Post-Trade Deadline Predictions: National League

The Marlins have been an offensive powerhouse this season, but their starting pitching is very suspect. They don’t seem to have that bona fide number-one starter that they can count on to go out and deliver an outstanding, clutch performance like the Phillies do with Hamels or the Mets with Johan Santana.

Perhaps they should’ve gone after a good, proven starting pitcher before the trade deadline instead of courting Manny Ramirez.

As for the Mets, on paper it would be a no-brainer to assume that they’ll be in the playoffs. However, after last season’s debacle, I’m still skeptical when it comes to declaring them a legit playoff contender.

Their starting pitching has been very hit-or-miss throughout the course of the season - even Santana has had his shaky outings here and there, while the two young guns in their rotation, John Maine and Oliver Perez, have been extremely erratic at times. Pedro Martinez isn’t what he used to be with the Red Sox, and I can’t really see him carrying this team down the stretch.

The Mets’ star-studded lineup has also been a big disappointment on many occasions this season, failing to produce at crucial times and having a hand in Willie Randolph losing his job as manager. Personally, I would take the Phillies’ lineup over that of the Mets any day of the week.

Simply put, the underachieving Metropolitans are not a team that I can see consistently winning games in September all the way through the beginning of October, especially against the top-tier clubs in the National League, and as a result, the Phillies will edge them out in the NL East.

CENTRAL –

The pick: CUBS

For the second year in a row, the Chicago Cubs will win the NL Central.

When the Milwaukee Brewers traded away some of their most valuable prospects to the Cleveland Indians for C.C. Sabathia, the defending American League Cy Young Award winner, it looked as though the power had shifted in the National League’s best division.

Yet, the very next day, the Cubs picked up Rich Harden in a deal with the Oakland A’s, and as a result, they were able to regain their status as favorite.

Harden is the type of pitcher who likes to go out and blow your doors off every single start, and you can automatically put him down for 10 or more strikeouts whenever he takes the mound.

He is also one of the many reasons why the Cubs will be a team to be reckoned with in the National League pennant race.

Without question, the Cubs now have the National League’s top starting rotation. Take for example Ted Lilly, who is currently their number-four starter. I can’t think of a better number-four than Lilly, who is 11-6 on the season with 129 K’s.

Above him, you’ve got Harden and Carlos Zambrano, who can both be flat-out dominating (and usually are!), and then Ryan Dempster, who never loses when he’s pitching inside the comfy confines of Wrigley Field.

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