NL West Preview

LOS ANGELES DODGERS – Getting Manny back should be enough for the Dodgers to win the NL West.

Is it really that easy? Pretty much. After winning the division last season with a mere 84 wins, a full season out of Manny should put them head and shoulders above the rest of the mediocre division.

Combine Manny with the rest of the Dodgers’ outfield – Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier – and they have one of the most talented outfield corps in the majors. Their outfield, combined with Russell Martin (one of the best young catchers in the league) will help make up for a pitching staff that suffered some losses this off-season.

The Dodgers lost their ace (Derek Lowe), their closer (Takashi Saito) and their setup man (Joe Beimel). They didn’t exactly do a great job replacing them, either; the team signed Randy Wolf (6-10 for the Padres last season) and Guillermo Mota (a 4.95 ERA and six blown saves over the past two years).

Despite these less-than-adequate replacements, the Dodgers should be able to win the NL West by default. They’re the best of the worst, which is sometimes all that matters.

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS – The Diamondbacks have had a weird couple of years recently.

Two years ago, in the 2007 season, they won the NL West out of nowhere, ultimately falling to the NL Champion Rockies in the playoffs. Last season, poised to make a repeat run at the division crown, they were unable to do so, ending up with only 82 wins and finding themselves two games back of the Dodgers.

This season, the Diamondbacks will look more like their 2008 version than their 2007 version. The team lost Randy Johnson (Giants) and Adam Dunn (Nationals), both of whom were keys to getting the team to where they were last season.

The thing to watch this year will be whether or not their offense can rebound from last season’s mediocrity. They definitely have a talented lineup – including Conor Jackson, Eric Byrnes, Chris Young and Justin Upton – but last year they were unable to do anything with it.

If their lineup can live up to its potential, and if starting pitcher Max Scherzer can live up to his immense hype in his first full season, the Diamondbacks might have a shot at the division crown. But if either of those things don’t happen, the D’Backs will struggle.

COLORADO ROCKIES – Last year, a very average pitching staff ruined a tremendous offensive season. The Rockies tried to remedy that during this off-season, trading Matt Holliday to the A’s for closer Huston Street (a definite step up over Brian Fuentes) and starter Greg Smith, as well as signing Jason Marquis to round out the rotation.

Will those moves be enough to help the team win the NL West? Probably not. Could it be enough? Sure! The NL West is so up in the air that any team could conceivably find themselves in first come September.

What will the Rockies have to do to win? Get an offensive season comparable to last year and hope that their pitching staff makes great strides. That might be hard, considering their ace, Jeff Francis, has an injured shoulder and is only slowly progressing through rehab.

A lot of things will have to go right for the Rockies if they want to win the division. But in the NL West, anything’s possible.

SAN DIEGO PADRES – The Padres should be thankful that they’re in the same division as the Giants. Why? It makes their mediocre roster look good by comparison.

The team lost icon Trevor Hoffman to the Brewers this past off-season and was unsuccessful in trading starting pitching gem Jake Peavy. It’s unfortunate for the Padres that they weren’t able to get anything back for Peavy because his (inevitably) great upcoming season will be another wasted effort.

In an effort to bolster their lineup, the team signed Cliff Floyd, Henry Blanco and David Eckstein. How are any of those moves supposed to help produce more runs? All three are either past their prime or decent offensive players at best, so expecting anything helpful offensively out of them is asking too much… which is the same as asking them to contend for the division.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS – Even considering how bad the NL West, it doesn’t mean every team can contend. Not when you’re talking about the Giants.

Sure, they have reigning Cy Young Award Winner Tim Lincecum, who just may be the best pitcher in baseball. Yes, they have great second and third starters in Matt Cain and Randy Johnson, the latter of whom they just signed from the division rival Diamondbacks.

But that’s about it.

Their offense is one of the worst in baseball. They feature no intimidating hitters in their lineup and will have to get some sort of miracle for the team to win even 75 games this year. Because of their incredibly lacking offense, it’d be hard to find a team in the NL West that would finish worse than them.