2019 ODC Power Rankings
Jan 24, 2019 18:34:38 GMT -5
Tigers GM (Alex), Astros GM (Max), and 4 more like this
Post by Mets GM (Jack) on Jan 24, 2019 18:34:38 GMT -5
Write these teams off
30: Boston Red Sox (Last year’s finish: 30th)
Key adds: Rosario, Moncada
Losses: nothing that mattered
Pretty self explanatory, not a lot here, improved, still bad, this is the only tanking team now really, and Will should likely end up picking 19th/20th
29: Washington Nationals(Last years finish: 14th)
Adds: Span, Granderson, Lynn
Losses: Harper, Bauer, Puig
Still has some players to field a lineup and could beat any of the bottom 3-4 teams in the NL on a given week, but WSH also has to face a 2nd place schedule from the AL, which along with the huge losses that can’t be replaced by granderson, span and lynn, will undoubtedly leave this team selling off and rebuilding.
28: Baltimore Orioles (Last years finish: Playoffs, Divisional round)
Adds: Nothing great
Losses: Altuve, Chapman, Votto, etc
Jeff did fill out a full lineup, but it’s not nearly as talented as the one he had built up for years and only salvaged 1 AL championship, I think he’ll stay afloat until he heads off to camp twinkle toes and then his team will fall off the map
27: Miami Marlins (Last years finish: 25th)
Adds: Cespedes, Cueto
Losses: Buehler
Kevin’s clearly playing for 2020 and I doubt he’ll finish this low as he’ll field a full team, he just doesn’t have a lot of talent on the roster, could finish several spots higher than this as he builds his team throughout the season.
Not Real Threats, Kind of rebuilding, but owners that have mostly only known winning in here so who knows
26: Cleveland Indians (Last year’s finish: 26th)
Adds: Bruce, Markakis, Anibal Sanchez
Losses: Nothing I can think of
Psych’s obviously still building back up and will probably sell off for spects and picks at some point, but hey if bruce, markakis, sanchez and the rest of these journeyman perform really well, April could be a fun month.
25: Milwaukee Brewers (Last Year’s finish as Royals: 22nd)
Adds: Franco
Losses: Moncada
Natty’s focused on Rbrewers and the NLC is deadly this year, he does have some talent on the roster, but he’ll probably look to turn it over for specs at some point this year. The Royals-Brewers swap seems like a lateral move for both sides, which is a good thing for the league.
24: Colorado Rockies (Last year’s finish: 29th)
Adds: Zunino, Ozuna, Wacha, Harvey
Losses: nothing
Feels like I’ve seen this movie before. New COL owner joins kinda late, overpays a bunch of free agents, misses the playoffs and bolts once it blows up in his face. The difference in this story is that Steve’s team doesn’t have the luck of Denvermilam, when he played in a very weak NL. Steve’s team while improved, isn’t near good enough in the NL this season and he’ll probably sell off his players midway through the year once they can be traded.
23: Oakland A’s(Last year’s finish as Giants: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Brandon Belt
Losses: Ozuna, Scherzer, Wood, etc
Paul did manage to bring back Darvish and Calhoun and I doubt he’ll finish as low as 25. That said, I don’t think it will matter, it’s pretty clear he’s in a full rebuild and won’t be playing for the 2019 season. He has plenty of 6’s that I don’t think will be on his team for much longer, but he’s also difficult to trade with so they could stand the whole year.
22: Kansas City Royals (Last year’s finish as brewers, 24th)
Adds: Braun, Barreto
Losses: Nothing great
Russi could be in much better spot a year from now, but at this point still has to build up some roster depth and get some premier talent, Barreto could be a key cog for him. For 2019 it’s best for Russi and Psych both to wait out MIN,CHW, and DET.
21: Arizona Diamondbacks (Last year’s finish: 20th)
Key Losses: Arenado, Gregorius, Degrom, etc.
