NL East: The Big Picture

May 25, 2008 – 10:01 am

Here’s the big picture in the NL East right now:

Florida Marlins: Can they hold it together? Nobody expected to see these guys in first this far into the season.  I think even the Marlins are surprised.  That hasn’t kept them from acting like they belong in first.  Anchored offensively by Uggla, Hermida, and Ramirez, the Marlins have come out to score this year - currently ranked 10th in the league with runs scored.  The rotation has been solid as well - only six different pitchers have started games this year.  The Marlins recently picked up Jacque Jones to shore up their outfield after he was released by the Tigers.  But if the Tigers can afford to release him, will he help?  The biggest question remains: can the Marlins keep it up?

Atlanta Braves: Sure, the Braves can win at home, but they have to be able to win on the road or nothing will come of it. The Braves have a rock solid offense led by the mighty Chipper Jones, but they’ve had some injury issues on their pitching staff - Smoltz is moving to the bullpen, Rafael Soriano has spent significant time on the DL, but they’ll get those two plus Mike Gonzalez back from the DL here soon. The question - will they trade for another starter? Not if Jorge Campillo can keep up his Greg Maddux impression (and get rid of some pesky blisters).

Philadelphia Phillies:  The Phillies are shadowing the Braves as they both stalk the Marlins.  Their offense has been good but hasn’t been firing on all cylinders for more than a game or two at a time, and past Cole Hamels their other starters have ERAs at or above 4.37.  Brett Myers has dropped his last four starts, and Adam Eaton is still winless.  If the Phillies’ starters can get their acts together, this is a much more dangerous team - already they’re fourth in the NL with 26 quality starts - but they have potential for much more.  On the other hand, their bullpen has been great - lowing the team ERA to a 5th best 3.98.  The Phillies could come together to be a very dangerous team.

New York Mets: The Mets’ manager Willie Randolph is under fire for his team’s poor play. And the Mets have had poor play as of late. They’re now in fourth place struggling to beat decent teams. The team is oft-injured. Ryan Church likes concussions, Moises Alou caught Mike Hampton syndrome, and Marlon Anderson pulled up lame. And that’s just the last series in Atlanta. Pedro comes back soon, but will he really help? Johan Santana hasn’t been the savior he was billed as, either. This team has got to start playing ball if they want to hang it at the top of the division.

Washington Nationals:  The Nationals are just chilling out in the NL East basement, 7.5 games out of first with a .420 winning percentage.  Their offense is one of the worst in the NL, ranking third to last in runs scored, second to last in OBP and OPS, and last in batting average, slugging percentage, and stolen bases.  Their pitching staff is better, but not by much, ranked 12/16 in ERA and 13/16 in Batting Average Against.  This is likely something we see continued for most of the season.

What do you see happening?  Can the Marlins hold it together?  Will the Braves start winning on the road?  Can the Phillies fire on all cylinders?  Are the Mets and Willie Randolph doomed to oblivion?


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Mother’s Day Game Postponed

May 11, 2008 – 2:31 pm

Due to the continuing rain in Pittsburgh, the Braves/Pirates game today has been postponed and rescheduled as part of a doubleheader tomorrow.  Hopefully the rain will be out of the area by then and the Braves can use the day off to regroup and get things going in the right direction tomorrow.


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NL East Power Rankings

April 7, 2008 – 10:49 am

It’s time for our first series of NL East Power Rankings. Power Rankings indicate who has the power and momentum in the division and with three contenders this year, they’ll change weekly. So who is at the top? Who is at the bottom? And why do the Marlins have the same record as the Braves?

#1 - The Atlanta Braves
The Braves (3-3) have come out of the gate with their offense firing on most cylinders. The scary part of that is they’re still 2nd in the NL in average (.292), runs (40), slugging percentage (.470) and OPS (.822). They’ve already shown their ability to battle back and put games into extra innings, as well as outscore the Mets 14-6 in the last two games. Their pitching staff is not working as it should yet - the bullpen is recovering from early jitters and Mike Hampton is back on the DL (Surprise? Hardly). But solid starts from both John Smoltz and Jair Jurrjens have put the Braves in a good spot to be - at the top of the division early.

#2 - Florida Marlins
How are these guys able to be 3-3? They’ve taken it to the Pirates. I don’t think they’ll be in the #2 position long, so don’t get used to it. They’ll begin climbing the ranks downward.

#3 - New York Mets
These guys would be in the two position were it not for the Marlins’ strong start. Santana is looking good, Pedro is hurt and their offense wasn’t clicking during their last series against the Braves. The Mets’ bullpen hasn’t been stellar so far either. But they’re the Mets, and they’ll surely rebound strong. Can’t discount them.

