Kuzul

As the NFL season draws to a close and national interest in the NBA continues to plummet on an annual basis, most avid sports fans will begin to direct their attention to baseball and the 2011 MLB season.

Yes! It’s finally that time of year, with pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training earlier this week. 

Baseball spring training means new preseason favorites and predictions for the upcoming 2011 MLB Season.

Many baseball pundits, experts and so-called experts will be publishing their predictions for the 2011 season if they haven’t already.

Most of their predictions for 2011 will be the result of intense scrutiny and research into the statistics and results of the 2010 season, as well as direct interviews with professional baseball players and personnel.

It is important to note that their predictions for the 2011 MLB Season will have little to no bias.

Well, the predictions you are about to read are almost solely based on bias and little to no research. I most certainly haven’t spoken to or interviewed anyone working in the MLB.

Unlike Ken Rosenthal or Tom Verducci, my Rolodex contains only the phone number for Pizza Hut and my friend Steve.

I definitely have watched my fair share of the sport over recent years and would like to think of myself as a knowledgeable fan.

Which is to say, in terms of understanding baseball, I probably rank somewhere between Peter Gammons and the guy who jumps out of his seat every time a ball is popped up into the air thinking it is a home run.

Please, don”t be that guy.

With that being said, you are probably at the edge of your seat waiting to hear my predictions for the National League in the 2011 MLB season.

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Ah, the time has come.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we now stand just weeks away from what looks to be another memorable opening day for Major League Baseball.

After a confounding postseason in which we crowned the San Fransisco Giants world champions once more, many teams find themselves in a promising situation heading into the regular season.

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  This is just spring training, as we all know.

So as preparation for the regular season begins to heat up, let’s take a look at each team’s status.

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A few weeks ago, Brian Cashman made headlines.  He made a comment, stating that when Derek Jeter’s time at shortstop is over, he would be moving to center field.  It’s almost unthinkable that the best shortstop the Yankees have ever seen might be vacating the position soon. 

Even so, it’s not uncommon to see a move like this.  For example, the legendary Mickey Mantle moved from center field to first base after years of abuse on his legs caught up to him. 

Cal Ripken Jr., one of the most complete shortstops the game had ever seen, permanently moved to third base in 1997.  However, perhaps the most famous move for a player was Babe Ruth moving from pitcher to power-hitting outfielder. 

Jeter will not be mentioned among the Yankee greats who patrolled center field; he will be remembered for what he has done at short.  It’s interesting, though, to speculate where some of the younger players in the MLB might end up as their careers progress. 

Here now are 20 stars that might be on the move to different positions before their careers are over.  

Note: This list is not ranked in terms of how big of a star each player is. 

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As Brewers fans slowly thaw this spring from a cold and unforgiving winter, they will be pleasantly surprised to see a Milwaukee team that addressed a much needed weak spot this offseason: Starting pitching. 

With the additions of Zack Greinke and Sean Marcum to a rotation already consisting Yovani Gallardo and Randy Wolf, the Brewers may now have enough pitching to compete with division rivals St. Louis and Cincinnati. 

The question facing the Brewers is can the revamped starting rotation help the team win the division in 2011, possibly the final season with soon to be free agent Prince Fielder.

In addition, will Zack Greinke prosper in his first season with the team and his first season in the National League? 

Key Acquisitions: 

SP Zack Greinke (Free Agent)

SP Sean Marcum (Trade w/ Blue Jays)

RP Takashi Saito (Free Agent)

SS Yuniesky Betancourt (Free Agent)

Key Losses:  

RP Trevor Hoffman (Retirement)

SP Chris Capuano (Free Agent)

Who to Target 

Not surprisingly, the Brewers’ top two offensive weapons are also the top two fantasy options for the team.

Ryan Braun is a top five outfielder that is a triple threat for fantasy owners, as he is a powerful hitter with a hard to find combination of speed and high average. Braun will most likely be drafted in the first two rounds of a 12 team snake draft and will be a nice bookend outfielder and solid foundation for any fantasy team. 

The second blue chip fantasy player for the Brewers is Prince Fielder, the team’s imposing first baseman. Although Fielder is coming off a down year, in which he had career lows both slugging percentage (.471) and batting average (.261), he is in a contract year and will likely put up monster numbers as he auditions for potential suitors. 

Yovani Gallardo and newly acquired Zack Greinke are the top pitchers to target, with Gallardo being the safer of the two options.

