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PORT ST. LUCIE Josh Tomlin Jersey , Fla. (AP) — For years, the NL East has been soft as a bunt single.Not anymore.Even before Bryce Harper decided to stay inside the division, four of the five teams spent this offseason swinging for the fences. In addition to defending champion Atlanta, the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals all have enough firepower to potentially contend for the playoffs.“This is probably going to be the stiffest competition in a division race in my career,” Nationals ace Max Scherzer said at spring training.It’s certainly a noticeable transformation.In the past eight seasons, the NL East has won a grand total of two playoff series and produced one pennant winner — with the 2015 Mets responsible for the entirety of that October success.Two years ago, Washington finished a whopping 20 games in front, and no other team in the division was better than 77-85.Last season, Atlanta rolled to a surprise title at 90-72, the fewest wins of any postseason participant. No other NL East squad did better than two games above .500.Miami has endured nine straight losing seasons. Philadelphia hasn’t been a winner since 2011. New York’s last 10 years, two winning records.But now, an influx of talent and a cavalcade of new faces have the division shaping up as a force for years to come.By the looks of it, the NL least is suddenly a beast.“I don’t think there’s another division harder right now. Every team is pretty much loaded,” Phillies outfielder Nick Williams said.This winter alone:Atlanta signed third baseman Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP.New York acquired five recent All-Stars in Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Jed Lowrie and Wilson Ramos.Washington spent $140 million to plug Patrick Corbin into an imposing rotation that already featured Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.And the Phillies plucked away two big stars from division rivals, trading with Miami for catcher J.T. Realmuto and luring Harper from the Nationals with a record $330 million contract.“It’s almost like the AL East — great pitching, great lineups 1 through 9. But that’s what you live for. You want to face the best Carlos Carrasco Jersey ,” Braves All-Star pitcher Mike Foltynewicz said.“People took us a little lightly last year and now we’re the ones kind of getting chased. But no panic button or anything. We made great moves before everyone started going haywire,” he added. “It’s kind of cool to see that we might have stirred it up for these guys.”Even the less-heralded moves showed all four organizations were serious about winning right away.Atlanta brought back veteran catcher Brian McCann and re-signed All-Star outfielder Nick Markakis.The busy Mets added reliever Justin Wilson and outfielder Keon Broxton, among others, significantly improving their bullpen, bench and overall depth under new general manager Brodie Van Wagenen.Washington boosted its relief corps with Kyle Barraclough and Trevor Rosenthal, secured a pair of first-string catchers in Yan Gomes and Kurt Suzuki, and addressed issues on the right side of the infield with Brian Dozier and Matt Adams. Anibal Sanchez was signed away from Atlanta for the back of the rotation.Philadelphia paid $50 million for 2013 NL MVP Andrew McCutchen, another $23 million for late-inning reliever David Robertson, and traded for two-time All-Star shortstop Jean Segura.“It seemed like every other week the Mets, the Phillies, the Nationals were signing someone or trading for someone,” Braves slugger Freddie Freeman said.With only the young Marlins, in the early stages of their massive rebuild, expected to struggle (again) this season, the NL East appears to pack uncommon depth.As more and more clubs strip down and reboot with unproven prospects, the division is the only one in the majors with four teams forecast to have winning records in the PECOTA projections on Baseball Prospectus. Philadelphia and Washington are pegged for 89 wins, with the Mets at 87 and Braves 84. The prediction for Miami is 67.“It’s definitely beefed up,” Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler said. “Everybody’s gotten better.”“I think there’s a lot of teams in our division ready to win. I hate saying that because everybody should be ready to win. But you know, once one team adds somebody, if you’re the other teams you’ve sort of got to top that,” he explained. “When they add a bullpen guy you’ve got to add a bullpen guy to get better Cliff Pennington Jersey , stay ahead.”It’s not as if the NL East was starved for talent before.Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom won the NL Cy Young Award last season, beating out three-time Cy Young winner Scherzer and Phillies ace Aaron Nola.Atlanta outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. and Washington counterpart Juan Soto ran 1-2 in Rookie of the Year voting.And every team has touted minor leaguers now in play, including Pete Alonso (Mets), Victor Robles (Nationals) and Mike Soroka (Braves).