Look Out For The Braves?

For the record, Atlanta is 6 games under .500 and 10 games behind Milwaukee in the Wild Card. And don't worry about the Cubs, they won't be caught. All this according to a Baseball Prospectus article on CNNSI.com.

NL Central
The Cubs are the best team in the league, and all the trade acquisitions in the world by the teams chasing them aren't going to change that. They won't be caught by anyone, leaving them only to manage their health and set their rotation for the start of the postseason. With as deep and balanced a roster as there is in the National League, the Cubs will be the favorites to reach their first World Series in 63 years.

The acquisition of Sabathia made clear what should have been before: the Brewers are better than the Cardinals, and will finish ahead of them in the Central. Whether that will be enough to reach the postseason -- the NL East features three teams as good as or better than the Brew Crew -- is an incredibly close call. It's not unreasonable to suggest that Russell Branyan saved this team, arriving in June and providing the second lefty power bat that the team desperately needed at a time when the team's hopes were fading away. With Ray Durham now on hand as well, the Brewers can put out better balance in the lineup than they've been able to in years, which should help them threaten both northpaws and southpaws. The bullpen remains a concern; their collection of veteran arms has been intermittently effective, and prone to ugly blowups. The defense is also sub-par, although much better than the 2007 team. If the Braves don't win the wild card, the Brewers will.