For the NL East preview, click here.
For the AL West preview, click here.
We're officially at the halfway point of the previews with 3 divisions down and 3 to go, and I plan on doing an early playoff forecast as well on Saturday. For now, let's move back to the NL.
The NL West is going to be an interesting race, with several teams in really good shape to make some runs. Top to bottom, this may be one of the better divisions in baseball and it's one that has a lot of star power. Interestingly enough, it's the only division in baseball that has seen each team make the playoffs at least once since 2006. Unfortunately I don't see more than 2 making it this year.
Having a healthy Buster Posey back in the lineup is like a godsend for a team that was terrible on offense this past year. I saw them at Wrigley back in June where Tim Lincecum faced Ryan Dempster, and it could be argued that Dempster had a better outing. Granted, the Cubs offense wasn't much better, but it says a lot about how much the Giants missed Posey's bat last year. With him healthy they'll be in a better position to drive in runs, but they'll once again ride a phenomenal pitching staff led by Lincecum and Matt Cain.
Last year we saw Matt Kemp make the leap, and if he can have a similar year, this team could sneak up on people. They have a deceptively good rotation led by Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley, and made some good pickups in Chris Capuano and Aaron Harang this year to line the back end of the rotation. If Kemp keeps up the pace and guys like Andre Ethier step up, the Dodgers will find themselves back in the playoffs.
Last year's champs are an interesting team. I think they'll be up there with the Dodgers (probably within a couple games) but I'm not entirely sold on this team this year. Ian Kennedy is a legit pitcher, but 21-4 just seems like a fluke year of sorts. His record will come back to earth as I don't know how I feel about the lineup. Justin Upton is a great outfielder and hitter, but beyond him nobody else really scares me. I think they'll take a year off and wait for a couple stud AAA guys to come up to bolster the rotation more before making another run.
One thing this team will not have trouble doing is hitting the ball. That's a given for a high altitude team built around Troy Tulowitzki, but he has a lot of good hitters around him in Carlos Gonzalez, Todd Helton (still going strong) and newly acquired Michael Cuddyer. Unfortunately, this team has some question marks in the rotation. They don't have that go-to ace that all but guarantees you a win every fifth day, and I think until that rotation gets rebuilt following the loss of a guy like Ubaldo Jiminez at last year's trade deadline, this team won't be in serious contention.
Unfortunately this team is in clear rebuilding mode. They have some nice pieces in place with guys like Cameron Maybin and Yonder Alonso, and added a good pitcher in Edison Volquez, as well as getting Andrew Cashner from the Cubs in the Anthony Rizzo trade. Those pieces by themselves won't be enough for this squad though, as they're looking at the basement of the division again for now.
I've covered both coasts and finally get to come back to the Midwest for the final 2 days of previews. It also means I need to stop putting off facing the reality that Chicago baseball this year is going to suck. I'll save my hometown Cubs for last and do the AL Central tomorrow night.
In the meantime, if you happen to be up at 5:10 Chicago time, head to mlb.com and see if you can catch the 2nd Oakland-Seattle game. From what I heard, the first one was a pretty good game with Ichiro having a nice homecoming.
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