NL Central Divisional All-Stars

A rather weak class in terms of depth for the NL Central this year. But the big guys sure were big. Here's how they stack up position by position:

National League Central

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POS	NAME	swp	swp/g		TEAM(S)
CF	Michael Bourn	1,977	12.6		HOU
SS	Miguel Tejada	1,897	12.0		HOU
LF	Ryan Braun	2,697	17.1		MIL
1B	Albert Pujols	3,196	20.0		STL
DH	Prince Fielder	2,784	17.2		MIL	1B
2B	Brandon Phillips	2,002	13.1		CIN
RF	Hunter Pence	1,814	11.4		HOU
3B	Andy LaRoche	1,391	9.3		PIT
C	Yadier Molina	1,242	8.9		STL
SP	Adam Wainwright	2,476	72.8		STL
	Chris Carpenter	2,287	81.7		STL
	Wandy Rodriguez	1,914	58.0		HOU
	Ted Lilly	1,778	65.9		CHC
	Joel Pineiro	1,700	53.3		STL
CL	Trevor Hoffman	1,764	32.1		MIL
RP	Nick Masset	905	12.2		CIN
	LaTroy Hawkins	845	13.0		HOU
	Todd Coffey	800	10.3		MIL
	Jeff Fulchino	753	12.3		HOU
	Angel Guzman	606	11.0		CHC
P	Sean Marshall	439	8.0		CHC

What an improvement for Michael Bourn, whom many pegged as a one-tool player after his 2008 performance (41 steals, but an OBP under .300). But speed wasn't the only aspect of his game in 2009, as the phormer Phillie (he came over to the Astros in the phabled trade for Brad Lidge) raised his batting average by over 30 points, ramped up his walk rate, and played good enough defense to earn a Gold Glove award - all while maintaining his trademark dazzling performance on the basepaths (61 stolen bases). He beat out solid veteran Mike Cameron and surprising rookie Andrew McCutchen to earn the center field honors.

In recent years, Miguel Tejada has seen a dropoff in his power numbers: he averaged 15 home runs per year over the last three seasons, down from an average of 24 for the rest of his career. But in 2009 he apparently made some adjustments - including swinging for more singles and doubles - which got his batting average up over .300 for the first time since 2006 with Baltimore. His defense hasn't improved any (a move to third base could be in his future for 2010 and beyond), nor has his plate discipline (19 walks) or his luck (he grounded into a league-leading 29 double plays in 2009). But he performed well enough to keep Ryan Theriot off the Divisional All-Star team.

Once Ryan Braun moved out from third base, where his fielding was nothing short of atrocious, he became one of the game's best pure hitters. In 2009, the 25-year-old had his third straight season of 30+ home runs, he led the league in hits, his walks have climbed for the third straight year, and he even stole 20 bases. He's bound to be a superstar for a long time, despite his high strikeout totals (121 this year, exactly in line with his per-season average). He finished well ahead of Houston's "El Caballero" (Carlos Lee), whose impressive performance will most likely make him a contender for the Wild Card team.

Albert Pujols never fails to impress: in his nine major league seasons, his numbers have never been anything less than eye-popping. Take 2009, where he led the league in home runs, OPS (including both OBP and SLG), runs scored, total bases, and intentional walks (44, pushing his season total over 100 for the second straight year). Plus he had the special honor of recording a 3,000+ swp season, a feat reached by batters only 17 times since the last two digits of the calendar rolled over to zeros. (Pujols actually has three of those 17 3,000+ seasons.) Despite his brilliance, he actually faced some stiff competition, with his runner-up appearing as the NL Central's DH.

The Prince is back! After a slightly down season in 2008, Fielder rebounded with career highs in hits, walks, RBI (he led the league with 141), batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS, all while playing in every single game. Maybe the improvement is due to all the weight he lost, maybe it's due to more creative teammates; either way he seems to be playing better than ever. Behind him is a deep field of first basemen, including Chicago's Derrek Lee, Cincinnati's Joey Votto (both of whom we'll probably hear from later), and Houston's Lance Berkman.

This is where the NL Central team starts getting weak. Not that Brandon Phillips and Hunter Pence had bad years, per se, but their statistics weren't mind blowing. Their runner-ups were a couple of St. Louis Cardinals: Skip Schumaker, who played a pretty good second base after converting to left field this year, and Ryan Ludwick, whose decent 2009 numbers fell far short of his 2008 smoke and mirrors season.

Third base was a sad story for the NL Central this season. Two teams acquired third basemen that would have earned a spot on the team had they qualified - St. Louis's Mark DeRosa and Cincinnati's Scott Rolen. Chicago's Aramis Ramirez played the best out of the whole group when he was healthy (14.7 ppg), but he only got in half a season's worth of playing time. So Pittsburgh's Andy LaRoche is the de facto winner here, in his first full major league season. Nothing special here, but one must make the best team with what one's got...

Speaking of the best, Yadier Molina was far and away the best defensive catcher in the league this year, and it just so happens that he was the best offensive catcher in his division - no other backstop cracked 1,000 swp. It's funny how often the best offender at a certain position happens to be the best defender as well. I guess that's the mark of a strong athlete.

The two Cy Young award snubs headline this staff: Adam Wainwright lead the league in wins and innings pitched, while his teammate Chris Carpenter got the ERA title. The voting was very close, but neither pitcher ended up with any hardware. They pitched better than any other one-two punch in the league, and give this Central team a couple of aces.

In the three hole is Houston's emerging ace Wandy Rodriguez. He started late (in 2005 he was a rookie at age 26), but he finally found his strikeout pitch, just missing 200 for the year (193 in a career-high 205 innings). After him is veteran lefty Ted Lilly who turned in another solid, if short, season at age 33. 2009 marked the first time he missed a start since September of '05, but he also put up the highest strikeout-to-walk ratio of his career (4.19, which is 1.75 higher than his career mark). Rounding out the rotation is the third Cardinal of the bunch, Joel Pineiro. After a bad year in 2008, Pineiro had the best accuracy of his career, leading the league in walks per nine innings (a minuscule 1.1), and earning 15 wins for his troubles.

It was a very close race for the closer position, with Trevor Hoffman beating out Ryan Franklin by just 2 points. In the end, though, it was the points per game that put the future Hall of Famer over the edge: 32.1 to 28.4, which shows that Hoffman was the more dominant of the two, even if he did pitch in slightly fewer games (55 to 61). Career performance really shouldn't come into play here, but it's hard to ignore 17 years of domination as a closer. Behind the two of them is Cincinnati's Francisco Cordero, who actually saved more games - but also walked more than double the batters - than either of his two competitors.

As for the rest of the bullpen: Nick Masset was a former prospect who was shipped around before getting regular work with the Reds. LaTroy Hawkins was a failed starter then a failed closer for the Twins before finding his niche setting up. (He actually closed a few games for the Astros this year when Jose Valverde went down with an injury. Coffey, Fulchino, and Guzman are three fairly inexperienced middle relievers cut from the same cloth. Relief pitchers are the most volatile and unpredictable element of major league baseball, as players with good stuff and good stamina are usually pegged as starters. If someone doesn't have good enough stuff to start, you won't see him pitching in the major leagues for long.

Speaking of not having good enough stuff to start, Sean Marshall is the swingman for this team - an innings-eater, pure and simple.