1. Los Angles Dodgers: Strength: good ball club with lots of players who were under achievers. They have best closer in the NL named Gagne. 53 comeback wins this season is impressive. Outfielders are good. Flaws: Doesnýt have HR hitters beside third basemen Beltre. Suspect Starting rotation. Overworked bullpen. 2. St Louis Cardinals: Strength: Best record in the baseball this year. Awesome lineup with Walker-Pujols ý Rolen - Edmonds. Bullpen is deep and balanced with right- and left-handed specialists. Good manager. Flaws: starting pitchers; they been overworked. scary postseason history. lots of players have over achieved at the same time. 3. Huston Astros: Strength: The hottest team in the baseball. Won 9 out of 10 games to end the regular season. best pitching duo (Clemens and Oswalt) in the NL playoff teams with killer Bs and Jeff Kent. They donýt have Cards lineup but with Killers Bs (Biggio, Bagwell, Berkman, Beltran) and Jeff Kent, they are hard hitting team. Clemens experience and leadership should help them immensely. Phil Garner, newly appointed manager is the energizer of the team. Flaws: doesnýt have good 3rd starter. Solely rely on offense. Defense is not that great either especially outfield. This franchise has never won playoff series in 7 post season chances. Can they sustain their awesome run in Sept to October? 4. Atlanta Braves: Strength: experienced players with coaching staffs. Won last 13 division titles to go with 1 championship. The most underrated team in the NL. Good middle lineup with Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones and J D Drew. John Smoltz, sole pitcher left from the Braves Pitching Golden history. Itýs surprising they are playing in October. Flaws: suspect starting pitchers, only been playing great 2nd half of the season. Arenýt long ball team and doesnýt score that much. Depends more on starting pitchers