Comedy Central No More!

[BengalszoneBilly]

NL Central was baseball's best division in April.

By Jim Molony / MLB.com

HOUSTON -- Baseball's Central divisions were frequent targets of criticism last year, even derisively referred to as the Comedy Centrals in some quarters. This season, however, the Central divisions are no joke and the National League Central has given indications it should be taken very seriously in 2004. Strange as that might seem, the numbers don't lie. As April came to a close, the NL Central, 72-61, owned the best record of any division in baseball, ahead of the American League Central's 59-54.

The NL Central's April record represents a double-digit swing from last season, when it posted a 71-87 mark during April.

"I know everybody in this clubhouse knows there are a lot of good teams in this division," Houston first baseman Jeff Bagwell said. "Not just the (Chicago) Cubs and (St. Louis) Cardinals. (Cincinnati) has one of the better lineups around and their pitching is obviously better. Milwaukee lost (Richie) Sexson, but I'll tell you what, they're a scrappy team. Pittsburgh played us tough too.

A year ago, April ended with only two NL Central teams above .500 in the Cubs (15-12) and Cardinals (13-12). This year five of the six teams finished April with winning records and the only team that did not, Pittsburgh, was just a game under at 10-11. The NL East had just one team (Florida) with a winning record in April. The West had only two, Los Angeles and San Diego.

And it's not like the majority of Central teams are getting fat against cellar dwellars. This year, the NL Central is already 14-6 against East teams and 12-9 against the West. Of the six teams from other divisions who have already tangled with Central foes -- Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, Colorado and Arizona -- only the Giants (4-2) have a winning record in those interdivisional matchups.

Though it has only been one month, the results are nevertheless encouraging and could portend an interesting division race. Others may be surprised with the Central start but the division membership is not. During Spring Training, there were signs that things were going to be different and that has proven to be the case so far.

Most people figured Houston, with Roger Clemens (a career-best 5-0 in April) and Andy Pettitte, or the Cubs with newcomers Greg Maddux, Todd Walker and Derrek Lee and a healthy Corey Patterson would be better this year. Also the Cardinals, with their outstanding lineup, were going to be as dangerous as ever. But noticeable improvement has also been obvious from the rest of the division as well.

"Milwaukee's not going to roll over for anybody," Cincinnati manager Dave Miley said. "They're a tough team. (Manager) Ned (Yost)'s got them playing well."

Despite trading away popular slugger Sexson, the Brewers have a more balanced lineup with the players they received in return from the Diamondbacks, including infielders Junior Spivey, Craig Counsell and Lyle Overbay, catcher Chad Moeller and pitchers Chris Capuano and Jorge de la Rosa. The Brewers, 11th in the league in runs scored last year, finished April ranked fifth in that category. The Brewers, 9-18 in the first month last season, finished 12-11 this April.

"That to me looks like a stronger team than they were last year," Houston outfielder Lance Berkman said of Milwaukee. "And they gave us plenty of problems as it was last year."

Pittsburgh, despite massive turnover from last year's season-opening roster, including Reggie Sanders, Brian Giles, Aramis Ramirez, Kenny Lofton and Matt Stairs, has stayed near .500 thanks largely to a strong staff led by ace Kip Wells that allowed the fewest hits in the league during April.

The biggest NL Central surprise could be Miley's Reds, who ended April 12-10 and a game behind first-place Chicago and Houston. Cincinnati went 11-16 last April. The Reds were the last team in the league to lose a series this year as they won or split their first six series before dropping a two-game set against the Brewers on April 28-29.

"You knew they had a good offense, but I've been really impressed with (their pitching)," Yost said. "They've got some good young arms and a very good closer (Danny Graves)."

The Cincinnati staff was a team weakness last year, posting a 5.09 ERA as an alarming number of walks took its toll. This year, the Reds issued three walks or fewer in 16 of 22 April games. Among NL teams, only Philadelphia (47) and New York (59) allowed fewer walks than the Reds (61) did in April.

The Reds have also been getting plenty of production from some of their offensive cogs. First baseman Sean Casey finished April leading the league in hits (36) and second in hitting (.414). Adam Dunn ranked among the league leaders in homers (8), on-base percentage (.517) and slugging percentage (.742).

Meanwhile, the three teams expected to fight it out at the top of the division, the Cubs and Astros, had winning Aprils despite being without all of their key personnel. The Cubs have been without Mark Prior since Spring Training, and the Astros have had Pettitte for only two starts. The losses were lessened by key performances from Prior's rotation mates in Chicago and by Clemens' superb spring in Houston.

The Cardinals finished April ranked second in the league in scoring and had encouraging Aprils from Chris Carpenter and Jason Marquis, two of three new members of the rotation they are counting on for significant production this season. The Cardinals stayed right around .500, despite losing nine of their first 12 home games, which makes you wonder what Tony La Russa's team will do once they solve their home woes.

"They're all tough," Bagwell said. "You really can't look past anybody in this division." Not any more.

[redsfan2]

Great post.

I think a lot of the credit has to go to Miley. He's giving a lot of direction to the club, and the guys are obviously responding. Now if the upper management just leaves them alone ........

Getting out of the #^*/%*(( losing streak won't hurt either.

[The Brew Man]

Sorry guys, im glad the Reds have started good, but those two games in Mil and some injuries have crushed this club, losers of 5 straight.

[Kirkendall]

I'm starting to question Miley's reasoning for using the bullpen the way he is. We need to bring guys up and use Reidling more often.