At Home Plate - The Wild Wild NL West

At Home Plate

Written by Jonathan Leshanski (Contact & Archive) on March 10, 2008

It’s hard to look at the NL west and have any idea of what do predict. Well that’s not quite true. You can say with a fair degree of surety that the Giants will finish in the cellar and by a large number of games.   After that however anything goes.   Last year this division was a contest right down until the 163rd game of the season as a tie between the Padres and Rockies, both a single game back, forced a tiebreaker for the NL Wild Card spot.

The picture doesn’t look any clearer this year as every team in the division made some offseason moves in order to make themselves better for the future. Each of the contenders needs things to come together in order to step to the fore. That being the case, let’s take a look at some of the changes and what they could mean to each team.

Arizona Diamondbacks: The Diamondbacks may well have the best starting staff of any team in the division especially after trading for Danny Haren to come in and join the staff. Add in a healthy Randy Johnson and this could be a 1-2-3 that no one in the division, and maybe no one in the National League can match.

However what the Diamondbacks didn’t address is their offensive situation - one which has to concern any true fan.   The ‘Backs won the division last year despite getting outscored by their opposition, with luck, timely hitting, and management picking up some of the slack for the lack of production.   This young team will have to mature and become better hitters, or the D’Backs might find that last year’s division title was a fluke.

Colorado Rockies: The Rox essentially took this season to plan for the future. With the notable exception of third baseman Garrett Atkins the team has been handing out long term contracts left and right to their core players.   That may be setting the table for a team which has the potential to be better than they were last year, a team with the same altitude but a new attitude and a starting staff that might even be better than last years.
However the bullpen, which was one of the team’s strengths last season has taken some heavy hits, with many of the former closers who stepped up (LaTroy Hawkins, Jeremy Affeldt, and Jorge Julio) moving on.   That means that an area of strength for the team last year is essentially an unknown - which could come back to burn them.

Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers arguably did the most to bolster themselves this offseason of any team in the division. They didn’t limit themselves to players changes, but also brought in former Yankees skipper Joe Torre to take the helm.

While the Dodgers didn’t make any big trades this offseason, they made a splash on the free agent market. The biggest name acquired was slugger Andruw Jones, who the team signed for an obscene amount of money.   Jones’ power addresses a huge hole in the team’s lineup as the team had not a single 20 home run hitter last year.

To bulk up the pitching they’ve made a foray into Japanese baseball and imported Hiroka Kuroda, a starter with a solid record with Hiroshima of the Japanese leagues. With Kuroda and a healthy and successful season out of Jason Schmidt (and/or Esteban Loaiza) the Dodgers pitching could really step forward.

With the great young developing talent this team has, and at least three better than average pitchers already in the mix the Dodgers could be the team to beat in the division.

San Diego Padres: You might not really have noticed it but the offensively challenged Padres have been one of the most consistently good teams in this division. They missed the Wild Card by a single win, in a playoff game, last season.   As always they got there on the backs of their pitching - since the team has found it difficult to score runs from the day PETCO park opened several years ago.

And that may well continue this season, so the Padres are going to try to pitch their way to the playoffs one more time. That’s not to say they won’t try to boost the offense - they’ve brought in once potent slugger Jim Edmonds from St. Louis and above average hitting second baseman Tadahito Iguchi from Chicago, to go with a handful of players they’ve signed to minor league deals, but where this team really has rolled the dice is on starting pitching.

The Padres decided that after Jake Peavy, Chris Young and Greg Maddux they were going to gamble on talented but injury prone pitchers Randy Wolf and Mark Prior, pitchers who could make this team a monster if they can live up to potential.

San Francisco Giants: Thus begins the post Barry Bonds era.   The Giants are in for a rough season with gaping holes across the board and the potential to have a 100 loss season.   Standing in the way of that are Barry Zito, Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Noah Lowry all of who have the talent to improve on what they did last year. But even if they all pitched lights out .500 seems a longshot for this team.

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