See, its going to work out great. We’ll knock the NL out of the way by Wednesday, then we’ll go ahead and do the NL over the weekend, give you some postseason predictions, then holy crap the season starts. The best part? Steve is doing these things too! Thats a whole lot of posts between now and then! Then baseball! And you still get a Beth post on Thursday! I haven’t used a period since 7 sentences ago! So, anyways, the NL West.
Los Angeles Dodgers: The Dodgers are the perfect blend of young talent and a quality
manager. In many divisions, that wouldn’t be enough to win the division, but while feasting on some inferior opponents and with the right bit of Russell Martin, James Loney, Matt Kemp, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw breaking out, as well as a touch of Andruw Jones returning to form and Joe Torre figuring this team out quickly, I definitely think this could be the team to beat in the NL West. In the mean time, can someone hold Joe Torre up? He seems about ready to fall over.
Arizona Diamondbacks: In my opinion, if you set the four NL playoff teams at each other last year over the course of a full season, the Arizona Diamondbacks would have come out on top. This year, they did an excellent job in improving their pitching staff, adding Dan Haren to the rotation and acquiring some good young players in exchange for Jose Valverde, their former closer. I don’t like the D-backs’ young talent quite as much as I like the Dodgers, and the D-backs have some offensive holes that the Dodgers don’t. 2nd place for them.
Colorado Rockies: I have been touting the Rocks to break out for the past couple of years. They finally did last year, but at the worst possible time for the team. There are three other teams with young talent that are going to be around for a while in their division, and frankly, over the course of a 162 game season, I think the Rockies are the third best, if only because offensively they will be the equals of everyone at home, and on the road, while their still quality offense shines, their still bad pitching will suffer. There will always be 2007.
San Diego Padres: The Padres are lucky to have such a brilliant pitching staff, because I would be worried about them offensively. They lost Mike Cameron and are starting Josh Bard and Michael Barret at catcher. Their big offensive acquisition was Tadahito Freaking Iguchi. On the plus side, they can build around Chase Headley and have a fellow named Callix Crabbe slotted to be their 5th outfielder. Wasn’t that the villain in Hitchikers Guide to the Universe?
San Francisco Giants: Let’s see if I can put this in language that the average San Francisco Giant can understand. OMAR! OMAR CAN YOU HEAR ME? IT’S ME, RYAN. I WRITE A BLOG. NO. NOT A FROG MR. VIZQUEL. BLOG. IT’S…. NO, BLOG. NO. NO. NOT SNOG. I’M NOT SURE WHAT THAT EVEN MEANS, BUT I WILL NOT DO THAT WITH YOU. I WRITE A BL– YOU KNOW WHAT, SCREW IT. OMAR, I’M HERE TO REMIND YOU THAT YOU ARE VERY OLD AND PLAY FOR A VERY BAD BASEBALL TEAM. Barry Bonds actually left because his old teammates didn’t take kindly to having that whippersnapper in the dugout.
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