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Updates on preseason bold predictions

Actually not as bad as I thought!

New York Yankees v San Francisco Giants Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images

Catcher

1) A record number of home runs will be hit by catchers this year
Update: 675 Home Runs is the record: 119 Home Runs so far one month in, off to a good start. On pace for around the record. (Forecast: 7.5 / 10)

2) Willians Astudillo finishes in the Top 50 in the LEAGUE in hits
Update: 224th right now with 16 hits but the season is young and I think he can make up some ground (Forecast: 4 / 10)

3) Buster Posey returns to fantasy relevance with 70+ RBI and Runs, finishing as a Top 3 catcher
Update: He’s around 37th right now with 7 runs and 10 RBI. I feel confident in the 70 numbers, but not so much on the top 3 catcher (Forecast: 5 / 10)

4) Yasmani Grandal triples his stolen base total from last year
Update: He needed to get to six total steals. He’s currently at three (Forecast 9.9 / 10)

5) Gary Sanchez does not finish as a Top 5 catcher for fantasy next year (currently projected as 2nd best catcher)
Update: He’s sitting as 8th best Catcher mostly due to his low .234 batting average. (Forecast: 5 / 10)

First Base

1) Miguel Cabrera has at least 80+ Runs and RBI as well as a .300+ AVG. for the first time since 2016
Update: Feeling good about the 80+ Runs and RBI as his first month saw 10 runs and 11 RBI and his play is on its way up. His average is .278. (Forecast 6 / 10)

2) Jake Bauers finishes as a Top 10 first baseman
Update: Yikes, he started in the low .100’s in batting average but he’s coming back strong and now sits 45th with 12 runs, 11 RBI and .239 AVG. (Forecast 3 / 10)

3) Jesus Aguilar finishes outside the Top 15 first basemen
Update: Off to a rough start with a .173 batting average, that will crush him more than anything else. (Forecast 9 / 10)

4) Cody Bellinger swipes more than twice as many bases as the next closest first baseman
Update: So here is the issue, Whit Merrifield counts as a 1B in some formats, take that out and Cody is exactly at a 2:1 over Jurickson Profar, Niko Goodrum and Christian Walker. (Forecast 5 / 10)

5) Luke Voit finishes as a Top 10 first baseman. (Currently projected in the 20s)
Update: He’s in ninth place right now with 23 runs, 26 RBI and a .277 AVG. (Forecast 7 / 10)

Second Base

1) Javier Baez does NOT exceed 80 runs, 80 RBI, or 20 steals this year
Update: This is NOT looking good for me. Javier has 25 Runs, 24 RBI and a 2 SB, he will get to 2/3 of this prediction (Forecast 2 / 10)

2) Yoan Moncada finishes Top 5 in runs and steals
Update: Yoan is in the top five in runs currently sitting fourth behind Ozzie, Javier and Whit. He is 20th in SB with just 2. (Forecast 4 / 10)

3) Daniel Murphy has over 100 RBI and posts a batting average over .315.
Update: Not looking good, his injury slowed this down and he has just 5 RBI’s and an AVG of .237. (Forecast 2 / 10)

4) Devon Travis finishes with 60+ runs and RBI for the first time in his career
Update: 60 Day DL, he’s done (Forecast 1 / 10)

5) Ian Kinsler is a Top 10 second baseman
Update: This might be my worst prediction and it’s now looking like he may be dropped soon. (Forecast 1 / 10)

Shortstop

1) At-bats for the total MLB is led by two shortstops
Update: The best so far is Andrelton Simmons who is 5th with 130 AB and Adalberto Mondesi who is tied with Marcus Semien and Trevor Story at 11th with 126. It’s very possible still given how many games some of these SS play in a full season. (Forecast 7 / 10)

2) Five of the Top 15 players in steals are shortstops
Update: # 1 (Tim Anderson); #2 Adalberto Mondesi; #7 Trevor Story; #12 Elvis Andrus and Fernando Tatis Jr. (Forecast 8 / 10)

3) Amed Rosario is a Top 10 shortstop (currently ranked in the 15-20 range)
Update: He’s 20th right now which is exactly where he was primed to be but he’s having a good season so I think it’s definitely possible. (Forecast 6 / 10)

