5 NL East Players To Watch For 2009

It’s been a wild offseason for the National League East.

The Mets welded their leaky bullpen by signing two closers.  The Braves loaded up on starting pitching by grabbing 365 wins off the market and recently added a hall of famer. Florida locked up their franchise player, Hanley Ramirez, to a six-year contract.  Even the lowly Nationals got involved, stealing Adam Dunn for $20 million.  The World Champion Phillies found themselves a new left fielder and brought back the majority of the 2008 squad.

Even though the spring is just starting, it will be April before long and each of these teams will be looking to a special player to lead them.

Each NL East team has to incorporate a new player or players into their plans and some will work out, and some won’t.  Here is a look at five players to keep an eye on in the NL East for 2009.

Raul Ibanez, Philadelphia Phillies LF
-Ibanez really the no-brainer choice for the Phillies being the newcomer.  He takes over for Pat Burrell in left field and has to bring the offense east.

The former Seattle Mariner is a steady bat and run producer, and although he lacks the power of Burrell, he was hardly housed in a launching pad at Safeco Field.  Ibanez has a career batting average of .286, and has not dipped below 100 RBI’s in the past three seasons.  Consistency was not a word in Pat Burrell’s vocabulary, so that part of Ibanez’s game will be welcomed.

For the Phillies to remain the cream of the crop in the National League, Ibanez will have to bring that stability to Philadelphia.  As of now, it looks like the six hole suits Ibanez best, and he could very well knock in a ton of runs in that spot.

If his track record is any indication of what he can provide this year for the Phils, everyone should be in for a treat.  Ibanez hit .327 with runners in scoring position, over 100 points higher than Burrell.  While Burrell was leaving his friends on the island, it’s safe to say Ibanez should bring them home.

There are many positives in the upgrade of Ibanez, one however, is not age.  He is going on 37-years old and seems to be aging well.  The Phillies need him to fend off father time for a few more years.

Dallas McPherson, Florida Marlins 3B
-If you’re a diehard fan, you may remember this name.  The guy was supposed to be a stud, but has played like a dud.

McPherson started out with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and was destined for stardom.  The third baseman of the future in Anaheim, McPherson smashed 40 homers between double-A and triple-A in 2004, and was poised to make the leap to the pros in ’05.  But over the next three seasons, McPherson did little in the bigs, and people began to call him a quadruple-A player.

He has since moved to Miami and is still the third baseman of the future, but now is 28-years old.  At 6’4”, 210 pounds, McPherson should be a perennial 35-homer guy, but it hasn’t panned out that way.  Instead, he is hoping to stay at the major league level for an entire year, something he has yet to do.

McPherson is yet another project player the Marlins so often find on their hands.  He is a reclamation story hoping to hit it big on a team filled with young players and castaways.  And even though the Marlins look shoddy on paper, they always find a way to be involved in the NL East. McPherson will be an need to be the power in the middle of the order, because the Marlins just don’t have anyone else.  Besides their franchise player Hanley Ramirez, they have traded both Josh Willingham and Mike Jacobs and Jeremy Hermida has not been able to put it all together.

Hopefully the kid is ready for stardom, because the Marlins are in need of that big bat.

Jeff Francouer, Atlanta Braves RF
-The dude has an absolute cannon for an arm, which has not changed.  What has changed for Jeff Francouer is his ability to hit.

Looking like an all-star caliber outfielder in 2006, Francouer went 29/103 and the sky was the limit.  In ’07 his home runs dropped (19), but his RBI’s went up (105) and he was still a special player in the making.

2008 was an entirely different story for kid with the killer arm.  Francouer struggled so mightily last year that he was sent down to the minors briefly in an attempt to wake up the sleeping bat.  Nothing worked and the slugger limped to the finish with this line: .239/11/71.

This year, the Braves need the Jeff of old if they want to compete. Complete with a refurbished rotation, Atlanta needs an offense to work with.  Chipper Jones has been the focus of the lineup for more than a decade and while injuries continue to hinder him, they have yet to find someone else to produce consistently in front of, or behind him.  Brian McCann has been one of the best catcher in baseball, but he is a catcher and they aren’t known for their bats.  Yunel Escobar is a nice player, but still has holes he needs to fix.

It all rests on the wide shoulders of Jeff Francouer to take over as “the” guy.

Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals 3B
-Last year was a long one for everyone involved in DC.  Zimmerman has suffered through three straight dismal seasons, with 2008 being the worst.  The Nats went 59-102,  never really showing much promise with a group that was thought to be on the up and up.

None of that was true, and no one suffered more than Zimmerman, who fought through injuries and played just 106 games.  His numbers hit three-year lows as he managed to hit just 14 home runs, which happened to be the most on the team.  How’s that for low.

Zimmerman was the fourth overall pick in the 2005 draft, and in his first full year in the bigs he looked like the real deal.  His 20/110 line was “star in the making” type stuff, and his second season was almost as nice, going 24/91.  But last year was an abomination, as the team tried to fly, but couldn’t get off the runway.  One of the main reasons was their ailing third baseman.

For this to be a positive year, and anything can be positive after a 59-win campaign, Zimmerman must be healthy and be the leader the Nationals drafted him to be.  He is the heart and soul of this franchise and although they have another big bat in the clubhouse these days, it’s still his squad.  Adam Dunn will join Zimmerman in the lineup and the two could have a huge impact on how Washington does in the criminally tough NL East. But, it could go south just as easily as last season.

Washington still has questions in the rotation and in their crowded, but underachieving outfield.  The one constant they need is Zimmerman.  He’s the engine that makes this club run.

JJ Putz, New York Mets RP
-It’s funny that a relief pitcher would be one of the most influential players in an entire division, but such is the case when you’re a New York Met.  Last season, the Mets were second in the league in blown saves with 29.  The back end of their bullpen was a leaky faucet and the offense couldn’t have been happy about that.

The Mets bats did their job, and the starting pitching wasn’t half bad either.  New York was tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the second most runs in the NL with 799.  It clearly was not the offense that let them down.  The rotation was stellar as well, as the starters had a cumulative ERA under four in 2008.

The bullpen was where the blame shall lay.  JJ Putz and Francisco Rodriguez have combined for 309 saves in their careers, and each have been an all-star.  They will now team up and anchor a bullpen that crumbled down the stretch last year and took their playoff hopes down with it.  Putz is the key here.

Putz right now is slated to be the eighth inning guy, but his role is just as important, if not more so, than the closer.  They now have a veteran presence that can actually get the game to the ninth inning, rather than blowing it after six or seven, which was the norm.  Putz may also need to step in for K-Rod once in a while, and it’s nice to count on another solid arm if that is the case.  The Mets should feel comfy with a lead after seven innings, because with two closers, they hope it will be game over.

Patrick Gallen is the Philadelphia Phillies Examiner for examiner.com.  He also hosts his own internet radio show, “Basketball Roundup” on the Sports Journey Broadcast Network. The show airs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10am-12pm est.