NL East/NL Central

By Dr. Jekyll,

NL East

Atlanta Braves: Behind one of the best pitching staffs in the league and rookie phenom Jason Heyward, the Braves look darn good. The middle of the lineup still doesn’t have as much punch as you’d like to see in a possible world series team, but Bobby Cox’s rotation is top to bottom one of the three best in the league. Who would be looking forward to facing Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, and Tommy Hanson in the playoffs? No one, that’s who. If the lineup can keep up its timely hitting, Cox will have to do his best to not be ejected from a World Series game.

Philadelphia Phillies: This was not supposed to happen. The Phillies are a much better team than their record, but with a rotation that can’t seem to just get it’s finger on the right spot and a lineup that’s struggles have gone on for too long, they’ll be pushing for the wild-card/division heading into the last week of the season. Roy Halladay was still a great pickup, but the Phils must be kicking themselves for not keeping Cliff around to put them in a far more secure position. This is an underperforming ball-club that just needs to get a few hitters hot to make a run at the postseason. The wild-card looks like a dogfight.

New York Mets: Speaking of underperforming ball-club’s, this one was at least expected. The Mets consistently have a competitive team on paper, but this year, much like the last two, looks to end in early disappointment. Apart from Johan, the rotation is an absolute mess. David Wright has absolutely no supporting cast this season. The Mets should really suck it in and just accept this as a lost season at .500 baseball, but they’ll probably make ill advised trade runs before the deadline. Short of an Atlanta-esque Troy Glaus style turnaround, the Mets are sunk.

Florida Marlins: If a team can feel good about playing awful baseball, it’s the Marlins. After all, they’re only supposed to make World Series runs every seven years anyways. The great young rotation, highlighted by soon to be Cy Young award winner Josh Johnson, will be well in its prime by the time they have that seven year run ready for them. Dan Uggla is a beast, and it’s only a matter of time until the pieces fit around him. Two more years til the right crew gets to bring their talents to South beach.

Washington Nationals: This is the kind of team local fans love to get behind. They’re not ready yet, but when you watch them get together you can see it all taking shape. Jordan Zimmermann is going to be an absolute stud in that rotation, as he readies to return from injury after what started last season as a stellar career. He’d be an excellent number one in most big league rotations, but apparently he’s taking a back seat to some Strasburg kid. It’d be great for them to keep Adam Dunn around, as a tutor of the long ball to whoever comes in after him, but this is a team that wasn’t expected to do much but is slowly shaping up to be great.

NL Central

This division was always going to be won and lost on the first basemen, it just didn’t shape up the way some of us, namely me, predicted.

Cincinnati Reds: Assuming he stays healthy, Joey Votto is the league MVP, and he’s needed every bit of this breakthrough season in order to keep the Reds fending off the Cardinals in this division. Scott Rolen has dipped into the fountain of youth just enough to give this team a shot at playoff glory, and Bronson Arroyo, Mike Leake, and Johnny Cueto have put together a surprisingly stable top of the rotation. IF they can hold of Phat Albert and the gang, this team can do damage.

St. Louis Cardinals: Albert Pujols is having an off year. Which is saying a lot when you realize that he’s still hitting .301 with a .962 OPS. Yeah, off year. Adam Wainwright and Chris Carpenter are pitching well, but this is just a really average team with one great player in a division with two of the worst clubs in baseball. If the Cards keep beating up on the little guys, they can keep making a push for the division. Look for this race to be decided with about four days to go in the season.

Milwaukee Brewers: Again, a very average team, much like the Cardinals (or really the Reds for that matter), but they can prey on the weak links in the division. Prince Fielder should be moved by the end of the trading deadline, and if not him than future all-star Corey Hart. This team has been meddling at .500 for what seems like an eternity. They should really take the opportunity to rebuild while they have meaningful pieces.

Chicago Cubs: Sweet Lou made the right decision in running away from this team. The Cubs have been backsliding for awhile now, and this season proves it. They have very few quality players, they’re just top to bottom not as awful as the Pirates or Astros. It’ll be some time until this team is a legitimate threat to do much in the division again, short of a lightning in a bottle season.

