Phillies Pitching Gets Them Another NL East Title

As opening day approaches, I'm making predictions for each of the six divisions in MLB.   I have projected won/loss records, runs scored (RS), runs allowed (RA) and run differential (RS-RA) for each team.  I don't have a complex formula to determine the results.  I just looked at last year's final numbers and moved teams up and down according to how much I thought they would regress or improve from last year to this year.

With the Phillies old and injured, the NL East will be a lot closer this year, but Philadelphia still has enough pitching to eke out an another division title.  While the Braves stood pat, the Marlins got really aggressive this winter signing shortstop Jose, starter Mark Buehrle and closer Heath Bell.  The result will be a second place finish and a wild card for Miami.    

Projected NL East Standings

Team	W	L	RS	RA	RS-RA
Philadelphia Phillies	91	71	667	563	104
Miami Marlins	88	74	719	653	66
Atlanta Braves	87	75	709	650	59
Washington Nationals	83	79	687	661	26
New York Mets	73	89	690	763	-73

Divisional Awards

MVP
Ryan Zimmerman, WAS
Jose Reyes, FLA
Hanley Ramirez, FLA

Cy Young
Cliff Lee, PHI
Roy Halladay, PHI
Cole Hamels, PHI

Breakout Players
Jason Heyward, ATL
Stephen Strasberg, WAS
Logan Morrison, FLA

Blogs

I won't waste time trying to give detailed analyses of teams I don't follow on a daily basis.  These blogs can tell you more about the teams than I can:


Phillies
The Good Phight
Phillies Flow


Marlins
Fish Stripes
Marlin Maniac


Braves
Talking Chop
Capitol Avenue Club


Nationals
Federal Baseball
The Nats Blog


Mets
Amazin' Avenue
Kranepool Society