N important part of any enthusiast’s preparation for baseball’s regular season is managing and creating expectations. Not only from the normal euphemistic feeling of”preparing yourself for failure” (though certainly baseball involves a whole lot of failure) but also in the sense of figuring out what each group is capable of accomplishing. An 85-win season and third-place finish would be a tragedy for the Red Sox, for instance, but it’d be the best season the Cincinnati Reds have handled in the greater part of a decade.
Expectations come from outside means, such as projections systems being bullish on the Yankees or down on the A’s this season, or through a quick glance at a team’s roster construction, which might show the Padres or even Braves could overachieve thanks for their glut of youthful talent. It’s also possible to guess at a group’s confidence via the motions it made in the offseason–the Phillies, after falling short, filled two shopping carts at the supermarket this winter–or through the rhetoric of its own GM, director, or gamers. The clues are everywhere. So let’s position 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 even better in 2019. The Astros lost Charlie Morton and (probably) Dallas Keuchel to free agency this offseason, also Lance McCullers Jr. into Tommy John, however 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 amounts to be a competent replacement.
Houston also covered up its few weaknesses: Catcher Robinson Chirinos (.222/ / .338/.419 past year) will be an improvement on Brian McCann (.212/.301/.339 in 2018), and when nothing else watching him squat 150 times a game won’t make you wince and maintain your knees. The Astros also went outside and got Michael Brantley to play left field, where they had been quietly pretty awful last season; part of the reason for this was Kyle Tucker, their best offensive potential, who attracted comparisons to Ted Williams in spring training last season but struck .141/.236/.203 at 72 enormous league plate appearances. Whether he is coming off the bench, DHing, or displacing Josh Reddick in appropriate field throughout the season, Tucker should provide more (any) value in 2019, as will Carlos Correa, who played a back injury in the second half and hit only .180/.261/.256 following the break. Correa posted back-to-back six-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, and also six extra-base hits in 42 preseason plate appearances, he looks a lot more comfortable than he did six months ago.
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