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Washington Nationals
Strengths: The Nationals can only go in one direction: Up. They added some key pieces in OF Jayson Werth and 1B Adam LaRoche. Rookie sensation SP Stephen Strasburg hopes to pitch before the end of the season after undergoing surgery last year. If he’s half as good as he is hyped to be, the Nationals have a number-one pitcher for years to come. 3B Ryan Zimmerman will also be a key player in 2011.

Weaknesses: Losing 1B Adam Dunn doesn’t hurt so bad when you pick up Jayson Werth, but his presence will be missed. The pitching staff is scary to look at, in a bad way. SP Livan Hernandez and SP Jason Marquis are way past their prime, and the rest of their pitching options are young guys with little experience.

Analysis: It’s hard to predict good things for a team with no pitching. They made some big off-season moves, acquiring Werth and LaRoche, but the offense they provide isn’t going to be enough to turn this team around. Manager Jim Riggleman is going to have to work a miracle to save this team from itself.

Prediction: 5th in NL East

More 2011 NL East Predictions after the jump >>

Something has to work, right?

According to a number of reports out of the New York area, the choking ailing Mets have turned drastic measures in order to save whatever post season life they have left. The Onion has much more:

Facing the Cubs in the midst of a three-game losing streak, the desperate Mets sprinted out to the field Tuesday, launched themselves high into the air above Shea Stadium, and combined their bodies to form a 400-foot tall fielding robot called Carlos Voltron…

“After losing eight of our last 12 games, forming Carlos Voltron is our only hope to save our playoff chances,” Manuel said. “We really need power this late in the season, and the 2.5 million pounds of thrust in Voltron’s solid-fuel boosters should give us the lift we need.”

This begs the question: What happens if the Milwaukee Brewers turn into Megatron or the Phillies become Optimus Prime? Could the National League handle that much robot warfare?

But is he the MOST valuable? It depends on your definition of “value” is. If it calls for ignoring stats like home runs and RBI in favor of batting average, then no, Howard is not the most valuable. However, with the Phillies leading the NL East — for now — and his MLB-leading 45 home runs and 136 RBI contribution to said lead, he certainly deserves some consideration. Yes, Howard’s batting average has been lower than you’d want during the season grind, but in the last week or so, Philadelphia’s hammer is hitting .455 with four dingers and 11 runs knocked in.

Howard’s recent tear has helped push his batting average to the .250 area for the first time this season. On the other hand, Howard is again threatening to exceed 200 strikeouts with only 74 walks. Obviously, you’d like to see his patience at the plate improve — as well as his eye — but consider this: if you knew every time you made contact with the ball, it had a chance to leave the yard, patience and plate discipline may not be your biggest virtues either.

Who is more valuable after the jump >>

Finally, it’s that time of year. The time where football comes back into our life and when Major League Baseball starts getting into the part of the schedule that matters. This is the time of year teams are fighting for division crowns and wild card positions, something they’ve admittedly done all year; but now is the time where the overall picture is clearer with concerns to which teams are in playoff position, who are the award candidates and who has been the biggest disappointment.

With little over 30 games left on each team’s schedule, we are now entering the do-or-die portion of baseball, making last night’s Mets/Phillies game the most important one the schedule. In an eerily similar storyline as last season, the Mets are trying to hold off the charging Phillies, who, before the first pitch was thrown, trailed the Mets by half a game for the NL East league.

The Mets jumped out to 7-0 lead but failed to hold off the charging Phillies who rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. The comeback was powered by Ryan Howard’s 35th home run, Jimmy Rollins’ 5-7, three-RBI night and the game-tying double from Eric Bruntlett to send the game to extras.

Once the game got to the free baseball portion, the teams played an additional four innings before the Phillies won it in the bottom of the 13th. The winning run was scored by Shane Victorino who tripled to lead off the inning. Victorino was batted in by Chris Coste, giving the Phils the 8-7 victory and the overall lead in the NL East.

If the Mets collapse against the Phillies reminds fans of last season, it’s with good reason. As you probably recall, during the final month of 2007, the Mets gave up the NL East championship by losing 12 of their last 17 games. After blowing their 22nd save of 2008, it’s easy to see why Mets fans are reminded of last season’s debacle. The question is, can they avoid another collapse or will they be able to bounce back and regain the NL East lead from Philadelphia?

Tonight, the Mets have an opportunity to salve last night’s wounds as Johan Santana takes the mound. In his previous outings against Philadelphia, Santana has given up seven runs in 23 innings while striking out 20. However, Santana has only earned one win for these efforts.

