Who's going to the playoffs in the National League?
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by user twins15
I already have you all of my AL Playoff thoughts, so I figured I may as well give my predictions for the National League, because that's just how I roll. Or something.
EAST
New York Mets: -
CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals: -
Cincinnati Reds: 3.5 GB
Milwaukee Brewers: 7.0 GB
Houston Astros: 7.5 GB
WEST
San Diego Padres: -
Arizona Diamondbacks: 3.0 GB
San Francisco Giants: 3.5 GB
Los Angeles Dodgers: 3.5 GB
Colorado Rockies: 5.0 GB
WILCARD
Cincinnati: -
Arizona: 2.5 GB
San Francisco: 3.0 GB
Los Angeles: 3.0 GB
Milwaukee: 3.5 GB
Houston: 4.0 GB
Colorado: 4.5 GB
Atlanta: 5.0 GB
First off, the East. Personally, I'll eat my hat if the Mets don't win that division. Not only do they have a commanding lead at this point, but they have the best and most balanced offense in the League, solid starting pitching, and a good bullpen. Atlanta is playing and 11.5 back, but it's not going to happen. Sorry. Mets win the division.
The Central is where it gets more interesting. Everyone seems to have conceded the division to the Cardinals all year long, and frankly, I don't see anyone overtaking them short of another Albert Pujols injury. Pujols is good enough to carry the offense at times, and they do have some solid starting pitching. There are definite concerns, but I'm not sure that the other teams in the division have enough to contend. If Ben Sheets and Tomo Ohka come back healthy and contribute for the Brew Crew, I may reconsider, but until that time I'm sticking with the Cardinals.
The West, is where things are really tight, mostly because none of the teams are really very good. Look at San Diego - their 'ace' pitcher coming into the year has struggled, they're 14th in the league in runs scored... and they lead the division by 3 games. I tried to prject this one back in mid-May, and things haven't changed a whole lot since then. I predicted the Dodgers back then, and I'll pick them again right now, if only because I think they've had some bad luck and struggled a lot in 1-run games, which tends to even out. But really, this division is up for the taking.
When it comes to the Wildcard, you could really just pick out of a hat. Even the Florida Marlins, at 41-50, could conceivably have a shot at it if they went on a nice winning streak (they're only 7 back right now). It's really a whole lot of mediocrity. For the Reds, while I thought their last trade was pretty awful, it might be ok in the short run because it should make their bullpen ok whie not taking too much out of the offense. Every team in the West has a shot, and the Braves in the East are streaking like they always seem to do. Still, I'm going to go with the team that in the recent history has made a living off of second-half domination, and that is Houston. The pitching isn't as good as last year, but Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt is a pretty darn awesome 1-2 combo. Offensively, things need to be better, but getting Huff was a good start. I'll take the Astros in the Wilcard.
So there you have it: New York, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Houston. Feel free to bring this back up when they're all wrong at the end of the year!
Date
Tue 07/18/06, 12:02 am EST