Greinke is a talented pitcher with filthy pitches; however, he struggled in his last season with Kansas City and it is unclear how well he will respond to the move to the senior circuit.

Sleeper 

It was difficult to pick a sleeper for the Brewers, as the team does not have one player that sticks out above the rest as a potential break-out candidate for 2011. 

By default, I chose Carlos Gomez, the once highly touted center fielder who has stellar speed and can flash the glove, but lacks discipline and production at the plate.  

As a career .246 hitter, Gomez has been a disappointment for those who thought he would mature into a possible 20/20 threat. 

It appears he is going to be given one last chance this season as the team’s center fielder and may finally become fantasy worthy in 2011.

This article was originally published on www.kramericasports.com, the home of free fantasy news, rankings and advice.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The saying goes, “There is no ‘I’ in team”, and it is certainly true that no team can succeed relying on one superstar. However, there are players who act like glue for many MLB teams; these players are the foundation of their team from which everything else builds.

These are not necessarily the best hitters in the game nor the power pitchers, but the players who are truly the most valuable to their team. These players are the guys who steal bases at just the right time, make crucial plays in the field, and thrive under pressure. Foundation players are the ones who win games and produce championships for franchises.

Indispensable players are the ones who you can tell when their presence is missing. When this player is out of the lineup, his team just doesn’t play with the same fire. For example, the Cardinals’ lineup looks a lot less daunting without Albert Pujols.

When building an MLB team, general managers look for these types of players as a starting point. So, in this article, I will list the top players, by position, who I would look to first if I were building a Major League Baseball team from scratch. Age, health, talent, and both offensive and defensive statistics are the major categories I will examine. 

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Our 2011 fantasy baseball projections will be released one-by-one until the top 100 players have been revealed. These rankings consider past achievements, current performance and expected future results based on standard 5×5 H2H settings.

Despite failing to hit 30-plus home runs for the first time in his four-year career last season, Ryan Braun remained among the top fantasy producers at a very deep outfield position. His 2010 stat line (101 runs, 25 HRs, 103 RBI, 14 steals, .304 batting average) was perhaps the worst of his career, which speaks volumes to Braun’s potential entering his age 27 season.

Although Braun hit only 25 homers last year, he set a career-high in doubles with 45, the fifth most in baseball.

One theory which could explain Braun’s “off” season stems from being plunked by Tommy Hanson on May 10 last year. He missed the next two games, and was arguably never the same after, especially in the power department:

• Before May 10: 32 games, 31 runs, 6 HRs, 28 RBI, 18/18 K/BB ratio, .359/.443/.594
• After May 10: 125 games, 70 runs, 19 HRs, 75 RBI, 33/87 K/BB ratio, .289/.342/.490

Braun wasn’t DL’d, but the Tommy Hanson pitch he took off the elbow clearly affected his production at the plate for the remaining four and a half months of the season. Given that he’s finally recovered, another 30-plus HR campaign is most certainly on the horizon.

If that isn’t enough to convince you that Braun is the number one fantasy outfielder, consider the growth in his plate discipline peripherals since he entered the league in 2007. A free-swinger who took just 29 walks in his rookie season, Braun has increased his walk rate and decreased his strikeout rate in each of his first four seasons:

BB%

• 2007: 5.9%
• 2008: 6.3%
• 2009: 8.1%
• 2010: 8.2%

K%

• 2007: 24.8%
• 2008: 21.1%
• 2009: 19.1%
• 2010: 17.0%

Similarly, Braun’s contact rate and swinging strike rate have improved each season:

Contact Rate

• 2007: 76.3%
• 2008: 79.2%
• 2009: 80.8%
• 2010: 81.8%

Swinging Strike Rate

• 2007: 12.1%
• 2008: 10.5%
• 2009: 8.7%
• 2010: 8.4%

The law of averages (among many other things which we’ll get into in a later post) suggest a regression for the top outfielder in 2010, Carlos Gonzalez, paving the way for Ryan Braun to be drafted as the number one outfielder in 2011.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: FANTASY BASEBALL INSIDERS

Fantasy Baseball Insiders’ 2011 Big Board:

• No. 1: Albert Pujols
• No. 2: Hanley Ramirez
• No. 3: Miguel Cabrera
• No. 4: Troy Tulowitzki
• No. 5: Adrian Gonzalez
• No. 6: David Wright
• No. 7: Evan Longoria

Previous articles from Fantasy Baseball Insiders:

• 2011 Projections: Adrian Beltre
• The Sub-2.50 ERA Curse: Why Five Elite Starting Pitchers May Regress in 2011
• 2010 Batting Average on Balls in Play Leaders: What to Expect in 2011?
• 2011 Closer’s Corner: Papelbon, Cordero & Rivera Are the Only Reliable Options

Follow Fantasy Baseball Insiders on Facebook & Twitter

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Our fourth stop on the 30 in 30 is the Milwaukee Brewers.

