Will by NL Central pick be once again a year early?

This September I pointed out that I am not very good at picking who will actually win the NL Central, but I AM good at figuring out that the consensus pick will probably fall short.

In 2009 everyone and their cow was picking the Cubs to win.
I picked the Reds. The Cardinals won (I picked the Cardinals for the Wild Card.)

In 2010 everyone and their moose was picking the Cardinals to win.
I picked the Brewers. The Reds won.

But with Zack Greinke going to the Brewers, I can't help but wonder if the Brewers and their solid rotation and terrific line up, should be considered to be the favorites in a very winnable NL Central.

And would my pick be a year premature?
Am I the baseball predicting equivalent to that show Early Edition?

There's only one way to test it:
I am going to pick the Pittsburgh Pirates to win the 2011 NL Central.
If the Brewers win in 2011 and the Pirates win in 2012, I will be FREAKED OUT!

The Giants perfectly illustrated my teeth grinder theory today

I have said many times that it is better to be blown out than to lose a slug fest. An 11-10 loss is the worst because you can look up and say “Man, if only our pitching was MEDIOCRE today! We’d have won.”

I know some people think I am bonkers when I say I’d rather lose 11-0 than 11-10. But look at today’s Giants/Reds game and think of it from the point of view of a Giants fan (and I know I have a bunch of Giant fan readers here.)

When it was 10-1, Reds… didn’t you kind of shrug and say “Not our day?”

Madison put the Bum in Bumgarner and the bats were dead. You could say “Hey, at least they won the first 2 games in the series to win it.”

But when the Giants came storming back, didn’t you think “Oh man, this could be the biggest game of the year?”

Then when they took the lead, didn’t you have images of the National League Pennant dancing in your head?

Then that ground ball to Sandoval… you thought there were two outs and nobody on… you started getting cocky.

When the game went into extras (and seemed to go on for another 6 hours) didn’t you imagine a McCovey Cove walk off shot for each pitch thrown to the Giants?

Then Votto won it… again. And after all of that you had the same result if it ended 10-1. Except you didn’t spend hours of your life hoping for a moment of euphoria that never arrived.

See the difference?

It is subtle.