The Diamondbacks have a lot of young hitters that seem ready to have their breakout year like Stephen Drew, Justin Upton (will be one of the best players in baseball in 2 years), Chris Young, Connor Jackson, and Mark Reynolds. All of them should improve on their numbers from last year which will be huge for an offense that struggled last season. The pitching staff is led by a great 1-2 punch at the top with Brandon Webb and Dan Haren. I'm not too worried about Webb and his health as he has been very durable with over 200 innings pitched every season since 2004. If he was Mark Prior and was dealing with some injuries to start the season then you worry, but in the meantime I think he will be fine. Behind them are your typical 3-5 starters: Doug Davis, Jon Garland, and a great young arm in Max Scherzer. Scherzer was taken 11th overall in the 2006 draft right after the Giants took 2008 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum 10th. If Webb is healthy, and Scherzer pitches well, I can't see this team missing the playoffs.
Giants: Giants you can sum up in two parts. 1. Great pitching and 2. Bad hitting. They have the best pitching rotation 1-5 in the divison with last years Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum, the highly underrated Matt Cain who gets no run support at all, Randy Johnson who still have something left in his wing, Jonathan Sanchez, and Barry Zito who of course is not worth the money he is making but isn't bad as a fifth starter. The Giants' major problem is the offense which was the worst in baseball last season. It should improve (which shouldn't be hard to do) but it still will not be enough. If this team had the Rangers line up they would win 95 games, instead of 80 which seems about right.
Rockies: Troy Tulowitzki is back and healthy after a rough 2008. He actually started to turn things around at the end of last season, in the last 62 games of the year his line was .327/.389/.469 compared to his first 39 games in which he hit .166/.246/ .298. Dexter Flower will be one of the top rookies this season and will be a big improvement in center compared to Willy Tavares a season ago. The pitching should be better with Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales looking to take a leap. Everyone thought that was going to happen in 2008 after their good runs near the end of 2007 that got the Rockies to the World Series. Even with those two, I think they are the fourth best team in this divison.
Dodgers: I think they will win this Divison with the Snakes right behind them.The line up may be the best 1-8 in the N.L. with Matt Kemp, James Loney, and Andre Ethier getting better each year and Manny being Manny with 35 homers and an ops above 1.000. Add a healthy Rafael Furcal, and new second baseman Orlando Hudson at the top of the order, and they will score a lot of runs. One thing about Manny: can people in Boston please stop saying he quit on the team last July when he actually batted .347/.473/.587? If that is quitting then I would like the Red Sox to please go get 9 "quitters" so they can win the world series every year. Moving on, the pitching staff lost Derek Lowe, but will get a full season from Clayton Kershaw who will be a top 5 pitcher really quick. Put Kershaw with Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda and the Dodgers should win over 90 games for the first time in 5 seasons.
Padres: I'll admit that I have been watching American Idol this season so for the Padres I'm going to let the AI judges have their say:
- Randy: Yo Dawg I'm just not sure if the hitting is there. Adrian Gonzalez is dope but thats about it.
- Kara: Heres the thing, I don't know if signing David Eckstein was right for the Padres. Sure he tries hard, but he just is not good.
- Paula: I think the Padres look really great in their uniforms. They just have this look that says they are having fun and it shows out there on the field. I know when they are down 10-2 it might seem bad but no they still are giving it their all and that is important. They truly are inspiring and I think if they just make a few trades for Albert Pujols, Ryan Braun, David Wright, and Josh Hamilton then they will be good, but they look great anyways and have fun.
- Simon: Truly pathetic. I mean awful. We are talking about a Major League team here and they look like the Bad News Bears, they should be elimanated from this competition around August 9th.
1. Dodgers
2. DBacks
3. Giants
4. Rockies
5. Padres
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