Unlike the American League, the Senior Circuit has a clear favorite in the Washington Nationals entering the season. The Nationals would likely have been a title favorite without Max Scherzer, but they signed former Cy Young winner anyway. If nothing else, Scherzer places more pressure on the club to break through the wall that that division series has become.

While everyone with an opinion is writing the Nationals into the World Series, there are a handful of teams reminding people to do so in pencil. The Los Angeles Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball history, all the St. Louis Cardinals do is win, the San Diego Padres continue to make Major League upgrades (for better or worse) and the San Francisco Giants will be the reigning championships for at least another six-plus months.

East

This division has three clear tiers -- a contender, two up-and-coming clubs with potential and two cellar-dwellers. The Washington Nationals will be in for a lot of ridicule if they don't win their third NL East title in four years and, quite frankly, they should run away with it. The New York Mets and Miami Marlins each have young studs, while the Philadelphia Phillies and Atlanta Braves will battle for last place.

Washington has a starting rotation that consists of five Cy Young-level hurlers and that doesn't include Tanner Roark, who will begin the season in the bullpen awaiting either trade or injury. That depth won't fully be enjoyed until the postseason, but we mustn't forget that it was the offense that held the Nationals back last October.

This lineup must produce to justify the pitching expenditures. Washington scored the third-most runs in the NL during in 2014, but stumbled in the postseason -- scoring just nine runs in four games. That puts pressure on Anthony Rendon, Bryce Harper and Ian Desmond. They lost an underrated hitter in Adam LaRoche to free agency.

The Mets have a slightly better chance than the Marlins to grab a Wild Card berth based solely on the fact that they should have more reliable pitching. Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom will headline a rotation that could also add Noah Syndergaard and/or Rafael Montero at some point. They signed Michael Cuddyer in hopes of boosting a middling offense. If he's healthy, the 36-year-old might actually provide decent return on New York's $21 million investment.

Giancarlo Stanton gets all of the attention, but he isn't the only young star in the Marlins' outfield. Christian Yelich, 23, hit .284/.362/.402 in 660 plate appearances last season while snagging 21 bases and playing decent defense. How quickly Jose Fernandez rounds into form once he returns and what they are able to get from veteran additions (Michael Morse, Martin Prado) will determine whether or not they can make a playoff push.

The Braves appeared primed for a relatively long season even before they dealt Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton, Jr. to the Padres on the eve of the season. The trade will hurt them in the win column, but will help them rebuild a contender in the long run. They'll still win some games on the strength of Freddie Freeman's bat and the arms of Julio Teheran and Shelby Miller, but there will be no illusions of a winning season.

Cole Hamels is the best thing the Phillies have going for them this season and it's unlikely he'll finish the year with the only franchise he's known. The offense wasn't terrible in 2014, but Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz are all a year older and not much was added otherwise. The worst thing for fans would be that Ruben Amaro continues to hold onto the past and present rather than focusing on the future.

Projected Standings

1. Washington – 98-64*

2. New York (Mets) – 84-78

3. Miami – 81-81

4. Atlanta – 72-90

5. Philadelphia – 68-94

Central

The NL Central is quietly deep -- it'll be the most competitive in the league. If you believe in the hype surrounding the Cubs, the division could send three teams to the postseason. The Cardinals dealt Shelby Miller, but still have a deep staff with an improved offense (Jason Heyward) and they'll battle with the Pittsburgh Pirates for supremacy.

They have become the gold standard in baseball and there is no reason not to pick the Cardinals to win the division for the third-straight season. Over the last four seasons the worse they've done is appear in the LCS. Heyward adds another dimension to the offense by not only improving their production in the No. 2 slot, but also helping those behind him in the lineup (like Matt Holliday and Matt Adams). Adam Wainwright is a top-five pitcher.

Ideally, they'll add pitching depth around the trade deadline, but the Pirates should still grab at least a Wild Card berth. If they can get Pedro Alvarez back on track the offense, which scored the fourth-most runs in the NL last season, will be elite when you add in the maturation of Starling Marte and Gregory Polanco. Andrew McCutchen has led them in WAR in each of the last five seasons.

