1. The Washington Nationals Will Win The World Series For The First Time
Pitching is so important in baseball. If you can keep the other team off the scoreboard you're going to win. It's like any sport, really. The phrase "defense wins championships" is so true. Thanks to the best pitching staff in baseball, the Washington Nationals are the favorite to win it all in my opinion they will. It's not like this would be their first time in the playoffs either. They've been there before. It's just that they haven't been able to take the next step and get to a World Series. The best free agent signing in the offseason was the Nationals bringing in Max Scherzer as the ace of their pitching staff. He's a former American League Cy Young winner and somebody that will do even better in the NL where the offenses are worst than the AL. His addition to a pitching staff that already included Strasburg, Zimmerman, Fister and Gonzalez makes them the best in the majors and this is a team coming off a 96 win year that was best in the National League. What they need to really get to that next level is a more consistent year from their offensive leaders like Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth, Anthony Rendon, Ryan Zimmerman and others. When you have those hitters to support the pitching it means that even if the pitchers are off, the bats can carry the team once in a while too. Look for the Nationals to put it all together this year and win the World Series for the first time in their history of being in Washington and also when they were in Montreal. They have the most complete team. As long as their key guys are healthy they're the team to beat.