NL Breakdown...

Sorry there was a bit of a delay between my NL and AL predictions, but here it is. I think this race is going to be the most intriguing. I still think that the World Series will go to the AL, but all three races in the NL are contested; a recipe for a delicious September.

I broke the AL down by the teams that I think can win the pennant. With the NL, I'm going to break it down by division.

West
You can look back at my earlier posts to see how I feel about the way baseball is played on the west coast and how they are pitcher-friendly parks with rotations and bullpen's built to keep scores below 4 runs. It is the depth of pitching and the fact that teams will HAVE to employ 4 man rotations (unlike what the Yankees did last year with Sabathia, Burnette, and Pettitte).

With this west race coming down to the Padres and the Giants, who are 1st and 5th in the NL respectively in team ERA, it's going to come down to the wire. While I realize that the Padres sit atop the west by a healthy 6 games, there are still a few reasons I think the Giants can win the west; they still have 7 head to head matchups with the Padres, and they have zero, yes, zero games against the Braves, Phillies, Cardinals or Reds. No games against playoff contenders the rest of the way and 7 head to head matchups sounds like a recipe for good things.

I think the Giants have a much better offense than the Padres, but the Padres have sat atop that division the whole year. The Padres DO have to play the Reds and Cardinals 6 times before the end of the year on top of playing the Giants 7 times, giving them one of the toughest remaining schedules in baseball. This is a place for bold predictions, and I'm going to make one right now: Giants win the west with their great pitching, but their offense is just a tad better than the Padres.

Central
I've been obsessing over the Reds all season and this race they've got going with the Cards. How could you hate a hot pennant race? Throw in an extremely intriguing triple crown race between Sirs Pujols and Votto, and you've got an interesting brew. I think the central will go to the Reds, and I think they will further pull away from the Cards. The Cards would have the perfect 4 man rotation for the playoffs between Wainwright, Carpenter, Garcia, and Westbrook, but I just think the Reds offense is so much more well rounded.

However, I think Brandon Phillips' injury is something to be concerned about. If he doesn't come back then I think things will get a little tighter down the stretch, especially considering the Cards have 6 games left to beat up on the Pirates. It's going to be an exciting finish in the Central, but at this point I feel more confident that the Giants can erase a 6 game deficit in the West than the Cards can erase a 4 game deficit in the Central.

East
Like the Red Sox, the Phils have been dealt injury blow after injury blow, but here we are, still in the thick of what's going to be an incredible September. It doesn't take much to convince you that this is the most intriguing division race in September.

The Braves are doing this year what they did in all the 90's: play solid baseball, and that's exactly what they're doing in Bobby Cox's last season. From their incredible rotation to their shut down bullpen to their solid all-around contributors on offense, this team appears to be the most well-rounded coming down the stretch. It's hard to dislike the Phillies though. A solid, but still under-performing offense, is backed by 3 of the bestg starters in baseball. I think the biggest question marks for the Phils are the reason they will NOT win the East. Their offense has just shown to be too anemic at times; not able to establish any sort of flow or consistency at all this year. Couple that with a bullpen that has few people in Philadelphia confident, and you don't have a team that can go far in October.

That being said, I think the wildcard is going to come down to the Padres and the Phillies, and I think the Phillies will be golfing in Florida come October. This team has done some pretty crazy things in September, but I just don't think this is the year.