Debate

In light of the Sabathia trade, ESPN's Jayson Stark is doing one of those debate/chat thingies on ESPN.com, trying to answer the question of which team is the best in the NL Central.

Stark says the Cubs:

The Brewers may have leaped over the Cubs as The NL Team You'd Least Want to Face in October. But I'm still taking the Cubs as the favorites in this division. They're deeper. They're more versatile. They're less reliant on the home run to score. They have the better late-inning relief crew. And they undoubtedly have a trade or two in them themselves. So let's see what the Cubs do between now and the deadline, and maybe we can have this same debate on the first Monday in August. In the meantime, let's kick around the fate of the most intriguing division in baseball.

Honestly, I don't really disagree with that. The Brewers' offense is prone to droughts because they don't get on base a lot and strike out a lot. It's who they are. The pitching staff is greatly improved, but Sabathia only pitches every 5th day. While his impact will carry over to other facets of the game (saving the bullpen, etc.) the Cubs are probably the better team overall. But the gap just got smaller.