Houston Astros: Much like the Cubs, this team really has no talent on it. Roy Oswalt is a dish best served elsewhere, and would make a lot of sense in bolstering the Phillies rotation or maybe even the Nationals as a tutor for the young guns they have coming up. But more likely the Angels will make a gamble on Roy for a farm system that, in about three season, will make people pay attention to Houston. This club may not get a pitcher more than 11 wins all season, and even that would seem like a miracle with this lineup. Triple A club here, might as well build the farm.

Pittsburgh Pirates: I’m a big Zach Duke fan, but that doesn’t mean much. McCutchen is an animal and will continue to grow, but this club is, much like the previous two teams mentioned, just a triple A club at best. A team constantly in rebuild mode, they need a few good drafts to shape into a competitive team.

Special K dominates, Yanks blast O's

By Dan Rodgers

My Tuesday night was fairly eventful. My girlfriend and I decided to attend our second Yanks vs. Orioles game in a week, this one at Camden Yards. Of course she forgot the camera so I took a couple pictures with my phone...nothing special. Whoever said Yankees fans aren't nice was dead wrong. My girl and I were standing in line to buy the eight dollar cheap seats when some guy motioned for me to come over to him. Kind of sketchy right? Well, he had two seats he wanted to give away to me. Fine with me considering they retailed for sixty bucks each and we were going to spend eight bucks on our tickets. They were beautiful and under cover, just in case.

Granderson, Swisher, and Teixeira all homered for the Yanks; Adam Jones hit a two-run homer for the O's. Granderson's bomb was a grand slam, an extremely exciting moment in the game... for Yanks fans. O's fans had had enough and most of them left the game early, but the Baltimore team did show some fight scoring two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth.

In other news, Stephen Strasburg showed absolutely dominance in his MLB debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates. I know he gave up a two-run homer, but he also struck out 14 and walked a magical zero in seven innings of work. He is the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 11 or more batters and walk none in their debut. That's pretty impressive considering the sport is over 100 years old. He finished his appearance retiring the previous 10 batters he faced, striking out the last seven. The Nationals did him right and scored five runs and Strasburg was credited with the win, as Matt Capps closed it out for the Nats and now has a MLB-leading 19 saves.

There isn't much else to say about Strasburg besides the fact that his next opponent, the Cleveland Indians, have already sold the most tickets to that game then any other this season. Enough said.

Oh, I also heard that there is restaurant in D.C. that now has the "Strasburger". So if you're in the area you should check it out...I know I'm going to.

Rodgers That

A night full of baseball

By Dan Rodgers

Just a quickie here guys. I am going to the Orioles vs. Yankees game tonight to watch my beloved Yanks hopefully kick the crap out of the O's. I'll take some pictures at the game and post them for you.

However, the real point of this quickie is because Stephen Strasburg will be starting for the first time in the big leagues tonight. He will face the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park.

Strasburg pitched in eleven games in the minor leagues, earning nine decisions. He posted an impressive 7-2 mark with an astounding 1.30 earned run average. He seemed to completely dominate while he was down there and proved to the Nats and the rest of baseball that he is ready to pitch in the majors.

He struck out 65 batters in 55 and a third innings and only walked 13 batters. Only one lucky fella hit a homer off of him, and we'll see if the Pirates can add to that total tonight. Look for Strasburg to only throw a maximum of 90-95 pitches. However long he can drag that out is up to him.

I wish the best for him and the Nats; living in the D.C. area for so long has put the Nats in my heart.

Rodgers That

This Week's Down and Dirty

By Dan Rodgers

Okay, I know it's a day late...but better late than never

Week 3:

The Down

Washington Nationals - Grapefruit League

Sure, the first thing you think to yourself has to do with it being spring training and these games being pointless. I couldn't agree more. However, I just wanted to make it known that the Nats have yet to win a spring training game. Yes that is correct; they are currently 0-10. This being in a league before the season starts in which "never-was's" are the primary competitors. Even I hope that they can pull it together and have a decent season. Good luck.

The Dirty

San Francisco Giants - Cactus League

By now, it wouldn't surprise me if you stopped reading because this is pretty much a post about spring training baseball. Well, I chose the Giants because they are in first place in the Cactus League, and the National League as well. Don't be surprised if this group of young players pulls together and has a season similar to the Rays a few years back. They certainly have pitching talent with Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum, so we will see if they can compete with the rest of the division come regular season time.

Rodgers That