Expectations. Every team carries them out of spring training, but not every club will end up fulfilling them.
For some, it’s scratching into the postseason; for others, it’s World Series or bust. All we know at this point is that a few squads will overachieve and others, necessarily, will underachieve.
While we wait for the meaningful games to begin, let’s run through each division and sort the expectation-exceeders from the teams that are poised to disappoint.
It’s only March, obviously, and a lot can change. But in making these predictions, we’ll limit our focus to expected contenders and use FanGraphs‘ projected win-loss totals (as a jumping-off point, not a final arbiter), any pertinent injury news or spring developments and a dollop of gut feeling.
As ever, feel free to sound off with your predictions in the comments and proceed when ready.