{"id":1151,"date":"2018-03-30T09:31:24","date_gmt":"2018-03-30T16:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1151"},"modified":"2018-03-30T09:31:24","modified_gmt":"2018-03-30T16:31:24","slug":"2018-season-preview-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1151","title":{"rendered":"2018 Season Preview:  Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id='p2IvvYXgSUJ4nLm65frEDA' class='gie-single' href='http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/861347170' target='_blank' style='color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;'>Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'p2IvvYXgSUJ4nLm65frEDA',sig:'1X2W1wrAisboYzHkpy7_VKjIh2KjJB19BzGq1HWRmgg=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'861347170',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><br \/>\nOpening Day is in the books.\u00a0 Matt Davidson is on pace to hit 486 home runs this season.\u00a0 That would be a record.\u00a0 It is great to have baseball back in our lives.\u00a0 This should be a fun opening weekend, paired with Easter celebrations.\u00a0 There are four teams remaining in this DTBL preview series.\u00a0 Today I&#8217;ll cover the teams projected to finish in third and fourth places.\u00a0 These particular teams have been among the most volatile squads in the league in recent years.\u00a0 Both have won championships in the past three seasons and both have finished near the bottom of the league as well.\u00a0 In fact, these were two of the three worst teams in the league just last season.\u00a0 So things would appear to be trending up, if these projections prove accurate.\u00a0 Unlike all of the previous six teams that I have covered, we have now reached the teams that appear to be\u00a0at least average in both batting and pitching.\u00a0 Here is a preview of a couple teams who figure to be in the championship hunt.<\/p>\n<h2>Jay&#8217;s Jackalope<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2017 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 8th (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211;\u00a01st (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211;\u00a01st\u00a0(3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 4th (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 10th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 6th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 7th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 8th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 1st (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 5th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 4th-T (3rd-T)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211; 5th-T (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 4th (8th)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>After a season away, Jay is back in charge of the Jackalope.\u00a0 While &#8217;17 was a little disappointing for the Jackalope on the whole, they did exert their power, leading the league in home runs.\u00a0 They are projected to repeat that this season, maintaining a strong offense supported by an improved pitching staff.\u00a0 They focused heavily on rebuilding the pitching staff in the draft, selecting a pair of starting pitchers named Luis, Severino and Castillo, in the first two rounds.\u00a0 Those two join Jake Arrieta, Sonny Gray and Gerrit Cole to make up a rotation that has the potential to be very good.\u00a0 While the bullpen looks to be pretty good as well, I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;m buying the first place in saves projection.\u00a0 Mark Melancon&#8217;s health is a big concern.\u00a0 Wade Davis is definitely the stud in the pen.\u00a0 Kelvin Herrera and Blake Parker could be nice additions, but they come with questions as well.\u00a0 Overall though, this does appear to be a much improved pitching staff.\u00a0 The Jackalope remain powerful with the bats.\u00a0 New Yankee and reigning DTBL MVP Giancarlo Stanton has the highest batting PAR projection in the league.\u00a0 Paul Goldschmidt is in the top five as well.\u00a0 Gary Sanchez is probably the best hitting catcher in the game right now.\u00a0 Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rendon are near the top among third basemen as well.\u00a0 An interesting addition to the slugging Jackalope is Rougned Odor.\u00a0 If he can rebound from a pretty poor &#8217;17 season, he&#8217;ll provide another big power boost to the Jackalope infield.\u00a0 Outside of Stanton, the outfield is less impressive.\u00a0 But on the whole, the Jackalope should have an above average offense.\u00a0 With an improved pitching staff, the Jackalope should finish much higher in the standings than they have the past couple seasons, and a championship drive is a possibility as well.<\/p>\n<h2>Kevin&#8217;s Kings<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2017 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 3rd (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211;\u00a02nd (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211;\u00a02nd (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211;\u00a03rd (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 6th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 5th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211;\u00a06th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211;\u00a07th (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 6th (7th)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211;\u00a03rd (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 1st (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211;\u00a05th-T (4th-T)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 3rd (9th)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>2017 was a disaster for the Kings.\u00a0 They nearly pulled off the embarrassing feat of going from first to worst, narrowly finishing ahead of the Gators for ninth place.\u00a0 Not to make too many excuses, but this team was completely decimated by injuries, especially to their hitters.\u00a0 The talent from the &#8217;16 championship squad is still mostly there, so it seems reasonable to expect better results this year, provided they have better luck on the health front.\u00a0 The projections show massive improvement on the offensive side of things.\u00a0 The Kings first three draft picks were all sluggers:\u00a0 Rhys Hoskins, Matt Olson and Evan Gattis.\u00a0 Gattis could be a particularly key addition, occupying a usually weak catcher slot while accumulating regular at bats as a DH for the Astros.\u00a0 Mookie Betts and Carlos Correa remain the Kings two best offensive players, but Hoskins has the potential to be right up there with them.\u00a0 Three outfielders who were hurt for significant portions of last season could be the key to the Kings success this year:\u00a0 A.J. Pollock, Adam Eaton and Ian Desmond.\u00a0 Pollock, in particular, is an elite fantasy player when healthy.\u00a0 The Kings are projected to accumulate the most batting points in the league.\u00a0 That may be a tad optimistic, but they certainly appear to be stronger than the &#8217;17 version.\u00a0 The pitching staff hasn&#8217;t changed much.\u00a0 Max Scherzer is still the undisputed ace.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see how Justin Verlander fares in a full season in Houston.\u00a0 Marcus Stroman, Jon Gray and Lance McCullers are three relatively young pitchers who could be poised for breakout campaigns.\u00a0 The bullpen might actually exceed these projections as 12th round pick Brad Boxberger was named the Diamondbacks closer to begin the season.\u00a0 He joins Sean Doolittle, Arodys Vizcaino and Jeurys Familia to give the Kings four closers to start the season.\u00a0 Nate Jones is waiting in the wings as well.\u00a0 It is reasonable to think that &#8217;17 was a blip on the radar for a team that has championship aspirations.\u00a0 The Kings have a very good chance of being in the pennant race this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Opening Day is in the books.\u00a0 Matt Davidson is on pace to hit 486 home runs this season.\u00a0 That would be a record.\u00a0 It is great to have baseball back in our lives.\u00a0 This should be a fun opening weekend, paired with Easter celebrations.\u00a0 There are four teams remaining in 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":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jackalope","category-kings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151","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=1151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1152,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1151\/revisions\/1152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}