NL Central

Slim at pitching, the Milwaukee Brewers might slip to fourth this year pending on whether or not their hitting will pick it up. Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy, and company will the lead the offensive power house but the Brewers will be without Ben Sheets. They could not resign him nor could they get C.C. Sabathia back as he left to go east.

The Brewers will have to turn to new ace Yovanni Gallardo and rookie Manny Parra. With the loss of Eric Gagne, the Brewers will rely on Carlos Villanueva, who had one save last year, to fill in for the closer duty.

The Houston Astros, I predict, will finish fifth in the NL Central. I don't think that they will have enough steam to finish in the top and they will be beaten out by the Cincinnati Reds. The Astros need help in the rotation because Roy Oswalt cannot carry this team on his arm.

Lance Berkman and Carlos Lee will need to provide as much power and driving force as they can. Berkman cannot get injured while in a playoff hunt either.

Keep an eye on: Wandy Rodriguez, sp

The Pirates organization has been on a downfall since they lost Barry Bonds. Over the past five years, their highest win total was 72, and that was in 2004. Least year they only managed to grab 67 wins. This organization is getting pathetic but there is hope to those who wait.

Players like Nate McLouth, Andrew McCutchen, and Andy LaRoche are coming into their own and soon enough, if they don't get traded them and pitchers Ian Snell, Zach Duke, and Tom Gorzelanny will blossom. This year is not the year though.

Keep an eye on: Steve Pearce, of

Filed:March 23rd, 2009

Micah Hoffpauir (left), with Henry Blanco and Koyie Hill (Cubbie Nation/File)

No, I'm not going to pile on.

Today we are going to take a look at a guy who could be an extremely key contributor to the 2009 version of the Chicago Cubs, Micah Hoffpauir.

Aaron Heilman is next up in the Pinkie’s series of season outlooks for the Chicago Cubs.

Heilman was originally drafted by the New York Mets as the 18th overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft. He spent his college years at Notre Dame, and grew up in Logansport, Indiana, which is only about 134 miles away from Chicago.

For years Cubs expectations have been based on them being overdue to win a championship. We've all heard this phrase, "It's been 90+ years and the Cubs MUST win a championship this year." 

For the record, it's now a 100+ years but the Cubs are expected to play deep into October because they're one of the most talented teams in all of baseball.  The expectations have nothing to do with their World Series drought. 

Writing today from the comfort of his own electric chair, Josh Illes is the creator of the new blog The Pickup Artist. I call it The Pickup Artist because I plan on analyzing interesting in-season transactions throughout the baseball year.

But I also have a somewhat snarkier side to me, and many times I rant for no reason at all about not being able to understand a word that Eric Young is saying. Ok, so I may just rant about that once. I’m only kidding of course. I love E.Y.!