2012 MLB Handicapping: Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies have ruled the roost in the NL East for the last five seasons, but this team was not put together just to win division titles.
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The Philadelphia Phillies have ruled the roost in the NL East for the last five seasons, but this team was not put together just to win division titles.
The Colorado Rockies enter 2012 coming off a dismal 73-win season, and while they added to their somewhat already powerful offense, they failed to add any real assets to their questionable pitching staff that let them down after being pegged to win the division or wild card in 2011.
Coming off their most successful season since 2007, with a 94-68 record, good enough to steal the NL West from the 2010 World Series Champion San Francisco Giants who were eight games back, the Arizona Diamondbacks are poised to repeat as the NL West’s top team in 2012.
The New York Mets finished the 2011 regular season in fourth-place in the NL East with an overall record of 77-85, but the downward progression actually began after they made the playoffs in 2006 when they won 97 games.
The last time the Washington Nationals were .500 was their first year in the league after coming down from Montreal in 2005. That year’s team went 81-81 and last year’s ballclub went 80-81 with everything in-between the two seasons being completely forgettable.
The last time that Florida made it into the postseason was in 2003 when it went all the way to winning a World Series title.
The Milwaukee Brewers were in the headlines quite a bit this offseason, but for all the wrong reasons. First, their MVP left fielder Ryan Braun was hit with a 50-game suspension for failing a drug test and their All-Star first baseman Prince Fielder moved onto greener pastures in Detroit as a free agent.
Anyone who closely follows Major League Baseball fully understands the impact that first basemen Albert Pujols had on the St. Louis Cardinals, but with his departure via free agency to the Los Angeles Angels, we now have to try and estimate his impact on not being on this team.
The Cincinnati Reds followed-up their 2010 NL Central Division title with a disappointing 79-83 record and third-place finish in 2011.
The 2011 Pittsburgh Pirates got a fast start out of the gate last season and actually stayed in the Central Division race past the All-Star break, but the end result was a 72-90 record and another losing season.
It is the dawn of a new era in Chicago with the arrival of new team president Theo Epstein, who was brought in to do for the Cubs what he did for Boston; win a World Series.
It is now past mid February and even though the hoops season has quite a ways to go thoughts are beginning to turn towards the diamond.
The Houston Astros took a major step backwards last season in the National League Central with a dismal record of 56-106, which was twenty wins less than in 2010.
The Tampa Bay Rays may not be the flashiest of teams and they may not have made ground breaking free agency moves in the offseason but they are somehow still a force to be reckoned with in the AL East.
Spring Training has begun! Can you feel the excitement in the air? Or is it just the winter nip that still grips most of our fine continent? It is time to look into the crystal ball and to predict who among the 32 MLB teams will be the last one standing in October.
The need for change was obvious in Beantown and that is just what they got – not so much in the talent on the field but in management.