#4 - Philadelphia Phillies
The Phillies may be in the cellar right now as far as standings go, but they’re not completely dead yet. However, they’ve had issues with the starting pitching and relief corps. And their highly touted offense has had a slow start - scoring only 27 runs so far - that’s fourth in the NL East.

#5 - Washington Nationals
The Nationals have issues. They just lost a series - the entire series - to Cardinals. The Nationals did eek out a win against the Braves to start the season (lucky break on that Moylan pitch), but they’re going to need to start winning the easy games against the teams that are worse than them. Thus, they’re in the basement, at least for the first week of the power rankings.

Did I mis-rank the teams? Any of the 12 Marlins fans that are young enough to own computers want to whine about them not being at the top? Leave us a comment and we’ll hash it out.


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The J-Train - Jurrjens’ Chances

March 8, 2008 – 11:53 am

Jair Jurrjens - J-Train, we’ll call him - continues to impress during spring training.  Whether or not Mike Hampton makes the rotation out of spring training, I think it’s a good bet we see this young man in a Braves uniform from the get-go.  We’ve been very impressed with his stuff so far.

He’s earning the fifth rotation spot.  His last outing featured three scoreless innings.  He’s given up two hits and one run in five innings of work, and he struck out three.  He’s got one win.  But more important than the stats, he’s got good movement on his pitches, keeps the ball down, and has had great composure.

What makes Jurrjens’ stuff special?  He has four pitches - a four-seamer, a two-seamer, a slurve, and a change-up.  He says his slurve is still developing, but his fastball tops out at 97 mph.  And he doesn’t just have great variety - he has control.  One of his criticisms is that he throws too many strikes.  What we’ve seen of him so far, he’s keeping his pitches low and hitting the corners.  He has let a few drift up - but with a 97 mph heater, who can blame him?

Jurrjens is a special player who will do well in the big leagues in the years to come - I’m excited that we get to see him develop in Atlanta.  If he keeps performing like he has so far, the fifth rotation spot will be his to lose.


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Braves’ Decision: Left Field

February 26, 2008 – 9:05 am

I answered this question from PhilliesFlow.com in our perspective trade a couple days ago, and I wanted to take a moment to elaborate on some decisions the Braves have to make. From the article:

What do you see as the biggest decisions the Braves will make between now and the start of the season?

The fourth and fifth rotation spots are crucial. Having a solid back end of the rotation to compliment the Smoltz/Hudson/Glavine trio is something we need to know can hold their own. Be honest, a Smoltz/Hudson/Glavine/Heatlhy Hampton/Jurrjens or James rotation is about as mean as any out there. If everyone is healthy, it’s not a one-two punch. It’s a one-two-three-four punch. Now, it’ll only work for a year or so, but it could be nasty.

I think the other crucial decision is who will fill out the bullpen. We have more pitchers overall than we did last year and I think the bullpen will be stronger than it was, but we need to get our guys picked out and they need to embrace the roles they’re given. The only other key question to be answered is who will fill out the left field platoon with Matt Diaz. I think we’ll likely see Brandon Jones out there, but Josh Anderson also wants a piece of the platoon. That’ll be interesting to watch.

With Kotsay playing Center, we’re going to see some interesting competition for the left-field slots. Matt Diaz has the inside track on one half of the platoon, but we are going to see Brandon Jones (bats from the left side of the plate) try and take Willie Harris’ slot as the other half of the platoon. Of course, speedster Josh Anderson is a very talented outfielder also ready for the big time.  If we throw Jones in the platoon with Diaz, we’re sending a very talented center fielder back to AAA ball.  Something has got to give - we have too many outfielders given the positions we need to fill.  No matter whether we end up with Anderson or Jones in the outfield, they’ll be a good compliment to Diaz.

What do you think will happen with our outfield situation?  Who makes the big league team out of spring training?  Will we trade some of them for bullpen help or will we keep them all on hand?


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Sick of Roid Rage: Top 5 Things I’d Rather Hear About

February 23, 2008 – 11:11 am

We know people used steroids.  We get it.

I just really don’t care.  I can’t tell you how much it doesn’t even begin to matter to me.

In honesty, as we’re ramping up for Spring Training, let’s move past this thing - let Congress stick their nose into things and leave it alone.  Because I don’t think it matters whether or not Roger Clemens injected HGH.  Moving forward, obviously he can’t get away with it.  Let someone else look into the past, Baseball needs to focus on the future, not the somewhat shady past.

So without further ado, the top 5 things I’d rather hear about than Steroids:

5. What team Scott Boras is screwing over now - and who is most vehement in the “I hate Scott Boras” fan club.
4. Whether or not the Braves have enough pitching (I think they do, no worries) Read more »


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