Opening Day Thoughts: MLB Execs Weigh In on What to Expect This Season

Spring may not yet have sprung in earnest in much of the U.S., but that isn’t stopping the Boys of Summer from starting the 2018 Major League Baseball.

Today, 28 of MLB’s 30 teams will start their seasons (Cincinnati’s home opener against Washington has already been rained out), making it the busiest Opening Day the league has enjoyed since 1968.

In honor of the start of the season, ESPN surveyed 43 general managers, assistant GMs, personnel directors and scouts about eight topics that could dominate the 2018 baseball season.

For example, which of the six favorites to win their division – Yankees, Indians, Astros, Nationals, Cubs and Dodgers – is most likely to be upset and finish in second or lower?

If you’re a Yankees fan, you won’t like what the respondents had to say as 17.5 of them (a half vote was allowed) voted that New York’s suspect pitching rotation would be too much to overcome and the team would finish in second behind the Boston Red Sox.

The Cubs were the second-most-picked team to be upset (9.5), followed by the Dodgers (8), Nationals (3.5), Indians (3.5) and Astros (1).

See Jerry Crasnick’s piece on ESPN for the following seven survey questions and results.