NL Central Discussion 2026

[baseball101]

The IGTs from last Wednesday and Thursday are golden. Willie went off his rocker. Poor guy rides the emotional roller coaster downward unlike anything I have seen. 
 

The “positive “ posters should keep their positivity in check however.

[BCF]

Win the next two and it’s a 6 game lead 

[tmwiese55]

11 minutes ago, BCF said:

Win the next two and it’s a 6 game lead 

And there would only be 34 games left. More likely they'll go 1-1 vs Sea and be up 5 with 34 left.   We're quickly approaching the point of 'barring something crazy' or the Cubs basically having to hammer them 5-2 or better in the remaining 7 games to have a realistic chance type area. 

[Underachiever]

22 minutes ago, baseball101 said:

The IGTs from last Wednesday and Thursday are golden. Willie went off his rocker. Poor guy rides the emotional roller coaster downward unlike anything I have seen. 
 

The “positive “ posters should keep their positivity in check however.

Why? 

[baseball101]

21 minutes ago, Underachiever said:

Why? 

Should have used blue font!

[BruisedCrew]

19 hours ago, Brewcrew82 said:

In the last day the Brewers are averaging 22 runs per game. Therefore, the Brewers offense, is in fact, multiple times better than even the 27 Yankees. Simply selecting the most recent, relevant data as teams have changed quite a bit over the first 126 games!

Very witty. 🙄

 

[BruisedCrew]

1 hour ago, baseball101 said:

The IGTs from last Wednesday and Thursday are golden. Willie went off his rocker. Poor guy rides the emotional roller coaster downward unlike anything I have seen. 
 

The “positive “ posters should keep their positivity in check however.

I admit I don’t live on the board and track all posts. But I don’t recall seeing anyone say that posters should keep their positivity in check.

I have seen comments about cutting back on daily comments ridiculing other posters who express themselves differently than you would.

I think making frequent posts like that reflects more on the one making them than the person being ridiculed. But that is probably just coming from an older poster who grew up in an age when courtesy was more common. 

[baseball101]

56 minutes ago, BruisedCrew said:

I admit I don’t live on the board and track all posts. But I don’t recall seeing anyone say that posters should keep their positivity in check.

I have seen comments about cutting back on daily comments ridiculing other posters who express themselves differently than you would.

I think making frequent posts like that reflects more on the one making them than the person being ridiculed. But that is probably just coming from an older poster who grew up in an age when courtesy was more common. 

Nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all? Courtesy on a message board? The IGTs are definitely not for you.

[nate82]

LOL the Reds absolutely suck.  How are they this bad with the talent they have in their team?

https://www.mlb.com/news/cardinals-six-run-ninth-inning-comeback-reds?adobe_mc=TS%3D1787262223|MCMID%3D55264790784065735087450660525087229777|MCORGID%3DA65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&affiliateId=mlbapp-ios_webview_news-index&rsid=mlbios.at.bat.new.implementation

[torts]

On 8/19/2026 at 5:19 PM, baseball101 said:

The IGTs from last Wednesday and Thursday are golden. Willie went off his rocker. Poor guy rides the emotional roller coaster downward unlike anything I have seen. 
 

The “positive “ posters should keep their positivity in check however.

Brewers winning it all, baby!!!!!!!!

[LouisEly]

The Cubs have now gained exactly 1/2 game in the last 21 days and exactly zero games since the last day before the All Star break.

[sveumrules]

24 minutes ago, nate82 said:

LOL the Reds absolutely suck.  How are they this bad with the talent they have in their team?

https://www.mlb.com/news/cardinals-six-run-ninth-inning-comeback-reds?adobe_mc=TS%3D1787262223|MCMID%3D55264790784065735087450660525087229777|MCORGID%3DA65F776A5245B01B0A490D44@AdobeOrg&affiliateId=mlbapp-ios_webview_news-index&rsid=mlbios.at.bat.new.implementation

103 ERA- (20th), -7 FRV (22nd), 4.74 RA/G (22nd), 105 FIP- (23rd), .307 wOBA (25th), 4.05 RS/G (25th), -88 Run Differential (27th), -33 DRS (29th), 87 wRC+ (30th)

What talent though? EDLC is electric but how big of a Star he is mostly comes down to if you believe his DRS (-18 for 12.5 WAR on BREF) or his FRV (+11 for 16.3 WAR at FanGraphs). Chase Burns (4.9 rWAR) looks like a Legit Ace, but that's pretty much it with Hunter Greene hurt again.

