by Blah McBlah

Created on: February 21, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Being from St. Louis I am a huge Cardinal fan and watching them win the World Series last year was incredible but sadly, they will not be winning the NL Central Division this year. The loss of Jeff Suppan (to the Brewers), Jason Marquis (to the Cubs), and Jeff Weaver (to the Mariners) put the Cardinals rotation in serious disarray. The only sure starters for the Cardinals are club ace Chris Carpenter and Kip Wells. Anthony Reyes is not a sure bet but should be considered a solid one. Beyond those 3 it is a tossup and who knows who the 4 and 5 starters will be until Mark Mulder makes his return (and hopefully returns to his old-self.) Braden Looper (I thought it was a joke when I originally heard this) will even be competing for a starting job. Young stud, Adam Wainwright may also get a slot depending on whether or not less-than-impressive Jason Isringhausen makes it back in time to close games. Saying this you can never count out a team with the best player in baseball, Albert Pujols and if Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds stay healthy they could challenge for their 4th straight division title.

The Pirates, yet again, will be the bottom of the division and nothing has really come out about them to make me think any different. Simply put, Freddy Sanchez and Jason Bay cannot hold a team together that seems almost committed to losing.

Adam Dunn will hit 40-50 home runs and strike out 180+ times. Griffey will be healthy for a little bit before a freak accident with a ham sandwich will bench him for a significant amount of time. The Reds will have a fantastic offensive season, as usual, but will also allow a lot of runs, as usual. The result of this paradox? A sub par .500 season, as usual.

Houston we have a problem. Pettitte gone, Clemens most likely gone and a fading core of the Killer B's all spell trouble for the Astros. Signing Jason Jennings and Carlos Lee were big for them but losing the aforementioned Pettitte and probably Clemens along with young spark plug (not to mention lead-off hitter) in Willy Taveras spells trouble. The short (and in my opinion very cheap) porch in left field should help the offense actually produce some runs this years with Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee anchoring the lineup. The Astros success this season will lie squarely on its rotation with this years projection being: Roy Oswalt, Woody Williams, Jason Jennings, Wandy Rodriguez and either Matt Albers, Chris Sampson or Brian Moehler. Not as impressive as the previous years that featured

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