When you return a nearly identical roster from your division champion team the year before, what questions can there really be? Well, when it comes to the 96-win, NL East champion Atlanta Braves, you would be very surprised. Can Craig Kimbrel have yet another dominant year? The Braves closer is the best stopper in baseball. […]

The Atlanta Braves took another step towards locking up their young core, signing 23-year old starting pitcher Julio Teheran to a six-year contract extension worth

The Atlanta Braves are one of the most well-assembled teams in baseball. They're quite a young squad coming off of a successful season, and while they lost two key players this winter, they had enough depth at those positions for a seamless transition – Brian McCann and Tim Hudson will be missed, but Evan Gattis […]

Down in Florida and Arizona, the sweet smell of baseball is in the air as pitchers and catchers are reporting to Spring Training sites. The casinos in Nevada have taken notice too – they're starting to release projected win totals for over/under bets heading into the season. The first list has arrived courtesy of Atlantis […]

The 2013 Atlanta Braves were almost universally picked as a wild card team. Some pundits (hello, Jon Morosi) went even further, pushing the Braves out of the playoff race and behind the Phillies in the NL East standings. Well, neither of those situations happened – Atlanta spent all but one day of the 2013 season […]

How loaded are the Nationals? Narrowing down the team's pivotal players to "four horsemen" was kind of difficult. Washington's young superstars are obvious, but who else will determine the team's fortunes by his success or failure? It could be seen as an unfortunate or glaring omission that Jayson Werth is not on this list. I […]

The Nationals went into last season viewed as a World Series contender. But enough went wrong that the Nats got off to a slow start that could never be overcome. As a result, the team never really came close to fulfilling its lofty expectations. Washington looks like a heavy favorite again this year, but could […]

The Tampa Bay Rays didn't really need Jose Lobaton after acquiring Ryan Hanigan and giving both him and Jose Molina multi-year contract extensions this offseason. So the Rays took care of that enviable problem by

On Tuesday, long-time Houston Astros starting pitcher Roy Oswalt retired at the age of just 36. There will be no serious Hall of Fame discussion about Oswalt, and that's probably justified, but Oswalt's career looked like it was on a Hall of Fame track before it was derailed later on. Oswalt finished in the top […]

In looking over the Nationals' roster, no weaknesses immediately stand out. That's surely a reason why the team is viewed as a World Series contender going into the 2014 season. The Nats have outstanding starting pitching and a strong bullpen (though general manager Mike Rizzo is always looking to add a reliever), while their lineup […]

You may have heard a little something today about New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter announcing he will retire after the 2014 season. After 20 seasons in the majors with one team, Jeter’s plaque in the Baseball Hall of Fame should already have its location reserved  among the all-time greats. When the 13-time All-Star made […]

There may have been no bigger disappointment in MLB last year than the Nationals. Many fans and analysts picked them to win the World Series, but a young team buckled under those heavy expectations and fell behind in the NL East race early. The Nats made a late run at a wild-card spot, going 18-9 […]

One reason that the Mets aren't considered among the top teams in the NL East might be because it's difficult to name four players that are truly difference makers. But a closer look at the roster shows that the Mets do indeed have four horsemen, a quartet of players that will determine how successful the […]