What the 2020 Season Will Look Like Crowdsource Results

Last week, I asked our readers to answer a few questions about what they think this season of baseball might look like. While none of us actually know when or even if the season will be played, your answers provide a window into your expectations and also show how optimistic (or pessimistic) you are about there being more live baseball in 2020 as COVID-19 continues to affect all of our lives.

We received more than 1,000 responses for every question with the first one being the most basic:

A pretty clear majority believes there will be some from of major league baseball this season, though more than a quarter of readers thought the season would simply be wiped out.

Next, I asked how many regular season games would be played this year:

The first question had more responses than this one, which helps explain the disparity between zero games in this question and the “No” responses in the first. Nearly half of you believed MLB would play around half a season, with a majority believing the season would go 76 games or more.

As for when the season begins, July was the most popular response, with quite a few June answers as well:

As for where games will be played, most of you did not think games would be played at spring training sites:

On the other hand, a majority of you believed there would be at least some games played without fans:

There was a nearly 50/50 split about whether the playoffs would proceed in the form they normally do, though the 50% who believed it would be an abnormal playoff setup were split on whether that meant more or fewer rounds:

As for when the playoffs will end, most believed November would see the World Series champion crowned, with a Thanksgiving end being the most popular:

As a bonus, here are the results from an earlier article when I discussed the possibility of a round-robin playoff round ahead of the normal playoff structure:

Overall, the results indicate that we expect roughly half a regular season of baseball starting in July in major league stadiums with a month or less of empty stadium games and the season concluding around the end of November. I don’t know about everybody else, but if I had the ability to push a button and make that happen right now, I’d take it.