N important part of any enthusiast’s preparation for baseball’s regular season is managing and creating expectations. Not just from the typical euphemistic feeling of”preparing oneself for collapse” (though certainly baseball involves a lot of failure) but also in the sense of figuring out what every team is capable of accomplishing. An 85-win year and third-place finish would be a disaster for the Red Sox, for instance, but it’d be the best year the Cincinnati Reds have managed in the greater part of a decade.
Expectations come from external means, like projections systems being bullish on the Yankees or down on the A’s this season, or through a fast glance at a team’s roster construction, which might show that the Padres or even Braves could overachieve thanks for their glut of young talent. Additionally, it is possible to guess in a group’s confidence through the motions it made in the offseason–the Phillies, after falling short, stuffed two shopping carts at the supermarket –or throughout the rhetoric of its GM, director, or gamers. The clues are everywhere. So let us rank all 30 teams based on how good they need to be this season.
Houston Astros
Houston won 103 games last year and its roster may be even better in 2019. The Astros lost Charlie Morton and (probably) Dallas Keuchel to free agency this offseason, plus Lance McCullers Jr. into Tommy John, however somewhat incredibly have the pitching depth to make up 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 flaws: Catcher Robinson Chirinos (.222/ / .338/.419 past year) will probably be an improvement on Brian McCann (.212/ / .301/.339 at 2018), and if nothing else watching him squat 150 times a game will not make you wince and maintain your knees. The Astros went out and got Michael Brantley to play left field, in which they had been quietly pretty bad last year; part of the reason behind this was Kyle Tucker, their top offensive prospect, that drew comparisons to Ted Williams in spring training last year but hit .141/.236/.203 at 72 big league plate appearances. Whether he is coming off the bench, DHing, or displacing Josh Reddick in right field during the season, Tucker should provide more (any) value in 2019, as will Carlos Correa, who performed a back injury in the second half and hit just .180/.261/.256 after the break. Correa posted back-to-back six-win seasons in 2016 and 2017, and with six extra-base hits in 42 preseason plate looks, he looks far more comfortable than he did six months ago.
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