2011 MLB National League East Predictions
There was no surprise when the Philadelphia Phillies won the NL East for the fourth time in a row last year with 97-65. The Atlanta Braves put up a good fight and ended up in the NL Wild Card entry, making it to the postseason for the first time since 2005.
The National League East has the Philadelphia Phillies, the Atlanta Braves, the Florida Marlins, the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals battling it out on the field to win the division post.
As if the Phillies didn’t have an impressive rotation already, they added the great Cliff Lee to the team too. This, without a doubt, gives them by far the best rotation of the season. When a team has Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels,
there is a good probability of them taking away the division title. Although their veteran line-up has trouble maintaining their health, their pitching is strong enough to carry the game on. Let’s just hope there are no injuries, because that is the only thing
that would take the Phillies down.
Manager Bobby Cox finally got the Atlanta Braves to perform. Although they don’t have the best of starting rotation like the Phillies do, they still have Tim Hudson, Derek Lowe, Tommy Hansen and Jair Jurrjens performing well and they are enough to bring
a few wins to Atlanta. Jason Heyward has started improving his game and the addition of Dan Uggla can only help them win. Chipper Jones should be an essential part of the team if they want to win, but his health has been problematic. Even if they don’t win
the division title, they might be strong enough to win the NL Wild Card.
Even though players have been coming in and out of their rotation at the drop of a hat, the Florida Marlins have managed to stay focused and competitive. If all the young talent on the team starts giving results performing sooner than expected, they could
end up surprising the other teams. Josh Johnson and Picky Nolasco may not be Cliff Lee but they have a ton of talent and a promise to perform. They are known to be sneaky, given that they came out of nowhere and managed to win the World Series twice and this
year they have a fair chance of making it to the payoffs, or maybe even further.
The New York Mets disappointed everyone last season and with Johan Santana gone for most of the season, they will not perform any better than last year. If they want to perform somewhat better they really need their average offence to start performing because
they can’t expect the pitching staff to help them win. From the looks of their performances in the offseason, expecting anything from them would just disappoint the fans.
As sad as it is, the Washington National don’t have a chance of leading the division. Relying only on Livan Hernandez to get them to win is expecting too much from a player. No matter how good Hernandez is, a single player cannot carry the entire game on
his shoulders. Their pitching staff is almost the worst in all of MLB and with the Adam Dunn not there anymore, their offence would inevitable weaken as well.
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