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| NLC - The NL Central has a rep as the strongest division in the IBC and it certainly earned it in 2003. However, the divsion has lost several strong members the last couple years, first Nils left for SF after 2002 and the Josh jumped ship for a guaranteed playoff spot in the AL Central. The top 4 tems are still really good but the bottom 2 have a lot of rebuilding to do. Cincinnati Reds (1 - 2) - For some reason I remember this team looking a lot better in the past. Shannon Stewart in CF? Bernie Castro as his #2 hitter? Castro is 25th in the Padres farm system. What happened to the big Red Machine? As for Starting Pitching, pedro is still Pedro. Exceptional, brilliant, remarkable... and fragile. Mark Mulder bears some watching after having a hip injury last year, if that lingers at all it could be a big problem. Roy Halladay is a rock between them though. Shields and tsao 4-5 though? I came into this thinking Nate would be the easy Favorite, while he probably still is, I'm not as sure as I was beforehand. Houston Astros (3 - 3) - I've never seen so many players who clearly overachieved the prior year assembled on one team before. Livan, Ponson, Guillen, Mueller, Hidalgo, Cabrera... even Brown by dint of not getting injured. That said, if the Sim doesn't consider those years too much as flukes, this should be a strong squad and could contend for the NLC title. But if the Sim does realize 03 for what it was for many of these guys, Houston may have a problem. This team may have only one round in it's clip and the lower system for reloading needs work. St Louis Cardinals (2 - 4) - Brett Myers as the #1? I like Morris (ok, that's a half lie, i think certain people overrate him heavily) but he's certainly a solid #2, or a better #1 than Myers. Jerome Williams might too. Nice lineup 1-4, Casey hit for a nice average but for a 1B he has sad power, hell Daubach could have done better. Like the Reds, I seem to recall this team looking more fearsome in the past than it does now. Chicago Cubs (5 - 4) - Five starting pitchers who you can expect to have era's right around 4, maybe higher (Maddux). Relaford is an awful leadoff guy. So what if he stole 20 bases, he also had a .319 OBP! Not a lot of other options though to be honest but still, a .319 OBP? That's second worst on the team and he's leading off. Milwaukee Brewers (n/a) - Poor Dan joined and got dumped right in the toughest division in the League. Or did he? Pittsburgh Pirates (n/a) - Andy gets the bottom spot by being the new guy with a recently drafted team. No idea where he'll go with it yet, though as a friend of Brett Z's he may have the potential to make a pretty sharp turnaround. AL East - The AL Beast was not the powerhouse it was expected to be when Rich Bishop, former NYY GM decided to retool early in the season. Rich is gone now and in his place is the highly touted Brett Zalaski. Z and Pat Bishop have their teams well on the way to making this division really painful in the next year or two. 1. NY Yankees (1-2) - The AARP's just missed out on the AL East title in 03 and hope to stake a stronger claim in 2004. With boston re-building and this team looking sicker than ever, place your bets on Toronto not only winning the East, but very likely going to the World series. This team is deep and mean. Still old though. 2. Boston Red Sox (2-1) - Once again overhauled in the off-season, Boston's reign of terror in the AL East is almost certainly on hiatus. After winning the 2003 World Series, this team cleared house, moving old/injury prone players to retool for a long run of dominance. The rotation and starting lineup will feature 9 new members. Playoffs are unlikely though if the dice roll right on the projections for the youngsters it won't be out of the question. 3. Tampa Bay Devil Rays (5-3) - The story here is obviously a really impressive bullpen. The team is young, features an intriguing #1 starter in Santana and NYM GM JP's former gay lover Kazuhito Tadano. Pat led this team to a surprising 94 wins in 2003 (5th in the AL, 10th overall). Challenging for second in the ALE is not out of the realm of possibility. 4. Toronto Blue Jays (4-5) - Brett came from colorado, so he doesn't sound all that different from every NFL team to ever play in the playoffs "We're just happy to be here but we've got a lot of work ahead of us". Brett has a great eye for prospects and a job that requires him to talk to front office people and players as well as leaving him way too much free time. Has come along way without being able to pull off the same rape jobs that others have pulled. 5. Baltimore (3-5) Joe's Back. |
| Teams are listed with their Rank#. Team name (03 prediction - 03 Result) 2003 Predictions |