The NL Central Is Not Getting Better

As divisions in baseball go, the NL Central was about as bad as it gets in 2007. It was a two team race all year and those two teams (the Cubs and Brewers) struggled with .500 until September. Still, we're only a year removed from the time when the Cardinals and Astros dominated not just the division. This week, they both had chances to improve on major weak spots this year. The Astros managed to excise the shell of Craig Biggio from their roster while the Cardinals watched David Eckstein (who's as overrated as he is gritty) file for free agency.

The Astros used their opportunity to sign Kaz Matsui. Despite all of the talk about Matsui's improvement since his move to Colorado, his OPS+ was only a little better than the numbers he put up in New York. He's not a bad second baseman, per se, but he's a little better than average with a glove and he'll probably only hit at home. So he's like Biggio last year, only better with the glove. Not a huge improvement for $5 million a year.

At least the Astros made themselves better. The Cardinals actually found a way to go out and pick up a shorstop that's an even worse hitter than Eckstein when they signed Cesar Izturis today. Izturis started out 2007 with the Cubs and lost his job to Ecksteinian Ryan Theriot, then got traded to the Pirates in July for a player to be named later that hasn't been named yet! So unless they're planning another move, they just signed a guy to play shortstop that couldn't start for anyone else in the division.