NL East Preview

I start my annual baseball preview this year with the NL East. Last year I picked the Phillies and was correct. This years NL East will be a very competitive division as I see the Phillies, Mets, Braves and Marlins all battling for the division. Now onto the preview.

1. Philadelphia Phillies-Yes, for the third year in a row I am picking the Phillies to finish in first. The world champions have the experience and confidence now to win the division again. The talent on this team isn’t too shabby either.

The offense is very deep with the likes of Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino. I think second baseman Chase Utley will have a big season. Raul Ibanez is a good addition, even though they overpaid for him, but they might miss Pat Burrell.

The rotation of Hammels, Moyer, Blanton and Myers is a good rotation, though that also depends on the health of Hammels and the agelessness of Jamie Moyer. The bullpen was very strong last season and they will be this season. Brad Lidge will have another dominant season. The only issue I see is the absence of J.C. Romero for 50 games, but the Phillies should be alright.

Biggest ?: The Rotation- The difference between the Phillies winning a third consecutive NL East title and missing the playoffs will be the rotation. Ace Cole Hammels has battled some injuries this spring and the Phillies need him to be healthy. 46-year old Jamie Moyer needs to continue to show he can pitch effectively at his age and the Phillies need solid seasons from Joe Blanton and Brett Myers.

Player To Watch: SS Jimmy Rollins- He is the igniter on this team, where he leads the team follows.

2. Atlanta Braves-  One of my bolder picks. The strong point of this team is their rebuilt rotation. Derek Lowe was a fantastic pick up and he will be as reliable as he always has been, Javier Vasquez will benefit from being back in the NL and I think he will have a very good season, Kenshin Kawakami is a solid pick up to the back end of the rotation. I am excited about Jair Jurrjens and think this kid will really emerge this season. Tom Glavine in the 5th slot is also solid. The absence of Tim Hudson for most of the season does hurt the Braves, but the current 5-man rotation could emerge as one of the best in the league.

The offense is iffy, the Braves will rely on third baseman Chipper Jones, catcher Brian McCann and newly acquired outfielder Garret Anderson to carry most of the offense load. Jeff Francoeur needs to have a rebound year to really help this team compete for the division.

The bullpen also needs to have a better year, besides Rafael Sorianoand Manny Acosta there isn’t much depth to the bullpen. Mike Gonzalez is a decent, not great, closer.

Biggest ?: The Offense- The rotation alone can’t carry the Braves past the Mets and Marlins into the playoffs, the offense needs to be productive.

Player To Watch: OF Jeff Francoeur- Francoeur going back to 2007 form would make the Braves offense a good one.

3. New York Mets- No matter what the Met players, managers or front office say, the thought of a third division choke in a row has to be in their minds. The Metshave a problem with the Phillies talking smack the past two years and calling the Mets choke artists, but you know what? The world champions back up their talk and were right. Whether it was Omar Minaya or the Wilpons, someone screwed up this offseason. Not going after Manny Ramirez was mind boggling, don’t know how the Metswere worried about chemistry when Manny’s personality fits the Mets’, plus there was no real chemistry to ruin. Losing Derek Lowe to rival Braves and re-signing Oliver Perez was also dumb. Going with Luis Castillo as your second baseman just because of his salary and not signing Orlando Hudson at a great bargain says a lot about the the teams commitment to win. Signing Tim Redding? Enough said.

After ace Johan Santana, I don’t believe there is enough pitching talent to go to the playoffs. I like John Maine and Mike Pelfrey has potential, but at eithers best they are not better than a #3 starter. I would never want Oliver Perez on my team, he is way too inconsistent and the WBCseems to messed with him a bit, the Mets just have to hope his bright moments outweigh his very bad ones. I guess you can do worse as Livan Hernandez as your #5 starter.

I don’t see the offense being good enough to carry the team either. 3B David Wright and SS Jose Reyes will probably have great seasons and CF Carlos Beltran will have his typical season, but after that I don’t know. I think Carlos Delgado offensive production will drop. Young outfielder Daniel Murphy could emerge as a stud, but that is a big question mark for a contending team, plus how much better would that position look with Manny Ramirez there instead. Ryan “the concussion” Church, Luis Castillo and Brian Schenieder seem to look like starters on the Pittsburgh Pirates, not a team that wants to make the playoffs.

