No Hassles, No Hype Sports Picks

Hard to look past the St. Louis Cardinals in this division as not only are they a good team but this division is and has been fairly weak over the years. What could be a huge difference between this Cardinals club being sensational as opposed to just very good is rookie third baseman David Freese. With a line-up that features Pujols and Holliday runs will be scored by the Cardinals. Every day and fill in players will improve this year and I suspect one of these Brendan Ryan, Felipe Lopez or Yadier Molina will have a career year in helping the Cards to another division title.

 

1. St. Louis Cardinals

2. Milwaukee Brewers

3. Chicago Cubs

4. Cincinnati Reds

5. Houston Astros

6. Pittsburgh Pirates

 

1. St Louis Cardinals

Their first four in the rotation will provide deep outings and as long as Carpenter stys healthy they have as good one-two punch in all of baseball. As of now, Jaime Garcia is the fifth and somewhat of risk up from Triple-A and returning from Tommy John Surgery

ROTATION:

1. RHP Chris Carpenter

2. RHP Adam Wainwright

3. RHP Brad Penny

4. RHP Kyle Lohse

5. LHP Jaime Garcia

 

LINEUP:

1. 2B Skip Schumaker

2. CF Colby Rasmus

3. 1B Albert Pujols

4. LF Matt Holliday

5. RF Ryan Ludwick

6. C Yadier Molina

7. 3B David Freese

8. SS Brendan Ryan

 

2 Milwaukee Brewers

 

Taking Milwaukee to compete for the second spot has some huge risks with it. Their Manager is not well liked and he is entering his final year of his contract. No question that the Brew Crew just might throw Fielder out there at the trade deadline if they are not in the race as he is a free agent after 2011. As always their strength is hitting with power. Additionally the wait and see also surrounds whether GM Doug Melvin's quest to fix the pitching shortcomings will take. The Brewers turned over a whopping contract to Randy Wolf (three years, $29.75 million), LaTroy Hawkins, and re-acquired Doug Davis (the left-hander voted Most Likely to Make Fans Squirm in Their Seats). .

 

ROTATION:

1. RHP Yovani Gallardo

2. LHP Randy Wolf

3. LHP Doug Davis

4. RHP Dave Bush

5. RHP Jeff Suppan or LHP Manny Parra

 

LINEUP:

1. 2B Rickie Weeks

2. SS Alcides Escobar

3. LF Ryan Braun

4. 1B Prince Fielder

5. 3B Casey McGehee

6. C Gregg Zaun

7. RF Corey Hart

8. CF Carlos Gomez

 

3. Chicago Cubs

 

Man, how do you handicap the Chicago Cubs? Some many question as to will Carlos Zambrano stay in good health and regain his Cy Young form, will Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez will stay healthy? Will the bullpen blow big leads or actually work? The middle of the line-up is lacking and after Zambrano the rotation is somewhat shaky. The Cubs should finish in the middle of the pack and for this year and what’s been going over the last two seasons, Cubs fans should be happy with that.

 

ROTATION:

1. RHP Carlos Zambrano

2. RHP Ryan Dempster

3. RHP Randy Wells

4. RHP Carlos Silva

5. LHP Tom Gorzelanny

 

LINEUP:

1. SS Ryan Theriot

2. RF Kosuke Fukudome

3. 1B Derrek Lee

4. 3B Aramis Ramirez

5. CF Marlon Byrd

6. LF Alfonso Soriano

7. 2B Mike Fontenot

8. C Geovany Soto

 

4. Cincinnati Reds

 

Cincinnati the “Big Red Machine” is one team I think is starting to turn the corner and while many won’t agree with us on that we see a strong potential starting pitching rotation with a bull pen capable of holding leads. Dusty Baker is in the final yer of his contract and the players will play for him. No question the one we all want to keep an eye is Aroldis Chapman who has so much talent but is still developing.

 

ROTATION:

1. RHP Aaron Harang

2. RHP Johnny Cueto

3. RHP Bronson Arroyo

4. RHP Homer Bailey

5. RHP Mike Leake/LHP Travis Wood

 

LINEUP:

1. CF Drew Stubbs or Chris Dickerson

2. SS Orlando Cabrera

3. 1B Joey Votto

4. 2B Brandon Phillips

5. 3B Scott Rolen

6. RF Jay Bruce

7. LF Jonny Gomes

8. C Ramon Hernandez

 

 

5. Houston Astros

The Houston Astros are in new hands with manager Brad Mills, which means that there no longer will be stories emanating from Houston every two weeks regarding how badly players in the clubhouse hate the guy. If Mills can find another way to make this year's Astros relevant, more power to him.

 

ROTATION:

1. RHP Roy Oswalt

2. LHP Wandy Rodriguez

3. RHP Brett Myers

4. RHP Bud Norris

5. RHP Felipe Paulino

 

LINEUP:

1. CF Michael Bourn

2. 2B Kaz Matsui

3. 1B Lance Berkman

4. LF Carlos Lee

5. RF Hunter Pence

6. 3B Pedro Feliz

7. C J.R. Towles

8. SS Tommy Manzella

 

6. Pittsburgh Pirates

Pittsburgh is a disaster not a disaster waiting to happen. The front office has made no moves that make any sense and the only concern with management is their payroll. Can we even say they are rebuilding? I don’t think so.

ROTATION:

1. LHP Zach Duke

2. RHP Ross Ohlendorf

3. LHP Paul Maholm

4. RHP Charlie Morton

5. RHP Daniel McCutchen

 

LINEUP:

1. CF Andrew McCutchen

2. 2B Aki Iwamura

3. RF Garrett Jones

4. C Ryan Doumit

5. 1B Jeff Clement

6. LF Lastings Milledge

7. SS Ronny Cedeno

8. 3B Andy LaRoche