Adds: prospects
Hemmons is rebuilding and will likely go for picks and prospects all season, but he has a ton of pitching depth, and if he swallows his pride and puts together a couple trades and fills out the roster, he could have a fairly gritty team and honestly, the NLW crown wouldn’t be impossible with paul gone and Noah taking a step back. Thought about putting him in the next group
Could be threats if things break REALLY well
20: LA Angels (Last year’s finish, 28th)
Adds: Ramirez, Polanco, Chapman
Losses: Nothing Major
Some people, at least Will, sees this roster as a contender, I see a couple difference makers and not much else. John got squeezed out in FA which hurt, and his pitching needs major improvements. I think he should be happy with the ranking of 20th, Which is a LONG way from 28th.
19: Texas Rangers (Last Year’s finish: 23rd)
Adds: Jones, Teheran, Ross
Losses: Segura? Not sure
Bill seems to refuse to rebuild, he kind of did last year, but didn’t really sell off that much and has much of the same players. He does have a lot of depth so that’s helpful but he won’t be good enough to compete with SEA and HOU in the west. Another ok year for TEX.
18: Tampa Bay Rays (Last Year’s Finish: 11th)
Adds: Didi, Kinsler, Melancon
Losses: Pederson, Castro, Hamilton, etc.
Forbz is in a rebuild and his team doesn’t have a lot of cap flexibility or depth, along with that Didi is out for part of the season, and he has no backup, and his OF’s only play CF. The AL East is also terrible and Justin and Sanders are the only competition, it’s not unheard of for Forbz to flip his team upside down in 2 months and suddenly be in the drivers seat for the ALE.
17: Atlanta Braves (Last Year’s Finish: 21st)
Adds: Hernandez, Eovaldi
Losses: Lynn, Odorizzi
Wood’s got a full team and it is talented and he’s got some studs from the minors on the way, he’s definitely taking a step forward, that said he’s mostly the same team as last year that finished 21st overall in the worst division in the league. I see the glass half empty.
16: LA Dodgers (Last year’s Finish:19th)
Adds: Kershaw, Mccutcheon, Murphy
Losses: Merrifield
Jake made some nice moves, has a top heavy team with a lot of young depth, and is definitely a team worth watching in July and August being that his roster is mostly young or locked up long term he probably will stick around to the end and not sell off. The main problem with this team is that most of the depth is worthless, if you took away the top 7-8 players from this team, The Waiver Wire could match up pretty well, which wouldn’t be a problem if JT didn’t switch into the division.
15:Toronto Blue Jays (Last Years Finish: 18th)
Adds: Castro, Scherzer, Brantley
Losses: Franco?
Sanders team is better than I give credit for, but the only way to the playoffs is through the ALE, all the ALWC spots are going to the Central and West, Which is why he gets 15th. Sanders making the playoffs is like Bonds and Clemens making the Hall, gets a couple more votes every year, but it still seems unlikely that it’s going to happen eventually. Sanders main issues are on offense. He only has 1 OF that matters in Brantley, and Bogaerts is overrated, I doubt he bests Justin, but he’ll probably make an improvement and be close to making the playoffs for the first time.
Good teams and a good strategy, will compete for playoffs, but will come up short
14: New York Yankees (Last Year’s Finish: 17th)
Adds:Gallo, Renfroe, Maeda
Losses: Nothing special
With each passing season for 5 to 6 years now Justin has gotten a little bit better. This season is his first opportunity to make a large leap, not because he’s built a good team, but because Jeff and Forbz have decided to rebuild. He does have a DEEP team with mostly good players, I feel like he kind of blew this offseason because he had the opportunity to put together a dominant team with all of his spects and picks, unfortunately at the end of the day it’s really nothing special and if he does win the ALE by default then he’ll have a tough time getting past the divisional round.
