NL East: Monthly Review

Apparently, the end of the world is near. The Florida Marlins, yes, that hapless franchise in south Florida, are atop the NL East.

Not the Philadelphia Phillies, or the Atlanta Braves, or even those New York Mets.

These Marlins hold a three-game lead over the fourth place Braves, a two-and-a-half-game lead over the third place Mets, and just a one-game lead over the Phillies.

The question that perplexes everybody is: how have the Marlins pulled this off?

Usually the only reason the Marlins are winning games is the play of star shortstop Hanley Ramirez. This fact still has not changed, as Hanley is hitting .327 with nine HR, 23 RBI and 14 SB.

However, there are other players on this team that have been significant in the results the Marlins have achieved thus far. Some of this has been the play of second baseman Dan Uggla.

Uggla is looking eerily similar to the numbers he put up his rookie year of 2006. That was the season when the Marlins contended for the Wild Card until almost the very last day of the season.

In his rookie campaign, Uggla hit .282 with 27 HR and 90 RBI. This was his best overall season, as last year he hit just .245 and struck out 167 times. So far this year, Uggla is hitting .299 with 12 HR and 29 RBI, with his usual high strikeout rate, currently with 42 in 39 games.

It has not been just Uggla and Hanley. There have been key contributions made by Jorge Cantu and Mike Jacobs in terms of hitters.

However, the real surprise is the pitching.

Scott Olsen has been better than expected so far this season. His ERA is  just 2.63, while his past two seasons have had ERAs of 5.81 and 4.04, respectively.

It also helps that relievers Justin Miller, Renyel Pinto, Logan Kensing, Doug Waechter, and Kevin Gregg all have ERAs below 3.26, which more than makes up for the rather poor performances by the starters who are not named Scott Olsen.

The scary thing is, the fish still don't have Josh Johnson and Anibal Sanchez back from their respective surgeries.

It was in that magical season of 2006 that hitters hit just .217 off of Sanchez, resulting in a 10-3 record and 2.83 ERA. Johnson held hitters to a .236 batting average in 157 innings with a 3.10 ERA.

Also, the Marlins still have not brought up star prospect Cameron Maybin from AAA.

It also helps their case that Jimmy Rollins has been injured and Ryan Howard has gotten off to a very slow start in Philadelphia. Also, the inconsistent play of Jose Reyes and the Mets offense, and their abysmal bullpen, have slowed down the New Yorkers. And the injury to John Smoltz hurts the Braves, as he is planning on coming back as a reliever.

Oh yeah, and there are those Washington Nationals. The "softball team" at the bottom of the division. At least Ryan Zimmerman has found his power of late, and they took three out of four from the Mets in Shea stadium.

Overall, as much as I hate to say it, I still have the Braves winning the division. Their pitching will only get better as the days pass. They will see Smoltz and Rafael Soriano come back, and they have a potent offense to support Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine in their rotation, as well as they guys that have to fill-in.

So, it is not QUITE the end of the world, as the Washington Nationals are still at the bottom of the division. Though I do expect the Marlins to contend with the heavyweights in the division until about August, and make the city of Philadelphia have numerous heart attacks due to the thought of the Marlins winning the division as "the team to beat".