Due to my schedule preventing me from writing yesterday, I’ll be making up for it by covering two teams today. Consider it a 2-for-…Wednesday? Something like that.

The brew crew finished the 2010 season one game ahead of the Astros, two games ahead of the Cubs and nine games back of the Cardinals.

How many games ahead or behind each of those teams will this season’s Brewers be? A large part of the answer to that question is the production of newly acquired former AL Cy Young winner Zack Greinke.

The Brewers also welcomed Shaun Marcum from the Blue Jays to their rotation this offseason. The addition of these two talented pitchers gives the Brewers a rotation that can match up with nearly every team in the National League.

If one thing is certain about this team, it’s that they are ready to win NOW. The question remains though, does this team have enough to make a serious push in the NL Central. 

Let’s take a look at that Milwaukee’s lineup and starting rotation should look like this season.

C- Jonathan Lucroy
1B- Prince Fielder
2B- Rickie Weeks
3B- Casey McGegee
SS- Yuniesky Betancourt
LF- Ryan Braun
CF- Carlos Gomez
RF- Corey Hart

SP- Zack Greinke
SP- Yovani Gallardo
SP- Shaun Marcum
SP- Randy Wolf
SP- Chris Narveson
CL- John Axford

This Brewers lineup has a solid heart of the order with Braun, Fielder, McGehee, Hart and Weeks. Each of these players had over 20 HR and 80 RBI last season. 

These five are also the only everyday starters remaining in this Brewers lineup, as Alcides Escobar was a part of the Greinke deal.

Betancourt will be the replacement for Escobar, as he was also a part of the Greinke deal, although I think he is a slight downgrade at the position.

Lucroy and Gomez are the other two starters, both are very young and have a lot of potential. If the Brewers can get solid seasons from both, expect this lineup to cause a lot of problems for the rest of the NL Central.

From a pitching standpoint, this rotation is solid. If Greinke pitches like he did in 2009, the Brewers will have gotten the better end of the trade. He still has the stuff to be an ace, there’s no question about that, and with a better supporting cast, I think we can expect another great year from him.

Gallardo as a No. 2 man is impressive, and emphasizes the depth of this Brewers rotation. Winning 14 games last year with a 3.84 ERA and 200 K, at the age of 24, he has the potential to become a superstar. 

With Greinke and Gallardo at the top of the rotation, what more could you need? Well, the Brewers obviously didn’t think they had enough, so throw Shaun Marcum (a 13-game winner with a 3.64 ERA, 165 k, and an astounding WHIP of 1.15) into the mix.

If that wasn’t good enough, the Brewers still have Randy Wolf as their No. 4 starter, and if Narveson can bring his ERA down a bit, this is a solid five man rotation.

Not many questions left for this Brewers team, but what does remain, are answers. For a team that barely finished third in the NL Central, the expectations couldn’t be higher. 

Are playoff expectations justified? I’m not so certain, but with a solid lineup and rotation, this team will definitely make some noise in the NL Central.

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Ryan Braun is a very good player. According to the MLB Network, he’s the top left fielder in the game today.

In fact, Braun’s numbers have been so good for the Brewers since joining the team in May 2007 that the argument can easily be made he’s off to a Hall of Fame start to his career.

However, Braun’s numbers have declined steadily since winning the NL Rookie of the Year award that season, and he needs a strong bounce-back in 2011 to re-establish himself as one of game’s best players.

His rookie campaign measures up against the very best in the history of the game. In only 113 games, he hit .324 with 34 home runs and 97 RBI, stole 15 bases and led the league with a slugging percentage of .634.

For his career, Braun has averaged 32 home runs and 105 RBI, but he’s never been able to duplicate that combination of power and average since his rookie season.

