Pennant Fever - NL Central

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-Digger's Daily-

What's happened to NL Central teams? On July 28th, only 4.5 games separated four powerhouse ballclubs. Not anymore. Milwaukee and Houston are heading backwards. Chicago is riding a 5 game losing streak. St. Louis has won 7 of 10 and leads by 4 games. All four teams can wreck baseballs. Cardinals pitching is the only staff not getting creamed. Here's how I see things shaping up.

St. Louis Cardinals (64-52) sport the Central's best manager (Tony LaRussa). His team has survived injuries all season long and are poised to run away with the division title. Key trading deadline deals netted versatile multi-positional Mark DeRosa and LF Matt Holliday. Holliday struggled much of the first half playing for Oakland. Right now, he's MLB's hottest hitter. As a Cardinal he's batting .484 in 18 games with an OPS of 1.319... outstanding! Cards are led by my pick for NL MVP Albert Pujols who might become the first player in decades to win a Triple Crown. Chris Carpenter has been lights out since returning from injury (12-3, 2.27). Closer Ryan Franklin is having the best season of his 10 year career (2-1, 1.20, 28 Saves). Everything has been going the Cards way after struggling in May/June. 24-14 lately and beginning to pull away from the pack. Cards match up well against every NL team.

Chicago Cubs (58-54) have driven manager Lou Piniella nuts all season long. As usual, this was to be their year. In typical Chicago Cubs style, they've been a major disappointment. They're a deep team who seemed lost when key injuries struck (Soto, Ramirez, Harden and now Zambrano). Lineup never gelled and relievers have handed away games. Derrek Lee has been the only brightspot in the Cubbies lineup. Starting pitchers have been pretty good until recently but have fallen victim to shoddy late inning relief. Quite frankly, I don't know how Piniella hasn't exploded. On paper, this was to be a team challenging for 100 wins. They had one great month notching 18 July victories. Then came August... and a current 5 game losing streak. They're not playing well against the NL's better teams. Not a good sign of things to come.

Milwaukee Brewers (56-58) was predicted by many to be the team to beat... they were right. Everyone is starting to beat them up. Hitters, as I predicted, have squandered opportunity after opportunity and defense has been terrible. Throw in a lousy pitching staff and no deadline deals... these guys are lucky to be only 7 games behind St. Louis. When the Brewers lineup gets hot, they can hit homers at will. However, way too many strikeouts kill rallies. 4 players currently on pace for more than 100 K's. It would have been 6 players but 2 have lost their starting jobs. Pitching STINKS except for closer Trevor Hoffman. This is a team in dire need of being taught basic baseball fundamentals. I've said this year after year. Front office failing to bring in a front line starting pitcher was a major mistake. Brewers will win a handful of games. They might even catch a winning streak. Too little too late. Front office gave up on this season by not making a legit effort to solidify pitching staff for the stretch run.

Houston Astros (56-59) were coming on strong after a dismal 20-29 to begin the year. They were only 1 game out on July 22nd. They've slipped to 7.5 games back and a sub .500 record. Blame it on the starting rotation which now has 3 hurlers sporting shoddy ERA's over 5.00... yikes. Astros staff has surrendered 6 or more runs in 8 of past 14 games including 4 double digit implosions. Hitters are plating runs but can't keep up with horrid pitchers. It's safe to say they'll continue free falling out of contention before this month ends.

Prediction: NL Cental was one of the most exciting until recently. It's tough to watch these guys pitch. St. Louis runaway winners. No team will challenge for Wild Card.

Stay tuned... NL West on deck.

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