After a long winter where we had to endure a lock-out that seemed like it would never end and an offseason that seemed to have no direction for a Nationals team entering a rebuild, we’ve finally made it to Opening Day. It’s by far one of my favorite days of the year and should be recognized as a national holiday. 

Before the season kicks off, HSHH made some predictions for the upcoming season. While there was a consensus on some of the topics, there were also some very bold predictions on others. Take a look at what we think and feel free to play along and make your own predictions in the comments section below.

 

What will the Nationals record be?

Monty – 69-93

Nick – 63-99

Ryan – 62-100

Allison – 64-98

Tyler – 61-101

Amanda – 67-95

Danny – 59-103

CK – 60-102

Trey – 60-102

Matt – 65-97

Consensus: Everyone is in agreement that the Nationals won’t be good. But how bad will they be? Best case scenario is they lose 93, while the worst case scenario is they lose 103.

 

Who will lead the team in HRs?

Monty – Juan Soto

Nick – Juan Soto

Ryan – Josh Bell

Allison – Juan Soto

Tyler – Juan Soto

Amanda – Juan Soto

Danny – Josh Bell

CK – Juan Soto

Trey – Josh Bell

Matt – Juan Soto

Consensus: Juan Soto took 7 of the 10 votes here with Josh Bell collecting the other 3.

 

Who will lead the team in OPS?

Monty – Juan Soto

Nick – Juan Soto

Ryan – Juan Soto

Allison – Juan Soto

Tyler – Juan Soto

Amanda – Juan Soto

Danny – Juan Soto

CK – Juan Soto

Trey – Juan Soto

Matt – Juan Soto

Consensus: This one was a clean sweep. It would be shocking to see anyone else lead the team in OPS.

 

How many games will Nelson Cruz play with the Nationals before he’s traded?

Monty – 89

Nick – 81

Ryan – 102.5

Allison – 84

Tyler – 90

Amanda – 75

Danny – 85

CK – Won’t be traded

Trey – 78

Matt – Will not be traded

Consensus: While we had two predictions that Cruz wouldn’t be traded, the average puts Cruz at 85.5 games with the Nats. That would put him in a different uniform by early July.

 

Where does Juan Soto finish in this year’s MVP voting?

Monty – 1st

Nick – 5th

Ryan – 6th 

Allison – 2nd (always a bridesmaid, never the bride)

Tyler – 2nd

Amanda – 2nd

Danny – 3rd

CK – 1st

Trey – 1st

Matt – 7th

Consensus: We had three votes for Soto winning the NL MVP and three votes for him finishing second, as he did last year. Generally, we feel pretty confident that he’s going to be in the MVP conversation again this year.

 

Which starter leads the team in ERA?

Monty – Cade Cavalli

Nick – Stephen Strasburg 

Ryan – Patrick Corbin 4.30

Allison – Patrick Corbin

Tyler – Patrick Corbin

Amanda – Josiah Gray

Danny – Josiah Gray

CK – Josiah Gray

Trey – Stephen Strasburg

Matt – Stephen Strasburg

Consensus: We have our first bold prediction here with Monty predicting that Cade Cavalli leads all Nationals starters in ERA! The rest of us were torn between Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin and Josiah Gray leading starters.

 

Who leads the team in saves?

Monty – Tanner Rainey

Nick – Kyle Finnegan

Ryan – Kyle Finnegan

Allison – Mason Thompson

Tyler –  Mason Thompson

Amanda – Mason Thompson

Danny – Steve Cishek

CK – Steve Cishek

Trey – Victor Arano

Matt – Kyle Finnegan

Consensus: With no clear cut closer on the roster, we were torn between Kyle Finnegan and Mason Thompson with Steve Cishek coming in a close third. It’s anybody’s guess who leads the team in save opportunities, which will be few and far between.

 

How many innings does Stephen Strasburg pitch this season?

Monty – 111

Nick – 101.1

Ryan – 83.1

Allison – 104

Tyler – 55.1

Amanda – 68

Danny – 64.2

CK – 110

Trey – 100

Matt – 110

Consensus: The good news is that we all think Strasburg pitches this season. The better news is we all think he pitches more innings than he has the past two seasons combined. There’s still a wide range in how many innings we think he throws though. We have him somewhere between 55 ⅓ innings and 111 innings.