13: San Francisco Giants (15th)
Adds/Losses: pretty much the whole team, Khris Davis if he keeps him
JT isn’t going to win on talent, not that his team is terrible, but it lacks the cornerstones of the other NL Contenders, The way JT will win will be to take advantage of the many lackadaisical NL owners by throwing so many pitchers at them they’ll assume he cheated. Obviously with the new rule comes some changes, but it arguably works in his favor because whenever he has an easy matchup coming after a tough one, he’ll be able to steal a good bit of cats with his depth. Unfortunately JT’s strategy came up short last year and he sold off in late july/august and I imagine the same will happen this year as the NL is better now.
12: Pittsburgh Pirates (Last year’s finish: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Gordon, Encarnacion
Losses: Arenado, Verlander
Tough one right here, Caleb’s in a tough spot, he’s got a lot of expiring contracts and his team just isn’t as talented or as deep as it was last year when he was the 1 seed in the NL, he also no longer has the prospect ammunition to make a big move. It doesn’t help that the NLC is a hell of a division this season. Still very strong top heavy team and is definitely still a contender in the NL. At the end of the day though it’s a lot like PAul’s team from last year, with the difference being that paul had great Pitching and Pirates just doesn’t have the depth.
Likely won’t perform to the talent on the roster
11: Chicago Cubs (Last year’s finish: Playoffs: NL Championship round)
Adds: Not that I know of
Losses: I’m forgetting if he lost anyone
Trout, Sale, Odor, Rizzo, Sanchez, Turner. Etc, looks like a championship contender at first glance doesn’t it? Not so fast, Dale hasn’t made any trades, he’s probably posted his block which includes Kolby Allard, Kyler Murray, and all of his picks 100 times this offseason, with no bites (Luckily for Dale, I’ll get to that pick in a minute). As of today he’ll go into the season with several holes on the roster and will rely heavily on the team that while great last year, hasn’t improved. Reds and Cardinals have made vast improvements and I think both will jump CHC. Half of the league has never seen the cubs miss the playoffs, but after years of trying to get Psych’s team it’s 2nd championship and coming up just short, Dale will wind up picking 1st overall in the 2020 draft.
One of these 10 teams will win the 2019 championship
10: St Louis Cardinals (Last year’s finish: 13th)
Adds: Yelich, Arenado, Duffy
Losses: Nothing major
After years of building up the farm, Matt finally had some big time moves fall into his lap as he nabbed Acuna and Yelich toward the end of last season, then he stole Arenado from his division rival in the offseason, He’s still got some holes and needs some work on the pitching, but I think he’ll clean that up before we start. Hard to believe that STL was 6th in the NL last year and 13th overall, and it’s even harder to believe he won’t be much better this time around.
9: Philadelphia Phillies (Last Year’s Finish: 27th)
Adds: Bum, Cain, Merrifield, Seager, Morton, Taillon, Hill, Herrera, etc
Losses: Nothing
Much to my chagrin Kory is easily the most improved team in the league, he’s got a lot of talent all around, and he’s really just getting started as he’s still got loads of talent in the minors and I’m sure he’s still stockpiled on picks, lot of cap space as well so he’ll be a player for a lot of IFA’s, this is definitely an upcoming premier team with no bad contracts, and It’s dangerous this year because of the still weak NLE combined with the last place schedule.[/font]
8: San Diego Padres
Adds/Losses: Lot of turnover
Only 2 owners have a legitimate chance to come out of the 2019 season with 2 league championships. Noah is one of them and he has a great team and should enter the playoffs as the #1 seed in the NL. What I like about his team is that there aren’t many holes on the roster and it has the most potential of any team in the league, what I don’t like is that a lot of the players are coming off injury, some of the signings seemed desperate (Hicks, Puig, Wood), and the BP is definitely a shortcoming. Noah has a lot of cap space and some spects to maneuver himself into better position as the season moves on though, So he’s definitely a contender.
