Our fearless predictions for the National League East — with wins included!

1. Phillies (92 wins): Champs are largely back intact, though injuries to Utley and Hamels are concerns. Replacing Burrell with Ibanez was a lateral move, but it makes the lineup more susceptible to lefthanded pitching (see division foes Johan Santana and Oliver Perez).
2. Mets (91 wins): Will the Mets ever live up to expectations? After Pythagorean winning 89 games last year and the Phillies 93, did the bullpen additions of K-Rod and JJ Putz close the gap of four games? We don’t think so.
3. Braves (84 wins): The were seven Pythagorean wins better than their actual record in 2008. With Vazquez and Lowe additions, they have the best pitching staff, starters and relievers included, in the division, if not the league, but not enough OBP in the outfield or first base. And it’s hard for Chipper to be lucky in both health and BABIP again.
4. Marlins (77 wins): Won’t roll over for anyone, as usual, with Ramirez and Uggla, but not enough experience all around to do much.
5. Nationals (60 wins): The Nats might contend someday if they could channel Howie Shanks like the Cardinals have done with Skip Schumaker and convert some of their outfielders to infielders. About five times over.

This entry was posted by Pip on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 12:28 pm and is filed under analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.