From the N.L. East, Central to the West. Lots of predictions on what's going down this year. From the Mets' chances at repeating in the tough N.L. East, to the World Champion Cardinal's chances in the Central. All the way to the Padres(that means fathers in Espanol), and Dodgers in the stacked N.L. West. From last to first, we talk about all the happenings. Trust me, I read this thing already, twice! It's hot! N.L. East
Philadelphia just nudges out the Mets to win the division. The Phillies are sparked by MVP Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, as well as your N.L. Cy Young runner up, Cole Hammels. Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, and Pat Burrell have solid years too. The pitching comes up clutch, with Jon Leiber, Jamie Moyer, Freddy Garcia and Brett Myers(who doesn't beat anyone up) all have solid years.
Adam Eaton blows out his thumb half way through May, boy are they happy they didn't trade Leiber. The Mets get out to a good lead in the division early in the season, getting big contributions from John Maine, Mike Pelfrey and Oliver Perez. However they struggle in the 2nd half, as Pedro struggles to find his stuff, Glavine and Hernandez spend time on the DL and David Wright struggles through the summer. 
They do however hold on to the wildcard, and just miss out on the division, with solid years from Wright(who bounces back in Sept), Reyes, Beltran and the NL Rookie of the Year runner up, Lastings Milledge, who takes over right in early May, after Shawn Green takes off for Passover and comes back with a bum knee and bat. Florida has a solid season as well, despite regression from their young guns and bats, and losing their fire, as that skipped town w/ Joe Girardi. Dontrelle Willis wins 23 games and has an era in the high 2's. Though, he comes in third in the Cy Young race. Atlanta struggles mightily without Tim Hudson, Chipper Jones and Bob Wickman, who all spend considerable time on the DL. 
Mike Hampton doesn't find his stuff until late August and Andruw Jones hits .245 despite having 40+ bombs and walking away to a new contract. Jeff Francour just misses his 40th homer, but nails that 140th strikeout. John Smoltz tries his best to keep the staff together, but even his 20 wins, mid 3's era, and 7 complete games, can't help the team. Washington gets sold again. No really! And this time, management sells off Chad Cordero and John Patterson to the highest bidders at the trade deadline. N.L. Central
Your division winners are the Milwaukee Brewers, with a paltry 83 wins. They get big seasons from N.L. Cy Young winner, and a healthy, Ben Sheets, winner of 22 games, leading the NL in K's and ERA, plus breakout seasons from Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks and Bill Hall, despite those 3 combining for over 350 k's.
They also have the NL Rookie Of The Year, in Ryan Braun, who takes over for Craig Counsel at third in mid-May. The staff comes in clutch too, with Chris Capuano K'ing over 200 and winning 15 games, plus David Bush and Jeff Suppan are solid, Bush maybe even turning a corner this year if he can get that ERA down and strikeout a few more batters. Defending World Series champs, St. Louis, struggles behind Chris Carpenter. Al Reyes and Adam Wainwright are decent, but they have no 4th and 5th starters, and the bullpen struggles, as Izzy spends time on the DL. Pujols has 4 and 1/2 spectacular months of the season, but misses time with a sprained forehead after complaining about how Ryan Howard is getting more All-Star votes, when his team didn't even make the playoffs last year! Houston falters when Carlos Lee accidentally eats Roy Oswalt. No, really. Ok, well... not really. But Lee has trouble putting up big numbers when he lands on the DL with various ailments, leaving Lance Berkman looking very, very shaky by himself in the weak hitting lineup. 
However, he gets a little help, but oh so late, when Craig Biggio gets his 3000th hit, then mysteriously ends up on the DL so he can be replaced at 2nd by Chris Burke, and Hunter Pence finally gets his shot in center. The Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds duke it out to be the middle child, though both have a sniff of the postseason until about August. Cincy pulls ahead when they call up Homer Bailey in August. He, along with Aaron Harang and Charles Bronson, er... Bronson Arroyo, make a formidable pitching staff at the close of the year. JR. Griffey only goes on the DL once, after having Ryan Freel dive into him trying to make a catch, playing the most games he's played since 2001. Adam Dunn still strikes out over 150 times, but manages to hit 45 HR's. Making him and Jr. Griffey, the only NL teammates to top 40 HRS. Oh, sweet Lou. Things looked so promising in April. The Cubs manage to knock the cover off the ball and contend in the Central through mid-May, when Carlos Zambrano ends up on the DL, with a balmy back, courtesy of carrying home all that cash the team decided to just give him to re-up. Mark Prior has a solid May and June, before ending up on the DL, again. 
