5 Overperformers and Underperformers for Week 1

As the dust has settled on Week 1 and we see who has come out supreme, it’s worth noting there are some players and teams that may have hit their goals for their opening series, or largely missed them. Here are the teams and players that I had selected for these nominations, looking at one individual hitter, pitcher, one offense, one defense and team as a whole, on both the underperforming and overperforming side.

Overperforming Hitter: Jake Noll (YKN)

Perhaps an odd pick for the guy who overperformed. However, Noll in our opinion felt overly respected by the Angels in being issued 2 intentional walks. 4-11 is still a good statline to have, but a .364 slugging percentage does not read as someone a manager would want to put on base over Gregorius or Rojas. All circumstantial, granted, but Noll was given too much for his place in the lineup.

Overperforming Pitcher: Dustin May (BSG)

May had one of the better starter outings with 7 innings of 1-hit ball. While great, the Unicorns offense looked outright anemic and refused to put out Nomar Mazara against him, a matchup the struggling lefty may have enjoyed more instead of Delino DeShields. Granted, there did stem the issue of a lack of backup right fielders which plagued Glasgow in Game 3, but one shouldn’t think he should be someone to bet on as putting up huge numbers for the future.

Overperforming Offense: Jakarta Jaguars

Perhaps this is a hot take to go against the hot hand which currently has earned, at the time of ranking, unanimous number 1 votes. However, the guild would argue that this Jaguars lineup has its issues that aren’t viewable through raw box score viewing. Ian Happ can’t carry them forever, and even then, 4 multi-home run players isn’t sustainable. Sure, they lacked firepower from Tim Anderson and Edwin Rios, but guys like Alejandro Kirk and Jonathan Schoop can’t carry their weight like that sustainably.

Overperforming Defense: Yukon Moose

They have only 1 non-1-range defender in Max Kepler, and yet they went a perfect 18-for-18 in securing non-routine plays. Not even an error to boot. Granted, their error numbers are low, but that is shocking to see. Expect some errors to come from the glove of Gregorius and some X-hits to leak through from McNeil, Rojas, Pollock (if he starts) and Dubon next week, though chances still remain low.

Overperforming Team: Dallas Drillers

This is why the guild had this team 13th in the power rankings - their performance as a squad was good, and while there is hype swirling about Kyle Hendricks and Dylan Bundy, with the hype can also come a terrifying crash, and their continual stranding of runners in scoring position through pitching and defense is unlikely to last. Call it a personal grudge, but we saw how hot the Wombats were in their first few weeks. We saw what happened next. Who’s to say history isn’t doomed to repeat itself?

Underperforming Hitter: Fernando Tatis Jr (LMM)

I know what you’re probably thinking. “Not Ke’Bryan Hayes?” Well, the ISPB has a soft rule to not include the same team in the same sort of category. We’ll get to Hayes and the Parrots. Tatis, however, went a mere 1-15 with a single and a walk. Of all the players I expected to shine this season, Tatis was very high on my list, yet he displayed none of it against the Zephyr. He’s got a great chance to prove himself later on down the track, but this was a warning sign.

Underperforming Pitcher: Tyler Glasnow (VA)

It was very difficult for me to break between who I think deserved it more between Glasnow and Marco Gonzales (WWW), however I opted to give the edge to Glasnow due to his high walk rate. 10 walks is an insane amount that while I think Glasnow will maintain a fairly high one throughout the season, this is a big anomaly. He’ll likely perform a lot better during the latter parts of the season.

Underperforming Offense: Sao Paulo Parrots

It’s easy to say “ooh, low scoring offense doesn’t score runs, underperforming!” You wanna know something odd? 7 teams, as a whole team, hit below the Mendoza line. 3, in their series, scored single-digit runs. Ke’Bryan Hayes was the main culprit of this, however all members of their lineup felt culpable. Lorenzo Cain and Corey Seager had underwhelming weeks. Miguel Cabrera only mustered a single hit as their full-time DH. Where Mike Moustakas failed, Hanser Alberto equaled him in hits and runs. While I said I liked the Drillers rotation, this team had its shortcomings with some terrible BABIP luck for their players and a very high LOB%. It’s unsustainable in the opposite direction.

Underperforming Defense: Big Sky Snow Geese

Offense wins games, defense wins championships, and the current number 1s in the league have the highest hits allowed defensively. Sure, there are issues at second base with the three Nicketeers only having one excellent defender in Lopez, and the platoon bats of Solak and Madrigal lacking in coverage ability, but their main fault was ss-2 Andres Gimenez letting up 4 X-hits in 9 opportunities. They may not have resulted in hits to his DRS, but that is shocking for a defender ranked 9th in shortstop defense among all players currently in the majors. Hard to pin it on one player, but with shortstop being the primary means of defense in the league, he may be called upon plenty in the future, and will need to show his prowess there to help lift the Montana squad.

Underperforming Team: Quezon City Questants

This may be the one that has a lot of people befuddled. However, you give me the list of teams that batted sub-.200, committed the most errors and still split their series, the Questants would likely be the last team I would mention. Now, there is one side I should mention I think is overperforming - their pitching was stellar and I think will likely fade off from their near-video game numbers they put up. However, two points on that; there are plenty of other teams who are doing so to an even greater degree, and I would also contend that their offense should have been far more lethal than it was. This is primarily due to the incredible outings of LHP Blake Snell and Dallas Keuchel that seemed to be anomalies for a team seemingly so hellbent on crushing southpaws. This team showed it had that crushing potential against Marco Gonzales. However, put them in the Serra, and I have a strong feeling that they will come alive.

This is a team that I felt deserved to be number 1 coming in, and should have more of that showing up later. Wichita may have very well been a flash in the pan. And with 21 more weeks coming up, it’d be difficult to say whether all, none or some of it is. You're going to have to watch to find out.

SBa Network continues its 24-hour coverage throughout the season - Week 2 has kicked off with coverage of GLA @ DEN. DAL @ YKN will commence at 5:30 local time (6:30 CT), with SPP @ VA expected to commence at the same time. WV @ LMM commences at 8pm local time (CT) tonight.