NL East

I recently received quite a bit of flack for one of the five points in my last article on what the Braves need to happen in order for them to win the East.

So, in the spirit of discussion, and defending myself, I have decided to elaborate on my point on what Bobby Cox needs to do to get his Braves over the hump.

Depth is key to any team with legitimate playoff aspirations. The Phillies were able to win a world series with Matt Stairs having some key hits in there NLCS series against the Dodgers, and the Yankees benefited from having Brett Gardner running around the bases late in games last October.

One thing Bobby Cox has always managed to do with the Braves is maximize the potential of the Braves fringe starters and bench players.

Like Carl Crawford, the chances of Jayson Werth re-signing with his current club beyond the 2010 season seem to be slim to none:

The Phillies are coming off an offseason in which they signed Shane Victorino, Roy Halladay, Joe Blanton, Danys Baez, Placido Polanco, Brian Schneider, Carlos Ruiz and Ross Gload to multiyear deals, pushing their 2011 payroll to $130.85 million.

One of the stories around baseball during the early parts of spring training has been Johana Santana claiming that he is still the top pitcher in the NL East despite the Phillies' acquisition of Roy Halladay.

It is hard to argue with Johan's confidence but Halladay does make a very good case for top pitcher in the division as well. An intriguing question is, who comes after them? There are great pitchers scattered throughout the NL East from the big right hander down in Florida, Josh Johnson to the slender California kid of the Phillies, Cole Hamels.

If Mike Rizzo had his way, it sure sounds like Dunn would be a National for a long time to come:

* Rizzo reiterated Saturday that he would like to sign Adam Dunn to a contract extension, but declined to talk about how the negotiations were going between the two parties. Dunn is a free agent after the 2010 season.

The Atlanta Braves, in what has proven to be their last notable signing of the 2009-10 offseason, signed Eric Hinske to a one-year, $1 million contract back in January.

I have learned a lot of things working in Corporate America over the last 11 years. More importantly, I have learned a lot about how to build a team and maintain success being a manager for the last four years.

Anyone who does any type of managing or coaching knows that you will have strong performers on your team and weak performers. It’s just the nature of the beast.

MLBTradeRumors.com is reporting the New York Mets have come to a contract agreement with free agent catcher Rod Barajas. Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com was the first to tweet about this deal.

The agreement is reportedly a one year deal with a base of $1 million. It will also include up to $1 million in incentives, which apparently seem easy to attain.

If nothing else, the Omar Minaya era certainly hasn’t lacked drama.

At first he looked like another Frank Cashen in the making when he rebuilt a floundering Mets franchise. His ability to lure Hispanic marquee free agents, coupled with his ability to find diamonds in the rough (John Maine for Kris Benson?! What a steal!), seemingly appeared to trigger an era in which the Mets would be a force for many years.