Whether or not they've mishandled Kris Bryant and paid Jon Lester too much, the Chicago Cubs are finally headed in the right direction. They certainly have holes, but Theo Epstein has shown a willingness to make a deal if it doesn't hamstring the franchise going forward. Anthony Rizzo and Jorge Soler could make a nice power trio with Bryant in the fold, but some offensive tinkering could help. Starlin Castro hasn't delivered on the promise from his first 250-plus games and his defense is poor. A trade is in order.

Financial concerns forced the Cincinnati Reds to trade away two-fifths of their pitching staff, but bounce-back years from Joey Votto and Jay Bruce can help make up for what could be a weak back-end of the rotation. They were one of just three teams to score fewer than 600 runs in 2014, but health was more of a reason than anything else. How they play over the first few months of the season will decide the direction around the July 31 trade deadline. Johnny Cueto will be a free agent after the season and could fetch a significant haul from a contender.

Pitching will be a concern for the Milwaukee Brewers, who traded Yovani Gallardo to the Texas Rangers, and the offense could be up-and-down given the ages and injury past of some of their hitters. Carlos Gomez is their best all-around offensive player and he turns 30 in December. They better hope his speed doesn't fall off a cliff.

Projected Standings

1. St. Louis – 92-70*

2. Pittsburgh – 90-72*

3. Chicago (Cubs) – 79-83

4. Cincinnati -- 74-88

5. Milwaukee – 72-90

West

It's hard to forecast a division in which one team has won three of the last five World Series and not have that club finishing first, but the San Francisco Giants may not even claim second-place in 2015. The Dodgers spend freely and the Padres have almost completely remade their roster with an eye on not just a playoff berth, but also a division title.

The Dodgers have an edge over everyone else in the NL West because they have two elite starters in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. No other club in the division has that luxury. There is almost no middle ground on the offense with Don Mattingly relying on aging stars (Jimmy Rollins, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Juan Uribe) and young (somewhat unpredictable) guys like Yasiel Puig, Yasmani Grandal and Joc Pederson. The regular season is really just a path towards another chance for Kershaw to shed the label of postseason disappointment.

San Diego continues to undergo a makeover. Only two of their nine Opening Day starters were on the 2014 roster. You have to give A.J. Preller some credit for having the guts to make so many franchise-altering trades in his first few months as a Major League general manager. The main issue for the Padres is that almost all of his moves have carried significant risk. If holdovers Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross and Ian Kennedy pitch well, they might actually challenge the Dodgers. That's ironic given all the turnover.

The Giants have famously taken odd-number years off during their recent run of success and expect the trend to continue. The NL is too deep for them to count on a Wild Card berth with numerous questions behind Madison Bumgarner in the rotation and holes in the offense created by free agency (Pablo Sandoval) and injury (Hunter Pence). Bruce Bochy can't ask Buster Posey and Bumgarner to do it all.

The best way to put it would be to say that the Arizona Diamondbacks have pieces. Paul Goldschmidt is an MVP candidate and A.J. Pollock and Yasmany Tomas might be nice complements soon, but the lineup is shallow. I'm interested to see Jeremy Hellickson in the NL and making room for Archie Bradley was smart, but the pitching staff lacks depth as well.

This shouldn't be the basis for a projection, but the Colorado Rockies will either have Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez on the DL or another roster by midseason and that's why they'll finish last. Even if the two stars are healthy, they aren't enough to push this roster into playoff contention and that means the front office should finally bite the bullet and deal them for significant hauls if they are healthy and producing as the weather gets hotter. No one has been able to figure out why Colorado hasn't placed a premium on strikeouts. If they do deal Tulowitzki and Gonzalez, getting young, hard-throwing hurlers in return is a must.

Projected Standings

1. Los Angeles (Dodgers) – 93-69*

2. San Diego – 87-75*

3. San Francisco – 80-82

4. Arizona -- 68-84

5. Colorado – 63-99

Playoff Predictions

Wild-Card Game: Pirates over Padres

NLDS: Nationals over Pirates, Dodgers over Cardinals

NLCS: Dodgers over Nationals