NL Central Preview, Part 1: A Division Full of Storylines As Season Nears

The best time of the year is on the horizon. This means baseball is nearly upon us, with bolstered contenders, much-improved bottom-dwellers, and teams that have taken steps back.

The National League Central features all of the above, which makes the division one of the more intriguing.

The Cincinnati Reds won the division in 2010 with a 91-71 record, superior to the St. Louis Cardinals by five games. With four teams capable of winning 80-plus games, they will have a difficult time duplicating last year’s performance.

Their pitching has struggled this spring, as one of 11 staffs with ERA’s over 4.97. The rotation and bullpen are quite young, with the only notable veterans being starting pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who has thrown 200 or more innings in six straight seasons, and closer Francisco Cordero.

Aside from Arroyo, who led the team with 17 wins, the rotation’s makeup is relatively an unknown. Edinson Volquez is coming off injury and Johnny Cueto is injured, set to miss the start of the season with an inflamed elbow.

This puts added pressure on unproven arms like Homer Bailey, Travis Wood and Mike Leake, three pitchers who are 24 or younger.

Luckily for the Reds, the National League’s best offense is still intact. By picking up Arroyo’s $13 million option for this season, which came to a surprise of many, Cincinnati was handcuffed financially, with only so much money to use on potential upgrades.

They let shortstop Orlando Cabrera go, a journeyman who uncharacteristically struggled in 2010, and signed Edgar Renteria, who has also moved around a great deal and spent last season helping the San Francisco Giants to a World Series title.

Renteria should be an improvement over Cabrera. Neither get on base at a very respectable clip at this stage of their career, but if Renteria hits as he did during the Giants postseason run, Cincinnati should be pleased with their trade-off.

The rest of their lineup is leftover from last season, when they compiled the most hits, clubbed the most homers, scored the most runs, and collected the most RBI in the National League.

The Milwaukee Brewers had the second-best offense in the National League, but it would be hard to figure from their 77-85 finish in 2010.

Their pitching struggled last season: their starters' ERA was a mediocre 4.65, while their bullpen wasn’t much better at 4.48.

Judging by their offseason, fixing their pitching was of the utmost importance. They traded for Kansas City Royals ace Zack Greinke, then acquired one of the Toronto Blue Jays' top starting pitchers, Shaun Marcum.

Marcum is dealing with some shoulder stiffness this Spring, but when healthy  he and Greinke can be formidable duo alongside Yovani Gallardo, who won 14 games last season and compiled 200 strikeouts as Milwaukee’s ace.

Not many teams, especially in the National League, have such a potentially dangerous trio such as this, and if the Brewers get the same amount of production out of big hitters Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, Casey McGehee, and Corey Hart, they should contend for the NL Central crown.

Weeks is the most important of those five. It is clear what Fielder, Braun, McGehee, and Hart will bring on a nightly basis, but this year will show if Weeks’ 2010 was a flash in the pan.

He hit .266 with a respectable .366 on-base percentage, 29 homers, and 86 RBI. The home-run total surpasses his previous high by 15 and the RBI by 37, and Milwaukee rewarded him with a four-year, $38.5 million contract extension.

For Milwaukee’s offense to be as dynamic as it can be, the 28-year old Weeks will need to live up to this deal.

St. Louis’s Albert Pujols doesn’t have a deal to live up to. The Cardinals couldn’t ante up this offseason, so they will be forced into a bidding war next winter. This inability to lock up the game’s best hitter was just the start to a nightmarish offseason.

First, Pujols rejects their offer, then the news that their ace and 20-game winner Adam Wainwright had to go under the knife for Tommy John Surgery, putting him on the shelf for this season and possibly some of 2012.

This unfortunate injury leaves the Cardinals scrambling. They contended last season in large part because of the duo of Wainwright and Chris Carpenter, who has dealt with numerous injuries in the past but was thankfully spared this time by the Baseball Gods.

Carpenter, who won 16 games, will have to carry a rotation that isn’t looking altogether imposing.

Jaime Garcia, their 24-year-old left-hander who went 13-8 last season with a sparkling 2.70 ERA in his rookie season, is the next best thing for St. Louis.

But given who is behind him in the rotation, it is evident the offense will need to score an abundance of runs.

They have the lineup too. Pujols and Matt Holiday form one of the better tandems in baseball. Young center fielder Colby Rasmus is coming off a strong season.

David Freese, who performed well in limited action battling through various leg injuries, will be their starting third baseman and has hit .412 this spring.

The rest of the batting order is made up of solid, veteran hitters, like catcher and defensive wiz Yadier Molina, as well as newcomers Ryan Theriot and Lance Berkman.

With such talent, their offense should be one of the best in baseball. Picking up enough slack for a worrisome pitching staff will be the ticket to contention.

These three teams are looking to take the crown, but there are three others within the division (Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and Pittsburgh Pirates) that have improved and are determined to make some noise. Their breakdown is next in my MLB Preview Series.