The Chalk Talk with Dan and the Dawg

It's almost here! With the 2018 now less than twelve hours away from kicking off (the season's first game will be between the Cubs and Marlins with a 12:40 PM start time), team sites and fan blogs are busy churning out MVP and World Series projections (MLB's Joe Posnanski has a particularly entertaining column on his craziest predictions for 2018 ). While my personal musings may lack some of the wild speculation of others, here are my five personal predictions for the 2018 season. 1. Bryce Harper Notches his First Career 100 RBI Season Bryce Harper is going into a walk year in 2018, a situation that has yielded some fantastic results in the past. With 768 big league games under his belt, Bryce Harper has evolved into one of the game's best young talents. Pairing a powerful bat (career .515 slugging percentage) with an unusually patient approach at the plate (455 career walks in 3,262 plate appearances), Harper has accomplished much in his MLB career to date (...

B-b-b-Bird is Not  the Word: Yank's First Baseman Out 6-8 weeks Yankee's slugger Greg Bird will start yet another season on the disabled list due to injury. The New York Yankees will have a hole to fill in their lineup as projected starter, Greg Bird, was diagnosed with a broken bone spur in his ankle that will require surgery. Bird, a fifth round draft pick out of Aurora, Colorado, has always had enormous potential (he was the recipient of the Yankee's Kevin Lawn Award in 2013 after putting up a .288/.428/.511 statline for the Class A Charleston Riverdogs), but has struggled to stay healthy throughout his major league career. Bird missed the entire 2016 season as he was diagnosed with a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder that would require surgery. Though he managed to make a full recovery from the shoulder injury ( a feat easier said than done ), Bird ran into the injury bug again in 2017, this time to the os trigonum bone in his right foot. Electing to hav...

This article is part two of a three part series with part three due to come out tomorrow, Monday (March 26th). Part one can be found  here . Part two can be found here . At long last, here are the top ten ranked bullpens in the major leagues. As you'll notice, the top five of these 'pens feature one thing in common: depth. Whereas most teams have one or two (in some cases, three) true shut down pitchers for late innings, you'll find that the top ranked 'pens are flush with elite talent. For further clarification on some of my vocabulary and statistical analysis, see the intro in part one of this series (the link can be found above).  10. New York Mets (3.3 WAR) Mets closer Jeurys Familia struggled to find consistency in 2017 after a turbulent off season and early season injury. With a projected WAR total of 3.3, the New York Mets check in as the tenth ranked bullpen in the majors for the 2018 season. A lot of the Met's fortunes lay on the shoulders...

This article is part two of a three part series with part three due to come out tomorrow, Monday (March 26th). Part one can be found here . As we inch closer and closer to Opening Day, here are the next ten teams that represent the mid-tier of relief pitching in the MLB. For further clarification on some of my vocabulary and statistical analysis, see the intro in part one of this series (the link can be found in the above paragraph).  20. Minnesota Twins (2.2 WAR) Despite a rough spring training, Trevor Hildenberger should play into the late inning equation for the Twins in 2018. Despite adding free agents Fernando Rodney and Addison Reed to the equation for 2018, the Minnesota Twins are projected to put up a combined bullpen WAR of just 2.2, good for twentieth in the league. That projection makes sense when you think about what else the Twins are working with; last year, they trotted out the likes of Tyler Duffey, Ryan Pressley, and Buddy Boshers in relief, all of ...

This article will be part one of a three part series with parts two and three coming out on Sunday (March 25th) and Monday (March 26th) respectively. With the 2018 season rapidly approaching (just five days to go!), I decided to do a breakdown of all thirty bullpens in the majors. The game of baseball is rapidly changing; where starting pitchers were once expected to compete deep into the seventh or eighth inning, now teams are content with six innings out of their starting arms before turning the game over to the 'pen. With a third of the game left to go, the need for quality relief arms has increased exponentially in the past few years. Just look at last year's World Series: on average, Dodger's starting pitchers went just a hair over four innings per outing. That left manager Dave Roberts with over half of the game to complete! Now, the World Series is a far-cry from the regular season. With his team on the brink of elimination, there was no tomorrow for Roberts...