One month into the season and the National League East is not what national pundits thought it would be. The prevailing thought amount national commentators and outlets was the Washington Nationals were going to run the division, the Mets could have an outside shot at a Wild Card, the Braves and Phillies would struggle but are on the rise and the Marlins will just be bad.
There has always been an east coast bias for baseball. If Trout played for an East Coast team he would have an even more tremendous following than he does now. However this year may be an example of the I-95 corridor bias. Teams in the East, in the big cities get the coverage. Players like Freddie Freeman, or the great outfield the Marlins used to have (New York, St. Louis and Milwaukee), get ignored overall.
Heading into the season there was an interesting trend for local coverage of NL East teams. Pundits in New York were talking about the Mets getting at least the Wild Card. In Philly, it was about how the Phillies are dark horse team. In Atlanta, the focus was on a core of stars with a core of young players on the rise (think 2005 or 2006 Mets).
Now we are a month into the season with the Mets on top, the Braves 1.5 games behind them and the Phillies half a game behind the Braves. The Nationals are three games under .500 but they haven’t gotten healthy yet. Which team is for real?
New York Mets:
Positives: The bullpen for the Mets, outside of a few games, has been fantastic. It was a question mark coming into the season and has had an injury to a key piece most of the season with Anthony Swarzak. The starting rotation hasn’t gone deep into many games so this fantastic record the Mets have is due to the bullpen holding the door shut most days.
Negatives: Outside of deGrom and Syndergaard the rotation has been bad. Matz has lost his touch, Harvey still looks like last year Harvey’s, and Wheeler has slipped. In Vargas’s first start he allowed 9 runs.
Atlanta Braves
Positives: The offense that was supposed to be good last year, is good this year! Freeman is an MVP hiding in plain site. Albies has arrived. Swanson has arrived. Markakis is quietly putting together a strong offensive year.
Negatives: They need more consistency out of their rotation. Anibal is out on injury. If the back end of their rotation gets right and healthy and Teheran becomes the All-Star he used to be, they could be the real deal.
Philadelphia Phillies
Positives: After a dreadful start, the Phillies rebounded winning game after game finishing the month with a 16-11 record.
Negatives: No clue if they can keep this up. They have looked bad against the Braves and Mets. They are a step behind the Braves in both talent coming up and stars they have now. Out of the group, this is the team least likely to cause a ruckus for a prolonged period of time.
Washington Nationals
Positives: They still have Harper, they are only a few games below .500 and they should be getting healthy soon.
Negatives: At some point they will need to turn it around and if the Braves and Mets keep playing like they are, that’s a lot of ground to make up. On paper they still look the best and look the best at prolonged success this season.
