{"id":1148,"date":"2018-03-29T09:25:49","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T16:25:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1148"},"modified":"2018-03-29T09:25:49","modified_gmt":"2018-03-29T16:25:49","slug":"2018-season-preview-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1148","title":{"rendered":"2018 Season Preview:  Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"8UQp8MFIT-NLhD02obHvXg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/864465388\" target=\"_blank\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\nwindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'8UQp8MFIT-NLhD02obHvXg',sig:'KdD2zg7ZNvjsoW1iEkrpL1kiR4f4StaYeeRX5huCwd4=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'864465388',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><script src=\"\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nHappy Opening Day!\u00a0 For the first time in recent history, all 30 teams were slated to start their seasons on the same day.\u00a0 Unfortunately, weather has already cost us a pair of games today.\u00a0 But we still have 13 games to look forward to this afternoon and evening.\u00a0 Before the season officially launches, let&#8217;s bang out a couple more of these 2018 DTBL team previews.\u00a0 As you will see when I post the full standings projections, only 11 points separate the six teams expected to finish between fourth and ninth places, so there isn&#8217;t too much of a difference between the pair of teams I&#8217;m previewing today and most of those I covered yesterday.\u00a0 Also, it wouldn&#8217;t be particularly surprising to see these teams in a pennant race this summer either.\u00a0 The teams projected to finish in fifth and sixth place are somewhat opposites of each other.\u00a0 One figures to have an elite hitting squad with questionable pitching while the other has one of the league&#8217;s best pitching staffs supported by hitters with below average projections.\u00a0 Here is a preview of two teams expected to finish in the middle of the standings.<\/p>\n<h2>David&#8217;s Darkhorses<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2017 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 1st (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211; 9th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211; 8th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 1st (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 5th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 7th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 9th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 10th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 4th (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 6th (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 4th-T (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211; 8th (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 6th (5th-T)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>The Darkhorses had a bit of an odd profile last year, particularly on the pitching side.\u00a0 They finished last in ERA, WHIP and wins, yet were third in strikeouts.\u00a0 They were the first team since 2012 to have an ERA over 4.00.\u00a0 But the impressive strikeout totals indicated that there was some talent on the staff.\u00a0 These projections still don&#8217;t love the pitching.\u00a0 A couple newcomers to the rotation, Jose Berrios and Aaron Sanchez, should fuel some optimism though.\u00a0 Sanchez is particularly interesting coming off an injury riddled season.\u00a0 He was the third overall pick in the draft just a year ago.\u00a0 Jacob deGrom remains the ace of the staff and Carlos Martinez fits nicely into the #2 slot.\u00a0 Brad Hand, Archie Bradley and Chris Devenski are newcomers to the bullpen, joining Corey Knebel to make up an impressive group of power arms.\u00a0 They may not have elite save numbers, but these guys will help prop up the Darkhorses strikeout numbers.\u00a0 The strength of the roster remains the offense.\u00a0 The core of the lineup is essentially the same as last year.\u00a0 Bryce Harper appears primed to have a MVP caliber season as he heads into free agency.\u00a0 Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain are now playing in homer friendly Milwaukee.\u00a0 George Springer helps round out quite possibly the best outfield in the league.\u00a0 The infield is pretty darn good too with Edwin Encarnacion, Justin Turner, Daniel Murphy and Alex Bregman.\u00a0 One key player who was a little disappointing a year ago is Xander Bogaerts.\u00a0 Expect much better numbers from him this season.\u00a0 The pieces are definitely in place for the Darkhorses to be a championship contender.\u00a0 How much improvement they get out of their rotation will be the determining factor.<\/p>\n<h2>Mike&#8217;s Moonshiners<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2017 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 10th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211; 4th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211; 6th (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 9th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 8th (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 3rd (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 3rd (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 1st (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 3rd (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 7th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 9th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211;\u00a02nd (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 5th (5th-T)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>According to these prognostications, no team looks more similar to the 2017 version of themselves than the Moonshiners.\u00a0 Almost across the board, they are expected to finish close to where they were a year ago.\u00a0 This means they once again have a below average hitting squad paired with one of the best pitching staffs in the league.\u00a0 Brian Dozier and Khris Davis are the lone Moonshiners with batting PAR projections over 4.0.\u00a0 They were their top two hitters a year ago as well.\u00a0 But this doesn&#8217;t mean improvements haven&#8217;t been made.\u00a0 All three of their top draft picks could give this offense a big boost:\u00a0 Rafael Devers, Ian Happ and Paul DeJong.\u00a0 Another guy to watch is Gregory Polanco who never really got on track last year after coming over in a trade with the Kings.\u00a0 Jake Lamb and Miguel Sano make up a formidable duo at the keystone corner.\u00a0 Batting average looks like the Moonshiners worst category.\u00a0 They are slated to finish nearly 10 points behind the next worst team.\u00a0 The pitching staff remains strong.\u00a0 Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray, Dallas Keuchel and Jeff Samardzija all receive PAR projections over 4.0 and the fifth holdover, Kyle Hendricks, is perennially underrated.\u00a0 Edwin Diaz, Roberto Osuna and Brandon Morrow give the Moonshiners three elite closers and a decent shot at leading the league in saves again this year.\u00a0 This is as deep of a pitching staff as any in the league.\u00a0 Last year was a nice step forward for the Moonshiners as they finished above seventh place for the first time since 2012.\u00a0 They are no doubt setting their sights higher this season.\u00a0 If their top hitting additions can outperform these projections, a reasonable possibility, they could be in the hunt for their first league championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Happy Opening Day!\u00a0 For the first time in recent history, all 30 teams were slated to start their seasons on the same day.\u00a0 Unfortunately, weather has already cost us a pair of games today.\u00a0 But we still have 13 games to look forward to this afternoon and evening.\u00a0 Before the season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-darkhorses","category-moonshiners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148","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=1148"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1150,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1148\/revisions\/1150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}