Giants C Blake Sabol hits 18 home runs with a .265 batting average, good for a top five finish at catcher when combined with his elite R-RBI (140+) in that position group.
Brewers OF Sal Frelick hits .300 with 10+ home runs and 80+ runs scored. As I’m typing this Saturday afternoon, Frelick is leading off and hasn’t been optioned. Non-zero chance he’s the opening day leadoff man.
Tigers OF Kerry Carpenter hits 25 home runs.
Angels RHP Ben Joyce saves 17 games. Started at 20 but whittled it back. 30 wouldn’t surprise me, but that would require several external factors to line up.
Dodgers RHP Gavin Stone wins 10 games with a WHIP under 1.13.
Cubs 2B Nico Hoerner steals 37 bases. He went 14-for-15 in his final 71 games last season and has the lead-off spot on lockdown. Prognosticators of various stripes have landed anywhere between 15 and 33 percent when imagining the stolen base bump in the new rules climate, which might cut into the value of this next prediction.
Athletics OF Esteury Ruiz steals 50 bases. Been a while since we’ve seen a thief like him.
I could put just about any stolen base total in here for Corbin Carroll and never get real bold. Some guys get to a point where third base is even easier to take than second. These two are those sort of guys.
Rangers 3B Josh Jung hits 30 home runs with a .275+ batting average and wins rookie of the year.
Twins 2B Edouard Julien is up early and plays 130+ major league games.
Diamondbacks C Gabriel Moreno makes the All-Star game.
Twins OF Trevor Larnach hits 20+ home runs with six coming in April, meaning he’ll spend much of the season rostered in even shallow leagues.
Yankees 3B Andres Chaparro hits 40+ home runs total, 15+ in the big leagues. Between Giancarlo Stanton and Josh Donaldson, he’s got two conceivable paths. Three, if you include Anthony Rizzo. Four, if you think he can fake left field and don’t think Aaron Hicks is a good bet for a full season. (Chaparro hit his fifth spring home run as I was typing this blurb. It still hasn’t landed.)
Angels OF Mickey Moniak hits 30+ home runs total, 15+ in the big leagues.
Let me know if you’ve got some bold calls in the comments.
Thanks for reading!