Can the mighty fallen, rise?
After winning it all in 2017, much was expected in 2018 from this veteran team. They brought back a lot of the same guys and dropped two key players in Shawn Abraham and Yasar Bokhari. They replaced them with Dex Ortiz and JQ. Unfortunately for them, they squandered a huge opportunity in the Finals against Mighty Ducks after winning game 1 and dropped the next 2 games.
No one remembers the runner-ups.
They must have a bitter taste in their mouths after getting so close and not winning it last year. This franchise is synonymous with winning and putting out a BEAST team year after year. Some say they flaunt every loophole, but let’s face it; they play within the rules and their captains are just smart at making roster moves. The pipeline of talent this team always gets is insane and it all starts with their future HOF player Hashim Naveed.
With the new rules this year of tiered cap, what moves were Savages going to make in order to keep up with the rest of the league who all got exponentially better under the new rules?
New Additions:
The biggest addition is a player named Tom Kahl aka TK who joined the SAS community in football this past fall. Some have already predicted his rating to go up from a default rookie 7 to a 9 or even 10 next year. That’s how good he is. An elite OF, he can also produce with the bat as our scouts have told us. Putting TK in the Outfield will give them what they sorely lacked last year: a replacement for Shawn Abraham. His mate in the OF will be another new addition in Jojo Rodriguez. Jojo comes from the former Scorers and is a very good OFer. We already talked to him in the Dynasty preview about being a dark-horse MVP candidate in the lower division, so that shows to you how good he can be in a lethal Savages lineup.
With the two new additions, Savages also bring back the 2017 Finals MVP Yasar to pitch for them this season. After a year away, it will be interesting to see if he still can produce at the highest level. Harris Naveed also comes back and looking to go back to being the middle of the order hitter he was known for before he had to leave the team middle of last season.
Overall:
Ok. Here is the lineup. Hashim, Dex, Pavy, Charley, TK, Jojo, Harris. Good luck to the outfield of every other team who is going to be chasing the gappers all day. There is no room to breathe until you get to the bottom of the lineup. The big question will be can the bottom of the lineup of Irfan, VJ, Zulfikar, Yasar and Anwar flip the lineup over to get the key guys up as fast as possible.
Defensively, they were weak last year. Lots of players playing out of position. This year, they have a starting OF of Irfan, TK, Jojo and VJ. While that may not be as good as Mighty Ducks overall, it comes close. The IF is anchored by Hashim of course. We still have concerns of who plays the other 3 spots in the Infield. The battery mate of Yasar and Dex promises to be the best in the league in our eyes.
Off season Grade: B+
Savages will be getting a B+. They shored up their Outfield defense but they lost JQ from last year’s team. JQ led the team in Home runs and RBI. They bought back Yasar to pick up the hole at Pitcher, but they still did not address their IF defense in the right side of the Infield. Charley moving into the infield is an interesting strategy.
Prediction:
Our BOLD PREDICTIONS stated they will be going to the Finals. This writer disagrees. Ducks went 28-1 last year. Empire and Mets improved dramatically this year. 516 beat Savages 3 out 4 times last year. We think Savages flame out in the Semifinals this year.
