NL Central

[CrazyPooja90]

Astros seem pretty strong right now-

Craig Biggio can still hit well, over 300.

Hell yeah!

[NZF]

Actually you are dead wrong New Zealand fan...Check your stats and you'll see that Sammy Sosa has hit above.300 before and you will see that Alou's has hit above .300 many times and Aramis Ramirez currently is hitting right at .300...and before Patterson went down with his knee injury he was hitting .316 I believe...So yea there are .300 hitters on that team...with tons of Power

you have to start reading posts more carefully. What I in fact said was that no player in the cubs starting lineup has hit .300 in the past 3 seasons. Check your stats and you will see that I am correct

Sure Patterson hit over .300 for a short time last season and as I said Ramirez and Alou are currently as well but we're talking over a season. They just haven't got season .300 hitters on that team. They come up against decent pitching and they have nothing. Even Brandon Webb has shut them down this season. They have already played a lot of games against the Pirates so it's only going to get tougher from here in for them.

I can also tell you that when they do score runs in games it is invariably done in 1 big innings. A team full of streaky hitters, there is no consistency there at all and that is why they will never win the NL Central easily like they should with their pitching and why ultimately they will never ever get to the World Series let alone win it.

[CrazyPooja90]

Actually you are dead wrong New Zealand fan...Check your stats and you'll see that Sammy Sosa has hit above.300 before and you will see that Alou's has hit above .300 many times and Aramis Ramirez currently is hitting right at .300...and before Patterson went down with his knee injury he was hitting .316 I believe...So yea there are .300 hitters on that team...with tons of Power

you have to start reading posts more carefully. What I in fact said was that no player in the cubs starting lineup has hit .300 in the past 3 seasons. Check your stats and you will see that I am correct

Sure Patterson hit over .300 for a short time last season and as I said Ramirez and Alou are currently as well but we're talking over a season. They just haven't got season .300 hitters on that team. They come up against decent pitching and they have nothing. Even Brandon Webb has shut them down this season. They have already played a lot of games against the Pirates so it's only going to get tougher from here in for them.

I can also tell you that when they do score runs in games it is invariably done in 1 big innings. A team full of streaky hitters, there is no consistency there at all and that is why they will never win the NL Central easily like they should with their pitching and why ultimately they will never ever get to the World Series let alone win it.

Again New Zeland, well said.

I'm curious to see how the Cards do against the Cubs this week.

[Pedro]

The Astros should win the Central. They have the best overall balance, they have the pitching and offense.

The Cubs have the better rotation, but don't have the offense that the Astros do, but they by no means are lacking when it comes to offense.

The Cards have the offense, but lack in the pitching department.

The Reds have the offense, but rely way too much on the long ball and their pitching is awful.

[swingaway]

Lets see here

ASTROS-WILL WIN THE DIVISION AND THEY HAVE NO HOLES
What else you expect meo say about them



Reds - imo remind me of the rangers of the late and mid 90's a team with lots of offense and overacheving pitching. Danny graves haves blown 4 or 5 saves which gets overshadowed by the number of saves he haves. What happens when graves starts melting (tireing) downand the close games get away?

cubs-all the parts are there its just matter of how healthy they are.

cards- need more shutdown pitchers and bullpen help

the others are just others.

[fantasyfanatic_fbc]

The cubs hitting is decidedly average. If it wasn't for their hitting, with a rotation like they have they would be 120 game winners. There is not one player in that lineup that has hit over .300 in the last 3 years.

Who cares? It doesn't matter what they have done in the past, it matters what they do this year.

Ramirez and Alou are the only plus .300 hitters this year but that won't continue. Alou's average has already fallen from .370 in the past month.

Barrett is also hitting over .300. Sosa was hitting .290 before he got hurt. I wouldn't be surprised at all if 1 or 2 of them hit over .300 this year.

Their entire lineup is full of streaky hitters. God help them when they all slump at the same time which will happen.

Their offense already has been in a slump for the past 2 weeks, and i think they might be heating up again.

Their pitching carried them last year and all they have added to their offense is the anaemic Derek Lee this year.

You forgot the .322 hitting Michael Barrett

And Lee may be hitting bad now, but come September i think he will have better numbers than Bagwell.

If and when Sammy comes back he will continue his huge downward spiral the last few years and hit .260 tops.

LMAO

They only score runs against pathetic pitching like Pittsburgh and Colorado and even the Pirates shut them down in Prior's season debut. Against decent pitching like the Astros they have scored just 10 runs in 5 games.

Like i said, their offense has been in slump in the last 2 weeks.

[slomo007]

The cubs hitting is decidedly average. If it wasn't for their hitting, with a rotation like they have they would be 120 game winners. There is not one player in that lineup that has hit over .300 in the last 3 years.

Who cares? It doesn't matter what they have done in the past, it matters what they do this year.

Ramirez and Alou are the only plus .300 hitters this year but that won't continue. Alou's average has already fallen from .370 in the past month.

Barrett is also hitting over .300. Sosa was hitting .290 before he got hurt. I wouldn't be surprised at all if 1 or 2 of them hit over .300 this year.

Their entire lineup is full of streaky hitters. God help them when they all slump at the same time which will happen.

Their offense already has been in a slump for the past 2 weeks, and i think they might be heating up again.

Their pitching carried them last year and all they have added to their offense is the anaemic Derek Lee this year.

You forgot the .322 hitting Michael Barrett

And Lee may be hitting bad now, but come September i think he will have better numbers than Bagwell.

If and when Sammy comes back he will continue his huge downward spiral the last few years and hit .260 tops.

LMAO

They only score runs against pathetic pitching like Pittsburgh and Colorado and even the Pirates shut them down in Prior's season debut. Against decent pitching like the Astros they have scored just 10 runs in 5 games.

Like i said, their offense has been in slump in the last 2 weeks.

If you never looked at past stats, Melvin Mora would be a first round fantasy pick, and the Reds would win the NL Central.

[StlSluggers]

Quick & Simple:

The Cubs lineup is probably the fourth best in the Central now that Griffey's returned to being Griffey.
In order by batting (assuming 100% health): Cards, 'Stros, Reds, Cubs

The Cubs pitching will end up being the best staff in the Central, and should be the best in the National League, if not all of the Majors.
In order by pitching (again, 100% health): Cubs, 'Stros, Reds, Cards

In the end, the Reds and Cards staffs will finally do as badly as they should, and the Cubs and 'Stros staffs will finally get healthy and become completely dominant. When all of this happens, I thinkt the 'Stros will win the division, but I think they will choke like usual in the postseason and we'll see the Cubs head to the Series as a Wild Card.

Enjoy!

-Stl

[Amazinz]

I think you're being too hard on the Cardinals ranking their pitching staff below the Reds.

[StlSluggers]

If I'm only guilty of one thing, let it be that. I think this staff is a group of overachievers (Suppan, Carpentar, and maybe Marquis) and an underachiever (Morris). I will be the first to admit that it's not too good, but at least the bullpen's not awful this year.