Who will win the NL Central in 2024?

No prediction, but I want the Cardinals to be in the mix. Baseball doesn't feel right to me unless the Cardinals are contending.

Cubs or Reds, I think.

Cubs lineup better with Bellinger back. Reds have an exciting young team that could shock us. Cardinals made a few moves for pitching, most notably Sonny Gray, but the lineup doesn’t really feel that convincing to me, especially if Goldy regresses a bit more with age and Gorman is as up and down as last year. And like I said in Hot Stove, signing Brandon Crawford seems like a terrible decision. Are they the oldest team in the division?

right now my general thinking is that all of the teams except the pirates have a decent chance of winning the division.
it's entirely possible that the cardinals could have a resurgence or the brewers could win the division again, but my question about both teams is their pitching. i haven't analyzed deeply what they've added or subtracted (aside from the brewers losing burnes), but i question if either team has a strong enough rotation right now.
i'm feeling fairly optimistic about the cubs, though their rotation seems weak too - a lot depends on how good imanaga turns out to be against mlb bats.
the reds are so young, they could go either way - an orioles-esque explosion or a disappointing flop.
it's going to be interesting around the trade deadline if none of these teams have jumped ahead yet.

from fangraphs chat:

NL Central
You can make a case for any team here to win the division. Who do you see battling for the division title when the smoke clears?

Ben Clemens
I think it's a Cards/Brewers race right down to the wire with the Cubs falling just short
I think the Brewers are meaningfully underrated

Put me down for $5 on the cubbies

i'm gonna go reds

Brewers could have a lot of good young talent on the hitting side. if their pitching holds up I think they'll be good. then again I say that every year.

Reds are looking at Matt McLain having to have surgery and TJ Friedl is going to be out for a while to start the season.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Pirates in first place. Cubs in last. All is good.

👀

Paul Skenes' absolutely dominated in his 2024 debut.

3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

Averaged 100.1 mph on his 4-seam. pic.twitter.com/GBKuFtSxSv

— Eric Cross (@EricCross04) March 30, 2024

Surprised the reds got fewer votes than the pirates or cards

tbf my vote for the pirates wasn’t too serious

Nor was mine for the cards

I'm serious about Milwaukee though

the cardinals will win the nl central in 2024. i am sorry to the other teams involved, in advance - if your team wins, it will be well deserved.

this is not nl central related but thought i'd share it here. you probably already saw it:

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-most-exciting-play-in-baseball/

what a fun thing to read through. i bet whoever thought of "pivot to video" had this kind of thing in mind

What the hell is a yellow tango?

pirates are now facing their fifth straight lefty starter to open the season

i might have been wrong to discount the pirates, they could have just as good a chance as any other team in the division

team of destiny i guess

as long as they can play the dregs of the nl east

5-0

4-0 :)

NL Central with the most wins in baseball. Bloodbath division

There Will Be Bath

It's a Long Season™ and i guess the pirates are trying to re-establish mars, pa's own daniel bednar as their closer, but . . . this was his third blown save in five appearances, he threw 14 balls and nine strikes today, and his ERA is now 12.46

he shouldn't get to face seven batters!

anyway congrats to tigers reliever shelby miller on his MLB-leading third win

Feel-good save from Bednar there

feel-bad set-up from aroldis : /

Performance wise? Second walk was a bit rough, that was as perfect edge strike for ball 4. But you'd rather walk in a run then give anything they could smoke in the middle of the plate anyways.

Man still sweats like a pig!

still plenty of time to jump on the Thrillwaukee bandwagon folks

eh…..

Thrillwaukee

i feel stained

snap back to reality

pirates have lost six straight (while being outscored 36-9), are back to .500, and now in fourth place. order restored

cardinals looking to prove last year was not a fluke

it's been pretty ugly! somehow it's been better than last year though

brewers and cubs the only teams in the division with a winning record, so much for it being a toss-up lol

Usual Reds team, when they can pitch they cannot hit. When they can hit, they rarely can pitch. Fielding is either the best or the worst…kinda bad right now.

Going to be an ugly month as many a Cincy season often goes to die with the big west coast swing to SF and LA.

masyn winn just made an incredible slide to evade getting thrown out stealing second. and the throw beat him by a mile, too. jfc. he was called out, we'll see if they overturn it. but holy moly

the nl central shortstops are fun to watch this year (elly, oneil cruz, winn)

lol remember when i said the reds would win the division, oops

i like elly, especially when he's on the basepaths, but just based on the games i've watched he seems pretty shaky defensively at ss

winn just tried to avoid another tag with the exact same move stealing second again and got called out again

i didn't see the second one! he looked safe on the first one but you could see how it wasn't conclusive i guess