Updates on preseason bold predictions

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: 224^th 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 37^th 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 8^th 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 45^th 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 20^th 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 5^th with 130 AB and Adalberto Mondesi who is tied with Marcus Semien and Trevor Story at 11^th 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 20^th 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 18^th 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 5^th, Matt Carpenter is 7^th 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 8^th with 38 hits, next closest 3B is Yoan Moncada who is 25^th. (Forecast 6 / 10)

3) Josh Donaldson is a Top 8 Third Baseman
Update: He’s 17^th 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 18^th 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 23^rd, 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 10^th 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 20^th 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 2^nd 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)