NL West Preview

Over this week Shark and I will be doing some quick previews of the different divisions with our picks coming at the end of the week.

The NL West was quite possibly the crappiest and least interesting (unless you count watching it to see if the division winner would finish below .500) division in all of baseball last year. Hopefully they can bounce back to respectability this year.

SAN DIEGO PADRES - finished 1st; last years record 82-80
Why they'll win: Pitching will have to be the key in the cavanerous Petco. With Peavy and Williams they have a strong core and I really like the addition of 6'10", hard-throwing Chris Young from Texas.
Why they'll lose: Lack of offensive production will be the downfall of this team. It's bad enough they play in Petco, but they also are just not that impressive to begin with when it comes to the bats. I like the addition of Mike Cameron both defensively and with the bat, and I absolutely hate the addition of Piazza...it's over Mike, your in the Hall of Fame, now go away!

ARIZONA DIAMONDBACKS - finished 2nd; record of 77-85 (How the hell did they finish 2nd?)
Why they'll win: If the offense can pick up where it left of last year and possibly improve. I really like Eric Byrnes' energy and I think Tracy will have a nice year again. I think the biggest question is at first (Is Connor Jackson ready and is Tony Clark washed up?), right field (What the heck happened to Shawn Green?), and catcher (Estrada's back is horrible).
Why they'll lose: They're bullpen is a joke. Terry Mulholland is listed on the bullpen depth chart. He's 43. He has a career 4.40 ERA. I think that's about all I need to say about that.

SAN FRANSISCO GIANTS - finished 3rd; record of 75-87
Why they'll win: Lucky for the Giants this division is so weak, but I still think a TON of things need to go right for them to win. Bonds needs to be healthy and not in jail, Schmidt needs to rebound, Cain and Lowry need to be studs, Benitez needs to bounce back, and the entire team needs to not break a hip at the Bingo parlor.
Why they'll lose: I saw the USA Today yesterday and a big story in it was about Randy Winn being with the Giants and their team getting "younger". Winn's 31. If you can add a 31 year old outfielder and he is almost 10 years younger than the other 3 you have, that's bad news.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS - finished 4th; record of 71-91 (This team should have been WAY better)
Why they'll win: A solid offense with Furcal, Kent, Drew, Mueller and Nomar along with the solid bullpen featuring Baez, Brazoban and Gagne and a couple of decent starters in Lowe and Penny.
Why they'll lose: Because they're the freakin' Dodgers and they always seem to lose and look horrible against lesser opponents. I mean really, they went from winning 90 games to losing 90 games in a year and they weren't even pulling a dismantling job like the Marlins. Who knows this year.

COLORADO ROCKIES - finished 5th; record of 67-95
Why they'll win: Because the MLB will finally allow pitchers in Colorado to throw pebbles and move the fences back to 500 feet. Either that or their offense only approach will pay off and they'll just out score everybody.
Why they'll lose: Because the front office does not know how to draft, produce, or sign as a free agent a ground ball pitcher. For pete's sake they have Byung-Hyun Kim listed as a starter and the things he's most famous for are giving up home runs. Need I say more.