What does the end of the NFL season mean? The beginning of the Major League Baseball season is just around the corner! I love the NFL but this is the best time of the year. Pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training location for all teams and full teams will be reporting by the end of this week! What a great time to be a baseball fan. With all of that being said, I will be starting my division-by-division preview of the 2013 MLB season today.
In these previews, I will talk about the offseason moves of the teams within the divisions and then I will predict how the division will play out. At the end of each post, I will pick who, I think, will be the division winner and if any of the teams will be a Wild Card for their respected league. After going from the National League East to the American League West, I will be taking a look at how the post season will go and make my prediction for who I think will win the World Series this season. This will take us to at least the middle of March and the regular season starts at the beginning April! Baseball season is almost HERE folks!!
As you can see from the picture above, I am going to start with the National League East. (I’m not a huge fan of the new Miami Marlins logo so I used this picture to show the teams in the division.)
Atlanta Braves
Last season, the Braves finished the 2012 season with a record of 94-68 lost in the Wild Card “Play-In” game to the St. Louis Cardinals. This season will be a very interesting one in Atlanta as this will be the first season in a very long time that they will not be lead out onto the field by Chipper Jones. Although Jones did not have a super productive season last year I think his leadership will be greatly missed by this team. Jones wasn’t the only lose this team had during the offseason, they also lost Michael Bourn (Free Agent to Indians) and Jair Jurrjens (FA to Orioles). During the offseason, the Braves also acquired one Upton and traded for the other. Justin and B.J. Upton will be huge help to an already good team. Not only will they add to a decent lineup with both speed and power but along with Jason Heyward, the Braves will have one of the best defensive outfields in the NL. I think the real struggle for this team will be its starting pitching but they do not have to have the greatest starting pitching every day due to the one of the strengths being a great bullpen lead by set up man Jonny Venters and closer Craig Kimbrel.
Miami Marlins
Boy oh boy where to start with this Miami Marlins team. Last season was supposed to be to a great season for this team in a new town with a new logo, a new stadium and Ozzie Guillen at the helm. However, the Marlins finished the at 69-93 and well out of the playoffs. This offseason has been one of many moves for this team. The moves started last season with Guillen being relieved of his duties as manager in late October. In November, they traded Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle, Josh Johnson, John Buck and Emilio Bonifacio to the Toronto Blue Jays. This team is the definition of rebuilding but the timing is extremely strange. This time last year the Marlins were the talk of baseball not only because of their move to Miami and a new stadium but because this lineup was supposed to be great and make a real run at the playoffs and now this season they are in complete rebuild mode. Two bright spots for this team will be Right fielder Giancarlo Stanton and First basemen Logan Morrison however the rest of this team will have a real struggle this year.
New York Mets
The New York Mets are also a team that is in the process of rebuilding but they have a lot of key pieces that will help them get through this process. The strong point of this team will be its infield lead by David Wright at third base who signed a new 8 year extension to stay with the Mets. However, this was not how everyone on the Mets offseason went, R.A. Dickey, the 2012 Cy Young winner, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Travis d’Arnaud, who was a big prospect in the Blue Jays organization. I think this team has a chance to surprise some people but will struggle all year to compete for a spot in the playoffs. If Johan Santana can rebound back to his previous successful seasons it will give this team more of a chance to compete but they are well short of the teams at the top of this division.
Philadelphia Phillies
What a season these guys had last season. It was quite strange with three of the teams top players have a confusing year. Ryan Howard was coming off of an injury and struggled when he came back. Cliff Lee and Roy Holliday really struggled all year. Holliday had a 4+ ERA and Lee didn’t win a game until July 4th. Like I said before, this was just a strange year for this team but they made some moves in the offseason that will definitely help. Their key additions were Michael Young, Delmon Young and Mike Adams. This team seems poised to make a run at the playoffs but they were poised for a run last year too. This season will come down to their starting pitching finding their form from the 2011 season. The lineup from top to bottom will be as strong as it has ever been in the recent past for the Phillies.
Washington Nationals
Will this season come down to the number innings that Stephen Strasburg can throw like last season? Most people that are much more in the know than I am are saying that Strasburg will not be on an innings limit this year. I think that is a huge plus for this already strong team and will give them a major push toward what could be a big run in the postseason this year. The starting pitching will be strong with Gio Gonzalez, Strasburg, Jordan Zimmerman, Dan Haren and Ross Detwiler and the bullpen went from good to great with the addition of closer Rafael Soriano to Tyler Cippard and Drew Storen at the back end. They also addressed a need for speed (I know I know I had to throw that in here haha) with the addition of Denard Span to Centerfield. Adding Span to a lineup with Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche will make this lineup as potent as any lineup in the MLB.
End of Season Predictions
Here is how I think that this season will end:
1) Nationals (Division winner)
2) Braves (Wild Card)
3) Phillies
4) Mets
5) Marlins
This is a tough division to predict. If the Phillies can bounce back to what they were in 2011 then my prediction for them will be wrong but I think that the Braves and Nationals will be too much for them to catch this year. I think that the Phillies have a chance at taking the second Wild Card spot but I really think that the second Wild Card spot will be coming from another division.
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