Ranks: NL Central First Basemen

1. The Destroyer of All Things Spherical, 29--STL
2. Lance Berkman, 33--HOU
3. Prince Fielder, 25--MIL
4. Joey Votto, 25--CIN
5. Derrek Lee, 33--CHI
6. Adam LaRoche, 29--PIT

If you're a Reds fan, this list is rather depressing. The NL Central has a stranglehold on the rest of baseball with first base talent. Joey Votto really gets shafted here, and I was generous not to put Derrek Lee ahead of him as many others would.

There is no easier rank in baseball than placing Albert Pujols 1st on this list. Abolutely terrifying is the fact that Albert is coming off his best season (.357/.462/.653). He eats Lance Berkman's for breakfast, and Lance Berkman is amazing, a steady lock in the two spot. Did you know that Lance stole 18 bases last year and was only caught 4 times? That's 14 true stolen bases for someone with the nicknames Big Puma and Fat Elvis. Brandon Phillips only had 13 true stolen bases last year. Ouchies! If Lance can do it, so can you Joey Votto, Edwin Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez.

Prince Fielder is 3rd, even though Joey's rookie numbers matched Prince's last year. They are the same age, but Prince has a 50 HR season under his double-sized belt. Derrek Lee, 5th on this list, was one of the more underrated players in the game until he went nuts in 2005 (.335/.418/.662). While he hasn't matched that production since, he is getting more recognition now, as his numbers begin to sag. Even Adam LaRoche, the last man on the list, has a career 114 OPS+. Damn Gina!

Joey Votto is not a defensive rock like Pujols or Lee, but he will get great practice as long as Edwin mans the hot corner. Joey might only be the 4th best first basemen in the NL Central, but he's probably 6th-8th in the NL right now--and he's just getting started. Joey will never put up Albert numbers and it would be unfair to expect Berkman numbers, but we can expect him to outperform Fielder and Lee this year. After all, he is our big bat.

Scouting Report: The Harangatang

In 2003, the Reds traded Jose Guillen to Oakland for Aaron Harang and a couple no names. At that juncture, the Reds were giving away one of their best young hitters in the middle of a breakout season for an unproven arm with a high ERA. Though at the time the deal seemed like a classic Reds manuever, trading away a good player in an effort to avoid paying the good player and in return recieveing a cluster of hopefuls, the deal miraculously worked. Flash forward five years--Jose is now a professional nutball who plagues every locker room he manifests and Aaron is a consummate leader and workhorse starting pitcher. Speaking of nutballs, the trade was made two days after Jim Bowden was canned. Why doesn't this surprise me?

Aaron Harang is a large man. He stands 6'7" and weighs 240 lbs. He will bend down to shake your tiny little hand. He will not, however, wear his emotions on his sleeve. A good example of this came last season when he went 6-17 with a 4.78 ERA and did not lose his shit even once. Many of us wish that Aaron didn't have a heart of gold (see Aaron's Aces), that he would lose his shit once in a while, I don't know, say August 16th, 2008 at home against those ass-sniffing St. Louis Cardinals when he surrendered 8 ER in 3.1 innings, including home runs by Ludwick, Schumaker and the destroyer of all things spherical, Mr. Pujols. Couldn't Aaron have at least thrown a glove or kicked the Gatorade cooler? How about intentionally throwing at the next batter, Rick Ankiel. Nobody likes that guy. Drill him right in the back, have him charge the mound, and then pick him up with one hand and bite his head off. We can assume that Aaron has freakish monster strength.

Last year was not Aaron's best year, his worst since his first full season with the Reds in 2004. From 2005-2007, he unassumingly built his reputation as one of the most consistently good pitchers in the NL. In 2007 he finished 4th in Cy Young voting despite leading the league in Wins and SOs, becoming the first pitcher ever not to win the award after leading the league in those two categories. Sad face.

