NL Central

There’s nothing I like seeing more than a pitcher develop over the years. I’m not a fan of throwing a guy into the Major League experience with nothing prior to show for. You always see organizations rush players because of spring training stats. Usually, those players do well and then a debacle occurs.

The Cubs made big moves Friday, releasing seven players, while setting both their rotation and bullpen in the process. Tom Gorzelanny and Carlos Silva round out the rotation, with James Russell becoming—as of now—the last man in the 'pen to start the season.

It’s a tale of two teams, but three cities. And as Charles Dickens wrote, it’s a tale of the years they intertwined from the start, one enjoying a “season (or seasons) of light,” the other dreading a “season of darkness.”

The Atlanta Braves and Chicago Cubs always pop up on each other’s schedules at least twice, sometimes more, every year. But rarely do they begin a regular season against each other.

It appears the Chicago Cubs will carry a rookie, Tyler Colvin, as their fifth outfielder when the come north for the regular season. And to me, it might be a shame.

The Cubs have a lot of money tied up in their outfield. Between the albatross contracts of Alfonso Soriano and Kosuke Fukudome, the corner outfield spots are pretty well locked up because of financial obligation.

Meanwhile, the Cubs brought in Marlon Byrd and Xavier Nady as free agents this winter to replace "Baseball's Kanye West," Milton Bradley. More money spent on veterans.

Everyone knew J.J. Hardy would be traded from the Brewers after the 2009 season. Most felt his departure would bring the Brewers a starting pitcher to compete for a spot in the rotation in 2010.

No one expected a trade for a center fielder—especially when Mike Cameron said he was willing to sign for less than market value to remain in Milwaukee. GM Doug Melvin decided it was time for the team to move on, and he pulled the trigger on the deal to bring Carlos Gomez to Milwaukee.

Aroldis Chapman was forced to leave an exhibition game on Monday, March 22, versus the Colorado Rockies with what my best friend and mentor, Hal McCoy, described as, "a twinge in his back, or stiffness in his back, or tightness in his back."

Either way, the Cuban flame thrower has a sore back. 

The band Alkaline Trio once sang, "When you're only 23 it's not attractive to complain about your sore back."

For Reds' fans the news is less than "attractive"; in fact, it's just plain scary. 

Like it's American League counterpart, the National League Central is considered to be much of a wide-open race. The one difference is they've got more of a legitimate favorite that could very well go deep into the playoffs.

The reason that they've got a favorite in St. Louis, yet can be considered wide-open is the pure fact that there is a lot of unknown for some teams. Even the Cardinals have their own questions.

I was never a fan of Andy LaRoche's brother Adam, and sharp-eyed readers may have noticed my tepid acceptance of Andy in the past.

But in one respect, the younger LaRoche is already "Jack Wilson," which is high praise coming from yours truly. That is, in terms of "citizenship."

He spent half an hour giving the "grand tour" of PNC Park to a boy in wheelchair. That was above and beyond the call of duty and will generate enormous goodwill for the Pirates, both for the one incident and for the many similar ones that are likely to follow.

The St. Louis Cardinals seem to be practicing the old fantasy baseball strategy of “Studs and Duds.”

In this strategy, a team uses a very large amount of its auction dollars on a few superstars and then fills in the rest of its lineup with a lot of $1 and $2 players.

The idea is that the studs will pile up enough quality stats to allow the duds to fill in a little and put your team over the top.

Unfortunately, this strategy rarely works, and it looks like it will only work in St. Louis this season due to such a weak division.

A few years ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates had a superstar outfielder named Jason Bay and a very questionable pitcher named Oliver Perez, while the Mets had a promising, if undeveloped, outfielder, Lastings Milledge, whom they traded to the Washington Nationals for Ryan Church.

Now the Pirates have both Milledge and Church, while the Mets have Bay and Perez.

Neither the Pirates nor the Mets have outfielder Xavier Nady, who was the consideration for Perez (and reliever Roberto Hernandez, who lasted only two months with the Mets).