7: Cincinnati Reds (Last year’s finish: 16th)
Adds: Altuve, Moustakas
Losses: Polanco
IF and this is a huge IF, but IF Cody checks in regularly and makes a couple moves, he’s in the driver seat in the NL. Strong team all around and the biggest war chest of any contender with all of his picks and 8 top 100 prospects. Picking up Altuve was a huge move for him this offseason. And can’t forget that he dealt with a lot of injuries last season, which when you don’t check your lineup regularly will end up costing you several matchups. Like I said at the beginning IF he checks in he’s the best in the NL, if he doesn’t, then he’ll be 4th place in the NLC, We’ll have a new Reds by July and by this time 2 years from now, Reds will be back where Rich had them before Cody joined. Irrelevant.
6: Minnesota Twins (Last year’s finish: Playoffs AL Championship round)
Adds: Yadi, Ottavino
Losses: Kershaw, Cruz
I’ve got Patty at 6th overall, unfortunately that means he’ll miss the playoffs. He’s got a great team with Machado, Turner, Torres, etc. but he’s a ways off of Mike and Alex, and they have more roster flexibility than he does. I’m sure he’ll compete for the 2nd wild card with the 2nd place ALW team, but he’d probably 3rd in there as well, he’s got depth but it appears he’ll have to rely to heavily on production from unlikely sources to get back to where he was last season.
5: Houston Astros (Last years finish: League Runner up)
Adds: Votto, Keuchel
Losses: Gordon, Bumgarner
Feels like Max lost a good bit this offseason, he did add votto(overpaid for him), and snagged estrada and shaw for cheap. I still think any team with Betts, Judge, Baez and Max’s depth will compete for a championship, but he could wind up in a teardown next offseason as he stands to lose a few stars and have 134M in salaries, obs, and drops. Still, if I’m Max it’s all or nothing this season, waited too long to compete to sell out after 1 season, can always rebuild around Judge when the time comes.
4: Seattle Mariners
Adds: Rendon, Pomeranz, Roark
Losses: Brantley, Anibal
Dave’s depth players are going to need to take a step forward for him to finish as high as i think he will, but his team appears to be very well balanced with enough stars to win the division, he has ways of gaining a lot more flexibility than max and isn’t going to be nearly as far off as he was last season. Probably a little generous with #4, but he just needs a little more luck as he was 8th in roto stats last season.
3: New York Mets (Last year’s finish: World Champs)
Adds: Harper, Bauer, Corbin, Allen, Kikuchi, Pederson
Losses: Braun, Foltynewicz, Herrera
Let me use this paragraph to advocate that I would like to host Astros(1st in ALW) in week 1 so Max can enjoy the ring ceremony. Don’t know if I’ll be 3rd overall, but I think I upgraded from a 165 win team to a 175 win team, which will leave me in the range of 3rd-6th. Looking forward to defending the title.
2: Chicago White Sox (Last years finish: Playoffs Wild Card Round)
Adds: Foltynewicz, Cruz
Losses: Cesar Hernandez
Not Deep, but Loaded offensively and has premier pitchers, assuming he’ll make some WW plays with his 4.5M he should be able to fill out his roster well enough to be in it at the end for the top seed in the AL. adding Cruz and WS Champion Folty to his roster should surely keep him where he was, I think Lowrie and Asdrubal are very underappreciated MIF’s and should continue to be useful.
1: Detroit Tigers (last years finish: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Verlander, Gennett, Myers, Blackmon, Degrom
Losses: Nothing great
Detroit’s always competitive and really took advantage of his stockpile of prospects this year and went all in on Degrom, Verlander and Blackmon. He also filled out his roster very nicely with minor signings that went unnoticed. No real holes on the roster and plenty of depth as well. Tigers has been trying to break through for a years but has been stymied by CHW and MIN, I think this is the year that he’s well out in front of both and takes the AL #1 seed. Congratulations to the first offseason champion in the post Brynasty era.
5 Bold Takes:
1. Cubs and Pirates both miss playoffs, and finish behind SFG and LAD in NL standings
2. Last year 3 teams won 190 cats (Astros, Twins, White Sox) This year just one (Tigers)
3. Rays win the ALE
4. 3 People will forfeit a match up because of breaking the roster rules.
