Fantasy Baseball: 10 Bold Predictions for the 2018 Season

Joey Gallo Will Bat .250 This Season

Joey Gallo was one of the more interesting players in fantasy last year, putting up one of the weirdest stat lines in baseball. He hit just .209 but still managed a .333 on-base percentage and a .537 slugging percentage, racking up 41 home runs, 80 runs and 85 RBIs in 145 games.

How do you hit .209 and still have a .333 OBP? That would be thanks to a 14.1% walk-rate that was tied for eighth among qualified hitters last season (tied with Paul Goldschmidt).

Gallo helped himself in the second half last year by cutting his strikeout rate by almost four percentage points without losing any of his power. An excellent eye at the plate can't do anything but help him, and pitchers are going to have to give him a little more to hit if he keeps taking his walks. He'll still struggle against left-handers (.226 average last season), but his performance against right-handers almost has to improve. He hit just .204 against righties despite a 46.7% hard-hit rate in the split as a .220 BABIP did him in.

He's made some noticeable changes this spring and is trying to put the ball in play more often. If he can do that without sacrificing much of his hard-hit rate, he'll put up a respectable batting average.