This year is going to be a Good one for the NL Central. I believe that it will come down the the Cubs and the Astros for the pennant, but I have to favor the Astros due to the fact that the Cubs are a whole new team this year and I think it might take a season or two before all of that money spent really pays off.

As for the Astros, I think that in the off season this year they have fine tuned an already great team. With Berkman, Lee, Burke, and Biggio in the line up, pitchers won't have such an opition to pitch around Berkman all of the time like they did last season. Although the Astros lost a couple of pitchers, they picked up woody williams who should be quite an asset. The bullpen is also going to be strong with Russ Springer and Dan Wheeler both returning and "Lights Out" Lidge coming back to close. Anything that is lacking in pitching will be made up for in Batting anyhow.

Overall I think that it is going to be an exciting NL Central season and I don't anticipate a team just over .500 winning the division this season.

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