5. 14 teams finish below .500 (last year:10)
30: Boston Red Sox (Last year’s finish: 30th)
Key adds: Rosario, Moncada
Losses: nothing that mattered
Pretty self explanatory, not a lot here, improved, still bad, this is the only tanking team now really, and Will should likely end up picking 19th/20th
29: Washington Nationals(Last years finish: 14th)
Adds: Span, Granderson, Lynn
Losses: Harper, Bauer, Puig
Still has some players to field a lineup and could beat any of the bottom 3-4 teams in the NL on a given week, but WSH also has to face a 2nd place schedule from the AL, which along with the huge losses that can’t be replaced by granderson, span and lynn, will undoubtedly leave this team selling off and rebuilding.
28: Baltimore Orioles (Last years finish: Playoffs, Divisional round)
Adds: Nothing great
Losses: Altuve, Chapman, Votto, etc
Jeff did fill out a full lineup, but it’s not nearly as talented as the one he had built up for years and only salvaged 1 AL championship, I think he’ll stay afloat until he heads off to camp twinkle toes and then his team will fall off the map
27: Miami Marlins (Last years finish: 25th)
Adds: Cespedes, Cueto
Losses: Buehler
Kevin’s clearly playing for 2020 and I doubt he’ll finish this low as he’ll field a full team, he just doesn’t have a lot of talent on the roster, could finish several spots higher than this as he builds his team throughout the season.
Not Real Threats, Kind of rebuilding, but owners that have mostly only known winning in here so who knows
26: Cleveland Indians (Last year’s finish: 26th)
Adds: Bruce, Markakis, Anibal Sanchez
Losses: Nothing I can think of
Psych’s obviously still building back up and will probably sell off for spects and picks at some point, but hey if bruce, markakis, sanchez and the rest of these journeyman perform really well, April could be a fun month.
25: Milwaukee Brewers (Last Year’s finish as Royals: 22nd)
Adds: Franco
Losses: Moncada
Natty’s focused on Rbrewers and the NLC is deadly this year, he does have some talent on the roster, but he’ll probably look to turn it over for specs at some point this year. The Royals-Brewers swap seems like a lateral move for both sides, which is a good thing for the league.
24: Colorado Rockies (Last year’s finish: 29th)
Adds: Zunino, Ozuna, Wacha, Harvey
Losses: nothing
Feels like I’ve seen this movie before. New COL owner joins kinda late, overpays a bunch of free agents, misses the playoffs and bolts once it blows up in his face. The difference in this story is that Steve’s team doesn’t have the luck of Denvermilam, when he played in a very weak NL. Steve’s team while improved, isn’t near good enough in the NL this season and he’ll probably sell off his players midway through the year once they can be traded.
23: Oakland A’s(Last year’s finish as Giants: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Brandon Belt
Losses: Ozuna, Scherzer, Wood, etc
Paul did manage to bring back Darvish and Calhoun and I doubt he’ll finish as low as 25. That said, I don’t think it will matter, it’s pretty clear he’s in a full rebuild and won’t be playing for the 2019 season. He has plenty of 6’s that I don’t think will be on his team for much longer, but he’s also difficult to trade with so they could stand the whole year.
22: Kansas City Royals (Last year’s finish as brewers, 24th)
Adds: Braun, Barreto
Losses: Nothing great
Russi could be in much better spot a year from now, but at this point still has to build up some roster depth and get some premier talent, Barreto could be a key cog for him. For 2019 it’s best for Russi and Psych both to wait out MIN,CHW, and DET.
21: Arizona Diamondbacks (Last year’s finish: 20th)
Key Losses: Arenado, Gregorius, Degrom, etc.
