It appears that everyone who wrote off the Chicago Cubs' chances this season with the loss of Mark Prior spoke too soon, as Chicago moved atop the NL Central standings last week.
And in the East and the West, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Florida Marlins stayed on top despite the fact that they are the Dodgers and the Marlins.
The Cubbies are the hottest team in baseball. After starting the season at .500 after 12 games, they've won six straight to move into first place in the Central division. Next weekend is a big series for Chicago, as they travel west to take on the St. Louis Cardinals. It's a chance for the Cubs to prove that even without Prior, they have enough pitching to handle St. Louis' dangerous offense.
The Cincinnati Reds are still sitting in second place in the Central, although nobody really seems to understand why. Cincinnati is the only team in the majors with a winning record that has been outscored this season. The team still isn't hitting either, which really doesn't make them worthy of any of the success they've had thus far.
The Houston Astros sit a game-and-a-half back and in great position for a team with that much talent to make a push for first place. That is, of course, if Jeff Bagwell, Criag Biggio, and Roger Clemens don't fall apart before the season's end. The Milwaukee Brewers and Pittsburgh Pirates deserve a lot of credit for just staying around .500 in such a strong division.
In the East, the Atlanta Braves look like they're not going to surrender the division title without a fight. They've won five of six against Florida this year to move within two games of first place as of yesterday. The Braves' 7-2 win on Sunday night featured the first earned runs surrendered by Marlins' ace Dontrelle Willis, ending any unrealistic hope that he'd go through the whole year with an ERA of 0.00.
The Philadelphia Phillies, meanwhile, have improved since their 1-6 start, but a 7-10 record in a new ballpark still isn't going to cut it in a city where the fans boo Santa Claus. If the Phils struggle in their upcoming six-game homestand against St. Louis and the Arizona Diamondbacks, expect manager Larry Bowa to start feeling the heat.
The rest of the division doesn't even deserve a mention except for this small fact: the Montreal Expos have scored just 34 runs in 19 games so far this season. Are they becoming the anti-Colorado Rockies -- a team that's not only horrible, but doesn't even make it interesting by scoring a ton of runs? It seems that way.
Out West, it's anyone's guess as to what to expect. Los Angeles is now tied for the best record in baseball, even though nobody picked the Dodgers to finish better than third in the division. The Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants, the two teams most people picked to win the West, have struggled mightily out of the gate.
The one expected thing that is actually happening is that Barry Bonds' continues to put up Little League-type numbers. Unfortunately for Giants fans, that's the only thing they have going for them, as a 2-8 streak has dropped the team 5.5 games behind the Dodgers. Unless the Giants turn things around, the San Diego Padres grow up really fast (which isn't about to happen), or Arizona finds the fountain of youth, L.A. may win the division almost by default.
