It may not seem like it but the season is already at its halfway point. Now that the halfway point is here teams will start trying to decide if they are pretenders or contenders so they can make a move at the trade deadline to hopefully add the piece that puts them above the rest of the field.
In the National League most of the teams still believe they are contenders as only the Chicago Cubs and the teams in the NL West that aren’t the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants are more than seven and a half games out. Even though so many teams think they are in the running I will just take a look at the biggest question marks the top two teams in each division have right now heading into the second half.
Atlanta Braves
The Braves have been hit by the injury bug this season losing two starting pitchers to the dreaded Tommy John surgery epidemic, but they have weathered the storm and still sit in position to win the division. Some of that is because of the late signing of Ervin Santana and the waiver wire pick up of Aaron Harang, but now that both of them have come back down to Earth in terms of performance the team has a serious need at the starting pitcher position.
Luckily for them the pitching market will be relatively deep this trade deadline with two big name pitchers, David Price and Jeff Samardzija, on the block along with a few crafty veterans from the teams that already seem to be out of the race. Expect the Braves to be aggressive buyers at the deadline for pitching even if they only end up with a veteran like Brandon McCarthy of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
St. Louis Cardinals
The most complete second place team in all of baseball is the Cardinals. It is hard to pinpoint a major need for this team. They could use a more productive second baseman, but it doesn’t seem likely that they would give up much with Kolten Wong the future at the position.
Their biggest need might be a lefty specialist in the bullpen as veteran lefty Randy Choate has struggled this season. It is hard to tell which specialists will end up on the block because of how many teams are still in it, but this one small piece could be huge come playoff time as the Giants have proven with Javier Lopez in the past.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers are similar to the Cardinals in the way that they are a pretty complete team. Their biggest need is going to be veteran leadership from within. Juan Uribe has provided that in the past and now that he is back off of the disabled list he could be that leadership in the lineup that they need.
There has been talk that their early season struggles may have stemmed from the losses of veterans Mark Ellis and Nick Punto so it’s possible that they could trade for a veteran role-player similar to those two, but right now they have the best starting rotation in baseball and a bullpen full of veteran former closers.
Washington Nationals
The biggest question for the Nationals may be answered by selling someone off for prospects at the deadline rather than buying. They have this problem where they have too many good players in the outfield when Bryce Harper comes back and the only resolution right now seems to be to move Ryan Zimmerman back to third base.
While Zim has been a gold glover in the past at third, that is probably not the right place for him to be right now and could do more harm than good. The Nationals are good in the rotation, bullpen and lineup when Harper gets back so trading Denard Span may be the best option for the Nats to fix the only real question mark this team has as it would allow Zim to stay in left and give the team its best infield defense.
San Francisco Giants
When the Giants were winning World Series rings, no one would have ever thought that this team would be in desperate need of starting pitching, but that’s what they need. There are already rumors of Samardzija to the Giants swirling around and should not surprise anyone if Price’s name is floated out there either. Ryan Vogelsong is not that same great story he was in 2012 and while Tim Lincecum has thrown two no hitters over the last two years and Matt Cain has thrown a perfect game neither are the same pitcher they once were either. This team needs an ace to pair with Madison Bumgarner and the veteran Tim Hudson and if they don’t get that ace they may watch the Dodgers fly passed them for the division lead for the second year in a row.
Milwaukee Brewers
The Brew Crew was the biggest surprise of the season when they got off to a hot start and everyone seemed to think it was a fluke. Well guess what, they still have the best record in all of baseball and the biggest question about if they can keep it up or not has to do with a current player on the team, Aramis Ramirez. The veteran third baseman has always been good, there is no questioning that, the issue has always been health.
He has already spent time on the disabled list this season and the team was able to tread water with Mark Reynolds moving to third, but if this team is going to remain in first place and hold off the rest of the NL Central they are going to need ARam to stay healthy or replace him.