Adds: prospects
Hemmons is rebuilding and will likely go for picks and prospects all season, but he has a ton of pitching depth, and if he swallows his pride and puts together a couple trades and fills out the roster, he could have a fairly gritty team and honestly, the NLW crown wouldn’t be impossible with paul gone and Noah taking a step back. Thought about putting him in the next group
Could be threats if things break REALLY well
20: LA Angels (Last year’s finish, 28th)
Adds: Ramirez, Polanco, Chapman
Losses: Nothing Major
Some people, at least Will, sees this roster as a contender, I see a couple difference makers and not much else. John got squeezed out in FA which hurt, and his pitching needs major improvements. I think he should be happy with the ranking of 20th, Which is a LONG way from 28th.
19: Texas Rangers (Last Year’s finish: 23rd)
Adds: Jones, Teheran, Ross
Losses: Segura? Not sure
Bill seems to refuse to rebuild, he kind of did last year, but didn’t really sell off that much and has much of the same players. He does have a lot of depth so that’s helpful but he won’t be good enough to compete with SEA and HOU in the west. Another ok year for TEX.
18: Tampa Bay Rays (Last Year’s Finish: 11th)
Adds: Didi, Kinsler, Melancon
Losses: Pederson, Castro, Hamilton, etc.
Forbz is in a rebuild and his team doesn’t have a lot of cap flexibility or depth, along with that Didi is out for part of the season, and he has no backup, and his OF’s only play CF. The AL East is also terrible and Justin and Sanders are the only competition, it’s not unheard of for Forbz to flip his team upside down in 2 months and suddenly be in the drivers seat for the ALE.
17: Atlanta Braves (Last Year’s Finish: 21st)
Adds: Hernandez, Eovaldi
Losses: Lynn, Odorizzi
Wood’s got a full team and it is talented and he’s got some studs from the minors on the way, he’s definitely taking a step forward, that said he’s mostly the same team as last year that finished 21st overall in the worst division in the league. I see the glass half empty.
16: LA Dodgers (Last year’s Finish:19th)
Adds: Kershaw, Mccutcheon, Murphy
Losses: Merrifield
Jake made some nice moves, has a top heavy team with a lot of young depth, and is definitely a team worth watching in July and August being that his roster is mostly young or locked up long term he probably will stick around to the end and not sell off. The main problem with this team is that most of the depth is worthless, if you took away the top 7-8 players from this team, The Waiver Wire could match up pretty well, which wouldn’t be a problem if JT didn’t switch into the division.
15:Toronto Blue Jays (Last Years Finish: 18th)
Adds: Castro, Scherzer, Brantley
Losses: Franco?
Sanders team is better than I give credit for, but the only way to the playoffs is through the ALE, all the ALWC spots are going to the Central and West, Which is why he gets 15th. Sanders making the playoffs is like Bonds and Clemens making the Hall, gets a couple more votes every year, but it still seems unlikely that it’s going to happen eventually. Sanders main issues are on offense. He only has 1 OF that matters in Brantley, and Bogaerts is overrated, I doubt he bests Justin, but he’ll probably make an improvement and be close to making the playoffs for the first time.
Good teams and a good strategy, will compete for playoffs, but will come up short
14: New York Yankees (Last Year’s Finish: 17th)
Adds:Gallo, Renfroe, Maeda
Losses: Nothing special
With each passing season for 5 to 6 years now Justin has gotten a little bit better. This season is his first opportunity to make a large leap, not because he’s built a good team, but because Jeff and Forbz have decided to rebuild. He does have a DEEP team with mostly good players, I feel like he kind of blew this offseason because he had the opportunity to put together a dominant team with all of his spects and picks, unfortunately at the end of the day it’s really nothing special and if he does win the ALE by default then he’ll have a tough time getting past the divisional round.
13: San Francisco Giants (15th)
Adds/Losses: pretty much the whole team, Khris Davis if he keeps him
JT isn’t going to win on talent, not that his team is terrible, but it lacks the cornerstones of the other NL Contenders, The way JT will win will be to take advantage of the many lackadaisical NL owners by throwing so many pitchers at them they’ll assume he cheated. Obviously with the new rule comes some changes, but it arguably works in his favor because whenever he has an easy matchup coming after a tough one, he’ll be able to steal a good bit of cats with his depth. Unfortunately JT’s strategy came up short last year and he sold off in late july/august and I imagine the same will happen this year as the NL is better now.