4) Francisco Lindor will not eclipse 100 runs OR 100 RBI this season
Update: The injury derailed his start a bit and he has six runs, six RBI’s right now. (Forecast 8 / 10)

5) No shortstop lands in the Top 10 in home runs this year
Update: Trevor Story holds top billings with eight Home Runs, good enough for 18th most in MLB right now. (Forecast 7 / 10)

Third Base

1) Three times as many 3B have 100+ walks as any other position
Update: Alex Bregman is 5th, Matt Carpenter is 7th as is Josh Donaldson but they have some ground to makeup over OF who hold spots 1-4. (Forecast 3 / 10)

2) No third baseman lands in the Top 10 in hits
Update: Nolan Arenado was my big fear here. He sits 8th with 38 hits, next closest 3B is Yoan Moncada who is 25th. (Forecast 6 / 10)

3) Josh Donaldson is a Top 8 Third Baseman
Update: He’s 17th and has an impressive 20 runs right now to go with 13 RBI and a .258 AVG. (Forecast 6 / 10)

4) Rafael Devers finishes outside the Top 20 at Third Base
Update: He is rebounding a bit and has a very respectable 17 runs, 10 RBI and 4 SB as well as a .294 AVG. Currently 18th among 3B (Forecast 5 / 10)

5.) Alex Bregman has 50% more steals than he did in 2018
Update: He had 10 last year and has 2 so far this year, a small amount behind schedule. (Forecast 6 / 10)

Outfielders

1) J.D. Martinez is NOT a Top 10 outfielder this year
Update: Currently 23rd, the season is young but he is not what he was last year. (Forecast 7 / 10)

2) Andrew Benintendi hits for 100+ RBI for the first time in his career
Update: He has 16 RBI which is a good pace and puts him about to 100. All this while the Red Sox are not playing well (Forecast 7 / 10)

3) We see a decrease of 30% in outfielders who steal at least 20 bases
Update: We have around 16 who are on pace for it. 15 OFers did this last year so we shall see how things progress. (Forecast 4 / 10)

4) Bryce Harper has above a .290 average after hitting .249 last year
Update: The first two weeks he came out great and I felt confident in this but he has since regressed to a .231 AVG and is now getting booed. (Forecast 3 / 10)

5.) Austin Meadows is a Top 25 outfielder
Update: Even with the injured time he’s 10th right now, hopefully when he’s healthy he continues where he left off (Forecast 8 / 10)

Starting Pitchers

1) For the first time in 10 years, the Dodgers are not in the top six in the league in ERA
Update: They are 20th as some struggles, injuries and a powerful offense has put less on their shoulders. (Forecast 8 / 10)

2) We see one of the Top 10 pitchers go down to Tommy John: Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Jacob DeGrom, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander, Aaron Nola, Gerrit Cole, Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell or Trevor Bauer.
Update: Nothing yet. (Forecast 5 / 10)

3) A starting pitcher has four complete games pitched, up 2X from the most any pitcher had last season
Update: We have six pitchers with one complete game. (Forecast 5 / 10)

4) Miles Mikolas wins 15+ games AGAIN this year
Update: His ERA is bad (4.73) but the Cardinals are good so he has 3 wins so far and is on pace for 15. (Forecast 7 / 10)
5) Mike Clevinger is a Top 10 Starting Pitcher
Update: Well……he definitely was until the injury. (Forecast 3 / 10)

Relief Pitchers

1) Last year 166 MLB players had a registered save, this year over 200 players will have one
Update – Fun stat – 85 players have registered a save one month into the season, that means each team has just shy of 3 players registering a save. 85. (Forecast 9.5 / 10)

2) San Diego is in the top-10 in saves this season
Update: Guess who is #1 in saves right now. (Forecast 9.5 / 10)

3) Cody Allen has a career-high number of saves (35+)
Update: He has four so far, the injury didn’t help and slowed him down some. (Forecast 4 / 10)

4) Shane Greene finishes outside the top-25 in saves
Update: Chalk this up with Ian Kinsler for areas were I was way off, he’s 2nd with 12 so far this year. (Forecast 2 / 10)

5) The Brewers have three closers among the top-40 in MLB
Update: Josh Hader is definitely up there but it gets cold real quick. (Forecast 3 / 10)