Predicting The NL EAST 2007

Now I wrote this article a while ago, before Mike Hampton got injured, Before Josh Johnson along with seemingly the rest of the Marlins pitching staff got injured. Also before Chipper Jones got hurt. And for the Mets, Milledge coming to camp looking great, Pelfrey has command of off-speed pitches. And the starting rotation dominating (I know its only spring)
Mack (From Macksmets) seems to disagree alot with me on this. Lets see what you think.

Team Win Loss
Mets 94 68
Phillies 91 71
Braves: 85 77
Marlins 79 83
Nationals 68 94

The NL East in 2007 will be the most improved division in the NL. The league has tons of young talent and theres alot to expect from each team(besides the Nationals).

The Mets will finish first just because they are the most complete team. Although they don't have the starting pitching that a division winner would usually have,they have the offense that should be able to keep them in the high scoring games. Also, the Mets have a solid bullpen that should also help them in cases where the starter could only go 5 innings. SO overall, they are the most complete team who just needs a young pitcher to step up and establish himself as a starter.

Even though the Phillies completed tons of trades and signings for starting pitching its still hard to see that much better of an team ERA. This is because most of the pitchers they aquired are question marks. Add to that the fact that they will pitch half there starts at Citizen Bank Park which is one of the best hitters park in the game. Freddy Garcia will have some home run troubles here. The Phillies will also have some trouble finishing games because, like last year, their bullpen is not good at all. The saving grace of this phillies team is their solid offense and solid starter in Myers and Hamels (who I predict to have a huge year). The Phillies team in 2007 reminds me alot of The Braves 2006 team. Good starting pitching and a good offense but a horrible bullpen. So they are slotted second in the league with 91 wins and a Wild Card.

The Braves are finishing 3rd because even with the upgrade in the bullpen, they still have weak spots in their pen. They lost a major offense bat in Adam Laroche, and still have an aging, injury plagued Chipper Jones. The Braves offense will not be as good and the starting pitching led by the ace John Smoltz has many question marks. Also many Braves fans think Chuck James will be a big impact pitcher are mistaken, he really only has the potential to be a solid 4 or 5.

The Marlins are finishing 4th because you can't really know what to expect from such a young ball club. Seriously, what if they all go through a sophomore slump? They showed alot of potential last year but they lost a big part in manager Joe Giradi. The Marlins still have some question marks in the offense and have a bullpen that shows ton of holes. Also will Josh Johnson be able to pitch the entire season?

The Nationals are going to finish last just because they have nothing going for them. They lost a key part to the offense in Alfonso Soriano. The ownership made a huge mistake in not trading Soriano and the trading deadline for some top prospects to help them out now. The Nationals have Ryan Zimmerman and Austin Kearns. Thats basically it for Offense. They have John Paterson who when healthy is a good starter but thats basically it. They have a decent bullpen but are looking to trade away the key part to the pen in Cordero. The Nationals better get 2 top prospects for him. The worst part is that The Nationals have no top prospects that can make an impact either.