A Look at the division - NL East

Welcome to the land no longer dominated by the Braves. The Mets, Phillies, Marlins and Nationals live here too.

New this offseason:
Mets: Chan Ho Park, Moises Alou
Phillies: Freddy Garcia, Adam Eaton, Wes Helms, Jayson Werth
Marlins: nobody significant
Braves: Craig Wilson, Mike Gonzalez
Nationals: Dmitri Young, Ronnie Belliard, bunch of jobber pitchers

Ascending rankings

5th place - Washington Nationals

Let's face it, they're going to suck and suck hard. The Flordia Marlins had a bare bones team with excellent rookies, but the Nats just have aging crap. They've got a few hitters, but no pitching. They have two very good relief pitchers, and they might get to them when Patterson starts, but that's it. The lineup will hurt even more as Nick Johnson will be out a good while with that broken leg.

2 - Schneider
3 - Johnson
4 - Lopez
5 - Zimmerman
6 - Guzman (hopefully he gets replaced by Lopez and Belliard plays 2B)
7 - Church (I hope, for their sake)
8 - Logan
9 - Kearns

Rotation - John Patterson (R) and a bunch of pieces of crap

Closer - Chad Cordero

4th Place - Atlanta Braves
Just when I thought the Braves management was about to give up, they went and got Craig Wilson. But still, what the heck are they doing, particularly if they don't give the 2B starting job to Aybar and 1B job to Wilson. What they had last year was more than just an off-year; the club is breaking down a bit. Not using Betemit at short and trading off Marte was not a smart move, particularly with budget constraints and the level of talent they have.

Lineup
2 - McCann
3 - Wilson
4 - Aybar
5 - C. Jones
6 - Renteria
7 - Langerhans
8 - A. Jones
9 - Francoeur

Rotation
Smoltz (R)
Hudson (R)
Hampton (L)
Davies (R)
James (L)

Closer - Bob Wickman

3rd Place - Florida Marlins
But just barely over Atlanta. Still, I think the fish are prime candidates to pass by the tomohawks, mainly because they're a core group that will only get better. The question is whether Dontrelle Willis will have another great odd-numbered year. You can't discount this team, except for in centerfield.

2 - Olivo
3 - Jacobs
4 - Uggla
5 - Cabrera
6 - Ramirez
7 - Willingham
8 - Amezaga
9 - Hermida

Rotation:
Willis (L)
Olsen (L)
Johnson (R)
Sanchez (R)
Nolasco (R)

Closer - Tankersly

2nd Place - New York Mets
They'll be well in front of the Marlins, but will fall short when they're missing Pedro too much. Sure they did fine without him, and their offense can power them through quite a bit, but they can't expect to be that lucky with middle relief. Also, the rotation is either too old or too meh. But as a whole that's the best lineup in the NL.

Lineup
2 - LoDuca
3 - Delgado
4 - Valentin
5 - Wright
6 - Reyes
7 - Alou
8 - Beltran
9 - Green

Rotation
Glavine (L)
El Duque (R)
Maine (R)
Perez (L)
Park (R)

Closer - Billy Wagner

Philadelphia Phillies - Division Champs
That the Phillies got two decent starting pitchers gives them an extroardinary improvement. That was the only real weakness Philadelphia had last year, and they've got John Lieber as an extra guy too. As Cole Hammels develops, they should become very good. They might miss Abreu, though, and the Mets are certainly within the margin of error on this one.

2 - Barajas
3 - Howard
4 - Utley
5 - Helms
6 - Rollins
7 - Burrell
8 - Rowand
9 - Victorino

Rotation
Garcia (R)
Myers (R)
Hammels (L)
Eaton (R)
Moyer (L)

Closer - Tom Gordon