Last year, the 2014 season previews predicted two teams would stand out above the rest. That’s exactly what happened, but not the two that had been projected to do so (Kings and Mavericks). It was the Naturals and Demigods who blew away the rest of the league en route to record setting finishes, with the Naturals squeaking out the title by 2 1/2 points. This year figures to be much different with a lot more teams projected to be in the championship mix. In part, that is because no one team looks overwhelmingly strong on paper. Even the two teams who will be covered in this final part of the 2015 season preview have a few noticeable weaknesses. But what makes these teams appear to be the top title contenders is that even those weaknesses still put them above average in both hitting and pitching, the only two teams that can say that. These were two of the top three finishers a year ago, so it is not surprising to see them among the favorites again in 2015. Here are the projected top two title contenders.
Dom’s Demigods
Category – Projected Rank (2014 Rank)
- Batting Average – 2nd (2nd)
- Home Runs – 5th (4th-T)
- Runs Batted In – 2nd (1st)
- Runs Scored – 3rd (3rd)
- Stolen Bases – 4th-T (3rd)
- Earned Run Average – 6th (1st)
- WHIP Ratio – 6th (2nd)
- Wins – 3rd (1st)
- Saves – 6th (5th)
- Strike Outs – 4th (1st)
- Total Batting Points – 3rd (2nd)
- Total Pitching Points – 4th (1st)
- Total Points – 2nd (2nd)
Summary:
The Demigods were a surprise title contender a year ago, just barely missing out on their first league championship. But this year, they won’t catch anyone by surprise. This is the most complete team in the league. The only thing keeping them from being the overall favorite is that their strength from a year ago, their rotation, does not appear to be nearly as strong this year. Losing Yu Darvish to a torn UCL in spring training was a terrible blow to what was the best pitching staff in the league a year ago. Also, Jose Fernandez doesn’t figure to return to action until mid-season either. That still leaves them with an impressive trio of Corey Kluber, Johnny Cueto and Cole Hamels. But they are going to need some great performances from other hurlers to keep up with the team below. The bullpen is only average, but shouldn’t kill them. The good news is the offense looks very strong again this year. All of the pieces seem to fit and they do not have an obvious weakness among their everyday players. Jose Altuve and Carlos Gomez were two of the best players in the league last year. If Dustin Pedroia and Evan Longoria can bounce back from disappointing ’14 campaigns, they could challenge for the best offense in the league. It is the overall strength of both the hitting and pitching that makes the Demigods one of the clear favorites this year. They came oh so close to their first championship last year. Perhaps this will be the year instead.
Marc’s Mavericks
Category – Projected Rank (2014 Rank)
- Batting Average – 9th (4th)
- Home Runs – 1st (1st)
- Runs Batted In – 4th (3rd)
- Runs Scored – 8th (4th)
- Stolen Bases – 7th (8th)
- Earned Run Average – 1st (4th)
- WHIP Ratio – 1st (4th)
- Wins – 5th (4th)
- Saves – 1st (6th-T)
- Strike Outs – 1st (2nd)
- Total Batting Points – 5th (3rd)
- Total Pitching Points – 1st (3rd)
- Total Points – 1st (3rd)
Summary:
It is hard to know what to make of the Mavericks’ 2014 season. On one hand, they were projected to finish near the top of the league after just barely missing out on a title in ’13 with a historically great pitching staff. But on the other, it seemed they weren’t likely to duplicate that kind of season without their phenom pitcher Matt Harvey. So their third place finish was pretty good, but it was the first time they weren’t in the title hunt until the final days of the season since 2011. Now Harvey is back and they appear to once again have one of the strongest pitching staffs this league has ever seen. Harvey, Clayton Kershaw and Stephen Strasburg on the same team seems unfair. These projections have them winning the league in four of the five pitching categories, and nobody else is close in any of the four. In addition to the ridiculously loaded rotation, they have the scariest collection of bullpen arms in the league too. They traded for Aroldis Chapman and drafted Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller to join Cody Allen and Kenley Jansen. Those guys all strike out hitters at such high rates that their strikeout totals look like those of starting pitchers. If they stay even semi healthy, it would be hard to envision any other team coming close to them in strikeouts. ERA and WHIP are less predictable, but they are heavy favorites there too. Now for the bad news. Their offense doesn’t appear to be elite. Mike Trout is though, and he is on their roster. So if he can get some help from the supporting cast, they ought to be good enough in the hitting categories to compliment their insane pitching staff on their way to the top of the standings. Hard to believe it has been nine years since their last title, but there have been a bunch of close calls since then. This looks like it could be the year the Mavericks win their third league title.
Here are the full projected standings and team stat totals. As I have hinted at throughout these previews, these projections show a very tight race from top to bottom. Only the Demigods are projected for 30+ points in both batting and pitching, while every team but the Gators has 25+ points in one or the other. So the Mavericks and Demigods appear to be a little bit better than the next six teams. But it wouldn’t take much for almost any team to get into the mix. As we saw last year, these projections are not to be trusted. It should be a great season.