Did that offseason seem really long to you? It did to me. Thankfully, the Washington Nationals baseball are back. It’s the 20th season since baseball returned which went by very fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year’s Nats exceeded expectations by winning 71 games. That seemed like over-achievement. At one point, it looked like they might catch the New York Mets for 4th place. Alas, they couldn’t quite make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s late on Opening Day Eve, so I’m going to keep it simple. I think they Nats go 68-94<\/strong> for another last place finish. I’m hoping this is just a dip and they actually bottomed out a few years back. I think Atlanta takes the division with the Phillies in second and Miami Marlins and Mets fighting for third. Whoever is healthiest gets third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think the Nats will only have one starter with more than 10 wins. Probably Mackenzie Gore, who should get a double-digit number already. Josiah Gray, maybe too, but I’m not sure. Patrick Corbin won’t be on the team on August 1 one way or another. Thankfully. Davey Martinez won’t be back unless the team wins more than 75 games and they won’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Nats will blink when it comes to Stephen Strasburg. They better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t expect a lot of home runs on the offense, so get used to runners left on base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elsewhere in baseball, I think the Yankees take the AL East. The DC MSM will fawn over Baltimore and ignore decades of crapulence towards the Nats, their fans and city. I think Dodgers blow it and don’t win the flag.. Houston will be in it and may even win the flag again. I think the defending World Champions, the Texas Rangers fall back to earth. Since we’re seeing lots of teams end long droughts, I’m going to say the Seattle Mariners take the AL pennant. Let’s go with the San Francisco Giants winning the NL as a Wild Card. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did that offseason seem really long to you? It did to me. Thankfully, the Washington Nationals baseball are back. It’s the 20th season since baseball returned which went by very fast. Last year’s Nats exceeded expectations by winning 71 games. That seemed like over-achievement. At one point, it looked like they might catch the New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[1222],"class_list":["post-31445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-nationals","tag-nats"],"yoast_head":"\n