 

Who is the biggest surprise?

Monty – Stephen Strasburg makes more than 20 starts.

Nick – Joan Adon has a sub 4 ERA

Ryan – Victor Robles with an ops above .700

Allison – Josiah Gray hits his goal of throwing 200 innings and has an ERA under 4.3

Tyler – Keibert Ruiz makes a run at being an all star in his first full season

Amanda – The offense is better than expected, except for Robles. 

Danny – Kiebert Ruiz wins silver slugger at catcher

CK – Maikel Franco finishes the season above the Mendoza line. But Victor Robles doesn’t.

Trey – Dee Strange-Gordon has over 150 hits

Matt – Patrick Corbin pitches to an ERA below 3.90

Consensus: This is where we start to get bold. I think we would all be happy if any of these came true, especially if Adon has a sub 4 ERA. We also have a couple of Keibert Ruiz predictions and a shout-out to Dee Strange-Gordon who just made the club out of Spring Training.

 

Who is the biggest disappointment?

Monty – Lane Thomas

Nick – Cade Cavalli

Ryan – Josiah Gray

Allison – Will Harris lol

Tyler – Lane Thomas

Amanda – Steve Cishek

Danny – Victor Robles

CK – Patrick Corbin

Trey – Davey Martinez

Matt – Pitching (Nationals have the worst statistical starting staff in MLB history)

Consensus: This is how you know you’re rebuilding. We couldn’t narrow this down to just two or three guys here. We were able to come up with nine different disappointments, with Lane Thomas being the only player to collect more than one vote.

 

On what date will Cade Cavalli make his debut?

Monty – June 4th

Nick – June 9th

Ryan – September 5th

Allison – August 12th

Tyler – August 3rd

Amanda – July 11th

Danny – August 23rd

CK – September 1st

Trey – August 7th

Matt – June 27th

Consensus: When Monty predicted Cavalli to lead team starters in ERA, the question was whether he’d make 4-5 starts and “lead” starters in ERA, or if he would make 15+ starts and lead starters in ERA. Now we have our answer. Monty, Nick and Matt all think Cavalli forces Mike Rizzo’s hand and gets called up sometime in June. Amanda thinks he makes his first start in mid-July, while the rest of us think it will be sometime in August or September.

 

Will the Nationals trade, hang onto, or extend Josh Bell?

Monty – Trade

Nick – Trade

Ryan – Trade

Allison – Hang onto

Tyler – Trade

Amanda – Trade

Danny – Hang onto

CK – Trade

Trey – Trade

Matt – Hang onto, departs in FA

Consensus: The overall consensus here is that Josh Bell will get dealt before the trade deadline. None of us think that the Nationals will ultimately extend him.

 

How will the NL East finish from top to bottom?

Monty – Braves, Phillies, Mets, Marlins, Nationals

Nick – Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, (biiiiiig drop), Nationals

Ryan – Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals

Allison – Mets, Braves, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals

Tyler – Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals

Amanda – Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals 

Danny – Braves, Mets, Phillies, Marlins, Nationals

CK – Braves, Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Nationals

Trey – Braves, Mets, Marlins, Phillies, Nationals

Matt – Phillies, Braves, Mets, Marlins, Nationals

Consensus: The overwhelming majority of us think that the Braves win the NL East for the 5th consecutive season. The only thing we’re absolutely sure of here is that the Nationals will finish last for the second consecutive season.

 

Who will this year’s World Series matchup be and who wins?

Monty – Dodgers over White Sox in 6

Nick – Dodgers over Blue Jays in 6

Ryan – Blue Jays over the Dodgers in 6 

Allison – Blue Jays over Mets in 5, hot take

Tyler – Dodgers over White Sox in 5

Amanda – Blue Jays over Braves in 6

Danny – Dodgers over Blue Jays in 7

CK – I’ll give you a bold prediction. Mariners over Brewers in 7

Trey – Blue Jays over Braves in 6

Matt – Dodgers over Astros in 6

Consensus: We’re buying into the Blue Jays hype coming into the season. Four of us picked them to win it all, while six of us picked them to at least make the World Series. The Blue Jays and Dodgers were tied with four votes each. CK went incredibly bold and took the Mariners to beat the Brewers in what would likely end up being one of the least viewed World Series in MLB history.