The ubiquitious Nationals Journal on the washingtonpost.com has asked for predictions on the season. Many of them are the predictions I wanted to make, but hadn’t yet put forth on this page. So I’ll just follow his suggestions, and get these in just in time before the season starts.
1. 2009 win total – 78
2. Attendance at Nationals Park (81 dates; last year’s was 2.32 million) – 2.41 million
3. All-star representative(s) – Adam Dunn
4. Adam Dunn’s home run total – 39
5. Date of Stephen Strasburg’s major league debut – April 6, 2010
6. Nick Johnson’s total games played – 105
7. Wins for John Lannan – 12
8. Percentage of season Dmitri Young spends in big leagues, not on DL – 10%
9. Josh Willingham’s total at bats – 400
10. Innings pitched for Daniel Cabrera – 150
11. Team ERA leader – Beimel
12. Team batting average leader – Guzman
13. Biggest surprise – Olsen*
14. Biggest disappointment – Zimmermann (he’ll be good, but he’s a rookie, people need to temper expectations)
15. Current minor leaguer (not counting Zimmermann) who will make an impact – Kory Casto
Bonus:
Predict the Nats’ rotation entering the last week of the season: Lannan, Olsen, Zimmermann, Martis, Balester
* I think the biggest surprise will actually be competence from the front office, and I have confidence that they’ll resolve the OF issues.