NL South Preview: Season 8

St. Louis Greys: Season 7 Record 92-70

Having fully rebounded from the nadir it experienced in Season 4, Broadwayevans has guided his St. Louis Greys to three straight winning seasons including his second straight division title in season 7. Surprisingly, despite regularly being in contention for division titles since the inception of the league, the Greys enter season 8 with the second youngest lineup in the NL behind only the Okalahoma City Twins.

The team's offense last year was powered by a strong and patient sluggers that produced the most doubles and the second most walks in the NL The overall offensive line for the Greys last year was .269/.336/.450/.786 the final figure representing the third best OPS in the NL. The core of the team returns almost completely intact led by the dynamic young duo of slugging RF Bronson Ritz and by SS Vladimir Pichardo. Two potential wildcards are the possibility of improved performances from 2B Kris Dickey and 3B Louis Dispenza who have both been somewhat of disappointments to date. The remainder of the offense is led by mature hitters that uniformly produce average or above average offense.

The team's pitching was also firmly above average last year and led the NL in Strikeouts. The staff was powered by two of the best SP in the league last year in Howie Delasandro who had a 1.14 WHIP/2.96 ERA in 197.1 innings last year and perennial Cy Young contender John Carroll who tossed 266.2 innings of 1.19 WHIP/3.24 ERA ball last year. The Greys also received exemplary performances from 3 members of their bullpen. The rest of their staff was average to below average and the loss of Charles Ott could prove to be troublesome as the starting rotation was quite front loaded as is.

Overall, this team should continue to be strong led by a powerful offense and a solid, playoff optimized pitching staff. The loss of Ott probably is worth a game or two but further improvement from younger players should more than offset that loss.

Prediction: 95-67, another division championship

Iowa City Comics: Season 7 Record 89-73

Iowa City is known for two things: Kirk Ferentz and Chipper Velandia's exploits. Iowa City is quietly becoming the most recent version of the Oklahoma City Twins; good enough to compete for a playoff spot every year but not a threat to ever challenge for a 1 or 2 seed.

Despite the presence of the most feared hitter in the league, the Iowa offense overall was quite ordinary last year and was well below average on an absolute basis. While some of this can be explained by playing in a decided pitchers park, a .316 OBP can never be considered good. Only one player besides Chipper, RF Ricardo Rincon posted an OPS above .800 last year. As no major additions were made to the team, Stan Lennon is considered an improvement for 200 abs a season, marked improvement cannot be expected.

The pitching staff was able to take advantage of its surroundings and posted the fifth best WHIP at1.33 and 4th best ERA at 4.08 last year in the NL. The team received an otherworldly performance out of Felipe Olivo which can not be expected again. Otherwise, the team has a very good bullpen and a potent 1-2 SP combination in Joe Sanders and Sandy Price. An intriguing signing that could pay dividends is Manny Ellenwood whose extreme fly ball tendencies will be muted in Iowa City's cavernous surroundings.

Overall, I see last year as the high watermark as no significant improvements have been made and some regression to the mean is likely for a couple of players including Chipper Velandia.

Prediction: 82 wins, misses out on the wildcard

Oklahoma City Twins. : Season 7 Record 67-95

The Twins experienced their first season below 70 wins in season 7 and are in a full blown rebuilding process that figures to extend for at least another couple of years. Although statements were made that Oklahoma would be following a different template than previous versions of the team, it does appear to be focusing largely on pitching and on base percentage once again.

The offense was Juan Pierre-esque with a .322/.367 OBP/SLG line as a team. A decent portion of that number can be explained by the cavernous ballpark the team plays in but the majority has more to do with the talent on the team. The notable exception as a standout offensive performer was Felipe Perez' noteworthy season, and definitely the third best rookie season in the NL, leading the charge with a .311/.347/.511 line. Only one other hitter, the 1st baseman, had an OPS north of .800. As no significant offseason additions were made, it is unlikely that the offense will see much improvement.

Despite playing in an extreme pitchers park, Oklahoma City put up an ERA of 5.00 for the season which tied the now Ottawa Otters for third worst in the NL. This writer is assuming that the trio of Jesus Santos, D'Angelo Pascual, and Bobby Metzger will be called up after 20 games which should help to improve the performance of pitching unit as a whole. While there are some decent pitches in the bullpen, the rest of the starting staff does not inspire much confidence.

As Aaron Eckhart once said, "The Night is darkest just before the dawn". That seems apt for OKC right now.

Prediction: 60 wins, 3rd place

Monterrey Conquistadores: Season 7 Record 62-100

Monterrey, coming off of its fourth straight season with win totals in the 60s is a couple of years away from having one of the most feared pitching staffs in the NL. However, that will prove to be no solace this year as the team is likely to be worse in the short run. However, just one more year until Francisco Nunez debuts.

The offense still has some effective figures such as Jose Nieves, Hootie Medina, and Larry Womack though the majority of the team figures to be very good against LHP but below average against RHP. The loss of Clayton Mack should also prove to be big as he was a great source of offense for the team. There is no reason to expect the offense will improve on its .725 OPS this year.

Monterrey's pitching figures to be worse this year than it was last year. The team lost Pat Velarde to Albuquerque and Kris Romero to Vancouver representing 2 of their top 5 pitchers from last year. Additionally, I'll bet anyone $20 that Robinson Dickey does not produce another 50 innings of sub 3 era pitching. Anyone. The rest of the pitching staff should be unremarkable although Pablo Garces can be expected to have better performance some point soon.

This year isn't going to be pretty for Monterrey though they are well positioned to be a major, if not the major, player in the international market.

Prediction: 57 Wins Last place in the division again.