Baseball is an era of extremes, from strikeouts to home runs and perhaps especially with team construction, now that there is a growing number of super teams and tanking teams, with fewer clubs between.
The extremes extend to individual components within a team. Major league clubs have built super bullpens and record-setting rotations, historically productive lineups and top-tier defenses. When elite units collide, such as with the Dodgers' rotation and bullpen facing the Astros' lineup last October, some remarkable baseball can occur.
Positional strengths matter a great deal in team vs. team matchups, in which an advantage can prove pivotal. Strengths are also luxuries in team construction, allowing resources to be allocated elsewhere -- or a surplus traded from -- to fill in weaker areas. Certain strengths also mean more in the postseason, when the game changes due to a heightened urgency and extra days off. To understand which teams might have competitive advantages in 2018, we have to go beyond WAR totals. Which teams have the strongest strengths to warp games in their favor in 2018?
