National League Review: April

(Sorry about the long delay.. oops)

So, who has been good so far this year? We’ll see. Let us point out the MVP of the month, the Cy Young of the month, the most disappointing individual player, and the most disappointing team.

I like early 90s rap, so I will use old school rappers to demonstrate who has been awesome and who really, really sucks so far in the National League.

The Public Enemy award: MVP of April Chipper Jones

The Braves’ Chipper Jones in the month of April has been the “Public Enemy” for opposing teams so far this year. The switch-hitting old man of a third baseman still has a lot left in his tank. I will put Chipper on the top of my list, as he is batting a league-leading .417, while chewing many, many cans of Skoal and eating lots of Hooters wings. Chipper is simply. the. man. I also like Chase Utley, but Jones is the best player on an average team so far.

Honorable mentions: Chase Utley, Ryan Church, Hanley Ramirez, Edwin Encarnacion, Raffy Furcal, Derrek Lee, Lance Berkman

Division Preview: NL East

After the Johan Santana trade, the New York Mets became the top of the heap in the NL East, and possibly all of the National League. The NL East has some very good teams in the Mets and the Phillies, an average-to-good team in the Braves, then it drops off to some slightly mediocre teams in the Nationals and the Marlins. Other than Cameron Maybin and othters of the Marlins, Fernando Martinez of the Mets, and several Braves prospects, this division is not really loaded with as many prospects as the other divisions.

1. New York Mets (2007: 88-74, 2nd)

Johan Santana

The Mets are easy choice for the NL East as they got obviously the best pitcher in baseball in Santana, and they also traded for a few other cogs like C Brian Schneider and OF Ryan Church from the Nationals. Church is a player who has always deserved a chance in the Nationals organization but never really got one for whatever dumb reason. He really could be the Mets’ breakout player. Their pitching, other than Santana, also has El Duque, Pedro Martinez, the average John Maine, and Oliver Perez. The bullpen is decent has Billy Wagner as closer and Joe Smith, with Matt Wise added. The offense, other than Schneider and Church, does not have many notable additions, but they should be quite good, with 3B David Wright, SS Jose Reyes, OF Carlos Beltran, 2B Luis Castillo, etc. The Mets look great.

Read more for the rest of the predictions.