SPECULATOR: 2019 Snap judgments (batters)

We're all itching to (over-)react to what's happening over the first two weeks of the season. Exercising excruciating patience—a staple mantra here over the years—is the prudent thing to do, but we often have to make early roster decisions on small-sample data. Doing so in last year's version of this column might have yielded an early FAAB acquisition of Jonathan Villar and/or José Martínez, while hunches that Xander Bogaerts would rebound and Alex Bregman would put up a career year both came to fruition.

Our disclaimer at the bottom of this page means we aren’t constrained by issues like the legitimacy of underlying sample sizes. Of course, we can’t completely disregard our numbers-based approach, but in the Speculator, we have more...

Almost!

You’re just a few clicks away from accessing this feature and hundreds more throughout the year that have a singular goal in mind: Winning your league. Subscribe to BaseballHQ.com here!

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

More From Speculator

Sure, they struggled last year, but if we remove some recency bias, granting mulligans could be a lucrative exercise.
Feb 18 2026 3:06am
Our annual look at who changed their pitch mix the most in-season last year, and (most importantly) whether it worked.
Feb 11 2026 3:06am
Could Jakob Marsee lead the majors in plate appearances? We'll take our component playing time metrics for a spin to see who could bubble up.
Feb 4 2026 8:30am
To the mound this week. We list out all "UP"side pitchers from the Baseball Forecaster with comments on outlooks that may have changed.
Jan 28 2026 3:09am
Reviewing the entire list of "UP:" batters with thoughts on those whose outlooks may have changed.
Jan 21 2026 3:02am

Tools