NL Central

On April 27, Chris Carpenter will turn 38 years old. His major league career appears to be on its final legs, but on Tuesday Cardinal fans found out that the retirement may come sooner rather than later.

It was reported by Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak on Tuesday that Carpenter is still feeling discomfort in his arm and it is "very unlikely he will pitch in 2013."

The Cardinals announced on Tuesday afternoon that Chris Carpenter would miss the 2013 season after a recurrence of shoulder problems. Carpenter missed the bulk of 2012 with a shoulder issue that was said to be corrected by surgery.

The Cincinnati Reds had the best bullpen in baseball last year.

Among all major league bullpens, the Reds ranked first in ERA, saves, earned runs and runs allowed. Additionally, the bullpen finished in the top five in wins, BAA, OBPa, SLGa, OPSa and K/9 (per ESPN.com).

The St. Louis Cardinals announced on Tuesday that Chris Carpenter "can't continue to throw" and will likely miss the entire 2013 season, according to Danny Knobler of CBS Sports.

With the start of spring training only a few weeks away, numerous eyes will be dissecting the up-and-coming Cincinnati Reds prospects. 

It's uncertain who will make the cut, since the remaining roster spots are becoming scarce, but the question is: which prospect will make the biggest impact on the Reds 2013 season? 

Lost in the hype of Jurickson Profar, Dylan Bundy and Wil Myers is St. Louis Cardinals outfield prospect Oscar Taveras.

Actually, he's even lost in the hype of his teammate, fellow top-10 prospect Shelby Miller.

Yadier Molina has become the current face of the St. Louis Cardinals organization.  After Albert Pujols packed up last offseason and headed west, Cardinal fans turned their focus to hoping Yadier wouldn't follow Albert out of town.

When composing this lineup, there were some selections that caused some second-guessing and hesitation before the final decisions were made—not just whom to include, but where to place them in the field for those who played multiple positions.

There was some internal debate on where to play Ernie Banks on the Chicago Cubs’ All-Time Team.  He played parts of nine seasons at shortstop and 11 at first base, with some time at third base and in the outfield sprinkled in.

Chicago Cubs team president Theo Epstein may say that the 2013 season will be considered a failure if the team doesn't qualify for the playoffs.

The saga of Sammy Sosa could have gone much differently had the Cubs traded him to the Yankees in 2000. At the time, Sosa was coming off of two historic seasons in which he hit 66 and 63 home runs, respectively.