Preview/Prediction

Though several National League teams have suffered key free-agent losses, many are still poised to compete for a playoff spot in 2012.

While some clubs have stood pat in hopes of maintaining playoff-caliber teams, others have frantically added to their rosters in order to unseat an incumbent.

There are 16 teams in three divisions vying for five postseason spots.

Which underdogs have done enough this offseason to make a run and who at the top can hold them off?

Here is the 2012 National League outlook.

Spring training statistics are nothing to swear by, but it has been hard to ignore the impressive numbers Cincinnati Reds prospect Todd Frazier has been posting this preseason.

Through 25 plate appearances, the 26-year-old third baseman is leading Cincinnati in batting average (.280), home runs (three), RBI (eight), runs (eight) and stolen bases (two).

Jason Bay is entering his 10th season in the MLB with his best years behind him.

Bay has lost his power and is getting up there in age—34 at the end of the 2012 season.

In the end, the Atlanta Braves just plain ran out of gas in 2011. Their collapse wasn't quite as bad as that of the Boston Red Sox, but it was just as disappointing.

The Braves didn't use their collapse as an excuse to go out and completely revamp their team over the offseason. On the contrary, they stayed eerily quiet, making very few moves and generating very few headlines. The Braves laid low.

Talk about beating a dead horse, right?

Just when I was fully prepared to turn the page on the whole Roy Oswalt coming to Boston notion, the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo had to lure me back into the saga.

I'm like Michael Corleone, just when I thought I was out...

Spring is a time of renewed growth, rebirth and rejuvenation. New blooms, new crops and new life are all a part of nature’s cycle.

Baseball is no different and no exception to the cycle of life, as teams, players and fans all look toward wiping the slate clean from last winter and beginning another season anew. The win-loss records are but replanted crops, ready to sprout; hitters’ batting averages and pitchers’ ERA records are newly sown. Most importantly, teams’ World Series aspirations are reseeded, ready to blossom throughout the summer.

The buzz around MLB during Spring Training is palpable, as several top prospects prepare to dazzle their teams with their skills and attempt to make the roster before teams break camp in early April.

With the former kings of the National League Central departed for Anaheim and Detroit, now is the time for attention to be brought to the rising stars of the division. 

The Cardinals have a trio of arms that could rival the dominance of Lee, Halladay, and Hamels in the future. The Cubs have been stockpiling young talent since the arrival of Theo Epstein this winter. Can the Pirates finally climb over the .500 mark after countless losing seasons?

23-year-old Michael Pineda has been the target of the firestorm known as New York media since his arrival via trade in mid-January. The New York Post criticized him for showing up to camp pushing 280 pounds, nearly ten pounds heavier than at the end of the season.

You never want to say a guy has a lack of velocity after the first start of spring training, but Michael Pineda has been known to throw much harder than what we saw in his debut with the New York Yankees.

According to a tweet from Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports, scouts were slightly concerned over Pineda's declined velocity from his first start of the Spring.