MSNBC Sports Been Berry Berry Good to Me

I don't think I've ever read any sports news on msnbc.com before today, but their Tony DeMarco is predicting the Braves to finish first for the 14th time in a row. As always it will be interesting to see how many writers pick the Braves to not finish first. It's usually a slew of them and they always end up writing a "Why did I pick against the Braves" column at some point in the season. As for me, I think the Braves will finish first every year. I always have, even in the Chuck Tanner years. Although since 1996 I haven't had such optimistic thoughts as far as what comes after winning the NL East.

Here's how Mr. DeMarco breaks down the NL East (notice how close it is):

Braves 89-73
Phillies 87-75
Marlins 85-77
Mets 81-81
Nationals 73-89

I think the entire division has improved (as long as you count getting out of Canada as the National's only improvement), but there's no way it's that close. The Nationals won't have that many wins. The Phillies pitching has improved a bit, but not enough for their new shoebox of a stadium. The Mets have absolutely no bullpen and there's too many offensive question marks for them to have a complete line up. I'm most scared of the Marlins, remember they won a World Series a couple of years ago. I'm a bit too biased to objectively look at the Braves, but they are still the ones to beat.