Gabe Laques, MLB Editor & Reporter, USA Today Sports, joins Cheddar Bets to offer up his expert opinions on the start of baseball season.

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Expert Baseball Season Predictions

Welcome back to cheddar butts brought to you by Bet. Mgm. The 222 MLB season officially underway. And while some teams have already taken the field, there's plenty of action to look forward to tonight. The defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves host the reds, Shohei Otani looked to overwhelm the Astros on the mound and at the plate while the Mets and the Padres will look to win their respective contest without injured superstars. Jacob deGrom and Fernando Tatis, JR joining us now, Gabe locks MLB reporter and editor for USA Today Sports. So, so Gabe the Braves host the reds tonight on national tv and the champs are going to look a little bit different now. So out goes Freddie Freeman, but incomes, Matt Olson and Kenley Jensen, do you think they win the Nl east again? You know, it's going to be a dog fight. And I think one thing that we need to remember is they did win the world series last year, but they only won 88 games. So this isn't 100 win team returning. This is a team that had some flaws that will be missing. Ronald Acuna jr for the first month or so of the season. I think, you know, Matt Olson will be a pretty good replacement for Freddie Freeman. But ultimately I think it will come down to their pitching that will determine whether they win that division, but it's absolutely going to be a dogfight between the Phillies and Mets and uh, you know, I think a lot is going to have to go right for Atlanta. I'm kind of kind of fading them a bit to win the East. All right well speaking of Freddie Freeman here he's a dodger now and that lineup is absolutely loaded. So while it's a good thing on the field could the star power actually hurt the Dodgers chances of winning N. L. M. V. P. Yeah it's a good it's a good point. You raised so many good players, you know Freeman bets and Turner trey. Turner, two of them already with MVPs trade Turner with Mvp caliber performance almost year after year it'll be tough to divvy it up between those three guys and then you throw in a guy like max Muncy who's very capable of finishing in the top five. Uh Perhaps not M. V. P. On his own but certainly might steal a few votes. So you look around the league will juan soto you know with the Nationals lose so many games that he falls out of the race. That's a big question. Uh bryce harper repeat certainly seems within reach and and keep an eye on paul Goldschmidt. The Cardinals could hang around with that third wild card spot and he could definitely You know, definitely hit another 40 some home runs and and get get into that race along with all those Dodgers. Oh yeah everybody wants to see a bryce harper repeat by the way I always hear the talk about that at the beginning of the season. Alright so thanks to the weather down in D. C. By the way, a couple of the Nl east teams opened their season a little later than anticipated and we still have time to get our Mets nationals bets in. So what are you expecting from this Mets team that's overall disappointed the last couple of years? Yeah, I think expectations might be just a little bit high, I don't think they're not gonna come through, I don't think they're not necessarily gonna make the playoffs, but you know, I think you know, they're expected to be right around 88 89 wins, I might go a little bit below that, you know 86 wins might be enough to win an nl wild card this year, but you know that the Jacob deGrom injury is key, you know, we're looking at two months without that guy and suddenly you wonder what's the identity of this team because it was diagram ensures er now suddenly it's Scherzer and guys like Carlos, Carrasco, Taiwan walker back of the rotation guys now suddenly closer to the middle, will they have enough offense to uh to kind of overcome that potentially pedestrian kind of starting pitching? So I'm a little down on them not to say that it's going to be a mets like year and and they're going to be curved and all that, but I think you know, I think 88 89 wins a little too high for them, but I do think they'll be in that three team wild card race right to the end. Okay. I like the realistic perspective by the way, I appreciate that one. So one Soto is the favorite to win. Nl MvP. But will he do that if the nationals finished last in the division? It's a really good question. You know, it's tough because I can guarantee you right now he's gonna have an amazing on base percentage, is gonna have an amazing O. P. S. And you're gonna threaten all kinds of records probably set by barry bonds in terms of walks and on base percentage. But over the course of six months, will that add up against the guy who did it in the fire of a pennant race? I think he's gonna have to lap the field a good bit for one soda to win the Mvp. Just because, you know, it's really tough to do it as a last place. Guy Alex Rodriguez did it way back in 2003 with with the texas rangers. Uh It's gonna be tricky here just because a lot of great uh competition which we've already talked about from harper and Philly to almost a half dozen guys in L. A. You know, anybody in the Central that might step forward. So it's it's definitely doable, but things are going to have to break right for him, not just with what he does, but what other guys can and can't do as well Well, last question for you, we have to say goodbye to pictures hitting except for Shohei Otani of course. How do you expect the new D. H. Rule to affect the National League going forward? Yeah, it's gonna be tough with the only a half off season to really prepare for it down here in D. C. They have the best nelson cruz but not a lot of teams are going to go that route with the primary guy and I think what, watch what the Dodgers do this year, just because they're so deep and they're so platoon friendly that they can run guys like Freeman guys like muncie a Justin turner if you want to get trey turner off his feet one day, you know, that's really the best way to run a D. H. Spot and they obviously have the depth to pull it off really well. So check back next year after they've had a whole offseason to kind of strip it. But I I think the best way to do it is maybe to divvy up the task and give everybody a little breather here and there. I love to hear gay blocks, thank you so much for joining us. MLB reporter and editor for USa Today Sports