They are all Equal (NL)

In the continuation of team predictions and synopses, today we look at the National League. It is widely thought that the American League is the stronger league, I won't disagree, but in my opinion, the National League consists of more team parody. This will be quite noticeable in the prediction breakdowns.

National League East

Philadelphia Phillies (88-74)
Pitching depth and quality hitting lead Phillies to AL East crown

New York Mets (86-76)
Early season pitching woes hinder offensive firepower. Reyes blows hamstring knocking Mets from the top of the East. Pedro arrives in August to surge a playoff push but come up just short.

Atlanta Braves (83-79)
Great mix of veterans and youth keep Cox and the Braves in the playoff picture

Florida Marlins (76-86)
Sophomore slumps everywhere. Hermida displays talent everyone expected during second half. Management ships out D-Train at the trade deadline.

Washington Nationals (62-100)
With the worst pitching in baseball, the only reason to watch the Nationals is Ryan Zimmerman.


National League Central

Chicago Cubs (85-77)
Sweet Lou pulls off the unthinkable and takes Cubbies from worst to first in the NL Central with some help from the batting champ (Lee), MVP (Soriano), and Cy Young (Zambrano)

St. Louis Cardinals (83-79)
Young pitching breaks out (Wainwright and Reyes)bolstering rotation, but key offensive injuries (Edmonds, Encarnacion, Eckstein) erase the Champs chance to repeat.

Milwaukee Brewers (82-80)
Everyone's sleeper division winner is still one year away.

Houston Astros (80-82)
Biggio gets his 3000th hit and Hunter Pence makes an appearance bolstering an Astros late season playoff push.

Pittsburgh Pirates (76-86)
Pirates re-building with pitching and they are good. Ian Snell will outperform Zach Duke in 2007 and beyond, however, they both will be very good.

Cincinnati Reds (75-87)
Arroyo and Harang regress and injuries continue to hamper the offense. Reds slip to the cellar leading to an overhaul.


National League West

San Diego Padres (87-75)
Best pitching staff in the National League and consistent hitting allow the Padres to return to the playoffs.

Arizona Diamondbacks (86-76)
Second best pitching staff in National League and a young offense with a lot of talent keeps this race close and a playoff appearance within grasp.

Colorado Rockies (80-82)
Helton (aka Superman) and new Blake Street Bombers (Atkins, Holliday, Hawpe/Baker) put butts back into the seats at Coors.

Los Angeles Dodgers (79-83)
Horrible offseason movement bringing in aging veterans drops the Blue out of contention before they wake up and play the kids (Loney, Kemp, Billingsley and Broxton)

San Francisco Giants (78-84)
Even though the Giants are going to be horrible, there is that guy named Bonds, Barry Bonds who will become the HR King. In addition to the Bonds watch, Matt Cain is a very good young pitcher who will anchor this staff for years to come. Once Sabean realizes that Armando Benitez is not a quality closer, the emergence of a new cult hero will arrive in the Bay....Tim Lincecum.


The National League also has milestones and records of its own that will keep us following the boys of summer over the next six months. Tom Glavine wins his 300th game in August, Trevor Hoffman saves his 500th game prior to the All Star Game, Craig Biggio collects his 3000 hit on the 4th of July, and the greatest record of them all Barry Bonds' 755 HR chase comes to fruition on August 17th in Florida in front of the only regular season sell out crowd for the Marlins.