Baseball Update: NL East

(Guest posted by JFein from Fire Andy Reid Now!)

The baseball update is a look at the happenings around Major League Baseball

As improbable as it may seem that the division with the World Fucking Champions and the New York Mets, two teams that were both strong last year and viewed as having made all the right moves in the off-season, is one of the weakest divisions in baseball with no clear frontrunner at all to win this thing. And you can't write anyone off yet. The Washington Nationals, the team that was the utter laughing stock in April is only 7 games out of 1st place. And while a cynic might say that 7 games out of first in the middle of May is not a good thing, an optimist might point to the Phillies 2 years ago when they were 7 games out of first in the NL East in September. And oh yeah, the Phils won the NL East that year.

The Fish have sunk: Maybe it is the fact that the stadium has had a name change, but the Florida Marlins have not been doing well at all since their huge start. In fact, after starting so grand and looking like a clear frontrunner in the division, the Marlins are now 17-18. Yes, they are under .500 and if I were a betting man, I would bet that they stay there for the majority of the year. April is the worst month to tell how a team really is going to be for the year because everything is so different then. You've got the long layoff, the fact that weather conditions are different in April and are not necessarily the same as what they are for most of the summer, and just the fact that if you look at the Phillies, the team that won the World Series last year, is notorious for slow starts. While not as bad as in years past, the same thing happened to them last year. They started out slow in April.....oh yeah, I have mentioned at all here that the Phillies won the World Series last year (and I have the whole series on DVD for proof; combined with what has turned out to be the invaluable and priceless call of all 5 World Series games on radio by the late Harry Kalas).

Phillies pitching problems: Brett Myers is being inconsistent Brett Myers. Jamie Moyer has only had 1 start all year where he gave up less than 3 runs, Cole Hamels is finally starting to find a groove after being injury plagued, Joe Blanton is not the Joe Blanton that just won games for the Phils like he did last year. But despite a slow start, the Phillies are looking quite smart for choosing Chan Ho Park as the 5th starter. We will know a lot more on that this Saturday when J.A. Happ starts in the 2nd game of a double header this Saturday because the Phils have had no off days since Park last pitched and I guess he can't go on 3-days rest.

The Mets are in first.....WHY?!?!? While they have not been blowing anybody away, their long winning streak last week really helped them to cement their spot in first place in the division. For now, at least. We've seen this story before, though.

Games this coming weekend.

As mentioned earlier, the Phillies and Washington Nationals start a 3-day, 4-game series which includes a double header on Saturday that will make up for a game between the 2 that was postponed due to rain back in April.

The Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondback have a weekend series. Yawn.....

After choking to the Mets last night, the Giants get a chance at redemption as they finish off their 4-game series this weekend against said Metropolitans. That Randy Johnson-Johan Santana pitching matchup should be fun to watch.

Tonight, the Marlins finish up a series against 49er16's least favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers before kicking off their interleague play with a series against the Sawks of Boston.

Update: Because he had to pitch 2 innings in the Phillies 12 inning win over the Nationals last night, J.A. Happ will not be starting the 2nd game of the double header as originally planned. Instead it will be Drew Carpenter, who is being brought up from the Phillies Triple-A minor league affiliate, Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.