Futures Odds to Win the NL East
2014 was a cake walk in the NL East for the Washington Nationals who won their division by the widest margin of any division in baseball at 17 games up on their closest competitors.
2014 was a cake walk in the NL East for the Washington Nationals who won their division by the widest margin of any division in baseball at 17 games up on their closest competitors.
An embarrassment of riches. That has to be how you describe this year’s Washington Nationals roster. Bryce Harper, the young, cocky, sublimely talented outfielder for DC, already asked ‘Where’s my ring?’ and although the sentiment is self-absorbed, it may be hard to argue with the logic.
This year’s darlings from Queens are hardly perfect, not to mention every other team in the NL East division is competing for the consolation prize after the Washington Nationals, but there’s elements to like on the Mets roster.
After years of penny-pinching and fire sales, many people around baseball are high on the Marlins, and with good reason.
Philadelphia owned the NL East in recent years with five-straight division titles from 2007 until 2011 including a World Series Championship in 2008, but it suffered a harsh dose of reality last season that a good thing does not last forever.
A new high-profile manager and exorbitant free-agent spending spree had many of the baseball experts touting the newly-named Miami Marlins as the team to watch in 2012. Ozzie Guillen got off on the wrong foot with the Miami fans and never really recovered while none of the players brought in to help turn things around ever came close to living-up to their inflated contracts.
When New York decided to jettison a few high-priced but underperforming players during the 2011 season Mets fans accepted the fact that last season was the start of a major rebuilding program. The end result was an overall record of 74-88 which was actually three more losses than the year before, but the team may finally have some of the right pieces in place for a change.
As a perennial contender to win not just the NL East but the National League Pennant as well, the Atlanta Braves once again find themselves in prime position to make some serious noise in both races. Last season they posted 94 wins to finish as one of two wildcards in the NL but came up short against St.Louis in the newly instituted play-in game for the NLDS.
If the Washington Nationals are allowed to bring all of their weapons to this season’s postseason fight there will be some tremendous value in their current odds to win it all. After having to put their pitching staff ace Stephen Strasburg on the shelf for last year’s playoffs, the Nationals made an early exit with a 3-2 series loss to St. Louis in the NLDS.
The 2013 MLB season is only a few weeks away. Spring Training action is going on right now, which means Opening Day is right around the corner. We’re taking a division-by-division look at betting odds and team by team season win totals.
The Atlanta Braves were in prime position to lock-up their second-straight wildcard playoff berth in the National League last season, but a complete collapse down the stretch paved the way for St. Louis’s amazing run to a World Series title.
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 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 that Florida made it into the postseason was in 2003 when it went all the way to winning a World Series title.
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.
We’re roughly a quarter of the way through the MLB season and I can’t remember the last time I saw so much parity. The Jays and Orioles are still in the hunt in the AL East? The Indians and Royals lead the AL Central? Huh?