to come.
The HUMBABE DYNASTY Fantasy Baseball League 