Well, 2020 has come and almost gone at this point, and like that one song goes, the Fanposts on Talking Chop started coming and they didn’t stop coming. As we do every year, this post is a look back on our favorites. And yes, no matter how it feels, each of these really did happen in the past 365 revolutions of the Earth on its axis. I promise.
January
Braves Prospect Rankings Composite List, NowhereIL - while there haven’t been many formal updates to prospectland due to the lack of a minor league season aside from the truncated draft and some trades, this was a great way to kick off the year by aggregating all sorts of prospect list efforts together.
February
Five Bold Predictions for 2019: Year in Review, BravesRays - one of the offseason highlights year in, year out for sure, check out who prognosticated especially well and especially poorly in this recap of guesses for the 2019 season. The 2020 version, well, that one took a turn for the sinister, so it’s harder to comment on.
For the actual 2020 Five Bold Predictions post, see here. One of my bold predictions was that Johan Camargo would out-WAR Dansby Swanson, so, in short, yikes.
March
Value Generated by Braves International Signings, schmenkman - so, this Fanpost has the distinction of 1) not being done by a Braves fan and 2) going up just a few days before we collectively realized everything was sidling Hell-ward at an accelerating rate, but still, charts! Cool stuff! My comment that the Braves would make substantial gains on the list quickly due to the combined efforts of Acuña and Albies was the opposite of prescient.
New Season, New Bongos, BrosCallMeDP - look, this is a post with another “Brian Snitker plays the bongos” gif. What more could you ask for?
April-July no season sadness time
The Book of Soroka: Chapter I, The Sinker, goliathefy - a detailed dive into Mike Soroka’s arsenal and success, which provided much succor during the fact that this was now the second month where baseball was originally scheduled but not happening. This was then followed by Chapter II, The Slider.
July-September actual season time
Playoff Scenarios for the Last Week of September, Cornutt - while all sorts of things actually happened and the playoff seeding ended up playing out like it did, this is a great memorialization of a bonkers playoff format and the dozens of attendant scenarios.
October
How to Talking Chop - A Beginner’s Guide, schlawg - look, I’m not sure why we haven’t banned schlawg either, but we haven’t, and therefore, he made this. You should either definitely not take the advice in this post, or definitely adhere to it with 100 percent stringency. Nothing in between, please.