For the reason that San Francisco Giants introduced Willie Mays’ loss of life on Tuesday, we’ve seen many tributes describing a five-tool participant who served as a supervisor on the sphere. Many touched on his showmanship and the way he performed with pleasure, however we didn’t see a lot — if something — about what a pleasure it could’ve been to have Mays on a fantasy workforce.
From the time he received again from army service, Mays had a stretch from 1954-1966 that doesn’t appear attainable. He averaged 40 homers per season and led the league in steals for 3 straight seasons. His lowest batting common throughout that stretch was .288, and the fewest variety of video games he performed in a season was 151 (again when a full season was 154 video games). He scored 100-plus runs in every of these 13 seasons, besides when he notched 99 in 1966 as a 35-year-old.
Fantasy baseball appears to have originated in 1980, seven years after Mays retired. Maybe if individuals performed fantasy baseball when he was in his absurdly lengthy prime, there may’ve been a better appreciation for his constant dominance. Regardless of main baseball in bWAR eight instances throughout that stretch, he solely gained two MVPs.
With that, we’ll pivot to what’s occurring now in Main League Baseball and what we will anticipate sooner or later, and Eno Sarris is right here to reply your questions. He’ll take part in a Friday Q&A, solely for The Athletic subscribers, so please submit them under.