Braun’s career batting average of .307 fits very well into the Milwaukee lineup, especially hitting right in front of Prince Fielder. His slugging numbers are another story altogether. He suffered an 80-point drop in 2008 to .553. He remained steady in 2009, slugging .551, but 2010 saw another significant drop of 50 points to drop his slugging down to .501. 

In 2008 Braun finished with 83 extra-base hits, including seven triples. By last year, those numbers dropped to 71 and one, respectively. 

Those numbers indicate that Braun has lost the power in his game, but he is definitely capable of putting up statistics to rival his rookie year. On July 31 last year, he was hitting just .274 with a .460 slugging percentage. Raising those averages to .304 and .501 over the final two months proves he possesses the talent to put up mind-boggling numbers. 

People that follow the team closely know Braun has and never will shy away from the spotlight. He is constantly engaging himself in projects outside the game to raise awareness of his name, including his own clothing line and restaurant and numerous photo shoots. Perhaps a step back from those outside interests and a renewed focus on the game is what Braun needs to change his declining trends.

As much as fans have called out Prince Fielder for having a down year in 2010, they need to do the same thing with Ryan Braun. At one time, the duo of Braun and Fielder was considered by some one of the top pairs of hitting teammates in the game.

Even with the additions of Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum, the Brewers don’t have a shot at the playoffs in 2011 without Braun getting back on track as one of the game’s premier power hitters. 

To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

For the past several seasons, most people felt the National League Central was the St. Louis Cardinals and “everyone else.” However, since the 2005 season, every team in the division has appeared in the playoffs with the exception of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Cincinnati Reds finally broke through in 2010 to win the division after being a dark-horse pick for many years by fans and critics alike. The Reds now become the hunted, quite a big change from being the hunters in previous seasons. 

The Milwaukee Brewers finished a distant third behind the Reds and St. Louis Cardinals in 2010. GM Doug Melvin spent the winter improving one of the worst rotations in baseball by adding Shaun Marcum and 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner, Zack Greinke.

Just as important, Melvin didn’t trade Prince Fielder, which keeps the Brewers offense strong heading into 2011. 

The Reds were quiet to begin the off-season but have recently made noise with the signings of World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria and reserve outfielder Fred Lewis.

Were the moves made by Milwaukee enough to compete with the Reds in 2011, or are the Reds still the class of the division? 

Here is a position-by-position breakdown of the two teams with Spring Training just over a month away:

Pitching Rotation

Statistically, the Reds far outperformed the Brewers last year but Greinke and Marcum make a huge difference going forward.

The Reds rotation features six almost interchangeable parts. Johnny Cueto, Edison Volquez, Bronson Arroyo, Homer Bailey, Travis Wood and Mike Leake provide the Reds with great depth and potential greatness. While I think as a whole they are deeper than Milwaukee’s group of Greinke, Marcum, Yovani Gallardo, Randy Wolf and Chris Narveson, I think the Brewers’ top three surpass any top three the Reds could put together. 

That’s not discounting the talent of the Reds’ hurlers, but Greinke has won a Cy Young and Marcum put up good numbers in the ultra-competitive AL East, while Gallardo has posted back-to-back 200-plus strikeout seasons.

For 2011, I’d pick the Brewers’ rotation, but I think a year or two out that the Reds will prove to have the better group.

Dusty Baker does have the luxury of calling on Aroldis Chapman in case of injury, something that the Brewers can’t do. Manager Ron Roenicke would likely look toward prospect Mark Rogers should anyone go down for any significant amount of time. 

Slight advantage to the Brewers.

Bullpen

Speaking of the hard-throwing Cuban, Chapman will indeed start the season in the bullpen for Cincy. He’ll serve as the primary set-up man for closer Francisco Cordero.

Cordero finished the year with 40 saves and a 3.84 ERA in 75 games. Bill Bray, Nick Masset and Logan Ondrusek all performed well for the Reds last year and will be vital to the team’s success this year. 

John Axford came out of nowhere for the Brewers last year to save 24 of 27 games after Trevor Hoffman faltered. Takashi Saito was signed recently to serve as the eighth inning man, but he won’t be able to pitch in back-to-back games due to age and previous injuries.

LaTroy Hawkins will also serve as a set-up man if he can rebound from injuries and a poor 2010. Zach Braddock, Kameron Loe and Mike McClendon had nice seasons, but will they be able to repeat their successes this year?

The Brewers are hoping a lot of things go right for its bullpen while the Reds have an established pen that will keep most of the leads when entering the eighth inning.

