When it comes to baseball, so many things can impact the game. From ballpark designers that tinker with ballpark dimensions to managers that make in game decisions that tempers the production of one of their players.

So who are the people (or groups of people) that have impacted the game in positive or negative way to make their way onto our inaugural Sports Ethos Fantasy Baseball’s naughty and nice list?

Special note: It cannot be overstated how important the work of our contributors are to our website. Without them, we could not do what we do. So, if you could spend just a moment to follow each of their X (formerly Twitter) or Blue Sky accounts and don’t forget to ask us questions on the Discord!

NICE LIST

Jeff Clowers (X/Twitter – @ethosjeff) 

Orioles Management / Park Developers – Three years ago, they would have been on the naughty list for the work they did, moving the left field dimensions further back and further up – thus creating the not-so-affectionately known “Walltimore” for right-handed hitters. The move ended up creating a more drastic effect than expected, taking it from the 3rd most hitter-friendly park to the 19th. This move particularly helps batters such as Ryan Mountcastle, Jordan Westburg and the newly-acquired Tyler O’Neill but perhaps we’ll now also see a further breakout of some of the Orioles’ top young hitters come 2025!

Larry Vannozzi (X/Twitter – @larryv86)

Kirby Yates. Some fantasy managers refuse to pay up for saves and burn a fourth, fifth or sixth round selection on closers. For those managers as well as for the ones who chose to go dumpster diving for saves, Kirby Yates was THE MAN in 2024. He was basically invisible for three seasons (only 11 innings combined in 2020-2022) and even though Yates returned in 2023 and pitched well, there wasn’t much reason to draft him going into 2024. It took a few weeks for the Rangers bullpen to settle on roles, but Yates earned his first save on Tax Day and never looked back. His 33 saves were just what the doctor ordered for those who sought cheap saves in 2024. Thank you, Kirby!!

Scott Burks (X/Twitter – @oregondux2, Blue Sky – @oregondux2.bsky.social)

The Nationals, Brewers and Reds – They were giving their players the green light on the base paths to steal bases. They were the only three teams in 2024 to have more than 200 stolen bases. Fantasy owners who had multiple players from those three teams, or had Elly De La Cruz, probably did pretty well in the stolen base category.

A personal “nice” goes out to Mets outfielder Starling Marte. In the one league I won, I entered the last day doubleheader between the Mets and Braves .5 points out of first. In that doubleheader, Marte got two hits, and I moved up one spot in batting average, edging out the owner below .2541 to .2540.

Teams who went with the strategy to turn relievers into starters – Reynaldo Lopez, Garrett Crochet and Michael King made the transition and were successful. Jordan Hicks of the Girants made 20 starts and nine relief appearance, while he was not as successful as the other three, his 2024 numbers are inflated because he was worse as a reliever than as a starter.

Nathan Baker (X/Twitter – @nbakerngb)

Steve Cohen – for forking out the largest contract in sports history to land the biggest free agent fish of all time, and stunning the Yankees in doing so.

Jed Hoyer – for aggressively making his team better in spite of some difficult payroll restrictions (whoever is in charge of luxury tax calculations not included, after accidentally going over by a few hundred K)

Max Fried – for maintaining his stance of getting to free agency despite countless attempts to extend him below market value, and his reward of a 8 year, $218 million dollar contract with the Yankees.

Paul Williamson (X/Twitter – @PaulW_34, Blue Sky – @paulw34.bsky.social)

Astros Management – This is for two reasons. First is for simply for not bringing back Martin Maldonado and finally giving Yanier Diaz the full time role he deserves and fantasy managers have been craving. He finished as the third ranked catcher in fantasy with 16 homers, a .299/.325/.441 slashline, 70 runs and 84 RBI. Second, after acquiring Yusei Kikuchi they had him go to a more slider-heavy approach and he was awesome. In ten starts he returned a 2.70 ERA, 0.93 WHIP with 76 strikeouts to just 14 walks in 60 innings pitched.

