ASTROS - pitching depth.
Besides Oswalt, Houston’s rotation currently features Woody Williams, Brandon Backe, Wandy Rodgriguez and Felipe Paulino. That’s a lot of finger crossing.

The ‘Stros have Jose Valverde closing games. And that’s awesome. But other than Valverde, the bullpen offers little beyond Doug Brocail. Geoff Geary and Oscar Villarreal do not inspire confidence.

It’s easy to point to the bevy of all-star names in Houston’s lineup and think that the team’s offense might make up for it’s crappy pitching, but players like Tejada and Berkman are past their primes, while Kaz Matsui is overrated.

Verdict: The Astros need one more top of the rotation starter and some middle relief help.

CARDINALS - starting pitcher.
Go to the ESPN.com stats page. Check out the NL batting stats. The top 75 players from 2007 include just one Cardinal — Albert Pujols. That’s gotta change in 2008. How is that going to change? Three things have to happen. 1. Troy Glaus has to stay healthy. 2. Rick Ankiel has to live up to the Babe Ruth comparisons and 3. Chris Duncan has step up his game. If all three of those guys hit, and Pujols continues to be Pujols, the Cardinals will be dangerous.

Of course, those are a lot of maybes. And even if all of those things happen, that still doesn’t change the fact that St. Louis’ starting staff includes Anthony Reyes and Braden Looper.

Verdict: The Cardinals need one more top of the line starting pitcher. And a lot of luck.

BREWERS - steroids
This offseason, Milwaukee acquired Guillermo Mota, Eric Gagne and Mike Cameron. They already had Derrick Turnbow. That’s three relievers who were mentioned in the Mitchell Report, plus one CF who will start the season suspended. How do they sleep at night?

Verdict: The Brewers need to stay one step ahead of the drug testers.

REDS - Jay Bruce
Rumors abound that the Reds are considering trading their entire farm system — including OF prospect Jay Bruce — for Baltimore ace Erik Bedard. This would give Cincinnati a scary rotation led by Bedard and Aaron Harang. But it wouldn’t solve all of the team’s problems.

Last season, David Ross cought 107 games for the Reds. His OBP was .271. So there’s that.

Also, Ryan Freel is penciled in as the team’s starting CF, now that Josh Hamilton has been dealt. But what happens when Ken Griffey Jr. gets hurt? The Reds need Bruce to get major league ready quick, allowing Freel to serve as a super-sub and giving the team a little more depth and power. If Bruce pulls a Ryan Braun and shows up swinging, the Reds could be contenders, even without Bedard. (Of course, nobody in history has ever pulled a Ryan Braun to the extent that Ryan Braun pulled a Ryan Braun in 2007. But I digress.)

Verdict: The Reds need to keep Jay Bruce.

CUBS - an ace.
Outside of the continuing development of CF Felix Pie, the Cubs’s question marks are all on the pitching side. A handful of relievers, including Kerry Wood, will battle it out to be this season’s closer. Meanwhile, Jason Marquis will attempt to return to form after 2007’s late season collapse.

Chicago has a few good starting pitchers, like Rich Hill, Carlos Zambrano and Ted Lilly. But the team really needs at least one of those guys to step up and pitch like an ace.

Verdict: What the Cubs really need is for Carlos Zambrano to cut down on his walks.

PIRATES - a miracle.

Strengths: ummmmm…
Weaknesses: oy!
Verdict: sigh.

A’s GM Billy Beane is fond of saying that the first two months of the baseball season are for finding out what you need, the second two months are for getting what you need, and the last two months are for having what you need and making your push for the playoffs.

With the season quickly approaching the two month mark, it’s time to look at each team and see what their biggest need is.  Let’s start with the NL Central…

Brewers – a third baseman

With the Brew Crew firing on all cylinders in just about every other phase of the game, third base stands out as a gaping abyss.  Corey Koskie is still out from the concussion he suffered last July, and there are no signs he will be back any time soon, and meanwhile the scrap-heap platoon of Craig Counsel and Tony Graffanino is batting a combined .214. Fortuitously, the Brewers best hitting prospect is none other than AAA third baseman Ryan Braun, who is batting .339 in Nashville with 9 homers and a 1.099 OPS.  Braun was on the DL recently with wrist tendonitis, but is now back in action and should be playing in Miller Park soon.

Reds – a set-up man

Cincy’s lineup is stacked and they have been getting solid work out of their starting rotation, but their bullpen is 12th in the National League in ERA and second to last with 10 bullpen losses.  Closer Dave Weathers has been excellent, but the pitchers behind him have been mediocre to awful.  More than anything, the Reds need a capable setup man to bridge the gap from the middle innings to Weathers in the ninth.  When your second best relief pitcher is Todd Coffey, that is just not going to get it done.

Pirates – a fifth starter

Let’s face it, the Pirates have a lot of holes.  They are lacking power hitting, guys who can get on base, generalized defense at pretty much every position, and relief pitching. But the most glaring hole of all is fifth starter, where Tony Armas, Jr. flamed out after allowing 43 hits in 29 innings and yielding an 8.16 ERA in seven starts.  The Pirates have been going with a four-man rotation of Zach Duke, Ian Snell, Paul Maholm, and Tom Gorzelanny and occasionally spot-starting Armas, but it is increasingly clear to everyone but the Pirates that Armas has nothing left and any number of minor leaguers would put up better numbers if they were thrown out there.

Cardinals – a starting pitcher, or five

After letting their entire starting rotation except Chris Carpenter leave via free agency after last season’s World Series title run and then seeing Carpenter go down with an injury this spring, the Cardinals have been left with no starters whatsoever and have scrapped together a rotation which makes the Pirate’s mediocre squad look like a passel of aces.  The Cardinals rotation is last in the National League (by more than half a run) with a 5.43 ERA and worst in the league with 23 losses as a squad.  Meaning that adding a warm body who could throw 5 innings every fifth day and yield an ERA of around 5.00 would actually constitute and improvement for the Redbirds.

Cubs – a change in their luck

The Cubs spent a fortune on free agents in the offseason, and so far their spending spree hasn’t panned out, but the main culprit has been bad luck.  The Cubbies have what is probably the best rotation in baseball so far this season, and that’s even with putative ace Carlos Zambrano sporting an ERA of 5.61, as Rich Hill, Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, and even fifth starter Angel Guzman all have ERAs in the 2’s with the season already 1/3 over.  Meanwhile the Cubs lineup has a competent player at every position as well as good depth on the bench in both the infield (super-sub Ryan Theriot) and the outfield (Matt Murton, Angel Pagan).  Indeed, the Cubs have actually outscored their opponents by 25 runs so far, so according to the Pythagorean method they should be a healthy 24-19 at this point rather than the anemic 20-23 record they actually have.  More than anything, the Cubs need to not panic, wait for their luck to even out, and hope they can make a mid-season run.

Astros – a rightfielder

The platoon of Jason Lane and Luke Scott is just not working. Together, they are batting .217 out of an outfield corner.  If that’s how they hit when they platoon, I’d hate to see what either man would hit if he batted against all comers.