Some Early 2012 Predictions

Technically speaking, the 2012 Regular Season has begun after the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland A’s 3-1 in 11 innings on Wednesday night (Japan time). For the rest of the Major Leagues, the season begins next week and we’ve reached the point where predictions start to appear across the Internet for the upcoming season. Mine will publish early next week, once I finish up our season preview posts, but there are a few early ones that are worth noting.

Over at The Nats Blog, William Yoder rolls off five bold predictions for the upcoming season. All five are worth reading, but my favorite has to be how confident Yoder is in Anthony Rendon’s abilities. He thinks we won’t just see Rendon in Washington by September, but that he’ll be a regular in the lineup by then. I’ll leave the explanation to Yoder.

Meanwhile, Jonathan C. Mitchell at MLB Dirt previewed the entire NL East in a recent post. He sees a bounceback season from Jayson Werth, Bryce Harper arriving sometime in late June, and Ian Desmond playing his way out of the lineup by season’s end, among some others. He also picks the Nationals to finish in a tie with Atlanta, with both teams taking the two NL Wild Cards.

Finally, former Nationals GM Jim Bowden also rattled off some bold predictions for the upcoming season (though his are behind ESPN’s Insider wall). He caps off the list with one that I think many of us might be able to get behind. Davey Johnson will win the NL Manager of the Year.

Also, ESPN’s Jayson Stark has a fantastic post chronicling everything that’s new across baseball’s landscape as the season is upon us. It’s a must read.