STAT WATCH: The Harangatang will most likely be our opening day starter. He's #1, which means he needs to pitch like #1. The #1's on most other winning teams are lights out, shut the door, have a nice ride home. Aaron needs to be one of those guys. As I've said before, even in his good years, his ERA is still rather high (3.83, 3.76, 3.73). I'm not splitting hairs here. It's just, if he's our #1, it needs to be lower than that. Aaron needs to log 200 innings of 3.25 ERA baseball for the Reds to contend in the NL Central this year.

The Best Hitters in the NL Central

One of the best ways to measure a hitter is adjusted OPS, or OPS+. If you already know what OPS+ is, I am sorry, bear with me. If not, you should pay attention. While standard OPS is simply on-base percentage plus slugging percentage (OBP + SLG), adjusted OPS is a complicated formula that takes into consideration ballpark factor (sorry Vinny Castilla) and league averages for OBP and SLG in that players league. The resulting number is the rate above the league average expressed as a percentage. All you really need to know is 100 always represents the league average. The higher above 100, the better. The farther under 100, the worse. For example, let's take Albert Pujols in 2008 when he finished with an astronomical 190 OPS+. Albert was damn near close to being twice as productive as the average major league hitter. The only player with a career OPS+ over 200 is Babe Ruth (207). Albert is tied for seventh in career OPS+ (170).

Here are the highest OPS+ seasons for the NL Central in 2007 and 2008 including everyone over 100 with at least a 400 AB season (sorry Jerry Hairston Jr.).

	2008				2007
1	A. Pujols	190		1	A. Pujols	157
2	L. Berkman	159		2	P. Fielder	156
3	R. Ludwick	150		3	R. Braun	153
4	C. Lee	144		4	A. Dunn	136
5	T. Glaus	131		T5	L. Berkman	131
6	A. Dunn	129		T5	D. Lee	131
T7	A. Ramirez	128		7	H. Pence	130
T7	P. Fielder	128		8	A. Ramirez	129
T7	R. Braun	128		T9	C. Hart	126
T7	R. Doumit	128		T9	C. Lee	126
11	N. McLouth	126		11	A. Soriano	123
12	J. Votto	124		12	K. Griffey Jr	119
13	A. LaRoche	123		T13	R. Weeks	108
14	A. Soriano	121		T13	A. LaRoche	108
15	G. Soto	120		15	X. Nady	107
16	R. Ankiel	119		T16	B. Phillips	105
17	M. DeRosa	118		T16	J. Wilson	105
18	J. Hardy	113		18	F. Sanchez	103
T19	M. Cameron	110		19	M. DeRosa	102
T19	D. Lee	110		20	E. Encarnac…	101
T21	E. Encarnac…	106		21	G. Jenkins	101
T21	K. Matsui	106		22	J. Hardy	100
23	H. Pence	105
24	S. Schumach..	102
25	K. Griffey Jr.	101

Some things that come to mind...

• Albert Pujols is a destroyer of all things spherical.
• Is Ryan Ludwick really that good?
• Adam Dunn was one of the Top 5 most productive hitters in the NL Central.
• Joey Votto had a very good rookie year and should only get better.
• Brandon Phillips finished with a rather low OPS+ for his breakthrough year, lower than Rickie Weeks and tied with Jack Wilson, who resembles Nosferatu.
• Well I'll be a monkey's ass, is that Edwin Encarnacion on there, twice? Are we treating poor Edwin unfairly?
• He might have been aging and crippled, but Junior was still an above average producer at the plate in his waning Reds years.
• Why is Derrek Lee's name auburn-colored? I hate formatting text.

And just for fun, the highest career OPS+ players active...
1. Barry Bonds (182)
2. Albert Pujols (170)
3. Frank Thomas (156)
4. Manny Ramirez (155)
5. Lance Berkman (148)
5. Jim Thome (148)
7. Vladimir Guerrero (147)
7. Alex Rodriguez (147)
9. Jason Giambi (146)
10. Chipper Jones (145)