I’ll give you the who, what, when, where, and why’s with predictions coming when I finish with the divisions. We will start with the so very competitive NL East. While the division does have a couple of sleeping giants who will be very good in the next couple years, there is really only one team that will be truly good.
Atlanta Braves: They might have moved into a new stadium after only 19 years in Turner Field but they haven’t moved on from their losing ways. The days of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz are long gone as are their 13 straight division titles but the Braves hope to competitive real soon. As the loss mounted over the last 5 years, so have the draft picks. With the #1 prospect, Ronald Acuna, headed to the bigs to join and plethora of 5 tool players like Inciarte, Swanson and Freeman. The future looks bright.
Miami Marlins: This is what you call a dumpster fire. Floridians rejoiced when Marlins owner Jeffry Lorie sold the team but little did they know the worst was yet to come. Not only did Lorie stiff Miami Dade County for the stadium bill claiming his 2 billion dollar sale of the team was a loss, he also sold the team to perennial winner, good guy Derek Jeter. Jeter immediately sold every player who could hit, pitch or field a ball. This was a team on the rise, a team that was a few pitchers away from making so noise in the postseason and then it went belly up. Stanton, Yelich, Ozuna, Acheverria, Gordon, and others were jettisoned off for not very good returns. For this season and the considerable future, Miami will be the first team to field a Triple A team is a major league stadium.
New York Metropolitans: Come on and meet the Mets! Seriously, other than the rotation you might not recognize your team. After getting out of ponzi scheme, no budget purgatory, the Mets finally rewarded their faithful fans with a world series appearance in 2015. Since then, it’s been a slog. The team relies heavily on their uber talented, oft injured rotation. The teams a good mixture of over paid veterans and under performing prospects. If the pitching holds up, this could be a dangerous team.
Philadelphia Phillies: You could probably field two teams with the amount of prospects this team has. The Phillies have done a good job of rebounding back after Ruben Amaro turned Pat Gillick’s team into a money pit. The Phils would probably like to see more out of their young position players but the pitching with Nola, Eickhoff and Velasquez have done nicely. This year, they sprinkled in some good allstar veterans with reasonable contracts. If those veterans can mentor the prospects a bit, this team could challenge for the division.
Washington Nationals: This is a stacked team capable of winning 95 games in a good division but in a division where they might be the only team to crack .500? The sky is the limit. With allstar starting potential at nearly every position and a top 3 rotation in all of baseball, this will be a team worth watching. Having said that, they do have a rookie manager in Dave Martinez and this is probably their last year with all world talent right fielder Bryce Harper and annual Cy Young contender, Max Scherzer. Is this finally their year?