It's a time for re-birth in literature. Even though it's dumb that supposedly every book ever uses the 'universal symbolism guide', a new baseball season is upon us. We're in a cool era here. If you can calm yourself down and look past the circus on capitol hill, there are a bunch of teams who are in a pretty good spot to compete in '08. Who wants division previews?
Let's do this. In random order, the 1st division we're going over is the NL Central.
Predicted Finish:
1) Cubs
2) Reds
3) Cardinals
4) Brewers
5) Astros
6) Pirates
Breakdowns in reverse order:
Pirates: Quick, without looking it up, name 4 Pirates. Exactly. Look out world, it's Ronny Paulino!
Astros: Aawwwwwwkkkkkwwward! 47 minutes after aquiring Miguel Tejada, his name gets dropped 362 times in the Mitchell Report. His production has been in one of those really fun 'steady declines' over the last few years. They have some nice young players like Hunter Pence and Michael Bourn to go with some boppers like Lance Berkman and Carloss Lee. So why the glum prediction? The distractions, the pitching staff (behind Roy Oswalt) is mediocre.org (.com was taken), and they are going to stink defensively. Tejada plays short these days the same way your boss does on company softball only you can't get him to change positions even though he's killing you because he's the boss and is really stubborn. Their offense will win them some games but they'll lose a lot of 10-8 games.
Brewers: This is everybody's sexy pick to jump up in this division. I don't buy it. It's gonna start when they lose some games early because Gagne blows saves, then a DL trip, then Ben Sheets gets hurt again. All of a sudden, the rotation of Dave Bush, Chris Capuano, and Carlos Villanueva realize that they are not good major league pitchers. The young 'upside guys' like JJ Hardy, Rickie Weeks, and Bill Hall all start to press to try and overcome the problems. Next thing you know they are out of it by the all-star break. I think they are a year and 2 pitchers away from winning that division. This is a learning year. I'm just going against the grain here. I want to be on record in case I'm right.
Cardinals: They are going to deal with injuries, struggle to score at times, and have so-so pitching...why 3rd? Because it's what they do. Tony LaRussa can manage baseball. Dude needs to get recognized. He throws the pu pu platter out there and always gets the squad close to .500. They removed Scotty Tumor I mean Rolen so the club house should be in better shape. They are resourceful. They'll find a gem somewhere (Jaun Gonzalez anyone?), get a guy off waivers, have a kid come up from double A who hits .360 for a month who you never hear from again (like Bo Hart a few years back). They will scrap together 80 wins; maybe more.
Reds: I am high on the Reds this year. They are under the radar and I think they will do what Milwaukee did last year. Play over their heads for half the season before coming down to earth and fading down the stretch. Joey Votto and Homer Bailey. My bet is that these two young guys inject crazy life into Cinci. Votto rakes and Bailey will deal. HB had a bumpy road his first time up in the bigs last year and I bet he learns from it and straight up wields filthy shadow all year. Watch. Adam Dunn will have fun again and hit, Votto gives the lineup balance, Phillips can play, Encarnacion is ready to step up, Harang is a top of the roto guy, Francisco Cordero can close. I'm telling you, this group will withstand the inevitable Griffey Jr. muscle pull and roll for the first 100 games.
Cubs: Looooouuuuuuuuu. Dude can also manage. The O is full of boppers. Soriano, a healthy Derek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, future stud Kosuke Fukudeme, young Felix Pie is ready; this team will score. They can also pitch. Deep and balanced rotation with Zambrano, Rich Hill, Ted 'the always under-rated' Lily, and innings eaters Jason Marquis and Jon Lieber. 
They have some power arms in the bullpen and have a couple options if young closer Carlos Marmol falters. They have role players, mashers, depth, and a great manager. They will just have a bit too much for the rest of the division to keep up over 162.
