Reds to win division

I'm a regular reader of The Hardball Times and have come to especially enjoy their THT Dartboard in which they rank all the major league baseball teams in terms of likely end of year wins. They also include a comment or two about each team.

The first cool part to me is that there's a lot of math in their methods. I dig the modern trend of actually using statistical methods to analyse sports performances. It's almost like they're real science going on in non-science areas.

The second cool part to me is that THT Dartboard points out that the St. Louis Cardinals really aren't that good this year and that the Cincy Reds have a really good shot to take the division title. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the Reds are likely World Series winners or anything (THT has them ranked as the fourteenth best team in the majors, but St. Louis is the eighteenth), but it'd be awesome to see them in the playoffs - especially if they don't sell the future to get there. This is a team built for the next few years, and suddenly thinking that they should start selling prospects for playoff veterans would be a mistake.

The Red's trade for Eddie Guardado isn't a bad one, however. They gave up a very middling prospect and got back a reliever who was pretty good the past couple of years. If Guardado gets his confidence back and turns into anything servicable, the Reds bullpen - their major weakness so far this year - will get a major uplift.

PS - in other MLB news, it appears that Mark Prior is about to sign a new contract. Gotta love The Onion.