NL Central update #3

I am a little late posting my monthly update on the National League Central. So, the overall records I post are as of today. That's how it works out sometimes. Oh well....

The Chicago Cubs are still out front in the division, but are not running away with it yet. They came down to earth a little bit, posting a 15-12 record during June. They battled to an overall tie with the White Sox, but tripped up a little bit in interleague play, getting swept in St. Pete and losing a series to the Orioles. But, as play ends today, they are 51-34, still in first. Big series coming up in St. Louis this weekend....speaking of whom,

All year, I have been saying the Cards are coming back to earth soon. They're too young, they don't have enough pitching, yada yada yada....OK, I am wrong (won't be the last time I am wrong on this blog, not by a long shot). The Cards are hanging around, playing very good baseball. They went 16-12 in June, with a nice series win in Boston. They did go 2-4 against the Royals, getting swept at home. But, the Cards hang around at 2.5 games back, with a nice 49-37 record. One note about the Cards: their pitching coach, whose name escapes me, is possibly the greatest pitching coach ever. He has Kyle Lohse pitching to an 8-2 record! Twins fans know that Lohse became very pedestrian towards the end of his run up here. I watched Lohse walk in two runs against the Brewers a few years ago. How about those Brewers?

Well, the Brewers largely had a good month, going 16-10. It's looking like things may be coming together a little bit for the Brew Crew, save that 9th-inning disaster at Arizona today (FIX THE BULLY!!!!). The Brewers played good ball, even though they did not do well against the Twins. They swept the Blue Jays, gave the Orioles a good series, and just finished a 5-5 road trip (should have been 6-4....FIX THE BULLY!!!) with a good series win in Atlanta. The Brewers are 5 back of the Cubs, at 46-39. Given that they were at .500 a month ago, that's fine. The big question for the Brewers is this: keep hot prospects, or maybe make a run at C.C. Sabathia? Just the fact that the Brewers are potential buyers this year at the trade deadline is great news. The only disappointment I have is that the Twins are in the thick of things in the AL Central. Not because I don't want the Twins to do well, but I wanted them to be sellers on the market. I harbored hopes that the Brewers would make a run at Joe Nathan. Oh well...

Hey, the Pirates are not in last place! They didn't have a great month at 12-15, but they managed to leapfrog Houston and Cincinnati to claim 4th for now. The Pirates took a series with the Nationals (a lot of teams do that though), got a good series win against the Astros, but didn't do terribly well in interleague play. I don't have a whole lot more to say about the Pirates, except they are going to get an angry Brewers squad this weekend at Miller Park. For now, they are 40-44, 10.5 back of the Cubbies. They have a looming question about whether they can keep Jason Bay though. He may move at the deadline.

Boy, the Astros had a bad month. They went 10-16, going from third to fifth place in the division. To quote Dennis Green, they are who we thought they were. The Astros are not that good, and they are kinda old. They have too much money locked into people like Miguel Tejada, who is not nearly worth what he is being paid. They don't have enough pitching. It's Roy Oswalt, then....wow. Anyway, they did get series wins over the Texas Rangers and Boston Red Sox. Other than that, it was a bad month. It included an 8-game losing streak. As it stands, the Astros are 11.5 games back of Chicago, sitting at 40-46.

The Cincinnati Reds went 12-16 in June, which has put them in last place. I said at the beginning of the year that the Reds are about a year away. I still think that may be true, and they do have Walt Jocketty as their GM, so they probably have a good future ahead of them. They began June by finishing off the Braves, then managed to win series against the Yankees (at Yankee Stadium) and Cleveland. The problem for the Reds is, they played poorly against the National League. But, they are at 39-47, 12.5 games back. The Reds should continue building for the future. This is likely not their year.

So that's it for now. Go Brewers!!