“It looks like a really tough division. Whoever comes out of that is going to be battle-tested,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo said. “I think you just go ahead and look at the starting pitching around this division and you see right away that every single at-bat is going to be a battle. It definitely is something that’s empowering, no doubt, and gives you a lot of confidence that people look at your division and think very highly of it. But again, it just means that every game is going to be a dogfight.”One thing the NL East wasn’t lacking all these years was heated rivalries, which should only grow more intense.And if the Braves, Mets, Nationals and Phillies knock each other around all season, maybe the division will be decided by which team beats up on the Marlins the most.“Obviously with Bryce going to the Phillies, I think a lot of people lean toward them as being kind of the favorite in our division, but to me the Nationals are really good,” Miami manager Don Mattingly said. “This division got really good quick, which is good. I think it’s good for us, actually. There’s gonna be some black and blue.” Tzu-Wei Lin is a depth piece this year, but he’s playing for 2020."On the other hand, the big question with Lin has always been his bat. Most of his time in the minors was spent as a weak-hitting middle infielder, but the aforementioned 2017 breakout included unprecedented power and quality of contact. Now, the .189 Isolated Power (SLG - AVG) probably overplays his potential there Joey Votto Jersey , but there were real changes that led to more consistently hard contact. His swing and hitting style isn’t really built for power, but the adjustments should help to lead to consistently higher-than-average batting averages on balls in play. Lin will also draw a bunch of walks. On the other hand, his power will probably max out around .150 in his best years, and even that is probably generous, and he strikes out a bit more than you’d expect from someone with his profile. Overall, I’d expect his true-talent level to settle in with a wRC+ in the 85-90 range. That’s fine, but obviously not anything special.If Lin can prove me right and make teams believe that’s his true-talent level with his performance in 2019, someone will believe in him for a bench role in 2020. It’s not the highest bar to clear, of course, but his versatility and acceptable level at the plate is nothing to sneeze at. The question then becomes what team it will be with, and that becomes trickier. The Red Sox could have some room, but it depends on how they value other things. Both and Holt are set to hit free agency after the season. At this point, I’d assume all but gone for the 2020 season. Things can change drastically in a year, but that’s where we are at this point in time. Holt, on the other hand, is a bigger question. Strictly from a baseball sense, letting Holt walk for Lin would be the logical choice. Holt is better, to be sure, but he’s older, has a history with head injuries and will be significantly more expensive. The margin in talent isn’t that great. However, Holt is also perhaps the clubhouse favorite as well as a huge fan favorite. It’s tough to put a price on those things http://www.redsfanproshop.com/authentic-cliff-pennington-jersey , particularly for the outside, but those are legitimate factors that need to be considered.Adam Hunger-USA TODAY SportsStill, even if Holt does stick around, N ez’ absence would open up a roster spot for Lin, right? Technically, yes, but it doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense to keep both Holt and Lin at the same time. They are very similar players. On top of that, there are other players who could be looking for a job. Michael Chavis and possibly even Bobby Dalbec should and could be pushing for a jump to the majors. The first basemen being free agents helps there, but it’s still another name in the mix. Then, there’s the Marco Her dez question, not to mention someone like C.J. Chatham possibly making his way up by next year. The point is 2020 is a long way away right now and there’s a chance there’s room for Lin, but there are a lot of scenarios where it doesn’t make sense to keep him with the Red Sox.With all of that being said, whether it’s with Boston or not Lin has a chance to get himself up in the majors for good if he can have another successful year in 2019. Most of these questions have to do with a player’s effect on the team, but for Lin his season is more important for himself than it is for the Red Sox. As long as he can maintain the strides he’s made with the bat over the last few years, Lin will get a chance somewhere after this. Someone will want his versatility, but continuing to make the consistent contact he’s made the last two years could be easier said than done. It’s also what stands between riding the busses for another year and getting a shot at consistent major-league time.


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