N important part of any fan’s preparation for baseball’s regular season is creating and managing expectations. Not just in the typical euphemistic feeling of”preparing yourself for collapse” (though certainly baseball entails a lot of failure) but also in the sense of figuring out what each team is capable of accomplishing. An 85-win season and third-place finish would be a tragedy for the Red Sox, for example, but it would be the best season the Cincinnati Reds have handled in the better part of a couple of years.
Expectations come from outside means, such as projections being bullish on the Yankees or down to the A’s this year, or via a quick glance at a group’s roster structure, which might show the Padres or even Braves could overachieve thanks for their glut of young talent. Additionally, it is possible to imagine in a group’s confidence via the moves it created in the offseason–the Phillies, after falling short, stuffed two shopping carts at the supermarket –or throughout the rhetoric of its own GM, manager, or players. The clues are everywhere. So let’s rank all 30 teams based on how good they need to be this year.
Houston Astros
Houston won 103 games last year and its own roster may be better in 2019. The Astros lost Charlie Morton and (probably) Dallas Keuchel to free agency this offseason, also Lance McCullers Jr. into Tommy John, but marginally incredibly have the pitching depth to compensate for it. Utilityman Marwin Gonz??lez pulled up stakes and headed to Minnesota, but Aledmys D??az figures to be a competent replacement.
Houston also covered up its few weaknesses: Catcher Robinson Chirinos (.222/.338/.419 last year) will be an improvement on Brian McCann (.212/ / .301/.339 in 2018), and if nothing else viewing him squat 150 times each game will not make you wince and maintain your knees. The Astros also went out and got Michael Brantley to play left field, where they had been quietly pretty bad last season; part of the reason for that has been Kyle Tucker, their best offensive prospect, who attracted comparisons to Ted Williams in spring training last season but hit .141/.236/.203 at 72 enormous league plate appearances. Whether he is coming from the bench, DHing, or displacing Josh Reddick in right field throughout the summer, Tucker should supply more (any) value in 2019, as will Carlos Correa, who performed a back injury in the second half and struck only .180/.261/.256 after the break. Correa posted back-to-back six-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, and also six extra-base strikes in 42 preseason plate appearances, he seems far more comfortable than he did six months ago.
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