SPECULATOR: Longshot leaders & award winners, pt 1

As we do every year, we close out the pre-season calendar with a look at some possible long-shot league leaders and award winners. We don't think it is at all interesting to predict a Mike Trout MVP or a Clayton Kershaw Cy Young Award. Around here, we dig deeper....

Here, we'll cover batting champions, SB leaders, and HR leaders. We'll circle back with Part 2 in a couple of days, featuring MVP candidates and the pitching leaders.
 

Batting champions

National League

Freddie Freeman (1B, ATL) has seen his stock falling this spring, due mostly to concerns about the quality of the lineup around him in Atlanta. And that may in fact have some impact on his counting stats, but Freeman is an accomplished enough hitter that he may actually be...

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

This week's exercise is all about picking holes to help avoid early-round busts.
Feb 25 2026 3:10am
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

Tools