As far as deep pockets go, you might want to check out Cot's Contracts at Baseball Prospectus, since it dispels a couple of misconceptions.
Braves - meh. Their payroll peaked at $106 million in 2003 and is likely to stay $90-100 million for the foreseeable future.
Phillies - well yeah, but they're not exactly spending SMART money, are they? I mean, they're going to spend $170 million a year, but next year for example they'll be spending $104 million on Halladay, Lee, Howard, Utley, Rollins, and Papelbon ALONE. Now those guys might be worth 20-25 WAR if things pan out right, but that still means they have to find another 20-25 WAR from the rest of their team with only $65 million or so to do it with. That's easy if you have a lot of young talent, but the Phillies don't have a lot of young talent.
Mets - I'd say the Mets payroll is likely to stay lower unless the team is sold or the Wilpons find a way to sell investors on giving them lots of cash without giving up equity in the team (fat chance). Until one of those two things happens, they seem like they're going to keep an artificially low payroll to help pay off their massive debt payments on Citi Field. Of course, the Mets SHOULD be a huge spender, but the Wilpons are messing them up pretty badly right now.
There's no reason the Nats can't stay competitive in this division forever with a payroll in the $100 million range (which it will be soon enough just by resigning our current talent). This isn't the AL East where you have two of the highest spending teams that also happen to be extremely well-run franchises. Ruben Amaro is not Brian Cashman.
