NL Central Pitching Predictions

Today Jason Stark and Buster Olney each made their predictions on three pitching staffs: Cubs, Cards, Astros.

Stark ranked them as Cubs, Astros, Cardinals, whereas Olney said it will be Cards, Astros, Cubs.

with their current rotations, the PECOTA projects the aggregate numbers to look like this:

Card's (Carpenter, Wainwright, Wells, Reyes, Looper): 4.28 (with Mjulder instead of Loop = 4.24)
Cubs (Zambrano, Lilly, Hill, Marquis, Prior): 4.35 (Could be Guzman or Miller instead of Prior on opening day)
Astros (Oswalt, Jennings, Williams, Nieve, Rodriguez): 4.51

Run Support in 2006 looks like this:

Cards: 4.85 runs per game
Astros: 4.54 runs per game
Cubs: 4.40 runs per game

The Cubs have added Soriano and are hoping Derek Lee returns to 2005 form to bring some more run support. i'm thinking combined, those guys MAY bring in another 0.25 runs/game if they can stay healthy.