Marlins management – They let key bats like Jazz Chisholm Jr and Josh Bell move on to greener pastures and really helped unlock some consistent value for each of them. We all know how much Chisholm balled out while Bell slashed .279/.361/.436 with a .350 wOBA and 123 wRC+ as the replacement for an injured Christian Walker. The massive prospect haul that they acquired for all their wheeling and dealing now have a quicker route to the majors which is a win for dynasty fantasy managers.

Progressive Field Renovations – In the three years prior to 2024, Progressive Field was 23rd in park factors for homers per Statcast. 24th for righties and 22nd for lefties. If you narrow it down to just 2024? Progressive Field is 11th in homers, 16th for righties and fifth(!) for lefties! Prior to the season, they removed these shipping containers in right field and with “open-air social districts”, as described by Cleveland.com’s Joe Noga. In the same article, Noga cites Guardian executive that claimed they did research on the renovations to ensure there was no major change to the way the park would play. But there was the caveat in this June 10th article that they would need at least a full year’s worth of data, at a minimum, to make a real determination. Well, so far, it looks like lefties pulling it to right field (looking at you Kyle Manzardo) are going to be killing it.

Anthony Kates (X/Twitter – @akfantasybb, Blue sky – @akfantasybb.bsky.social

Milwaukee Brewers management – The Brewers had the audacity to call up their 20-year-old superstud prospect, Jackson Chourio, and let him spend the entire season learning to hit big league pitching. Which led to an incredible rookie season, where Chourio performed better at the plate as the season wore on. His September may not have been as strong as his June, July or August, but who knows if he performs as well as he did if the Brewers sent him down to Triple-A after a particularly rough April and May. I applaud teams who are willing to let their young players, their rookies, learn on the job and give them the opportunity to grow at the highest level, even if it isn’t great from the get-go (looking at you, Baltimore Orioles).

Seth Lugo – This goes out to Lugo and the managers in my dynasty league who did not trust his 2023 performance and refused to trade for him. In doing so, he played a major part in my title run (even if it did end in defeat in the finals). 2024 was Lugo’s eighth year in the majors and only the third year he spent as a full time starter. He set multiple career highs, pitched almost a quarter of his career innings and ended up on the short list for American League Cy Young and did it all at the spry young baseball age of 34. If only we all could have a career year late into our own years…

NAUGHTY LIST

Jeff Clowers

The Athletics Organization – Athletics owner John Fisher has been on the receiving end of a lot of hatred and scorn the past 12 months. So in the holiday spirit of reconciliation and good will in all manki…. Just kidding. Fisher deserves every ounce of vitriol spewed his way by the fans in Oakland. To sit through years of neglect – whether with stadium maintenance, player payroll, or both – all while being told your team owner is unwilling to invest in the team, only to see substantial contracts handed out the second they bolt for Las Vegas / Sacramento is such a blatant thumbing of his nose to fans that there’s no more obvious Grinch in MLB than John Fisher. Bah humbug to you and yours, Mr. Fisher. The Oakland faithful deserve better.

Larry Vannozzi

Fantasy platforms that include the final regular season week in H2H formats (ahem, Yahoo!) – The final week of the regular season is chaotic. So chaotic, in fact, that it’s a darn shame that some (many?) H2H championships are decided that week. Some regulars rest here and there during that week. Many starting pitchers have reduced outings or are skipped altogether. The final weekend is especially dicey as playoff-bound teams further adjust their lineups to prepare for the postseason. Managers spend all season gearing up for championship week only to have their fortunes decided on the whims of managers and random players. Many fantasy football platforms exclude the NFL’s final week and H2H fantasy baseball platforms should follow suit.

Fantasy managers who fail to reply to trade offers and those who simply reject offers without explanation – Those people are naughty! Seriously folks, can’t you just reply in a timely manner, say, within 2-3 days? And when you do reply, can you at least include a line or two stating WHY you rejected the offer? Sure, go ahead and ignore crazy offers but please reply to any reasonable offer and let the other party know your thoughts. It’s an (un)common courtesy plus your informative reply just might result in an updated/better offer.

