National League Observations

When you look at the landscape of the National League, it’s been kind of a ho-hum year.

None of the teams in first place are all that surprising, the divisional races are shaping up much like they should, and truthfully, the wild card race in the National League isn’t shaping up to be all that exciting.

I start with the NL east and will just say, Washington is who we thought they were. Yes, they’ve been not as good as we probably think they should be but consider Stephen Strasburg, Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth and Denard Span have all spent significant time on the injured reserve list, and yet the Nats have overcome all that and are still atop the division.

Now it certainly helps, that 13-game win streak in the first month of the season is as distant a memory as the 2006 NL East title for the Mets, and now they look about as bad as the teams that roamed Citi Field from 2010-2013. Not only that, but the Marlins have been, in my humble opinion, the biggest disappointment in baseball.

Shame on me for believing things were actually headed in a semi-organized fashion in Miami. For thinking the front office could not possibly get in the way of this team becoming a legit contender in the National League, and what do they do, about a quarter of the way through the season, they fire their coach and hire their general manager?

Let’s just call this thing what it is, the National League East is a joke after Washington. It’s unlikely we’ll know just how good the Nats are until the playoffs, but we can all but pencil in the Nats as the victors of the East.

Same for the Cardinals in the Central.

Listen, I love what the Cubs are doing and I love where they’re headed. I loved watching them take a day-night double header at Wrigley, but I don’t believe they are a division winner this year.

Is the talent there? Yes. It’s hard to explain because everyone sees the names and the talent but at some point, the game gets played on the field and intangibles and pressure and experience all play into the equation. I think this year, the Cubs will compete, could even win a wild-card spot, but I do not believe they will catch the Cardinals.

I look at the rest of the Central and wonder what happened to Milwaukee. Well actually, here’s what happened to Milwaukee: Their pitching STINKS!

27th in the league in ERA, 26th in runs against and opposing teams hit .266 against them (which tied for 27th worst in the league).

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh has going on. Andrew McCutchen is looking like the MVP player he was in 2013. Since May 5, when he hitting .185, McCutchen is slashing a line of .348/.441/.583 with an OPS of 1.204. Additionally he's hit 8 HRs 39 RBI and 37/32 K/BB ratio. Without question he's been the key to this team's success.

To me, there's nothing surprising about what is happening out West. At the start of the day Wednesday, the Dodgers have a 4 game lead on San Francisco and Arizona is 5 back.

Anybody not surprised San Diego is struggling? I'll raise my hand because of you read my preseason preview, you know I didn't think the spending splurge and mortgaging the future for this year was going to work. And so far, it hasn't.

I wrote about this in June, and I still believe it: the Dodgers have to deal for a starting pitcher. It doesn't have to be Johnny Cueto or Jeff Samardzija or Cole Hamels. Like I said in my piece from June, dependable back end of the rotation guys will serve them just fine.

Now for Corey Seager. 

I know the Dodgers are in first place and there's no need to rush him, but clearly Jimmy Rollins is finished. His .227 batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is absolutely terrible, and an increasing strikeout rate along with a decreasing walk rate suggests he's not going to get better anytime soon.  

Simply put, he has nothing left in the tank and it's just time he be benched.

Personally, I think the excitement is in the American League so far this year but that doesn't mean the NL has nothing to offer.