{"id":1231,"date":"2019-03-27T19:09:43","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T02:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1231"},"modified":"2019-03-27T19:09:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T02:09:43","slug":"2019-season-preview-part-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/?p=1231","title":{"rendered":"2019 Season Preview:  Part III"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a id=\"FUR6EBFfTGlcH68_oZK9TA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1031774442\" 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:'FUR6EBFfTGlcH68_oZK9TA',sig:'7psNqjBj6if3XrsAYtCVnEGwSgUg-nm_mHXUGphcohs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1031774442',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 Eve!\u00a0 Yeah, there are already a couple games in the books, but things get started for real tomorrow.\u00a0 I, for one, can not wait!\u00a0 As we move into the top half of the projected standings, we&#8217;ve already seen a lot of surprises.\u00a0 This third part of the preview series will cover a pair of teams that are similar in terms of projected strength in 2019, but are otherwise quite different in composition, strengths and weaknesses.\u00a0 Finishing close in the standings wouldn&#8217;t be all that strange though, considering they finished last season with identical point totals.\u00a0 I&#8217;m leaving three teams for the final part of this series because these projections have those three comfortably ahead of the pair I&#8217;m about to cover.\u00a0 Look for that sometime this weekend.\u00a0 In the meantime, here are a couple teams projected to finish near the middle of the pack this season.<\/p>\n<h2>Mike&#8217;s Moonshiners<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2018 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 10th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211; 3rd (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211;\u00a03rd (6th-T)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211; 7th (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 9th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 4th (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211;\u00a05th (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211;\u00a06th\u00a0(6th-T)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211;\u00a01st (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 8th (5th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 8th-T (8th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211;\u00a04th-T (4th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 5th (6th-T)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps no team looks more like the 2018 version of itself than the Moonshiners.\u00a0 These projections show them gaining a few points in RBIs, dropping a few in strikeouts, but otherwise staying almost exactly the same.\u00a0 There is a pretty solid explanation for that.\u00a0 The core of players who they will be counting on to carry them this season hasn&#8217;t changed.\u00a0 Several of their newest additions are future bets, like first round pick Shohei Ohtani, who will moonlight as a hitter this season before likely taking over as their staff ace next year.\u00a0 One alarming issue the Moonshiners have heading into the season is a slew of injuries.\u00a0 Most of those were known before these projections were generated though, so that in and of itself isn&#8217;t a reason to doubt the projections.\u00a0 Last year, the Moonshiners obliterated the league record for worst team batting average, hitting just .231, 18 points behind the next worst mark (also the Moonshiners, 2016).\u00a0 They are projected to hit .252 this year, which is still worst in the league, but a huge improvement.\u00a0 For a while now, they have lacked huge star power on the offense.\u00a0 That still appears to be the case as Ohtani has the second highest batting PAR projection on the team, trailing only Khris Davis.\u00a0 But Michael Conforto and Aaron Hicks are two underrated outfielders who could give them a nice boost this season.\u00a0 The pitching staff is basically the same as last year.\u00a0 It is a solid, yet unspectacular group.\u00a0 All five likely members of their Opening Day rotation are above average pitchers:\u00a0 Zack Greinke, German Marquez, Robbie Ray, Kyle Hendricks and Charlie Morton.\u00a0 Marquez was the big surprise of the group last season as he was the first especially valuable Rockies pitcher in quite some time.\u00a0 The bullpen is very good as well, currently projected to lead the league in saves.\u00a0 Edwin Diaz will have a hard time duplicating his 57 saves from a year ago, but is still arguably the best closer in baseball.\u00a0 Roberto Osuna is in the upper echelon as well.\u00a0 The Moonshiners seem to be focused on building a solid core for the future, using early draft picks on payers like Ohtani and Kyle Tucker.\u00a0 But they are in a position to contend should a few guys take big steps forward this season.<\/p>\n<h2>Marc&#8217;s Mavericks<\/h2>\n<p>Category &#8211; Projected Rank (2018 Rank)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Batting Average &#8211; 2nd (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Home Runs &#8211;\u00a01st (1st)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Batted In &#8211;\u00a01st\u00a0(4th)<\/li>\n<li>Runs Scored &#8211;\u00a02nd (3rd)<\/li>\n<li>Stolen Bases &#8211; 10th (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>Earned Run Average &#8211; 6th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>WHIP Ratio &#8211; 8th (9th)<\/li>\n<li>Wins &#8211; 8th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Saves &#8211; 10th (6th)<\/li>\n<li>Strike Outs &#8211; 4th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Batting Points &#8211; 1st (2nd)<\/li>\n<li>Total Pitching Points &#8211; 8th (10th)<\/li>\n<li>Total Points &#8211; 4th (6th-T)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Summary:<\/p>\n<p>This section requires a whole assortment of caveats.\u00a0 In fact, I wouldn&#8217;t pay much attention to the numbers above if I were you.\u00a0 No team is harder to pin down on expectations for 2019.\u00a0 Last season, the Mavericks pitching staff was absolutely ravaged by injuries.\u00a0 Every one of their key starters missed significant time.\u00a0 What was once the best pitching staff in the league, by far, wound up finishing dead last in pitching points in 2018.\u00a0 In what I assume was an effort to avoid a repeat of that, the Mavericks have loaded their bench with pitching depth.\u00a0 Their post-draft roster consisted of the minimum 14 batters and a league high 14 pitchers.\u00a0 Since these projections take all 28 players into account, it is safe to assume that the pitching projections are hurt with more pitchers diluting the numbers of their best guys.\u00a0 On the flip side, they have far less dilution of the offensive numbers compared to most teams.\u00a0 So the overall point projection for the Mavericks is probably fair.\u00a0 But I&#8217;d tack on a handful of pitching points and shave off a few from the batting side of the ledger.\u00a0 One thing is certain:\u00a0 the Mavericks will mash.\u00a0 No team has a larger collection of superstar sluggers.\u00a0 A draft day trade to acquire Juan Soto gives them an envious outfield trio of Soto, Mike Trout and Aaron Judge, all of whom could be MVP candidates.\u00a0 The infield isn&#8217;t bad either, especially with Manny Machado, Javy Baez and Ozzie Albies up the middle.\u00a0 The only offensive weakness is stolen bases, where they are projected to finish last.\u00a0 The Mavericks fortunes this season will come down to pitching.\u00a0 As previously stated, the have a large stable of pitchers to turn to in the event that their starters can&#8217;t stay healthy again.\u00a0 But ideally, they will be able to turn to Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Yu Darvish and Jack Flaherty to easily smash last year&#8217;s numbers as well as these projections.\u00a0 The bullpen is not the dominant force it used to be, but with Kenley Jansen and Jose Leclerc, I&#8217;d say there is a good chance they won&#8217;t finish last in saves as they are projected here.\u00a0 The Mavericks are looking to bounce back from their worst finish since 2011.\u00a0 They have an excellent chance to do that.\u00a0 But trying to use these projections to determine their fate may be a losing cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Happy Opening Day Eve!\u00a0 Yeah, there are already a couple games in the books, but things get started for real tomorrow.\u00a0 I, for one, can not wait!\u00a0 As we move into the top half of the projected standings, we&#8217;ve already seen a lot of surprises.\u00a0 This third part of the preview [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mavericks","category-moonshiners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231","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=1231"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1233,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1231\/revisions\/1233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dreamteambaseball.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}