NL Central

When we think of great hitting catchers, we think of Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, and Mike Piazza. Two are already in the Hall of Fame, and the other is well on his way.

But when reading the list of Hall of Fame catchers, you'll see names like Ray Schalk, Roger Bresnahan and Rick Ferrell. For a position that has been pretty underrepresented in Cooperstown, some pretty weak candidates have gained entrance to baseball's most hallowed hall.

By now the baseball world is well aware that the National League Most Valuable Player race has essentially come down to two NL Central first basemen currently chasing the Triple Crown.

Barring a huge slump on either of their parts or a huge surge by another candidate—crazier things have happened, and Adrian Gonzalez looms in the shadows—the NL MVP is going to go to one of these two players.

So how close is the race between them? Shockingly close.

They are in a statistical dead heat.

The Pittsburgh Pirates will not have a winning record this season.

And water is still wet. The sun still rises from the east. Telemarketers still call at the dinner hour. Wile E. Coyote still hasn’t caught the Road Runner.

You know how whenever you watch a boxing match, no matter how little-known the fighters are, they always have winning records? This defies logic, because somewhere out there must be a fighter with a record of like 5-45. A tomato can with gloves.

It’s time to size up the National League MVP race. Or what what I like to call the “Albert Pujols’ to lose” award. This year, Pujols is getting a run for his money by a couple of young studs.

Here is how I see the NL MVP race shaping up…

Best of the Rest

Sure, they have a possible Triple Crown candidate in Joey Votto—and fellow All-Stars Brandon Phillips and Scott Rolen. The pitching staff has been solid, if not spectacular, led by the most consistent pitcher in the majors: Bronson Arroyo.
 
But the glue that keeps this team together is the bench. They are unsung heroes that have proven to be the WD-40 to the Reds' machine when it gets a bit rusty. The players that were expected to be afterthoughts have instead been essential to the Reds success.
 

In Wednesday’s series finale with the San Francisco Giants, the Reds looked like they were going to beat them as if they stole something.

Joey Votto, Jonny Gomes, and Ryan Hanigan all homered to stake Homer Bailey to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. It looked like payback time for the boys from the Queen City.

Votto hit another homer in the third inning, his 31st of the season, to cap a four-run inning and the Reds were on top 8-1.

Tony Bennett left his heart in San Francisco. I hope the Cincinnati Reds have not left their confidence there.

Regardless of today’s outcome, the San Francisco Giants have shown some serious flaws in the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff.

In two games they have been outscored by the Giants 27-7 and have given up 35 hits in the 16 innings the Giants have batted.

Tony La Russa refers to it as “Fuzzy Baseball.”  He uses the term to describe his team’s focus when they commit errors, run the bases poorly, and generally play bad fundamental baseball. 

This type of play is abnormal for La Russa’s teams and the St. Louis Cardinals.  But this season it’s been a frequent problem.

First of all, no one is anointing Mike Quade the next manager of your Chicago Cubs. He is an interim manager and there will be plenty of available candidates and many interviews for Cubs GM Jim Hendry to sort through this offseason.

Still, it is reasonable to assume that Quade's assignment is an indication that he is, indeed, one of the candidates for the permanent job going forward.

As Quade himself stated, "It's absolutely an audition."

Geovany Soto made a solid statement his 2008 rookie season, slugging his way to a .371 wOBA, third among Major League catchers (Brian McCann and Joe Mauer).

He also tied for the Major League lead among catchers with 23 home runs.

Soto followed his impressive rookie campaign with a pretty severe sophomore slump, much to the chagrin of Cubs fans and potential fantasy owners predicting him to repeat or build upon his first season.