12: Pittsburgh Pirates (Last year’s finish: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Gordon, Encarnacion
Losses: Arenado, Verlander
Tough one right here, Caleb’s in a tough spot, he’s got a lot of expiring contracts and his team just isn’t as talented or as deep as it was last year when he was the 1 seed in the NL, he also no longer has the prospect ammunition to make a big move. It doesn’t help that the NLC is a hell of a division this season. Still very strong top heavy team and is definitely still a contender in the NL. At the end of the day though it’s a lot like PAul’s team from last year, with the difference being that paul had great Pitching and Pirates just doesn’t have the depth.
Likely won’t perform to the talent on the roster
11: Chicago Cubs (Last year’s finish: Playoffs: NL Championship round)
Adds: Not that I know of
Losses: I’m forgetting if he lost anyone
Trout, Sale, Odor, Rizzo, Sanchez, Turner. Etc, looks like a championship contender at first glance doesn’t it? Not so fast, Dale hasn’t made any trades, he’s probably posted his block which includes Kolby Allard, Kyler Murray, and all of his picks 100 times this offseason, with no bites (Luckily for Dale, I’ll get to that pick in a minute). As of today he’ll go into the season with several holes on the roster and will rely heavily on the team that while great last year, hasn’t improved. Reds and Cardinals have made vast improvements and I think both will jump CHC. Half of the league has never seen the cubs miss the playoffs, but after years of trying to get Psych’s team it’s 2nd championship and coming up just short, Dale will wind up picking 1st overall in the 2020 draft.
One of these 10 teams will win the 2019 championship
10: St Louis Cardinals (Last year’s finish: 13th)
Adds: Yelich, Arenado, Duffy
Losses: Nothing major
After years of building up the farm, Matt finally had some big time moves fall into his lap as he nabbed Acuna and Yelich toward the end of last season, then he stole Arenado from his division rival in the offseason, He’s still got some holes and needs some work on the pitching, but I think he’ll clean that up before we start. Hard to believe that STL was 6th in the NL last year and 13th overall, and it’s even harder to believe he won’t be much better this time around.
9: Philadelphia Phillies (Last Year’s Finish: 27th)
Adds: Bum, Cain, Merrifield, Seager, Morton, Taillon, Hill, Herrera, etc
Losses: Nothing
Much to my chagrin Kory is easily the most improved team in the league, he’s got a lot of talent all around, and he’s really just getting started as he’s still got loads of talent in the minors and I’m sure he’s still stockpiled on picks, lot of cap space as well so he’ll be a player for a lot of IFA’s, this is definitely an upcoming premier team with no bad contracts, and It’s dangerous this year because of the still weak NLE combined with the last place schedule.[/font]
8: San Diego Padres
Adds/Losses: Lot of turnover
Only 2 owners have a legitimate chance to come out of the 2019 season with 2 league championships. Noah is one of them and he has a great team and should enter the playoffs as the #1 seed in the NL. What I like about his team is that there aren’t many holes on the roster and it has the most potential of any team in the league, what I don’t like is that a lot of the players are coming off injury, some of the signings seemed desperate (Hicks, Puig, Wood), and the BP is definitely a shortcoming. Noah has a lot of cap space and some spects to maneuver himself into better position as the season moves on though, So he’s definitely a contender.
7: Cincinnati Reds (Last year’s finish: 16th)
Adds: Altuve, Moustakas
Losses: Polanco
IF and this is a huge IF, but IF Cody checks in regularly and makes a couple moves, he’s in the driver seat in the NL. Strong team all around and the biggest war chest of any contender with all of his picks and 8 top 100 prospects. Picking up Altuve was a huge move for him this offseason. And can’t forget that he dealt with a lot of injuries last season, which when you don’t check your lineup regularly will end up costing you several matchups. Like I said at the beginning IF he checks in he’s the best in the NL, if he doesn’t, then he’ll be 4th place in the NLC, We’ll have a new Reds by July and by this time 2 years from now, Reds will be back where Rich had them before Cody joined. Irrelevant.
