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I pretty much agree with what Erik has already mentioned. I don't see how all the other NL East teams have become weaker, if anything our division has become more competitive.

The Phillies, as the reigning champs, really didn't have much to improve. Their rotation is amazing with Hamels (which I still find funny the Marlins never lost against him) and Moyer. They have great offensive numbers and their bullpen was good. The only asset they lost was Burrell which they replaced with Ibanez who actually had better offensive stats last season (except maybe HRs).

The Mets area of concern last season was their bullpen which they've fixed (at least theoretically) with K-Rod as closer and Putz as set-up. You might argue that they are still the same team but you'd be wrong. How can they sign K-Rod and Putz to remedy their tattered bullpen which gave up God knows how many leads last season (I read somewhere that by Sept they'd blown 29 games), and still be the same team?

The Nats have taken steps to improve as well. Most notable to us as Marlins fans is the acquisition of Scotty O and Willingham. They added Terrell Young in the Rule of Five (though he's probably starting in the minors) and they signed Daniel Cabrera. To be honest, Cabrera kind of sucks but I'm assuming the Nats have plans for him or see something in him others don't. I've also read rumors of the Nats interested in Orlando Hudson but take that with a grain of salt. What some need to take into consideration is that the Nats have done what is within their means to acquire great players but there is nothing they can do if players don't want to play for the team. They tried to acquire Teixiera but were turned down. They also signed their star Zimmerman to a one year deal.

The Braves have added Kawakami, Derek Lowe and Javier Vasquez. They also added a back up catcher in Dave Ross. They might not have improved to what some would like but I do think that Lowe actually improves their rotation and, although Vasquez did struggle last year, he was fairly decent in 2007. I know absolutely nothing about Kawakami.

I'm not sure I'd call the Phillies rotation amazing, but I pretty much agree with most of your other stuff.

Also, assuming Washington won't compete for the division title, we don't really care how much they improved, except for Wild Card purposes. If they've improved, they'll be better against the Phillies, Braves, and Mets, as well, and not just against us. Obviously we loathe improvements to the Mets and Phils, both of whom will be very competitive next year, and I guess we'd have to throw the Braves in there, although I don't see them really threateing to take the NL East crown.