This post is dedicated to Tom, who is a Phillies fan from Mt. Laurel, NJ.  Tom works at Walt Disney World in Guest Services and helped my family and my friends’ family on our vacation.  He is now a Matt’s Bats reader, and I wanted to let him know my opinion of his team.

First, here’s a look at their likely lineup:

SS Jimmy Rollins
RF Ben Revere
1B Ryan Howard
2B Chase Utley
3B Kevin Frandsen
LF Domonic Brown
C Erik Kratz
CF John Mayberry, Jr
P Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Vance Worley, and John Lannan.

This is a good looking lineup with a very powerful infield.  Their outfield, however, could stand to be upgraded.  Michael Bourn is still a free agent, and he could instantly improve the team.

But improve them enough to top the NL East?  The competition will be a little softer this year against the Marlins and Mets.  But the Nationals are still the team to beat.  My prediction is the Division ends up looking like this:

1: Washington Nationals
2: Philadelphia Phillies
3: Atlanta Braves
4: New York Mets
5: Miami Marlins

Tom will be watching his hometown Phillies all season from Florida, and I will be in the stands at Nationals Park cheering on the 2012– and 2013!– NL East winning Washington Nationals.

PS– On our drive from Orlando down to visit my grandma, we passed Port Saint Lucie (Spring Training home of the Mets) and Jupiter (Spring Training home of the Marlins and Cardinals).  I think I’ll be back to check out some games this spring, so stay tuned Matt’s Bats fans for updates from the pre-season.

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