Currently being drafted as the 25th overall player and eighth pitcher, Indians ace Shane Bieber looks to build on his remarkable season from a year ago. Bieber finished the year with a 3.28 ERA and 269 strikeouts in 214.1 innings pitched (second-most in the MLB). The one knock on the Indians righty is the fact he gave up 31 homers last season. 

Sports Illustrated’s fantasy baseball analysts Shawn Childs and Jaime Eisner discussed Bieber’s 2020 fantasy baseball outlook in the above video. 

Read the full transcript from their conversation here:

Corey Parson: Hey what's up, it’s Corey Parson, The Fantasy Executive, here with SI.com. Major League Baseball could be on the way back. That means fantasy baseball to be heating up soon. Joining me to talk some Cleveland Indians is SI's fantasy and gambling analyst Jamie Eisner and Shawn Childs. Shawn, I'll start with you, Shane Bieber is the subject, a lot of electricity in that arm. How do you feel about him coming into the season?

Shawn Childs: He had a tremendous breakout season last year. I think everything was probably expected except for the big, big spike in his strikeout rate. That is really the key for pushing to be to an SP1 one this year but he's always had in the minors. He walked under one but one batter per nine. Last year, he led the American League in walks 1.7 per 9. His strikeout rate, 10.9 was a career-high. So his command is there and when you're playing fantasy baseball, WHIP is a tremendous category, if you control WHIP, you're going to have a lot of success in fantasy, both baseball, and in your career. So he sets the bar really high in that area. And he's going to continue to push forward because he does throw strikes. So he's a guy I like a lot. I don't trust his strikeouts will have as much follow-through. But I definitely think he's a guy that's going to continue to get well over 200 strikeouts in for a full season. And he's a guy that you should be targeting early in the draft as kind of a sleeper SP1.

Corey Parson: It's interesting, Jaime, Shawn brings up the words "SP1." Is Bieber SP1 in your estimation?

Jaime Eisner: He is and he goes deep into games which is just going to be so valuable. I think, in the shortened season, where we're going to see a lot of starters get pulled early. As Shawn mentioned, an overlooked category is WHIP. The ERA gets all the love for the ratio categories, but WHIP matters just as much in the reality as it does in fantasy and it matters, even more, when it comes to all of the other stats. As Shawn said, I'm not going to project him to push that 260 strikeout mark over a full season like he had last year. I do think low 200 is doable, but a low three ERA, a low WHIP doesn't walk a lot of guys. He's exactly the type of pitcher that you want. He broke out. He was a fit. He was pretty much a breakout that everybody anticipated last year. He was the guy to target, lived up to expectations, and is only going to exceed them this year.

Corey Parson: Look at that, fantasy owners anticipated a breakout and it actually happened. Thanks a lot, Jaime and Shawn. I'm Corey Parson, the fantasy executive signing off for SI.com. 

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