NL Central Race
The race in the National League Central Division got a whole lot more interesting after a pair of blockbuster trades this week.

The Milwaukee Brewers started the week with a trade for the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, CC Sabathia, trading top prospect Matt LaPorta and a trio of other prospects (which includes one player to be named later) to the Cleveland Indians to give the Brewers one of the most dominant one-two punches in the game, pairing Sabathia with incumbent staff ace Ben Sheets.

The Chicago Cubs, not to be out-done, traded their own prospect package to the Oakland A’s for flame-throwing right-hander Rich Harden the very next day.

Harden, if he can stay healthy, also gives the Cubs an impressive one-two punch to go along with Carlos Zambrano.

While Harden has had his fair share of injuries throughout his big-league career, with Sabathia being one of the most durable pitchers in the game throughout his career, the Cubs seemingly gave up less to strengthen an already strong team that has a modest yet commanding lead in the division as the All-Star break approaches.

In the middle of the Cubs and the Brewers are the St. Louis Cardinals, who have overcome several significant injuries to their club to prosper, even if they haven’t done so with the fanfare of their divisional rivals.

The Cardinals continue to thrive under the leadership of skipper Tony LaRussa, and they always seem to enjoy contributions from reclamation projects, with their manager always making the most of the players on his teams. Those projects this year include a pair of outfielders that have endured a long journey to get where they are today.

Rick Ankiel’s story is well-known, as a former potential staff ace with light’s out stuff whose control issues led to a demotion to the minors, and an eventual switch to a positional player. He currently leads the team with 19 home runs, and along with Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols, who is still the most fearsome slugger in all of baseball, forms an intimidating middle of the order for opposing teams to contend with.

Ludwick has always been an outfielder, and a promising one at that, but has overcome some serious injuries that threatened his career to enjoy a breakout season, leading the team in doubles and RBI while being tied for second with Pujols in home runs (18).

And the pitching has also enjoyed some breakout performances with players stepping up to thrive in the roles handed to them.

Kyle Lohse is 10-2, while a pair of converted relievers, Braden Looper and Todd Wellemeyer, are collectively 16-10. Reliever Ryan Franklin has stepped in admirably for the injured Jason Isringhausen to post 12 saves as the team’s closer, and as a team the Cardinals have a 4.12 ERA.

Both the Cubs and Brewers are ahead of the Cardinals statistically speaking in both runs scored and club ERA, but don’t rule the Redbirds out as the season progresses, as they’ve hung around this long, and no one should mistaken their early season success as a fluke.

Based on runs scored versus runs scored upon, the Cubs’ success appears to be more than legitimate, with a run differential of more than 100. The Brewers and Cardinals run differential is 14 and 18 respectively, meaning their success so far doesn’t appear to be as impressive, since based on the law of averages, teams that score close to the number of runs they give up typically end up hovering around the .500 mark.

However, the Brewers have been one of the hottest teams in baseball over the last month, posting a 30-17 record ever since being swept by the Red Sox in mid-May, which includes four series’ sweeps.

The Cubs have been well-rewarded for their first-half success, sending three positional starters (catcher Geovany Soto and outfielders Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano), three pitchers (Ryan Dempster, Kerry Wood and Carlos Zambrano) and a reserve (Aramis Ramirez) to the All-Star Game, while the Brewers and Cardinals representatives (Ryan Braun, Ben Sheets, Ryan Ludwick and Albert Pujols, with the Brewers Corey Hart currently leading the voting for the final roster spot) don’t even collectively match the Cubs’ impressive presence at the midseason classic.

Regardless, all three teams have made the NL Central, a division that entered the year labeled as one of the weakest in all of baseball, as one of the strongest, posing arguably the most interesting and exciting playoff chases during the second half of the season.

Moving to the second half, the Brewers and Cubs still have 10 games remaining on their schedule against one another (seven of those games are in Milwaukee), while the Cubs will face the Cardinals nine more times (three in St. Louis) and the Cards face the Brewers only six more times (all in St. Louis).

If the Brewers continue their recent surge, aided by the acquisition of Sabathia, keep a close eye on the Brewers-Cubs series to close out the season in Milwaukee, September 26-28.

The thoughts and opinions listed here do not necessarily reflect those of Perfect Game USA. Patrick Ebert is affiliated with both Perfect Game USA and Brewerfan.net, and can be contacted via email at pebert@brewerfan.net.