Comparing the NL East

by jonk on Mar 31, 2008 11:44 AM EDT in News

I had wanted to do this over the weekend, but illness and laziness reared it's ugly head, so here I am doing it on opening day. I am just going to do a simple breakdown of each position and how they compare to each other. I am not going to bother weighting the position as the extra complexity will likely not add much value.

Hitting:

Catchers:

Phillies	Ruiz	2.5	Potential, but needs slg north of .430 to be good
Mets	Schneider	1.5	Surprisingly only 32, but really not good at all
Braves	McCann	3.5	Young and inconsistent, not going to hit .333 again
Marlins	Treanor	2	First year as starter and is already 32
Nationals	Lo Duca	1.5	Average at best but likely to be much worse

1st Basemen:

Phillies	Howard	4.5	Defense only negative
Mets	Delgado	3	I think he bouncs back to around a .850 OPS
Braves	Teixeira	4	In his prime but could be more patient
Marlins	Jacobs	2.5	Average overall, OBP is weak
Nationals	Johnson	3.5	Health always a concern, but good when healthy

2nd Basemen:

Phillies	Utley	4.5	Best 2nd baseman in baseball
Mets	Castillo	2.5	No more speed, but consistently gets on base
Braves	Johnson	3	Good patience and decent power, entering prime
Marlins	Uggla	3	Decent patience and good power, in prime
Nationals	Belliard	2.5	Consistently average over career

Short Stop:

Phillies	Rollins	3.5	Improving, but likely to regress to .830 OPS this year
Mets	Reyes	3	Overrated, career .775 OPS, big steals and CS numbers
Braves	Escobar	2.5	Last year inflated due to .326 BA
Marlins	Ramirez	4.5	Young and improving, defense suspect
Nationals	Guzman	1.5	Because he somehow put up an .846 OPS last year

3rd Base:

Phillies	Feliz	2	Needs 30 homers to offset awful OBP
Mets	Wright	5	If Mets make playoffs, MVP this year
Braves	Jones	4.5	Aging, but posted 3rd best OPS of career last year
Marlins	Cantu	2	Hit 28 HRs in TB in 2005?!?!
Nationals	Zimmerman	3.5	Good, but not there yet

Left Field:

Phillies	Burrell	3.5	Very consistent on a yearly basis but no speed and bad defense
Mets	Alou	2.5	Alou injured and Chavez starting in left
Braves	Diaz	2.5	Ridiculously high batting average and ZERO patience
Marlins	Willingham	3	Decent power and patience
Nationals	Dukes	2.5	Just injured and who knows with this head case

Center Field:

Phillies	Victorino	3	In prime and speed helps him a bit
Mets	Beltran	4	Good, but inconsistent
Braves	Kotsay	2	Too old to get better
Marlins	Ross	2.5	An enigma in his prime
Nationals	Milledge	3	Young, but potential is there

Right Field:

Phillies	Jenkins	2.5	Better if he only faces righties
Mets	Church	3	Decent, but not ypung anymore
Braves	Francouer	2.5	Overrated, career .781 OPS
Marlins	Hermida	3.5	Injured, but young with good potential
Nationals	Kearns	3	In prime, power has been a disappointment

Bench:

Phillies	Werth, Dobbs, Coste, Helms, Taguchi	3.5
Mets	Chavez, Easly, Clark, Anderson, Casanova	2
Braves	Miller, Gotay, Blanco, Prado, Infante	1.5
Marlins	Hoover, Andino, Wood, Amezaga, Gonzalez	1.5
Nationals	Flores, Boone, Young, Harris, Mackowiak	2.5

Pitching:

Starting Pitcher:

Phillies	Cole Hamels	4.5	Young and getting better, needs to stay healthy
Mets	Johan Santana	5	Best pitcher in the league, homers may be a weakness
Braves	Tim Hudson	4	Good when he keeps homers down
Marlins	Hendrickson	2	Career 5.01 ERA
Nationals	Odalis Perez	1.5	ERA the last 3 years, 5.57, 5.64, 6.83

Starting Pitcher:

Phillies	Myers	3.5	Keep him out of the bullpen
Mets	Martinez	4	Injury always a concern, but still good
Braves	Smoltz	4.5	Old man is an injury risk
Marlins	Olson	2.5	Another enigma who could be good or awful
Nationals	Chico	2	Awful K:BB ratio

Starting Pitcher:

Phillies	Moyer	2.5	When on is good, when off is really bad
Mets	Maine	3.5	Very good K rate
Braves	Glavine	3	Faltered down the stretch, but likely to be servicable
Marlins	Miller	2	Young and good K rate, but no success so far
Nationals	Bergmann	2.5	If he can repeat last year

Starting Pitcher:

Phillies	Kendrick	2	Awful K rate, but good walk, last year may be a mirage
Mets	Perez	3	Another enigma who is great or horrible
Braves	Hampton	2	Hasn't pitched since 2005
Marlins	VandenHurk	2.5	Excellent K, bad walks and HR, but young
Nationals	Redding	2	Going to miss the other park

Starting Pitcher:

Phillies	Eaton	1.5	Can't be as bad as last year
Mets	Hernandez	2.5	Injured and old, but still performs decently
Braves	Jurrjens	2.5	Young, but good minors numbers
Marlins	Nolasco	2.5	Meh
Nationals	Hanrahan	1.5	Double Meh

Bullpen:

Phillies	Lidge, Gordon, Madson, Romero, Lahey	3
Mets	Wagner, Heilman, Feliciano, Sosa, Schoenweis	3.5
Braves	Soriano, Boyer, Ohman, Acosta, Ring	2.5
Marlins	Gregg, Tankerslym Lindstrom, Miller, Gardener	2.5
Nationals	Cordero, Rauch, Rivera, Ayala, King	2.5

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Totals!

The post was too long, so I am adding the Totals in the comments section.

Offense Totals:

Phillies 29.5
Mets 26.5
Braves 26
Marlins 24.5
Nationals 23.5

Avg:

Phillies 3.28
Mets 2.94
Braves 2.89
Marlins 2.72
Nationals 2.61

Pitching Totals:

Phillies 17
Mets 21.5
Braves 18.5
Marlins 14
Nationals 12

Avg:

Phillies 2.83
Mets 3.58
Braves 3.08
Marlins 2.33
Nationals 2.00

Total Average (no weights):

Phillies 3.06
Mets 3.26
Braves 2.99
Marlins 2.53
Nationals 2.31

Total Average (Weighted 60/40 Hitting/Pitcher to factor in defense):

Phillies 3.10
Mets 3.20
Braves 2.97
Marlins 2.57
Nationals 2.37

Mets have the clear advantage due to their pitching. Even weighted to factor in defense, they are far and away better. Phillies really need someone other than Hamels and Myers to pitch well.

by jonk on Mar 31, 2008 11:51 AM EDT 0 recs

thanks for doing this..
i would give utley a 5, cole a 4, kendrick a 2.5, and reyes a 3.5, though.

by char6587 on Mar 31, 2008 1:15 PM EDT 0 recs

Agreed on Utley

If Wright is a 5, Utley has to be too. He's nearly as good a hitter and a superior defender at a tougher defensive position.

by phatj on Mar 31, 2008 11:25 PM EDT up 0 recs

I am not sure Utley is a superior defender, but Wright is 4 years younger and is likely to improve on his excellent year last year in a pitchers park while Utley isn't likely to improve but, hopefully, put up similiar numbers in a hitters park.

by jonk on Mar 31, 2008 11:44 PM EDT up 0 recs