And it's all downhill from there, literally. As the team depends on Rich Hill to lead a staff that also includes Ted Lilly and Jason Marquis. Lots and lots of windows get shattered outside Wrigley. Pittsburgh is improved, but not enough to move out of the cellar. They got solid contributions from 30 HR guys, Adam Laroche and Jason Bay. They get a bounceback year from Jack Wilson, plus a solid year from Freddy Sanchez and Xavier Nady. The pitching looks promising, but suffers from inconsistency. Ian Snell is the leader of the staff, posting 15 wins and almost 200 k's. Zach Duke and Tom Gorzelanny have decent years, but fail to turn the corner. The bullpen is also hurt, as they have problems bridging to closer Soloman Torres. N.L. West
The Arizona Diamondbacks get huge seasons from Brandon Webb, Livan Hernandez, Doug Davis and yes, the Big Useless himself, Randy Johnson.
They combine for 60 wins. Johnson bounces back when he returns healthy in May. The young hitters all click at once, with Conner Jackson, leading the way and the NL in batting average. Carlos Quentin and Stephen Drew have a breakout year, Chad Tracy bounces back and rookie Chris Young steals 30 bases. The Dodgers stay in the race until the very end of the season. They too, get huge contributions from the pitching staff, as Randy Wolf, Derek Lowe and Jason Schmidt all have solid seasons. Jonathan Broxton is the closer by mid-June. James Loney gets into the line-up and makes the most of it. Nomar and Kent spend time on the DL. Andy Laroche is the starting third-basemen by mid-May when Wilson Betemit moves to 2nd to replace Kent. Andre Either has a solid 2nd season. 
Juan Pierre and Rafael Furcal, don't hit much, but make the most of when they do as both score over 100 runs. San Diego gets good pitching from Greg Maddux and Jake Peavy, but Chris Young regresses, David Wells eats a bad twinkee, and Clay Hensley gets murdered at home, to go along w/ his high road ERA too. Adrian Gonzalez has a huge 2nd year. Kevin Kouzmanoff has a solid year, as do the brothers Giles. But the rest of the team doesn't contribute much, except Mike Cameron who goes 20-20, but with 120 k's too. San Francisco has a tough year, and that's not even counting all the boos they get every time Barry Bonds steps up to the plate. Their ancient line-up spends considerable time on the DL. Dave Roberts pulls a hammy trying to get to 2nd to set up the tying run in a June game. Rich Aurilla, Randy Wynn and Ryan Klesko all spend time on the DL. The only comfort is the great season that their ace has. Yup, Matt Cain, puts up a 19 win season, with 200+ k's. 
Oh yeah, that Zito guy has an OK year, despite spending time on the DL for the first time in his career after he hurt himself altering his delivery again, either that or he was attacked by a cactus again. Colorado has big years from Matt Holiday, Garrett Atkins, and catcher, Chris Iannetta. They regret not pulling the trigger on the Todd Helton to Boston swap. As Helton spends time on the DL and hits an all time low in HRs, RBI and AVG, he makes them wish it was 97 instead of 07. Troy Tulowitzki, doesn't impress at short, and Clint Barmes somehow ends up with his job back and that pitching staff, regresses and ends up missing Jason Jennings a lot more than one would have thought.Listening Pile:
"Centerfield" by John C. Fogerty. Yeah, you heard that right sucka! Actually, as I kept thinking of the Dodgers and that blooper when Tommy Lasorda gets knocked over with the bat during that All-Star game. That song came into my head. I think that's what they play during the Blooper Reels.
The Centerfield song mentions three legendary players by name: Willie Mays, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio AND one player (Joe Jackson) only by an expression "it ain't so." Did you know that every instrument on the entire Centerfield album is being played by John C. Fogerty? There's your trivia for the day. Don't say I never do anything for you.
Song two. "Breed" by Nirvana. 2K games has been running those spots for MLB 2k7 like crazy on TV. And that is one bad ass song. According to this story, it's got a pretty hot soundtrack, with Les Savy Fav, Editors, DFA 1979, Jealous Sound, Pixies and Thermals all up in there. Nice!
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