Large advantage to the Reds.

Defense and Bench

With the trades the Brewers made, they traded away some great prospects and young players that were key to the future of the team. Alcides Escobar started the entire season at shortstop, while Lorenzo Cain had a very good September in center field. Many felt Cain would be the starter going forward for the team. 

Yuniesky Betancourt and Carlos Gomez will now serve as the starters at short and center. Chris Dickerson will split time with Gomez in center and Craig Counsell will (again) serve as a super-utility player off the bench. At some point, age will catch up with Counsell but hopefully it won’t be this year.

Defensively, only Gomez would be considered an above-average fielder. 

Signing Edgar Renteria and Fred Lewis give the Reds a very good, deep bench. Renteria, along with Miguel Cairo, give the Reds great versatility and two veteran bats. Lewis can play any outfield spot. Chris Heisey and top prospect Yonder Alonso will also see time off the bench in 2011. 

The Reds had 39 fewer errors than the Brewers in 2010 and were better than Milwaukee in almost any defensive category used. 

Large advantage to the Reds.

Offense

Again, at least statistically, the Reds were better than the Brewers in 2010. They scored 40 more runs and their team batting average was 10 points higher than Milwaukee.

However, all that happened with Prince Fielder having the worst year of his career. Don’t count on him repeating that in 2011.

Joey Votto has a better career batting average than Fielder (also an MVP trophy on his mantle), but I think they are a push offensively. With Fielder in his final year before free agency, most feel he’ll put up MVP-like numbers, which will significantly enhance Milwaukee’s offense.

Brandon Phillips and Rickie Weeks are very similar players as well. They both hit for power and have above average speed. Weeks finally played an entire season and showed he can play at an All-Star level when healthy. 

Betancourt put up career-high power numbers last year in Kansas City but no one should be counting on that type of production for the Brewers. He and Paul Janish are similar players. Each will hit around .260 with single-digit home run totals. 

Scott Rolen had a nice season offensively for the Reds and is still a Gold Glove-level defender. Casey McGehee turned into a very good hitter for the Brewers, coming through time after time when teams pitched around Fielder. Rolen will turn 36 early in the season. Can he continue to put up good numbers at the plate? If he can, the Reds offense will continue to roll. If he begins to show his age, the offense may sputter.

Even with the gap defensively, I’d still take McGehee for the 2011 season; his bat is that good.

Jonny Gomes had a career year for the Reds, finally getting a chance to be a full-time starter. Ryan Braun’s numbers have steadily decreased since he won the NL Rookie of the Year in 2007, but he’s still an All-Star level player. He’s averaged 32 home runs and 105 RBI his first four years in the league. With respect to Gomes, he’s not nearly the player Braun is.

Drew Stubbs had a very nice first year as a starter. Although he hit just .255, he stole 30 bases and hit 22 home runs. The Brewers can only dream of getting that type of production from the Gomez/Dickerson duo. Gomez is still young enough (25) to turn his career around but until he learns some plate discipline, he’ll serve as a black hole for the Brewers’ batting order.

Right field is a great battle between the two teams.

Jay Bruce has hit at least 20 home runs in each of his first three seasons. Corey Hart has accomplished that feat three times as well in his career, along with two seasons of 20-plus stolen bases. Hart has also been an All-Star twice, including last season. Each player has signed a long-term deal with their respective teams within the past six months. 

Jonathan Lucroy was thrown into the fire behind the plate for the Brewers last year after Gregg Zaun was lost for the season. He hit only .253 with four home runs. Entering the year as the entrenched starter should serve his confidence well and his numbers should improve this year.

The combination of Ramon Hernandez and Ryan Hanigan put up very good numbers for the Reds. The duo is effective not only at the plate but handling the pitching staff as well. Behind Yadier Molina of the Cardinals, the Reds probably has the best catching unit in the division.

Small advantage to the Brewers…based mainly on the projected Prince Fielder turnaround.

Managers

Whether you like him or not, Dusty Baker is one of the best managers in the game. He has the reputation for ruining young arms, and if he does that this year in Cincinnati, they could be doomed. However, I think he has a strong enough bullpen that he won’t rely so heavily on his starters. He’s never managed a team to back-to-back first place finishes, but this group definitely has the talent to get the job done.