The bullpen is the one bright spot of the team. After the bullpen was abyssimal last season (just ask Santana) the Mets went out and got some arms. Closer Francisco Rodriguez is one of the best closers and a big improvement over Billy Wagner and former closer J.J. Putz will be a great set-up man.

Biggest ?: Oliver Perez- If Perez turns into the pitcher people for so long thought he has the potential to become, then that could make the Mets more serious contenders. But if he’s his usual self, then your looking at an overpaid overated fourth starter.

Player To Watch: OF Daniel Murphy- If this kid lives up to half the hype the Mets front office is talking about then this offense might not be as bad.

4. Florida Marlins- Think of what this team could do if they didn’t have the payroll of a European independent league team and screw their fan base. Their very young and full of potential rotation will make this a good team and maybe finish with a respectable rotation. Rickey Nolasco, Josh Johnson and Chris Volstad could emerge as stars this season. Anibal Sanchez is looking to rebound and be healthy and revert back to rookie form. By the end of the year this rotation could resemble the 2003 Marlins rotation of Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Dontrelle Willis, Mark Redman and Carl Pavano.

The offense is the Achilles heel for this team. Because the team spends no money and is in constant rebuild mode and trades players that start to make too much money, there isn’t too much offensive talent. SS Hanley Ramirez, the best shortstop in the league, is the focal point of the offense. Luckily for Marlins fans, because a stadium deal in Miami has been finalized, it looks like Ramirez won’t be traded and kept as the face of the team. A lot also rest on the offensive shoulders of 2B Dan Uggla and 1B Jorge Cantu.

The bullpen has some talented arms and Matt Lindstrom will emerge as a reliable closer.

Overall, this team could be good enough to compete if money was spent on some free agent veteran talent.

Biggest ?:Why isn’t it illegal to spend so little on your team and alienate your fan base?

Player To Watch: SS Hanley Ramirez- I sniff an MVP award for Hanley.

 

5. Washington Nationals-  This team is yeeeaarrs away from being competitive. From shady business practices by their GM to signing Adam Dunn, this team makes head scratching moves. The Nationals are my pick to lose 120 games this season.

Their top talent in their pitching staff is John Lannanand Scott Olsen, bothgood number 4 or 5 starters for any other team. The rest of the rotation isn’t worth noting.

Why did the Nationals sign Adam Dunn, a older veteran, when they didn’t do anything else to improve the team. Dunn only came out of desperation and Mark Teixeira didn’t give them a second thought, despite being from the area and being offered the most money. The team was desperate to have one big bat draw on the team. But if your willing to spend around $30 million to sign one player, why wouldn’t you spend that money to get five good free agents in a low market? It boggles the mind. Maybe outfielders Eljiah Dukes and Lastings Milledge can finally live up to their past hype, maybe first baseman Nick Johnson can finally stay healthy, then the offense wouldn’t look too bad, especially if third baseman Ryan Zimmerman, the real face to the franchise, has a great season.

Reliever Joe Beimel was a nice pickup for the Nat’s bullpen. But Joel Hanrahan isn’t an impressive option at closer and the rest of the bullpen is lackluster.

 Biggest ?: What Will The National’s get Out of Their Outfielders- Will Eljiah Dukes and Lastings Milledge live up to their potential? Will Adam Dunn thrive in a huge ballpark and a team that he didn’t really want to play for?

Player To Watch: LF Adam Dunn- That’s why the Nationals signed him isn’t it? To have at least one player who is somewhat watchable on the team.

Along with my prediction of the Phillies winning the division, I’m going to predict that the Atlanta Braves will win the Wild Card.

Coming Up Next: NL Central

Mike Piazza Come on Down…….

Your the next contestant on ‘Are The Steroid Allegations Right?’

The steroid claims against Mike Piazza are heating up.

In SI.com’s writer Jeff Pearlman’s new book, The Rocket That Fell To The Earth, there have been allegations against Mike Piazza for allegedly using steroids. Here is a quote from the book:

“There was nothing more obvious than Mike on steroids,” says another major league veteran who played against Piazza for years. “Everyone talked about it, everyone knew it. Guys on my team, guys on the Mets. A lot of us came up playing against Mike, so we knew what he looked like back in the day. Frankly, he sucked on the field. Just sucked. After his body changed, he was entirely different. ‘Power from nowhere,’ we called it.”

Now of course this is just rumors in a book not official fact. However, I have always had suspicions about Piazza and there were rumors about him even before it became fashionable to declare players as roid heads. When allegations first came out in books about players connections with steroids I chose to mostly disregard them, but turns out almost every allegation has been found to be pretty factual.

