Central divisions shaping up as toughest in bigs

Say this about baseball, 2016. It’s hot in the middle. The middle of the country, that is.

As April heads toward a close, a look at the competition within divisions shows that we’re right back where we were when the 2015 season ended.

While the Mets would sweep the Cubs in the National League Championship Series, it was the NL Central that gave us the three winningest teams in the Majors last season. While the order of those teams has been slightly rearranged, it’s the Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates that are once again making this the best division.

The second-toughest division? So far, that’s the American League Central by a slight margin over the AL East, thanks to the White Sox fast start and a solid break out of the gate from the Indians.

Let’s take a look at the divisions, ranked in order of their combined run differentials:

1. NL Central Between them, the Cardinals, Pirates and Cubs were a combined 295-191 last season. You wouldn’t have thought they could duplicate that .607 winning percentage, but look at them now.

Through Sunday, they were 34-22, and that’s a .607 winning percentage. It dropped to .603 on Monday night, when the Bucs won and the Cards and Reds lost.

The Cubs are America’s most popular World Series pick after adding Jason Heyward, Ben Zobrist and John Lackey during the offseason, and they’ve certainly justified the faith in their first three weeks. Jake Arrieta’s no-hitter in Cincinnati extended his winning streak to 15 games over the past two seasons — he has more no-hitters (two) than losses (one) in his past 24 regular-season starts.

The Cubs have outscored their opponents by a Major League-best 68 runs, but they better not slow down. The Cardinals are second at +35 and second to them in scoring, with an average of 6.2 runs per game. Chicago took two of three in St. Louis last week and head to Pittsburgh in a week. That should be interesting. In the meantime, the Cubs have a chance to beat up on the Brewers and the Braves.

They’ve certainly done that against the Reds, going 6-1 in two series, with the margin of victory at least five in all six wins. But here’s something you might not suspect. Cincinnati has gone 8-5 against everyone except the Cubs.

2. AL Central Like the Cubs in the NL, the Royals are a popular World Series pick that has justified its standing with a fast start. While Kansas City’s lineup isn’t scoring runs like it did last season, it is still keeping scores low and finding ways to win games. Wade Davis remains a beast at the end of the games, as you’d expect.

The Royals ran and hid in the AL Central last season, winning by 12 games over the second-place Twins. It doesn’t look like that is going to happen this year, with the White Sox riding their starting rotation (and an unforeseen fast start from newcomer Mat Latos) to a start that is more like 2012, Robin Ventura’s first season, than any of the past three.

The White Sox revamped their lineup with a focus on adding two-way players, and so far that has played a huge role defensively. Adam …

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