In Part III of Know Your Cuts of Meat Know Your 2006 Baseball Teams, I’m tackling the NL East. This series of articles is my attempt to clear my head of pre-existing biases by comparing teams’ records, runs scored, runs allowed, and Pythagorean records from last year and this year.
Part I: NL West
Part II: NL Central
Atlanta
2005: 90-72 .556 4.7 RSG 4.2 RAG .560 exp 2006: 17-20 .459 5.2 RSG 4.8 RAG .537 exp
Was Leo Mazzone also holding back the Braves’ offense in addition to working magic with the pitching staff? The Braves are playing high-scoring games this season and deserve better than their actual record indicates. Going by Pythagorean record, they deserve to be running second ahead of the Phillies.
Florida
2005: 83-79 .512 4.4 RSG 4.5 RAG .491 exp 2006: 11-24 .314 4.7 RSG 5.6 RAG .424 exp
Without their bad luck converting runs to wins, the Marlins really aren’t playing that much worse than last season. In fact, the offense is actually better, led by new young hitters Mike Jacobs, Dan Uggla, and Josh Willingham, among others. It’s the pitching that’s a disaster, allowing the most runs per game in the league.
New York
2005: 83-79 .512 4.5 RSG 4.0 RAG .549 exp 2006: 23-14 .622 5.1 RSG 4.3 RAG .579 exp
The Mets win-total under-represented their performance last year, and they’ve managed to flip that trend on its head in 2006. They’re allowing slightly more runs per game this season, a number likely to go up until they can find non-Lima replacements for their three injured starters. The offense has really come alive with newcomers Xavier Nady and Carlos Delgado. New York is the second best team in the NL behind St. Louis.
Philadelphia
2005: 88-74 .543 5.0 RSG 4.5 RAG .548 exp 2006: 22-15 .595 4.8 RSG 4.8 RAG .497 exp
The offense is worse, the pitching is worse, and the Phillies’ winning percentage is higher. Go figure. Scoring the same number of runs per game as you give up is not the usual recipe for an extended winning streak, meaning Philadelphia better turn up the production if they want to hang with the Mets all season.
Washington
2005: 81-81 .500 3.9 RSG 4.2 RAG .476 exp 2006: 13-25 .342 4.5 RSG 5.1 RAG .442 exp
Thanks to a leftfield-loving Alfonso Soriano, a reinvigorated Jose Vidro, and Nick Johnson fulfilling high Yankee expectations, the Nationals’ offense has worked its way up to league average. Unfortunately, those strides are more than offset by an awful pitching staff. Washington will be fortunate to stay ahead of the down-cycle Marlins.
NL East Overall
New York is clearly the most improved team overall and the best team in the division, thanks to a huge increase in scoring and a minimal bump in runs allowed. Everyone except Florida sports a flashy new offense and everyone is allowing more runs this year than last, led by Washington and Florida. It’ll be fun to watch these teams slug it out the whole year.
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.