NL Central Closer Then You Think

The NL Central is cluster at the top of the division, is that a surprise....no, but the Milwaukee Brewers leading the NL Central is the surprise. In second are the Cardinals, followed by the Reds and Astros and then finally the loveably hateable Cubs. The Cubs coming into the season were being toted as the winner of this division and getting back to the promise land or should I say finally to the promise land, what has it been, 360 days above a century since they last won it? Anyways back to the main point, the winner of this division will be the...Cubs. Proof, well I have it. The Brewers will ride into oblivion with their pitching staff driving, considering that they are ranked 23rd in the majors in ERA, and only two clear cut hitters in Fielder and Braun. The Cardinals are a challenge with what could be one of the greatest, if not the greatest hitter of all time in Phat Albert, not to mention they are top 10 in ERA, but their batting is going to be their Achilles heal. The Reds...well they are the Reds, good run but better luck next year. Dusty has done a good job but they just do not have the fire power nor the pitching to make a serious run at this. The Astros have a runphobia, they do not like to score. They are in the bottom ten teams in runs in the majors, so that puts them out of things in my books. Then we get to the Cubs. Cubs are sitting right now with a top 5 ERA and a struggling offense. Aramis Ramirez is coming back soon and that should lift their offense off the ground. Only 3.5 games out of first this will be an interesting race to say the least.

*Prediction*
Cubs will win the NL Central

UPDATE

Cavaliers looking at Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza

Pistons sign Ben Gordon, Charlie Villanueva

Celtics in talks with Rasheed Wallace

Pistons "Reving Up" the Team for 2010

Less then 2 months ago the Pistons were looking dismal, getting ousted in the first round in four games to the Cavaliers, but it looks like we might not even be seeing the same team next year in the motor city. The departures of Coach Michael Curry, A.I., and "Sheeeeeed", might get the fans to stop saying "boooooooooo".

-ESPN reports the candidates for the job are Avery Johnson and John Kuester.-

Reported in today is that the Pistons are "oiling" the machine and signing Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva both to five year deals. Could this be a push to the finals before we see the storm of a market in the 2010 free agency? The Pistons are the fade away team in the East, they used to be the strong hold team that everyone feared, are they back with this move? The Magic signing Vince Carter and the Cavaliers sign Shaq, and in talks with Ron Artest, the Pistons needed to do something drastic and this could have been it. They might be missing that dominate player, the one who drops 30 points any night he feels like, but then again where was that in 2004?



*Bold Prediction for 2009-2010 season*

The Magic will be good with the addition of Vince but letting Courtney Lee go will hurt them more then they think. The Cavaliers will be a dominate team in the regular season, again, but with the focus on an Old Shaq, there will not be the focus on team oriented basketball. The Celtics, who are in talks with Rasheed Wallace, will be there with a healthy K.G. but they are getting old and yes wisdom does come with age, but so does sore joints. The Pistons lose two of their scorers but are getting two role players that averaged nearly twenty points per game last year. With the starting line-up like they might have and hopeful addition of a big, the Detroit Pistons are making the Eastern Conference finals and are going to give the Cavaliers a run for their money.



Detroit Pistons Starting Line-up for 2009-10
Rodney Stuckey 13.4 ppg
Richard Hamilton 18.3 ppg
Charlie Villanueva 16.2 ppg
Tayshaun Prince 14.2 ppg
Jason Maxiell 5.8 ppg

6th man
Ben Gordon 20.7 ppg