NL East

With the season just a few days old, us fantasy nerds are loving life. The longest and most in-depth fantasy sport has officially kicked off.

A lot depends on how you draft, but us diehard fantasy guru's know it's much more than that. Each year there are multiple waiver wire pickups that can launch your team to the next level. Whether you are looking for an emerging rookie, a veteran hoping to bounce back or a complete surprise player, this season will have it all.

The Phillies have an early three game series against the rival Mets starting tonight (Tuesday). The Phillies have gotten off to a scorching hot start (albeit against the lowly Astros) and they look to keep the good times rolling.

The Mets won their first series as well, taking two of three from the Marlins.

This series most definitely means a lot more to Mets fragile psyche than the proven Phillies, but it is still always fun to kick a New York team while they are down right?

Home runs are the most exciting part of a baseball game.

Over the years, players have made a living on their ability to hit the long ball.

Though the New York Mets have been known for developing strong pitching prospects like Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Jon Matlack and Nolan Ryan, the team has had a handful of good power hitters in their 49-year history.

Shea Stadium and the Mets’ current home, Citi Field, aren’t exactly hitter-friendly ballparks, which speaks volumes for the players that actually put up good power numbers in Mets uniforms.

If you ask me, the Philadelphia Phillies got off to a pretty good start this weekend at home. Three games. Three wins.

That good start went way beyond simply getting three wins, however, as the team answered several imposing questions that people around the game held against them heading into the season. As Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt toed the hill, people questioned whether or not they would be able to live up to the hype. They responded by walking just one hitter, striking out 23 more and allowing just six earned runs in 19 innings pitched.

With the conclusion of the first weekend, Phillies fans have already learned a lot about the upcoming season. Already the rotation was known to be a sure thing. 19 innings were pitched by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt while only allowing a collective 14 hits, six runs, one walk and 23 strikeouts.

It’s so obvious. I don’t know how all the phans in Philadelphia are missing it. 

The Braves are clearly the team to beat in the NL East. They have it all: pitching, power, superior defense, awesome bench. Everything's there. 

Yet those phans, and most of the national media, just can’t see it.

You wanna talk pitching? Add one part Derek Lowe, one part Tommy Hanson, a handful of Tim Hudson and a pinch of Brandon Beachy (???) and you got a championship rotation, right? 

Few teams in baseball enter the 2011 season with less hope than the New York Mets. From constant injury issues and disappointing play, to a rotation that is sure to struggle, to an ownership situation that is chaotic at best and downright toxic at worst, it's clear that the Mets are destined for another year near the cellar of the NL East. 

September 24, 2008: Francisco Rodriguez notches his single-season-record-setting 62nd save.

December 10, 2008: New York Mets ink K-Rod to a three-year $37 million contract.

Coming off the best year a closer has ever had, Mets fans felt that the transition from Billy Wagner was going to be seamless.

Unfortunately, the 2009 season was far from what the fans expected from Rodriguez.

The 2011 MLB season is back and so are ‘Dem Phightin Phils’. Philadelphia’s finest are ready to make yet another push toward—what will be—their fifth straight appearance in the postseason. But along the way there will be some inevitable bumps in the road that the Phillies will have to endure, and it begins with five players who are notoriously slow starters.

As if the Mets didn't have enough problems, now talking babies are giving them grief.

This is a perfect case of people being split down the center on the issue and there not being much room for middle ground.

It all went down during the Mets' Opening Day loss to the Florida Marlins. As the opening day loss was being broadcast live on the Mets' home station of SNY, an unnamed employee of the station briefly played a Family Guy joke live over broadcaster Gary Cohen.