What do you all think will happen during the 2024 MLB season?
It’s Opening Day! Rockies baseball is back!
Earlier today, we shared our Purple Row staff predictions, and for the first time, we asked the community to offer their same predictions! We received 28 responses, and here’s what you all think will happen this year:
Let’s start with a win total
The community is more optimistic, overall, than the staff. On average, the community believes that the Rockies will post 68 wins this year. Three folks believe that the Rox will win 63 games and another three believe they will win 73 games. The most optimistic person predicts a 101-61 record, while the most pessimistic predicts a 43-119 finish.
National League winners
75% of the community believes that the Los Angeles Dodgers will continue to be Kings of the NL West, but the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants also received three votes apiece. And one person believes this will be the Rockies year! Interestingly, nobody chose the reigning NL-champion Arizona Diamondbacks to win.
In the Central, the community was split evenly between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds, who received nine votes apiece. The St. Louis Cardinals received six votes, and the Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates each received one.
In the East, the favorite was pretty clear — 92.9% of voters believe the Atlanta Braves will be victorious, while the Miami Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies each earned one vote.
As far as Wild Cards go, if the Purple Row community has their way, the Arizona Diamondbacks (17 votes), Philadelphia Phillies (16) and San Francisco Giants (12) will snag the three spots. Every NL team earned multiple votes except for the Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs, who earned one vote apiece, and the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals, who did not receive a single vote.
American League winners
Switching leagues, the results were similar in their spread.
In the West, the majority of folks (46.4%) believe the Houston Astros will continue to reign supreme. 32.1% believe the reigning World Series-champion Texas Rangers will unseat them, and 21.4% believe this is the Seattle Mariners’ year!
Heading into the Central, the Minnesota Twins (53.6%) are the clear favorites. The Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers tied for second place with 17.9% of the votes, and the Kansas City Royals earned 10.7%.
Finally, like the NL, there is a clear favorite in the AL East. 20 out of 28 respondents believe the Baltimore Orioles will repeat as champs. Five people believe the New York Yankees will take the crown, two people picked the Tampa Bay Rays and one person picked the Toronto Blue Jays.
As far as Wild Cards go, if the Purple Row community had their way, the Texas Rangers (17 votes), Tampa Bay Rays (13) and Toronto Blue Jays (12) would earn the three spots. Every team received multiple votes except for the Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics, who all received zero votes.
Champions
The pennant races were quite interesting. On the NL side, the Dodgers (11 votes) hold the slight edge over the Braves (10) for the favorite among the community. The Giants earned three votes, the Phillies earned two, and the Reds and Cardinals each earned one.
On the AL side, the Orioles are the clear favorite, earning 18 of 28 votes. The Rangers are a distant second with four votes, the Yankees and Blue Jays each earned two, and the Astros and Mariners each earned one.
As far as the whole enchilada, 43% of voters believe that the Baltimore Orioles will lift the Commissioner’s Trophy. 18% believe it will go to the Dodgers, 14% to the Braves and 11% to the Rangers. The Astros, Phillies, giants and Blue Jays also earned one vote apiece.
Hardware
Speaking of trophies, like the staff, the NL MVP favorite is Mookie Betts, who received nine votes. Ronald Acuña Jr. is right on his heels, though, having received eight votes. Shohei Ohtani received five votes for his first year with the other LA team, and Bryce Harper earned two. Finally, Austin Riley, Matt Olsen, Corbin Carroll, Fernando Tatís Jr., and Freddie Freeman each received one vote apiece.
On the AL side, Juan Soto (6 votes) edged out Julio Rodriguez (5) for the community favorite for MVP. Receiving multiple votes were Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman (3), as well as Aaron Judge (2). And receiving one vote apiece were Jose Altuve, Bobby Witt Jr., Colton Cowser, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Mike Trout, Corey Seager and Giancarlo Stanton.
On the pitching side, the community was all over the map. Six people believe that Spencer Strider will take home hardware, while Zac Gallen and Blake Snell were chosen by five people. Also receiving votes were Zach Wheeler (2), Hunter Greene, Kyle Freeland, Justin Steele, Bobby Miller, Tyler Glasnow, Paul Skenes, Logan Webb and Freddy Peralta (1 each).
On the AL side, Corbin Burnes is the favorite, having earned 1⁄4 of the votes. Gerrit Cole was a close second, earning five, and Kevin Gauman earned four. Tarik Skubal and Luis Castillo each earned three votes, while George Kirby, Max Scherzer, Ryan Pepiot, Pablo Lopez and Zach Eflin each earned one.
As far as rookies go, Jackson Chourio was the overwhelming community favorite for NL Rookie of the Year, earning 1⁄4 of the votes. Yoshinobu Yamamoto received four votes and Jung Hoo Lee and Paul Skenes each earned two. A few Rockies earned single votes: Jordan Beck, Adael Amador and Hunter Goodman. Also receiving single votes were Michael Busch, Dylan Crews, Ethan Salas, Jackson Merrill and Jordan Lawlar.
On the AL side, the community was pretty split between Wyatt Langford and Jackson Holliday (9 votes each). Evan Carter received five votes, and Colton Cowser earned one.
(I know these predictions, especially ROY, can be challenging so I thank you all for your votes and effort!)
Bold predictions
Now is the fun part of the staff predictions! The staff made some fun predictions, what does the community think?
On the Rockies side, three people believe that Kyle Freeland will receive Cy Young votes, and one believes he will finish in the Top 5!
Like the staff survey, Nolan Jones also garnered some attention. One person thinks he’ll earn at least one MVP vote, and another believes he will hit for the cycle with a walk-off home run to cap it off. Ezequiel Tovar is also predicted to hit for the cycle twice… will either one do it?
Brenton Doyle is believed to become a 20/20 player and hit over .250, and Justin Lawrence is thought to lead the NL in saves!
As a whole team, a few predictions came up for the Rockies. The community believe that the Rockies will have the best record (or be tied for it) in the NL West for at least one day, have a winning record in the second half and finish fourth in the NL West. The community believe they will also be in the Top 10 in stolen bases and have two All-Stars.
And finally, here are some predictions from around the league!
- MLB will announce that it will be expanding in the year 2026 in Nashville, TN and Salt Lake City, UT
- MLB will announce the Ball/Strike Challenge System for the 2025 season
- The AL Central is won by a team with a sub .500 record
- A natural disaster causes a team to need to play in a stadium other than their normal home stadium for some period of the regular season
- The Pittsburgh Pirates and Detroit Tigers make it through the weak Central Divisions and become legit playoff headaches to the “big boys” due to great starting pitching.
- Padres finish 5th in NL West
- Matt Olson hits 60 homers
- Astros miss playoffs
- Diamondbacks do not make the playoffs one year after making the World Series
- Wyatt Langford finishes MVP runner-up, hits 46 homers
And our personal favorite:
- Mookie Betts plays all nine positions in one game
Some of these bold predictions will come true, and we’ll all wish we had come up with them ourselves. But either way, baseball is back everyone!
Happy Opening Day!