Cardinals

Albert Pujols
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This is a sad team. Not two years removed from their World Championship, St. Louis looks like a team scraped from the scrap heap. Even their great players are questionable. Albert Pujols's elbow is hanging together by a thread. If it blows, the Cardinals offense goes down with it. One reason for the Troy Glaus move was to take his foot off artificial turf. He did hit well this spring, so that's a positive sign. The other power hitter in the lineup is a converted pitcher. This is easily the worst set of position players in the division even with Pujols.

When it comes to the rotation, Adam Wainwright looks like the real deal, but like Albert on offense, there's not much behind him. Is the Cardinals minor league system that barren that they need to use a converted reliever and Kyle Lohse?

This team is not going to score runs, they are not going to prevent runs, they're simply going to lose. This could the worst team Cardinals have seen since 1995.

Reds

Aaron Harang
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About two weeks ago I previewed the Reds during the Baseball Musings radio show and didn't like the fact that they were going with veterans over youth. Since then, however, they've been forced to include Edinson Volquez in the rotation due to an injury to Matt Belisle. So the move that bothers me now is starting the disappointing Corey Patterson over the young and upcoming Jay Bruce.

This looks like a very good pitching staff. Harang and Arroyo are as good as any one-two pitching combination in the division. With Cueto and Volquez following, the Reds could have a good chance to win on four out of every five days. If Bailey starts well in the minors, he might move in to replace the Dragonslayer Josh Fogg, giving the Reds a potentially spectacular rotation. Of course, young pitching can break your heart. Until Cueto, Volquez and Bailey prove they are for real in the majors, the Reds rotation should be considered just okay.

The offense is a question mark as well. The good players on the offense are low level good. Compare them to the Phillies, who sport four players who earned over 20 win shares in 2007. The Reds best four (Dunn, Phillips, Encarnacion and Griffey) are in the high teens, with only Dunn over 20. So at the moment, there is no superstar hitting on the Reds, just a few very good players.

That might change if Votto can become the slugging first baseman the Reds have lacked for so long. Otherwise, I don't see the Reds doing that well. The pitching is good, but they'll need Dunn and Griffey to be the Dunn and Griffey of old to have a shot at the division.

Astros

Hunter Pence
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The Houston Astros brought in a new manager, new general manager, and wholesale changes to the team. How much of a difference it makes isn't clear. Miguel Tejada was the big prize, but that depends on whether 2007 was an off year or the start of a career slide for the shortstop. Berkman, Lee and Pence, however, give the Astros three great hitters in the middle of the lineup. Michael Bourn is a bit of a wild card. At 25 years old, he should be entering his prime. When he was in the low minors, he posted impressive OBAs, but hasn't kept that up as he climbed to the majors. All-in-all, it's not a bad offense, although I'm curious to see how well Kaz Matsui does away from Coors.

The rotation suffers the same problem as last year. Roy Oswalt gives them one of the best starters in the league, but there's little behind him. Backe returns from injury and the terrible Woody Williams is gone. The offense is going to need to score a lot of runs for these pitchers to win.

Jose Valverde takes over the closer role for Houston. Lately, closing for the Astros has been like drumming for Spinal Tap. Let's hope Jose fares better.

Like most of the teams in the NL Central, this is a decent team with big holes. They're not likely to win the division, but it's so close anything can happen.

Pirates

Ian Snell
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I'm somewhat surprised that I like this Pirates team compared the other four also rans in this division. It's not that they have anyone great on the team, but almost all of the players are decent. The projected starting eight all posted over ten wins shares each in 2007. Snell and Gorezelanny are competent starters and Capps is a good closer.

I suspect Jack Wilson won't post 19 win shares again, but I also might expect better performances from Bay, Sanchez and McLouth. It's one of those teams that can fool you. They've been bad so long that they must be bad again, except that somehow they've put a decent player at each position. If you drop a couple of superstars in this lineup, you'd like this team a lot. In this division, .500 and third place would not surprise me at all.

The new management of the team appears to be doing a good job of demanding better from the team. The previous group talked a good game but never delivered. We'll see if this GM and manager can bring about some changes.

Cubs

Ted Lilly
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Barbara Feldon. Camp bus songs. Nena. The number of seasons the Cubs played since their last championship. Yes, 2008 could be the 100th season of futility for the team from Wrigley. They won't go down without a fight, however. The NL Central champs return a team with a good offense, bolstered by their addition of Kosuke Fukudome. He looked like an OBA machine in the spring, drawing 15 walks to lead all spring training players. He'll joining a solid core of Lee, Ramirez and Soriano. Youngsters Soto and Pie should also contribute more than in 2007, while Mark DeRosa is the only player likely to see a falloff in his batting stats.

Pitching, however, was the Cubs great strength last season. The additions of Lilly and Marquis worked out better than expected, as Ted turned into a fine number two starter. Rich Hill doubled his innings from 2006 while maintaining his great strikeout and walk numbers while cutting down on his home runs allowed. Ryan Dempster moves from the pen to the rotation this season to round out the best rotation in the division.

That's a good move for two reasons. Dempster wasn't a great closer last year, and Kerry Wood is healthy and ready to mow down batters again. There's a huge upside potential for Kerry here, and the Cubs can gain some wins with this move. Will it be enough to repeat over a very good Brewers team, however?

Brewers

Corey Hart
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Milwaukee's lineup looks monstrous. The addition of Mike Cameron gives them four players who earned over twenty win shares in 2007. Ryan Braun did it in a partial season, so there's plenty of upside in his bat. The move to left takes away the downside of his defense and makes the team better in the that department overall. Hardy was close with nineteen win shares, and a better Rickie Weeks might hit twenty as well. This is still a young team, and so most of the arrows point up for better hitting.

There are up arrows in the rotation as well. A healthy Ben Sheets is among the best in the game. A full season from Gallardo would help as well, although he starts the year on the disabled list. Manny Para looks like the real deal, so this Brewers rotation should serve as a nice complement to their powerful offense.

There may be some problems at the end of the game, depending on whether the Texas Gagne or the Boston Gagne shows up in the ninth. If the offense and starting pitching turns out to be as good as they look right now, the Brewers will play a good number of blow outs, and the closer's role becomes less important. This is a very strong Milwaukee team is a relatively week division. While they still have something to prove, there's a good chance that the runaway start of 2007 doesn't fade in 2008, and Milwaukee wins the division easily.

Predictions

Here's how I see the division standing at the end of the season:

1. Brewers
2. Cubs
3. Pirates
4. Astros
5. Reds
6. Cardinals

You can pretty much interchange 3-4-5 in any order and get a reasonable set of standings. This division should be the Brewers for the taking. If Yost fails to win with a healthy version of this team, Milwaukee should really look for another manager.