by Joe Laszewski

Created on: March 05, 2007   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

I am a hardcore brewers fan who lives in Bismarck, North Dakota, and I have the pleasure of going to Milwaukee for a week to visit my grandparents and take in all of the home games for that week (usually a series or sometimes 2). So I'm going to try to give this to you as unbiased as I possibly can...but no guarantees.

As far as offseason moves are concerned the Cubs made a ton of moves that will be beneficial to the club in '07. Soriano is going to be a monster, you already know that. They also did an ok job shoring up the lower half of the pitching rotation. The key to the Cubs season will be the health of Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, and Derek Lee. Also it will be interesting to see what that lunatic Pinella can make of the scrubs over in Chitown.

Next, I think my Brewers did a pretty good job in the offseason. Bill Hall is moving to CF to make room for J.J. Hardy at SS. Also Estrada was a big acquisition at C this winter. He gives them a great allstar presence behind the plate and i think he will benefit from Miller Park greatly and hit .300 again this year. The Brew Crew also acquired Jeff Suppan the NLCS MVP. With Sheets looking good in Spring Training thus far look for the Brewer's rotation to be solid this year. Prince will prove that he is for real this year (30 Hrs is in reach) and Weeks will come back healthy.

The Reds didn't do a whole lot and I think that they will drop from their performance of last year. Adam Dunn will hit a lot of HR's, Griffey is already hurt so that is out of the way, and they don't have much starting pitching.

The Pirates are the Pirates. Look towards the cellar.

The Redbirds are coming off a World Series win and I think you can look for them to finish atop the standings again. They seem to be a staple for the playoffs as far as the NL Central is concerned. Pujols is an animal and look for him to produce gargantuan numbers as usual. They are my number one but they're no sure thing. I felt like they didn't improve too much over the winter. I guess we'll see.

The Astros got Carlos Lee, which is huge. I'm afraid that he will become a Brewerkiller this year and make Brewers fans everywhere wish that they could dole out the cash to pay him. The Astors offense will be good, their pitching is where the questions lie, both for starting pitchers as well as the bullpen and closer spot.

The Prediction:
1. Cardinals (What else is new, not as dominant as usual though)
2. Brewers (and a possible wild card bid)
3. Cubs (Injuries plague them and poor defense hurts them)
4. Astros (Lee wishes he was a Brewer - offense= good pitching= not enough)
5. Reds (Last year may have been a bit of a fluke)
6. Pirates (Same old)

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