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NL Central Preview

© Bryan Walker

NOTES

Baseball’s iron man, Cal Ripken, Jr., will begin the season on the injured list because of a broken rib. Its tough to watch the man who broke the Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games started record suffer through all of the injuries of the past few seasons. He probably wants to keep playing to leave the game on his own terms, but it may be tough.

Much has been made of the Cleveland Indians pitching woes last season and this up-coming season. Last year, the Tribe missed the playoffs by one game after using 30+ pitchers during a season ravaged by injuries. Many believe that pitching will be a problem again this season, but the Tribe actually has a scary amount of depth and options at starting pitching. Bartolo Colon and Dave Burba are the healthy anchors to the rotation. Chuck Finley and Jaret Wright are expected to be ready by opening day after off-season surgery. Charles Nagy is trying to return in spite of no cartilage in the pitching elbow. Steve Woodard pitched well in the last week of the season. The Indians will give star reliever Steve Karsay an opportunity to join the rotation. The Tribe also signed decent free agents Willie Blair and Ariel Prieto. Plus, the Tribe has some quality prospects that should be ready at some point during this season: Jake Westbrook, C.C. Sabathia, Danys Baez, and Tim Drew. That’s 13 potential quality starters.

Look for the St. Louis Cardinals to have a strengthened rotation, as well. Ace Darryl Kile returns after a 20-win season. Rick Ankiel, despite what people say, will be fine. Alan Benes is a 200-inning starter. Throw in solid starters, Dustin Hermanson and Garrett Stephenson, plus Ace-potential Matt Morris and Andy Benes, and you have the makings of the best NL rotation north of Atlanta. The Cards also have Bud Smith waiting at AAA Memphis.

NL Central Preview The major changes in the Central were to the Chicago Cubs. Otherwise, we can expect much of the same, including a lot of the Cardinals and a little of everyone else. The quick demise of the Astros last season was a fluke, so we should see a big improvement in 2001.

Milwaukee Brewers 1. Will the big three hitters and a new stadium fill the seats?

Milwaukee seems to have a solid base of fans, but how much attendance will they have. Jeromy Burnitz, Richie Sexton, and Geoff Jenkins should knock the cover off the ball enough to be exciting, and a new stadium should draw some people.

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