If the Mets expect to catch and hold-off the Phillies, they’ll need to do better by their ace. For their sakes, they should hope Santana goes as long as possible, pitching a complete game if necessary.

Not to take any of the thunder away from the Chicago Cubs and all that strange awesomeness going on at Wrigley, but the buzz around the MLB seems to be focusing on John Smoltz, Joba Chamberlain, and Pedro Martinez — and with good reason.

Pedro returned, Joba stunk and Smoltz might be done. In a baseball world where good pitching is more valuable than money, story lines like these tend to outdo nine-game winning streaks, even if the Cubs are involved.

So which of these three is the bigger story? For my money, and I’m no baseball expert, I’d have to say either Smoltz leaving or Pedro returning would take top billing. As for Joba, can’t we just give it a little more time before he’s thrown under the proverbial bus?

It was only his first start, folks.

For the Braves, is it time to start looking at life after John Smoltz? He’s having season-ending shoulder surgery because of chronic pain. Smoltz also indicated if he had to go through another arm procedure, he just might retire from baseball. Apparently, he’s relented on that stance some, but nevertheless, could you really blame Smoltz if he didn’t want to go through another extended rehab process, favoring a decision to hang them up instead?

With regards to Pedro, you have to believe the prevailing thoughts concerning his performance are, “can he keep this up for the rest of the season?”

Yesterday, we commented on Pedro’s early season (really, really, really early) hamstring injury and thankfully for Mets fans, it wasn’t a tear or detachment or anything that severe. Instead, the initial prognosis of it being a strain was correct, meaning the results of the MRI were negative (for some reason, I’ve always wanted to type that particular phrase).

The Mets placed Pedro on the 15-day DL. Naturally.

AP Photo/J. Pat Carter
Exactly two games and four innings into the brand new MLB Baseball season, New York Mets pitcher Pedro Martinez injured the hamstring in his left leg during a pitch follow-through. He’s scheduled to have an MRI this afternoon.

Adding insult to Pedro’s injury, the Mets lost to the Marlins, 5-4.

It’s been a tough road for Martinez since he signed with the Mets in 2005. After making 31 starts that season, Martinez’s start total has steadily decreased. He started 23 in 2006 but was limited to only five last season as he recovered from torn rotator cuff. While he was officially labeled as having a strained hamstring, the MRI will obviously reveal more.

After hearing him describe the “popping” sound and watching him limp off, as a Mets fan, a strain is about the best you can hope for right now.

No, this little event is not exactly a “sports upset” per se, but the news Santana would be leaving the Twin Cities certainly was upsetting, especially for one particular blogger. Santana was traded to the New York Mets yesterday and pending the acceptance of a long-term contract, it looks like Johan has pitched his last game in Minnesota as the Twins fell victim to Major League Baseball’s business as usual method.

Because of some unfortunate labor agreements, smaller market teams like the Twins (who were once asked to be contracted, lest we forget) are having a hard time keeping their “home grown” stars when said star gets close to free agency. The idea, because these “lesser” franchises don’t have the disposable income the big market teams do, is to trade these stars before their free agent period in order to get some value in return.

And that’s exactly what happened with Santana and the Twins. However, did the Twins get anything in return for trading MLB’s best pitcher? No, not really. Over at Babes Love Baseball, Sooze has a great write-up on the prospects the Mets had to give up for Santana and to put it mildly, she doesn’t seem that impressed:

Wait… who? Exactly. Congratulations, Mets fans. Apparently, Bill Smith was bribed threatened convinced that those four — a motley crew, as Mel called them — added up to one Johan Santana. Let’s just say I hope there’s some cash thrown into the mix, and at least the Twins will only have to face him during Interleague Play.

As you can see, the excitement is overwhelming. At Twins Geek, there’s much more in this vein:

The package that the Twins got from the Mets illustrates this. Carlos Gomez and pitchers Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey are duplicates of half of a dozen pitchers in the Twins organization. Deolis Guerra might be special, but hasn’t made it anywhere near the upper levels of the minors. And it isn’t clear that Carlos Gomez, who headlines the package, is a significantly better prospect than Jason Pridie. He’s certainly not someone that Twins can count on before 2009.

So what does this do for the Mets? Are they now the favorite to come out of the National League? Well, if they can avoid season-ending collapses… If you looking for reactions from Mets fans, check out the MetsBlog and the NY Post’s Mets blog.

As for me, this little episode personifies why I’m still at odds with MLB. Smaller franchises shouldn’t have to be punished just because a prospect came up from the organizational ranks and turned out to be a stud, only to ship him off the market with the most money.