This offseason has produced a number of memorable headlines like the Zack Greinke trade, the eight-player Matt Garza trade and the Adrian Gonzalez-Carl Crawford duo headed to Beantown. When looking at how strong a team is, people usually only cite the offense and starting pitching. Bullpens are often overlooked despite the clear correlation between winning ball clubs and the strength of their relievers.
The 2010 San Francisco Giants had a strong bullpen, which was one of the major contributing factors to their World Series victory. On the flip side, the Pittsburgh Pirates had an awful bullpen and won 57 games.
There have been three major deals involving the NL East this offseason: Cliff Lee to the Phillies, Dan Uggla to the Braves and Jayson Werth to the Nationals. The General Managers in this division have surreptitiously been stocking up on bullpen help this offseason. Maybe they realized that bullpens are key if you want to win a championship.
I will now rank the NL East bullpens and predict the division winner.
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