The trade deadline has come and gone. Exhausted general managers can turn off their phones, and possibly get a good night's sleep. A flurry of activity left fans and media chirping, and the baseball pundits are busy taking stock, assessing the winners and the losers.
Closer to home, we had a particular interest in the NL Central.
Three teams are in contention.
The Cardinals (65-37) entered Friday with a lead of 5.5 games over the second-place Pirates (59-42) who currently hold the NL's top wild-card ticket. The third-place Cubs have MLB's 10th-best record (54-47) but remain 10.