Detroit Offers Free Buffet; Fielder Is A Tiger

The wait has finally come to an end. Prince Fielder is officially out of the National League Central.

This isn't something we didn't all see coming, but it's nice to see it finally happening. It's also nice to see him go outside the National League entirely. My thought was that the Nationals were going to get him and really turn into a competitor fast. Since Washington has a really tall hill to climb to beat out Philadelphia for their division, they figure to be a serious Wild Card contender the next few years with the young core of Steven Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, Jordan Zimmermann, Michael Morse and now Bryce Harper. That's still going to be a heck of a team, but Fielder would have put them over the top.

Now the Prince is right where Albert Pujols and Carlos Pena are, somewhere where they can't possibly hurt the Pirates. It's really quite amazing how much worse the division has become this offseason, and it's kind of exciting. The only teams that are going to look better on paper this year than last are probably the Pirates and Reds. The Astros added a few players and could get a little better, but they were so bad last year that you hardly even have to worry about them, especially since they'll have a whole season without Hunter Pence now.

The Pirates haven't gotten much better from last year, in fact they may have gotten worse, but when you factor in the probable progression of guys like Jose Tabata, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, James McDonald, and Pedro Alvarez, you should arrive at the conclusion that they have gotten better on paper since Opening Day of 2011.

It's still a major uphill battle for the Pirates to get anywhere close to competing for this division, but they are a lot closer now than they were the first day of this offseason.