Ron Roenicke is entering his first season as a big league manager. He’s coming to the Brewers from Mike Scioscia’s staff in Los Angeles. He has a big task in front of him to try and turn the Brewers back into playoff contenders. He has stated he’ll have his team be more aggressive at the plate and on the bases, something many people criticized former manager Ken Macha of not doing. 

Large advantage to the Reds.

Assessment

While the Brewers may have the household names like Braun, Fielder and Greinke, the Reds have the defending MVP (Votto), a great, young pitching staff and most importantly they are the defending division champs. 

The Brewers have done a great job closing the gap on the Reds, but I still see the Reds as the favorites entering the season. The Brewers still need to improve their bench and bullpen (both can be easily done throughout the season) before they can seriously view themselves as a threat to the Reds.

To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In acquiring the 2009 AL Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke, Milwaukee Brewers GM Doug Melvin signaled to his team and fanbase that he has extremely high hopes for the 2011 season. The move not only solidified a greatly improved rotation, but assured Prince Fielder will remain in Milwaukee and not be traded.

Are the Brewers now the class of the NL Central or just one of several contenders for the division crown?

Although the Greinke trade received all the headlines and fanfare, the Shaun Marcum trade is the one that will be looked back at as the key to the offseason. Trading former top prospect Brett Lawrie for Marcum is the deal that signaled to Greinke that the Brewers were serious about winning in the upcoming season. He then took the Brewers off his no-trade list, and the rest is history.

The trio of Greinke, Yovani Gallardo and Marcum is certainly on par with the Cardnials trio of Carpenter, Wainwright and Garcia or the Reds‘ top three of Cueto, Volquez and Arroyo. Only the Pirates finished with a team ERA worse than the Brewers’ 4.65 last year. The Brewers won’t just have a better pitching staff than 2010, but they’ll have a significantly better staff than last year.

Marcum’s numbers were actually better than Greinke’s in 2010. Pitching in the ultra-competitive AL East, the 29-year-old righty went 13-8 with a 3.64 ERA and pitched in a career-high 195.1 innings coming off Tommy John surgery.

Having a deeper rotation will also have a positive effect on the bullpen. John Axford had a brilliant rookie campaign for the Brewers by racking up 24 saves and a 2.48 ERA in 50 appearances. With Zach Braddock, Kameron Loe, Manny Parra and LaTroy Hawkins, the bullpen is full of power arms that can overpower an opposing team’s lineup.

Hawkins will have to bounce back successfully from surgery, and the rest of the pen will have to try and duplicate their recent success, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do as a reliever.

Defense will be an issue for the 2011 Brewers, but that has been a question mark for several years now. Losing shortstop Alcides Escobar and replacing him with Yuniesky Betancourt is a significant downgrade, but having Greinke, Gallardo and Marcum all capable of high strikeout numbers, there should be less chances for the infield to blow. Lorenzo Cain seemed to be a very good defensive player, but Carlos Gomez is all-world as a defensive player. It’s Gomez’s bat that is the problem, not his glove.

The offense was above average in 2010 and should continue being a strong point for the team. New manager Ron Roenicke is preaching a more aggressive brand of baseball, which indicates he’ll want his team stealing more bases and improving in situational hitting like hit-and-run and sacrifice plays.

The situational hitting will be key for the team. Power wasn’t and shouldn’t be an issue for this team at all. Casey McGehee, Corey Hart, Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks and Prince Fielder all hit at least 23 home runs last season and barring injury, they should be able to replicate that production in 2011 as well. Fielder had a down year in 2010, seeing his RBI total drop from 141 to 83, but he’s entering his final year before free agency so one can safely assume his numbers will improve dramatically.

The Brewers finished a distant third behind the Reds and Cardinals in 2010. The Reds have made no significant upgrades to their roster, and with respect to Lance Berkman, he’s not nearly the same player now as he was five years ago, so the Cardinals haven’t improved greatly either. Adding Ryan Theriot was a nice move, but it doesn’t compare with adding a player the level of Marcum or Greinke.

Standing pat is usually not a recipe to improve in baseball. Like the Brewers, the Reds still have youth on their side, so they should be a year better, not a year older. The same can’t be said for the Cardinals.

Will the Brewers in their current form win the 2011 NL Central? While that will be debated over the next several months, it appears at the very least the NL Central will now be a three-team race. The Brewers’ long-term window may not be as big as it was prior to the Marcum and Greinke trades, but fans and players alike can take solace in the fact that at least management is doing everything possible to make 2011 the most special in team history.

To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here.

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