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The first part of the 2020 DTBL season preview covered a pair of teams that were dealt serious blows to their 2020 aspirations many months ago. But today, we’ll preview three teams that should probably feel pretty optimistic about their chances this season, for a variety of reasons. First, a couple of these teams are projected to finish higher in the standings than they did a year ago. All three appear to be relatively healthy heading into the season, despite some early COVID-19 scares. With some exciting new faces on these rosters, gaping holes from a year ago have been filled as well. While it may be hard to get fired up for a projected finish in the bottom half of the standings, these teams are absolutely championship contenders in a 60 game sprint. Here are the teams projected to finish in sixth through eight places in the 2020 standings.
Dom’s Demigods
Category – Projected Rank (2019 Rank)
- Batting Average – 2nd (6th)
- Home Runs – 10th (8th)
- Runs Batted In – 7th (10th)
- Runs Scored – 7th (10th)
- Stolen Bases – 3rd (7th)
- Earned Run Average – 8th (10th)
- WHIP Ratio – 9th (10th)
- Wins – 6th (10th)
- Saves – 10th (10th)
- Strike Outs – 3rd (10th)
- Total Batting Points – 6th (9th)
- Total Pitching Points – 8th (10th)
- Total Points – 8th (10th)
Summary:
There is really no way to go but up for the Demigods after a disastrous 2019. It was the worst season in franchise history, finishing dead last with just 19 standings points. That season was an outlier in almost every respect. They had finished in the top half of the standings the previous five years. What had been one of the league’s best offenses just one year prior suddenly fell to ninth, and a consistently above average pitching staff managed to finish last in all five pitching categories. So what will it take to return to their usual form? Adding Fernando Tatis with the first overall pick in the draft should fix a lot of weaknesses. He joins Francisco Lindor and Jose Altuve to make up what might be the best middle infield in the league. So far, Freddie Freeman seems to have been the baseball player who suffered the worst symptoms from COVID-19. Fortunately, he appears to be fully healthy now and should be ready to go soon. Ketel Marte and Austin Meadows were among the few bright spots for the Demigods last year and should headline the outfield crew again. Meadows is currently sidelined with coronavirus, but assuming he returns healthy, this group looks pretty decent too. The projections show J.D. Martinez continuing to be an offensive force as well. Pitching is where things get a little dicey. Again, they can’t possibly be any worse than last year. Aaron Nola is clearly the staff ace and Max Fried has exciting upside. You just don’t know for sure what you are getting from anyone else. Corey Kluber has been on the decline for a while and is now pitching in Texas. Zac Gallen is an intriguing young arm though, and it will be interested to see how Kenta Maeda’s return to the rotation goes in Minnesota. The Demigods will look to their bullpen to rack up a lot of strikeouts, but probably not many saves. Nobody on the roster is a projected closer to start the season. Josh James could be pretty interesting if he winds up in the Astros rotation. Expect the Demigods to prove last year was an aberration. If they get off to a hot start, 2019 will be quickly forgotten.
Kat’s Komodos
Category – Projected Rank (2019 Rank)
- Batting Average – 9th (5th)
- Home Runs – 3rd (10th)
- Runs Batted In – 2nd (8th)
- Runs Scored – 6th (7th)
- Stolen Bases - 2nd (1st)
- Earned Run Average – 10th (6th)
- WHIP Ratio – 8th (8th)
- Wins – 7th (8th)
- Saves – 3rd (7th)
- Strike Outs – 9th (9th)
- Total Batting Points – 3rd-T (7th)
- Total Pitching Points – 9th (8th)
- Total Points – 7th (8th)
Summary:
These batting projections for the Komodos are quite interesting. A team that finished near the bottom of the league in the power categories (HR, RBI) last year is now expected to be among the league’s best. And this is despite the fact that the only seemingly significant power addition to the roster was first round pick Yordan Alvarez. Alvarez is indeed a major power addition, but this also may point to some underachieving from the roster in this regard last year. Jose Ramirez definitely underachieved early last season, but returned to form in the second half. He is one of the best power/speed players in all of baseball. Cody Bellinger is one of the best players, period. And then there are Joey Gallo and Nelson Cruz who also figure to be near the top of the leaderboard in the power categories. So yeah, those projections actually make sense. Maybe the one player who will be most important for the Komodos to improve upon last year’s numbers, by staying healthy, is shortstop Corey Seager. Rougned Odor was a sneaky good add to the infield as well, according to these projections. Like the Demigods though, the success of the Komodos this year will depend on what they get from their pitching staff. It was basically a one man show in their 2019 rotation with Walker Buehler being the only one to accumulate a positive PAR. While he is a capable ace, he’ll need some help this year. Unfortunately, two of their other top starters, Jose Quintana and Jake Odorizzi, may not be ready to go on Opening Day (definitely not in Quintana’s case). The rest of the rotation will be filled with steady, but not spectacular veterans. The bullpen looks to be very good though. Kirby Yates and Aroldis Chapman give the Komodos two of the top closers in the game. Brandon Workman was a nice addition to provide them with three guys likely to earn a lot of saves this season. Dating back to their days as the Gators, these two franchises haven’t finished higher than eighth place since 2010. With an exciting offense to lean on, this could be the year that changes.
Kelly’s Cougars
Category – Projected Rank (2019 Rank)
- Batting Average – 7th (2nd)
- Home Runs – 5th (2nd)
- Runs Batted In – 9th (4th)
- Runs Scored – 4th (3rd)
- Stolen Bases – 7th (6th)
- Earned Run Average – 6th (8th)
- WHIP Ratio – 6th (9th)
- Wins – 4th (9th)
- Saves – 4th (8th)
- Strike Outs – 5th (8th)
- Total Batting Points – 8th (2nd)
- Total Pitching Points – 5th (9th)
- Total Points – 6th (6th)
Summary:
Now we come to what might be the most interesting set of projections in this entire series. At first glance, a sixth place finish for a team that finished sixth last year doesn’t seem particularly notable. But look at that category breakdown. The Cougars surprised many be compiling the second most batting points in the league in 2019. They were unable to remain competitive though because their pitching staff really let them down. And now we are seeing the exact opposite in these projections. The Cougars are the first team covered in this series that appears to have a pretty strong pitching staff. Yet they are expected to be dragged down by the hitters that carried them a year ago. Two players who likely won’t be responsible for a fall in batting points are middle infielders Gleyber Torres and Trevor Story. Kris Bryant and Eugenio Suarez complete a pretty strong infield. Where they may be a bit lacking in star power is in the outfield. Tommy Pham has the highest PAR projection of that group, but that’s at a modest 1.1. This is a veteran group as well, so there might be limited upside. The pairing of Yadier Molina and Salvador Perez behind the plate should be pretty good though. The pitching staff should easily lead the Cougars to more pitching points this year. Lucas Giolito joins Blake Snell to form a great, and relatively young, top of the rotation. Sonny Gray experienced a career resurgence last year in Cincinnati. The Cougars will hope for the same from Madison Bumgarner who will now be pitching in Arizona. The bullpen is pretty intriguing as well. Alex Colome is the veteran closer in the group, but Nick Anderson is probably the most exciting member. The peripheral numbers indicate that he has a chance to become one of the next great relievers in the league. If Hansel Robles proves last year wasn’t a fluke, the Cougars could find themselves near the top of the league in saves. There is a lot to like about this Cougars roster. Some combination of last year’s offensive output and these healthy projections for the pitching staff would make the Cougars a darkhorse contender in 2020.