Andrew Abbott is a fine #3 starter, Sal Stewart & JJ Bleday would be alright as a team's 5th and 6th best hitters but they are 2nd and 3rd on the Reds, Tyler Stephenson is a cromulent backstop.

Pickings get pretty slim after that. Bottom of their WAR leaderboard is downright ugly with Eugenio Suarez (383 PA of 86 wRC+ for -0.6 WAR), TJ Friedl (246 PA of 31 wRC+ for -0.9 WAR), Noelvi Marte (201 PA of 44 wRC+ for -1.4 WAR), and Ke'Bryan Hayes (193 PA of 20 wRC+ for -0.8 WAR)...that's almost four wins down the drain there plus they have another 17 hitters and pitchers between -0.1 and -0.5 WAR totaling another five wins out the window. 

Realistically they should sell off EDLC before he gets too close to free agency, and Chase Burns while he is healthy and dealing, plus anybody else they can get some future value for because their organizational talent level is pretty far removed from the Pirates and Cardinals (much less the Brewers and Cubs) at the moment.

[wiguy94]

Here's the update NL Central Playoff Odds after our win today according to Fangraphs

[nate82]

12 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Pickings get pretty slim after that. Bottom of their WAR leaderboard is downright ugly with Eugenio Suarez (383 PA of 86 wRC+ for -0.6 WAR), TJ Friedl (246 PA of 31 wRC+ for -0.9 WAR), Noelvi Marte (201 PA of 44 wRC+ for -1.4 WAR), and Ke'Bryan Hayes (193 PA of 20 wRC+ for -0.8 WAR)...that's almost four wins down the drain there plus they have another 17 hitters and pitchers between -0.1 and -0.5 WAR totaling another five wins out the window. 

Marte looked decent last year and he is still young yet.  Not sure what is wrong with him. 

[markedman5]

Good luck young man

 

[markedman5]

Cubs fans taking it well……..

 

[wiguy94]

7 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Cubs fans taking it well……..

 

Crazy that they waited until their first home series after the rookie eligibility cutoff passed to call up their prospect and didn't call him up to debut on the road!

[owbc]

I saw Anderson when he played the Brewers in the prospect showcase game in March in Arizona. 

We actually shelled him, the other Mariners pitching prospect looked better that day (Sloan). 

[markedman5]

Cubs fans searching for things to whine about 

 

[Samurai Bucky]

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Cubs fans searching for things to whine about 

 

He must have been tired of yelling at the clouds.

[StearnsFTW]

On 8/20/2026 at 5:40 PM, sveumrules said:

103 ERA- (20th), -7 FRV (22nd), 4.74 RA/G (22nd), 105 FIP- (23rd), .307 wOBA (25th), 4.05 RS/G (25th), -88 Run Differential (27th), -33 DRS (29th), 87 wRC+ (30th)

What talent though? EDLC is electric but how big of a Star he is mostly comes down to if you believe his DRS (-18 for 12.5 WAR on BREF) or his FRV (+11 for 16.3 WAR at FanGraphs). Chase Burns (4.9 rWAR) looks like a Legit Ace, but that's pretty much it with Hunter Greene hurt again.

Andrew Abbott is a fine #3 starter, Sal Stewart & JJ Bleday would be alright as a team's 5th and 6th best hitters but they are 2nd and 3rd on the Reds, Tyler Stephenson is a cromulent backstop.

Pickings get pretty slim after that. Bottom of their WAR leaderboard is downright ugly with Eugenio Suarez (383 PA of 86 wRC+ for -0.6 WAR), TJ Friedl (246 PA of 31 wRC+ for -0.9 WAR), Noelvi Marte (201 PA of 44 wRC+ for -1.4 WAR), and Ke'Bryan Hayes (193 PA of 20 wRC+ for -0.8 WAR)...that's almost four wins down the drain there plus they have another 17 hitters and pitchers between -0.1 and -0.5 WAR totaling another five wins out the window. 

Realistically they should sell off EDLC before he gets too close to free agency, and Chase Burns while he is healthy and dealing, plus anybody else they can get some future value for because their organizational talent level is pretty far removed from the Pirates and Cardinals (much less the Brewers and Cubs) at the moment.

They should trade Burns to us.  ASAP 

[StearnsFTW]

4 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Cubs fans searching for things to whine about 

 

He's right though.  

[AdvantageSchneider]

Leo Rivas is quickly becoming a Brewer legend despite never playing for us.

That game was quite upsetting the 8th and 9th innings but it couldn't have played out much better for us other than going another 3-4 extra innings.