6: Minnesota Twins (Last year’s finish: Playoffs AL Championship round)
Adds: Yadi, Ottavino
Losses: Kershaw, Cruz
I’ve got Patty at 6th overall, unfortunately that means he’ll miss the playoffs. He’s got a great team with Machado, Turner, Torres, etc. but he’s a ways off of Mike and Alex, and they have more roster flexibility than he does. I’m sure he’ll compete for the 2nd wild card with the 2nd place ALW team, but he’d probably 3rd in there as well, he’s got depth but it appears he’ll have to rely to heavily on production from unlikely sources to get back to where he was last season.
5: Houston Astros (Last years finish: League Runner up)
Adds: Votto, Keuchel
Losses: Gordon, Bumgarner
Feels like Max lost a good bit this offseason, he did add votto(overpaid for him), and snagged estrada and shaw for cheap. I still think any team with Betts, Judge, Baez and Max’s depth will compete for a championship, but he could wind up in a teardown next offseason as he stands to lose a few stars and have 134M in salaries, obs, and drops. Still, if I’m Max it’s all or nothing this season, waited too long to compete to sell out after 1 season, can always rebuild around Judge when the time comes.
4: Seattle Mariners
Adds: Rendon, Pomeranz, Roark
Losses: Brantley, Anibal
Dave’s depth players are going to need to take a step forward for him to finish as high as i think he will, but his team appears to be very well balanced with enough stars to win the division, he has ways of gaining a lot more flexibility than max and isn’t going to be nearly as far off as he was last season. Probably a little generous with #4, but he just needs a little more luck as he was 8th in roto stats last season.
3: New York Mets (Last year’s finish: World Champs)
Adds: Harper, Bauer, Corbin, Allen, Kikuchi, Pederson
Losses: Braun, Foltynewicz, Herrera
Let me use this paragraph to advocate that I would like to host Astros(1st in ALW) in week 1 so Max can enjoy the ring ceremony. Don’t know if I’ll be 3rd overall, but I think I upgraded from a 165 win team to a 175 win team, which will leave me in the range of 3rd-6th. Looking forward to defending the title.
2: Chicago White Sox (Last years finish: Playoffs Wild Card Round)
Adds: Foltynewicz, Cruz
Losses: Cesar Hernandez
Not Deep, but Loaded offensively and has premier pitchers, assuming he’ll make some WW plays with his 4.5M he should be able to fill out his roster well enough to be in it at the end for the top seed in the AL. adding Cruz and WS Champion Folty to his roster should surely keep him where he was, I think Lowrie and Asdrubal are very underappreciated MIF’s and should continue to be useful.
1: Detroit Tigers (last years finish: Playoffs Divisional Round)
Adds: Verlander, Gennett, Myers, Blackmon, Degrom
Losses: Nothing great
Detroit’s always competitive and really took advantage of his stockpile of prospects this year and went all in on Degrom, Verlander and Blackmon. He also filled out his roster very nicely with minor signings that went unnoticed. No real holes on the roster and plenty of depth as well. Tigers has been trying to break through for a years but has been stymied by CHW and MIN, I think this is the year that he’s well out in front of both and takes the AL #1 seed. Congratulations to the first offseason champion in the post Brynasty era.
5 Bold Takes:
1. Cubs and Pirates both miss playoffs, and finish behind SFG and LAD in NL standings
2. Last year 3 teams won 190 cats (Astros, Twins, White Sox) This year just one (Tigers)
3. Rays win the ALE
4. 3 People will forfeit a match up because of breaking the roster rules.
5. 14 teams finish below .500 (last year:10)
2019 On Deck Circle Champions!