{"id":1051,"date":"2017-04-02T15:05:35","date_gmt":"2017-04-02T22:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1051"},"modified":"2017-04-02T15:05:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-02T22:05:35","slug":"2017-season-preview-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1051","title":{"rendered":"2017 Season Preview:  Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/624375796?et=eoNY8hThSFZI9jcU9t-sGA&#038;tld=com&#038;viewMoreLink=off&#038;sig=kpYfOdNbt1Gt7dibId6brXWwJtv-OSx-xR2PCBp4rj0=&#038;caption=true\" width=\"416\" height=\"276\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"display:inline-block;\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nAs I&#8217;m sitting here writing, the first official game of the 2017 season just ended with the Rays beating the Yankees. \u00a0And now the second game, featuring the Giants and Diamondbacks, is underway. \u00a0So, welcome to the 2017 season! \u00a0We still have four more teams to cover in our season preview series, however. \u00a0In this edition, we&#8217;ll take a look at the teams projected to finish in third and fourth places. \u00a0The teams that remain have all been regulars near the top of the standings in recent seasons, so there aren&#8217;t any big surprises here. \u00a0The pair of teams covered in this particular article were probably both slightly disappointed by their place of finish from 2016, but both will be serious contenders this season. \u00a0These teams are projected to finish within seven points of the top placed squad. \u00a0Here is a preview of the 2017 Naturals and Mavericks.<\/p>\n<h2>Nick&#8217;s Naturals<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2016 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 4th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211; 7th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211; 6th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 5th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 2nd\u00a0(4th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 6th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 6th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 5th (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 4th (5th-T)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 3rd\u00a0(6th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 4th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211; 4th (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 4th (6th)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>Believe it or not, the Naturals are the only team projected to finish in the top half of the league in both batting and pitching points. \u00a0So a strong argument could be made that this is the most balanced team in the league. \u00a0They have clearly improved an offense that was very disappointing a year ago. \u00a0They used their first three draft picks on exciting young infielders: \u00a0Yoan Moncada, Dansby Swanson and Jose Peraza. \u00a0Moncada is the big name of that trio, but the other two figure to be much more important pieces for this season. \u00a0Add those guys to an existing foundation of Miguel Cabrera, Joey Votto and Nolan Arenado and you&#8217;ve got yourself quite the infield. \u00a0The outfield isn&#8217;t bad either with Trea Turner, Andrew McCutchen and Justin Upton. \u00a0It would be hard to imagine the Naturals finishing in the bottom half in batting points again this year. \u00a0The pitching staff is pretty interesting as well. \u00a0It&#8217;s essentially the same core as last year, with Noah Syndergaard and Carlos Carrasco as the aces. \u00a0David Price&#8217;s health is certainly a major concern at the moment, however. \u00a0The saves projection may be a tad light because it doesn&#8217;t include free agent signing Blake Treinen. \u00a0I&#8217;m not sure how the Naturals wound up getting him being fifth in free agent priority, but they aren&#8217;t going to complain. \u00a0They don&#8217;t have a standout closer, but they ought to be able to rack up a bunch of saves with the five closers currently on the roster. \u00a0After two disappointing seasons in sixth place, the Naturals definitely look like a title contender for this season. \u00a0They are possibly the most complete team in the league.<\/p>\n<h2>Marc&#8217;s Mavericks<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2016 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 7th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211; 8th (1st-T)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211; 9th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 9th\u00a0(8th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 3rd\u00a0(3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 1st\u00a0(1st)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 1st\u00a0(1st)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 1st\u00a0(6th)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 5th (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 1st\u00a0(4th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 8th-T (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211; 1st\u00a0(1st)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 3rd\u00a0(4th)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>Another season, another year with the Mavericks having the best pitching staff in the league. \u00a0I could have just copied and pasted whatever I wrote in this section about the Mavericks pitchers last year, because this is almost literally the exact same staff. \u00a0The gist: \u00a0they are good. \u00a0They are projected to blow away the rest of the league in ERA, WHIP and strikeouts. \u00a0Not surprising with a rotation led by Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish and Stephen Strasburg. \u00a0They even managed to reacquire a couple hurlers who they cut a couple months ago: \u00a0Matt Harvey and Taijuan Walker. \u00a0The newcomers to the rotation are Kenta Maeda and Sean Manaea, who may seem like unnecessary luxuries. \u00a0But keep in mind that one of the big reasons why the Mavericks were unable to win the championship last year is because they suffered injuries to almost all of the previously mentioned pitchers. \u00a0This year, they are loaded with depth in case that happens again. \u00a0The bullpen is borderline unfair. \u00a0Only two closers: \u00a0Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen, but Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances are such reliable strikeout machines that they hold significant value as setup men. \u00a0It would be hard to imagine the Mavericks not regaining the top spot in the league in strikeouts. \u00a0There are questions on offense, however. \u00a0These projections don&#8217;t show a lot of promise beyond Mike Trout and Manny Machado. \u00a0The Mavericks don&#8217;t need a great offense to win this league, but they will need a couple other hitters to have breakout years. \u00a0Andrew Benintendi, Byron Buxton, Addison Russell, Nomar Mazara and Tim Anderson are all candidates to do just that. \u00a0No matter what happens with the bats, this will be a championship contender on the strength of the league&#8217;s best pitching staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I&#8217;m sitting here writing, the first official game of the 2017 season just ended with the Rays beating the Yankees. \u00a0And now the second game, featuring the Giants and Diamondbacks, is underway. \u00a0So, welcome to the 2017 season! \u00a0We still have four more teams to cover in our season preview series, however. \u00a0In this [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mavericks","category-naturals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}