NL East

Jason Heyward came to the big leagues in 2010 with a great deal of hype surrounding him. Many people were expecting greatness from a kid who had not even turned 21 years old at the start of his first major league season. When he had a historically great rookie campaign for his age, the hype just continued even though there were some concern about his injury history.

The Philadelphia Phillies took their time addressing their needs this offseason, but they have managed to acquire four players whose roles are already defined heading into next season.

Heads or tails?  Heads, Adam LaRoche goes to the Boston Red Sox. Tails, he goes to the Washington Nationals.  You choose—at least that's what it seems to have come down to this offseason.

In case you haven't heard, the Miami Marlins have traded away most of their experienced big league talent. This could lead to the promotion of their top prospect, Christian Yelich, ahead of schedule.

After a frustrating 2012 campaign saw the Philadelphia Phillies finish 81-81 and 17 games out of first place in the NL East, sweeping changes were bound to come within the organization.

Every New Year's Day, we watch the ball drop in Times Square, tune in to the six million bowl games on TV and make at least one New Year's resolution.

For the Miami Marlins, as well as the other 29 Major League Baseball teams, the goal is to win the World Series—or at least it should be. In order for that to happen soon—perhaps as early as the 2013 season, when no one expects them to win—changes must occur before Spring Training begins.

Some are cosmetic, others much larger in grandeur. 

Not too long ago, the New York Mets went after the top-tier free agents as aggressively as the Yankees and Red Sox. Recently, with the departures of Carlos Beltran, Jose Reyes and R.A. Dickey, they have become the team known for shipping their starts out of town.

It didn't have to be this way for the New York Mets and their fans.

Not in one of the newer, most beautiful ballparks in the game. Not in the greatest city in the world. Not now that the Wilpons are free of the Bernie Madoff disaster. Not in a season in which the eyes of the entire baseball world will be on the New York Mets in July when they play host to the Midsummer Classic.

The National League contains some of the strongest pitching rotations all of Major League Baseball,  and the Washington Nationals rank right there amongst the game's best.

The temptation to take an unlikely premise for success and sarcastically run with it—"throw Chase Utley in the Wayback Machine and set it to 2006" or "throw Ryan Howard 1,000,000 left-handed sliders until he is immune from their hypnotic effects"—is great.

For that matter, there is also "petition Bud Selig to move the Phillies from the National League Eastern Division, where they are third-best, to a more hospitable division like the National League Central."

But we deal in reality here.