2021 NL West Preview

And so, just one division remains.

With Major League Baseball starting in less than 24 hours, I've covered ground in five of the six Major League divisions, having worked my way from the east coast all the way out west now.

And so, let's tackle the NL West and conclude the series. Happy Opening Day, and good luck to your team!

2019 MLB Preview: NL West

I know technically, the Major League season started last week when the Mariners and A's played a couple games over in Japan. But two games out of 162 isn't enough for me to have justified running this feature early.

In what has become an annual tradition, one of the ones where I make an idiot out of myself, I run through all six MLB divisions and make my predictions for the season. Last year I condensed the posts to a span of three days, but I continued the pattern of going across the country and alternating leagues, ending with the defending champion's division.

With that in mind, we'll kick things off out west in the National League.

2018 MLB Preview: NL West

Opening Day is tomorrow! Excitement is in the air, everyone is a contender (...well, except for the Marlins) and hopefully the weather will warm up so taking a trip to the ballpark will be a little more pleasant.

I've condensed my process down to three days' worth of posting instead of six, so we're down to just two divisions to preview. We're back to the National League one more time with one Wild Card berth still up for grabs.

2017 MLB Preview: NL West

We're halfway through our baseball predictions for the upcoming year, and just a few days from the start of the season. We're also only a few days from the start of my latest ambitious project in the MLB Tournament of Champions, which you can find out more about here.

On Day 4, we're swapping leagues again while staying on the coast. as we move to the National League West.

2016 MLB Predictions: NL West

I've taken a few weeks off from writing in the aftermath of the end of basketball season, just to get a little more free time in. With baseball season nearly upon us though, I find myself having to scramble a little bit.

I'm excited for the season to get underway, as after a few dismal years on the north side of Chicago, there's an elite team playing at Clark and Addison. I'll have more on them in a few days.

As is my tradition, I will do a division a day, alternating leagues and ending with the division containing the defending champion. This year, with the champions coming out of the Central, I have to start on one coast or the other, and this year I'm opting for the west coast. Let's take a look at the NL West.

2015 MLB Preview: NL West

One more day! We're almost there, baseball fans!

Over the past five days, I've taken a look at the entirety of Major League Baseball save the NL West. Today, we finish off with them since they house the defending World Series Champions.

To a degree, I goofed with these guys last year, but it also housed my biggest prediction success since predicting the score of Super Bowl XLIII. If you want to look at last year's predictions, you can view them here.

Let's get to the final batch of predictions.

2014 MLB Preview: NL West

It's been a long, brutal winter. Spring officially began last Thursday, but it hasn't really seemed like it yet. We're (hopefully) past all that polar vortex subzero nonsense, though Sunday saw some lake effect snow in Chicago. It's hard to believe that on Sunday, Major League Baseball officially gets underway here in the States as opposed to that Australian pair of games this past weekend.

So like I did last year, I'm going to do a runthrough of all 30 MLB teams even though I've only kind of followed what's gone on during the offseason. I think I can do enough to at least reasonably guess at what will happen. Bear in mind though, this is a guy who picked the world champs to finish last in their division last year. I was wrong then, so take these picks for what you will.

Another fun side note: I totally threw out random records last season for my projections, and my dad put the numbers together only to find that I gave, on average, about a win too many to all the teams last year. I'm actually looking at numbers this time.

Since I want to do the division with the defending champ last, I'm starting in the opposite league on the opposite coast. As such, here's how I'm picking the NL West to shape up.

2013 MLB Preview: NL West

It's been a bit of a scramble this week, but after a lot of quick research I think I've found some good information to hopefully have some accurate predictions this time around. You can view every other division's predictions in the bar on your right for under the March 2013 posts, or scroll down if you're on the COAS home page. Without further ado, let's finish this off.

NL West
The home of the defending champions is going to be a tough division this year, with a lot of money being spent to improve by some teams. The NL is a little more top-heavy than the AL, so as tempted as I am to pick 2 teams out of this division, I've already filled the wild card quota on this end. Tough decision to make.

1. San Francisco Giants
2012: 94-68, 1st in NL West, won World Series
Buster Posey just signed a long term deal on Friday, so this team has one of its best players locked up into the next decade. Really, this whole lineup is stacked with guys like Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval to help out the meat of the order. Sergio Romo is a good replacement for Brian Wilson, and the rotation here is scary good with Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum in the 1-3 spots. Teams are going to be hard-pressed to top this squad.
2013 Projection: 96-66

2. Los Angeles Dodgers
2012: 86-76, 2nd in NL West 
This team spent the most money in free agency, plus with the moves made at the trade deadline last summer, this team is looking like the Yankees of the late '90s or the Red Sox of the early '00s. There's some big names here to help out Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier, and the rotation is good with Zack Greinke (assuming he can handle the big market in LA) helping out Clayton Kershaw. However, unless the Red Sox assets from last year really step up their game, this team won't go anywhere.
2013 Projection: 90-72

3. San Diego Padres
2012: 76-86, 4th in NL West
After a couple down years the Friars started to come back to being a little bit better. There's a decent blend of youth and experience on this squad, and some good pitching on their staff now with Edison Volquez anchoring the rotation. They won't challenge for the division, but they'll be a competitive team this year and might be able to surprise if the Dodgers struggle.
2013 Projection: 80-82

4. Arizona Diamondbacks
2012: 81-81, 3rd in NL West
This team has a good rotation with Ian Kennedy and Brandon McCarthy heading up the staff. Guys like Cody Ross and Jason Kubel bring some good experience in the outfield, but there's still a fair amount of holes left on this team. They will be competitive too, but not close to getting back to the top of the division. There isn't quite enough pitching depth here yet.
2013 Projection: 78-84

5. Colorado Rockies
2012: 64-98, 5th in NL West
Todd Helton is still going after all these years, and guys like Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez are going to drive in a lot of runs in the thin Coors Field air, but there really isn't much in the way of pitching since Ublado Jiminez left town. I'm not sure the pitching staff will be able to keep this squad in too many games as the year goes on.
2013 Projection: 69-93