ESPN's "Experts" picked their division winners. Let's keep this to the NL Central (with World Series picks in parentheses), and reference it at the end of the year:
Jorge Arangure, Jr: Cardinals (Phillies)
Matthew Berry: Cardinals (Phillies)
Steve Berthiaume: Brewers (Phillies)
Aaron Boone: Reds (Phillies)
Jim Caple: Cardinals (Giants)
Tristan Cockcroft: Cardinals (Yankees)
Jerry Crasnick: Cardinals (Rockies)
Richard Durrett: Cardinals (Yankees)
Gordon Edes: Cardinals (Cardinals)
Pedro Gomez: Reds (Yankees)
Christopher Harris: Cardinals (Red Sox)
Orel Hershiser: Cardinals (Yankees)
Tony Jackson: Cardinals (Phillies)
Eric Karabell: Cardinals (Phillies)
Tim Kurkjian: Cardinals (Phillies)
A.J. Mass: Cardinals (Cardinals)
Joe McDonald: Cardinals (Red Sox)
Joe Morgan: Cardinals (Phillies)
Amy K. Nelson: Cardinals (Cardinals)
Rob Neyer: Cardinals (Red Sox)
Buster Olney: Cardinals (Rockies)
Peter Pascarelli: Cubs (Braves)
James Quintong: Cardinals (Yankees)
Karl Ravech: Cardinals (Red Sox)
J.P. Ricciardi: Brewers (Phillies)
Brendan Roberts: Cardinals (Yankees)
Mark Saxon: Brewers (Yankees)
Jon Sciambi: Cardinals (Red Sox)
Dan Shulman: Cardinals (Red Sox)
Mark Simon: Cardinals (Yankees)
Chris Singleton: Cardinals (Phillies)
Jayson Stark: Cardinals (Phillies)
Rick Sutcliffe: Cardinals (Rockies)
Jon Weisman: Reds (Red Sox) - though the Cardinals made it to the World Series
Gene Wojciechowski: Cardinals (Rays)
Of ESPN's 35 experts, 28 of them picked the Cardinals to win the NL Central. In no one's predictions did the Astros make an appearance as a Wild Card team.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