Hurricane Milton – There’s no getting around the fact that Hurricane Milton was bad. It killed people, was very destructive and turned many lives upside down. But when we only consider fantasy baseball… Milton, did you really have to shred Tropicana Field’s roof? Yes, the Trop’s turf is hideous and there is turmoil between team officials and city leaders on the stadium’s future, but now we have a mess when it comes to baseball. We will certainly see rain delays and postponements as the Rays are forced to play outdoors. Have you seen Tampa’s schedule? MLB is trying to account for summertime thunderstorms in Florida by front loading the team’s springtime home schedule. Get this – 19 of their first 22 games are home games! Their May schedule is lopsided, too, with 16 of 28 games at home. But check out their summer schedule. The Rays have just eight home games the entire month of July with the same drastic imbalance in August. Thanks a lot, Hurricane Milton!

Scott Burks

The Twins, Giants, Braves for not letting their players run much. Those four teams had less than 100 stolen base attempts. I understand the Braves not running because of the sluggers on the team, but the other three teams did not exactly have the middle of the 1927 Yankees lineup on their roster. One interesting note, the Giants had 68 stolen bases as a team, yet Matt Chapman had a career-high 15 steals after having a career total of 11 entering the 2024 season.

Nearly every hitter in the game not named Luis Arraez – Batting average is almost a meaningless stat in fantasy and many owners are punting batting average. The MLB average in batting average was .243 and there were 1,374 more strikeouts than hits. In 2014 the league average was .251 and there were 4,154 more hits than strikeouts. Going back 20 years to 2004, the league average was .266 and 12,694 more hits than strikeouts. The fantasy game would be so much better if players actually tried to put the ball in play than trying to hit every pitch 450 feet.

Nathan Baker

John Fischer – for his blatant and shameful attempts to misuse the revenue sharing system, all while robbing Oakland fans of their teams.

Rob Manfred – for his part in the A’s relocation, floating more unnecessary rule changes, and NOT AXING THE GHOST RUNNER IN EXTRAS.

Paul Williamson

Dan Wilson – Andres Munoz had a 33.2% strikeout rate with a 2.12 ERA and 0.96 WHIP in 60 appearances for a team that won 85 games. He ended up with only 22 saves because his manager loved bring him in earlier than the ninth, as evidenced by his six holds. The list of MLB pitchers with at least 20 saves and more than five holds are littered with guys that lost their job (Camilo Doval), were just injury replacements (Trevor Megill) or were traded out of their closer’s role (Tanner Scott). Yeah I get it, it makes a ton of sense in real baseball but for traditional 5×5 formats in fantasy baseball, it can be a bit frustrating. Rob Thomson in Philly is also a repeat offender and deserves to be mentioned.

Astros Management – OK. I’m a homer. Yes. But as a respectable journalist, I feel I need to be balanced. And the BS they spewed about Kyle Tucker was just nuts. For those unaware, From early June when Tucker first got hurt, all the way to near the end of his over three-month absence, the Astros claimed it was a deep bone bruise on the shin or a shin contusion. But on September 2, we learned it was a fracture. For months managers were kept in the dark. Maybe knowing it was a fracture would have changed how a manger managed his injury. Knowing it was going to be that long may have prompted a different wire strategy or maybe they could have traded him to a manager that had an open spot for him and gotten some value. Who knows how things would have been played differently by managers if they would have known. It may not have changed anything. But just knowing would have been nice.

Anthony Kates

Rob Manfred – I just want to reiterate: FOR NOT AXING THE GHOST RUNNER IN EXTRA INNINGS.

Jim Crane – for being a scrooge. A cheapskate. A penny pitcher. For wanting to field a winning team, a title contender, but not wanting to spend like one. For refusing to offer contracts longer than six years. For firing James Click and relying on former players who do not believe in advanced stats. For trading Kyle Tucker, letting Alex Bregman walk and for selling the naming rights of Minute Maid Park. Daikin Park? Vomit.