The 2020 Shortened Season MLB.tv Watchability Rankings: Part 1
Every year, I rank the MLB teams by MLB.tv watchability. It’s not a ranking of the best teams, it’s a ranking of the most interesting ones: some great teams are boring and some terrible teams are train wrecks you can’t take your eyes off of.
Typically, I do this exercise in March before the season starts, so you, our devoted readers, have an idea of how to manage your time over the course of something like 2400 MLB games per year. This year, of course, things are different. There’s only going to be 60 games per team and we have a lot of baseball-less months to catch up on – so you should watch them all.
If for some stupid reason you can’t, though, I’m here to help you out. If anything, these rankings are more important than ever, given that we literally can’t attend games and our only choice is to watch on TV.
Below is the Part 1 of this year’s rankings: the top 10 teams you should watch in the abbreviated 2020 season. You can check out the 2015 MLB.TV rankings here, and part 1, and part 2 of the 2016 version here. The 2018 version is here, and 2019 is here. (Yes, there is no 2017.)
2020 MLB.tv Watchability Rankings
1) Los Angeles Angels
The Angels are back on top after a brief dip in 2019, and for good reason. There’s no end to the interesting players or themes with this team. Mike Trout is still baseball’s best player. Shohei Ohtani is going to pitch and hit this year, and might be among the league’s best at both – he’s baseball’s most intriguing player, by far. Joe Maddon, baseball’s most interesting manager is there now, along with Justin Upton‘s sweet swing, Albert Pujols, and the fact that they’ll be matched up against the Astros and Athletics for like half the season. Oh yeah, they added a perennial MVP candidate this winter in Anthony Rendon. The pitching is still a mess, but the lineup is can’t miss TV.
2) Houston Astros
As I recently tweeted,
The Astros are one of baseball’s best and most interesting teams under normal circumstances. They’re the reigning AL Champs and have Justin Verlander, Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, and Yordan Alvarez (who hits baseballs very, very far). This year though, everyone hates them!
Are they still good sans trashcan bang bang? Will they get hit with lots of pitches? What happens when they do and players are not allowed to clear the benches?!?
3) New York Yankees
The Yankees still have the most power in baseball, between Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, and now they have Earth’s best pitcher in Gerrit Cole.
They also still have their super bullpen, and play the Red Sox a disproportionate number of times.
4) Los Angeles Dodgers
No David Price is a bummer, but you still get the 2019 Dodgers + Mookie Betts. What more could you want? Cody Bellinger will mash balls into the empty bleachers and Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler are still around and set to dominate with a much smaller than normal workload. The Dodgers are the odds-on favorite for the NL pennant.
5) Washington Nationals
The defending Champs may have lost Rendon, but they still have Juan Soto and three of their five rotation spots are generational talents. Opening Day on July 23 will feature the Yankees and Cole visiting the Nats and Max Scherzer in an awesome start to the weirdest season ever. You can even bet on it with baseball odds for July 23.
6) New York Mets
No Noah Syndergaard is a bummer, but the Mets rotation still has Earth’s second best pitcher Jacob deGrom, as well as Marcus Stroman, and somehow-former Cy Young winner Rick Porcello, and former great pitcher Michael Wacha. They also, of course, have reigning Rookie of the Year Pete Alonso, stud Michael Conforto, and the always interesting Yoenis Cespedes. Plus Robinson Cano!
7) Atlanta Braves
No Felix Hernandez is a bummer, and Freddie Freeman is still on the mend, but the Braves still feature Ozzie Albies, Ronald Acuna, Marcell Ozuna and some pitchers that Braves fans think are better than they are. One of them is Cole Hamels. Also, Yasiel Puig!!!
8) Minnesota Twins
It’s possible that Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, and Willians Astudillo might all miss the start of the season with injury or illness and that’s a bummer, but the defending Central Division Champs made some big additions this winter, including former MVP Josh Donaldson and former LA Dodgers Kenta Maeda and Rich Hill to go along with Jose Berrios in what is suddenly a really good starting rotation.
Also don’t sleep on Max Kepler, who took advantage of finally not being on my fantasy team to have a career year in 2019.
9) Philadelphia Phillies
A bit of a drop from 3rd overall last year, the Phillies still boast Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins, and baseball’s best catcher JT Realmuto, along with Aaron Nola, who’s great, Zack Wheeler, who’s new, and Jake Arrieta, who’s at least interesting. Plus the bullpen isn’t great so there could be a lot of scoring late, and Didi Gregorius and Andrew McCutchen are two of baseball’s most fun players to watch.
10) Cincinnati Reds
Trevor Bauer is kinda crazy but a blast to watch, Joey Votto is the man, and Eugenio Suarez is way better than you think he is. Plus, Nicholas Castellanos is there now and Aristides Aquino is up there with Yordan Alvarez and Joey Gallo in terms of the frequency and majesty of his homers. Finally, with Bauer, Sonny Gray, and Luis Castillo, the rotation might be good enough over a short season to push this team towards the playoffs.
Part 2 coming up soon!
