Staff Blog
With Derek Lowe on Board, Should the Phils Fear the Braves?
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Atlanta is set to officially ink two pitchers today, Kenshin Kawakami, a 33-year-old righthander who was an all star in Japan, and Derek Lowe, the former Dodgers righty who has been been an all star in America. Those two, combined with Jair Jurrjens offseason addition Javier Vazquez, give the Braves a rotation with both upside and stability.
I’m not sure it’ll be enough to launch the Braves into the Phils/Mets echelon, but if a few things break right for ATL I’m not sure it’s not either. Larry Jones, Brian McCann, Yunel Escobar, and Kelly Johnson isn’t exactly the worst core, and that isn’t even counting Jeff Franceour, who was arguably the best right fielder in the national league before he fell apart at the plate last year.
People forget, but before the 2008 season started many experts were projecting the NL East for the Braves. It obviously didn’t end up that way, but the team is more talented than us east coasters are giving them credit for. The Phils would be wise to keep an eye on their division neighbor to the South as well as the choke artists to the north.
Without Lowe, the Mets might have lost the NL East: http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2009/01/without-lowe-mets-have-lost-nl-east.html
Wonderful, but known =)
Wodnerful, but usual =)