NL Central Predictions

Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr.

Last year, three NL Central teams made the post-season. The two teams who had the best records in baseball though were not knocked out by the third place team, who subsequently failed to do anything right in the NLCS. Hence, the most loaded division in baseball is packed full of great teams who start the season with a chip on their shoulder. The Chicago Cubs enter as Vegas' pick to finally win the World Series, but they haven't won since 1908 for a reason, so we'll see. Pittsburgh has one of the most exciting players in baseball patrolling center field for them, but they are facing a pivotal season after three straight early exits in October. St. Louis had the best record in baseball last season, and while they took some off-season hits, the Cardinals always find a way to be good. Let's have a look at my predictions:

1. Chicago Cubs (102-60)- This team is just loaded going into this season. Their pitching may not quite match up with the Mets or even the Nats, but they are a solid staff that will always keep their team in it, anchored by an ace who was absolutely dominant last season. Their line-up is filled with young stud prospects who came up and immediately turned out pretty nicely. They made a couple of key off-season additions to the line-up, and probably enter the season as the most complete roster in baseball.
2. Pittsburgh Pirates (94-68)- My expectation is that the Pirates will see their regular season success drop off just a bit from 2015. They still have a really good, young nucleus, however they did trade away Neil Walker and have a few other holes in their line-up. I still feel like they need one more front-end starting pitcher to compete for the World Series, but I do like the pick-up of Jon Niese in the Walker deal. They basically need to stay healthier at the end of this season and figure out a way to hit Jake Arrieta. If those things happen, they may raise the Jolly Roger more in October.
3. St. Louis Cardinals (88-74)- Even an organization as strong as the Cardinals are going to miss the Heywards and Lackeys of the world that were so key to their 2015 success. With that said, "the Cardinal Way" never seems to fail to produce competitive baseball, and 2016 won't be any different. While I think they fall well off of their division perch, I expect the Cardinals to stay in the playoff hunt all the way through the 2016 season.
4. Milwaukee Brewers (64-98)- The unfortunate byproduct of being mediocre to bad in a tough division is that you lose a lot more than teams in other divisions do who are just as bad. In the case of the re-building Brewers, this is not a big deal- their outlook is longer term. Even so, it's hard to put a young group out there that isn't supposed to compete yet, and do it against a division with those top three teams waiting. At least Milwaukee still has good bratwursts and beer.
5. Cincinnati Reds (62-100)- The Reds could be in for a tough season. They were nearly the worst team in baseball in 2016, and played like it at the end of the season. Their rebuild is not drawing the positive reviews that Milwaukee, Philadelphia, or Atlanta are. They have some huge, not so good contracts still on the books. They lack dominant arms or really many other good players. With a division with three great teams in it, it will be a tough summer in southern Ohio. The good news- you get to open up against the Phillies.