NL Central Bulking Up

The NL Central is doing its best Incredible Hulk impersonation, with the Cubs signing Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukodome to a 4 year/$48 million deal and the Astros acquiring shortstop Miguel Tejada from the Orioles today. Both moves will have a significant impact on the Cardinals, especially the move for Tejada. Although Miguel never was a feasible option for the Cardinals to acquire themselves, he certainly was being targeted as a third baseman by the Angels, Dodgers, and Giants, among other teams looking to shore up the hot corner. Now that the Miguels - Tejada and Cabrera - are both gone, Scott Rolen becomes a tad more attractive to a big market team like the West Coast 3. It's surprising that the Astros made the move the day before the Mitchell Investigation is supposed to be made public , but perhaps the minimal sentence given to Jose Guillen made it worth the risk. It's somewhat of gamble as other teams were probably electing to wait until after the report to acquire a suspect player like Tejada.

Both the Cubs and Astros' moves mean that the three biggest competitors to the Cardinals for the Central crown have upgraded someway or another, while the Cards have gotten slightly worse. I anticipate the market could start heating up for Scott Rolen now, along with Rangers 3B Hank Blalock and Joe Crede of the White Sox. Anthony Reyes reportedly has a market in the Padres, Indians, and Phillies as well.