Deadspin also has a newer post containing more material from Pearlman’s book:

As the hundreds of major league ballplayers who turned to performance-enhancing drugs throughout the 1990s did their absolute best to keep the media at arm’s length, Piazza took the opposite approach. According to several sources, when the subject of performance enhancing was broached with reporters he especially trusted, Piazza fessed up. “Sure, I use,” he told one. “But in limited doses, and not all that often.” (Piazza has denied using performance-enhancing drugs, but there has always been speculation.) Whether or not it was Piazza’s intent, the tactic was brilliant: By letting the media know, of the record, Piazza made the information that much harder to report. Writers saw his bulging muscles, his acne-covered back. They certainly heard the under-the-breath comments from other major league players, some who considered Piazza’s success to be 100 percent chemically delivered. “He’s a guy who did it, and everybody knows it,” says Reggie Jefferson, the longtime major league first baseman. “It’s amazing how all these names, like Roger Clemens, are brought up, yet Mike Piazza goes untouched.”

Looks like the “loosey-goosey” era has affected another future hall-of-famer.

Final WBC Thoughts

So Japan won the WBC again, not surprised at all. Their pitching was incredible.

- Don’t know what crackhead scheduled the WBC finale but they should be fired. To put the WBC finale at 10 p.m. eastern time on a Monday, it was complete idiocy. Unless you live on the west coast, you had to stay awake past midnight on a week day. You would never see a World Cup final or Superbowl that late, nevermind on a weeknight. Especially when the average WBC game lasted 3+ hours. Don’t understand why they couldn’t of moved the first Saturday semi-final game up to Friday and played the final on Sunday at around 7 or even 8 p.m. eastern time. This way you can have people on the west coast attend the game and watch and everybody would be happy. If they are trying to make this competition be like the World Cup, they should act like it.

- No surprise America lost, they had too many injuries, too little heart and bad pitching. They need to figure out what they will do for 2013 to fix this issue, or don’t bother to enter the event. The U.S. would be the champions if their top talent were willing to play for their country and they showed as much heart as the other countries in the event.

- Kudos to Korea, the game keeps growing there. Korea had very little Major League talent, yet were a very dominant team and fought Japan blow for blow till the very end.

- Bud Selig needs to take some time to figure out how to tune the WBC a little more to make it better.

-Overall, I loved many of the games in the event and can’t wait for the next one in 2013.

On other news, glad to see blaber mouth whale pitcher Curt Schilling retire, there has never been a pitcher or a player I have disliked more than that moron. With that said, I believe Curt Schilling is a hall of famer.

Back For Some Thoughts

It has been a while since my last post, I apologize. Been very busy with stories for school. Anyway, I’m just going to spew out some thoughts I had on the World baseball Classic.

- If your not watching the WBC, your missing out. There has been some incredible games thus far, the most recent being the U.S. beating Puerto Rico last night in a late 9th inning rally. The Netherlands victories over the Dominican Republic and were amazing, easily the biggest upset in baseball history. There has been blow outs, but that is just the nature of baseball, the close games have been really intense and fun to watch.

-The WBC shouldn’t be held in America. Not after the empty stadiums that USA baseball teams play in on their own territory, it’s pathetic and embarrassing. I know I know, many Americans don’t care about the WBC. Well they should. International competition only makes the beautiful game of baseball better, Americans should take page out of the world’s book of supporting a national team. In other countries, stadiums were packed with fans from the host country’s team, the American attendance is embarrassing. Maybe only the final should be held in America, but this issue needs to be addressed.

-It’s sad, but because of so many injuries to players this WBC, it could mean disaster for the the young international competition. Less players will participate or be allowed to participate in the next one. The WBC needs to be held after the season, a few more games and innings won’t kill the players. For players that didn’t make the playoffs, it will be like a post season. Also, many players play in winter leagues, so some could bypass that for the WBC. It’s not a perfect solution at all, but I feel it is a better time than spring.

- If America doesn’t win this competition, it should be ashamed. Well, mostly US born ball players should be, the 2009 US team is simply a B team of what the US team should look like. Under no circumstances should Ted Lilly be the third starter on US team.

- In the end I see Japan repeating as champs. The U.S. simply doesn’t have the pitching and is plagued by too many injuries.

In the near future I will be posting my annual division by division preview, and awards predictions.