2006 Predictions = NL West

I noticed on Reid's blog "Baseball is Heaven's Gift to Mortals" that he's not a big fan of the NL West. Maybe if I spent some time in the help file I could create a link his post, but I'm lazy and don't want to put forth the effort. Maybe I'll do it later. My wife gets sick of hearing that phrase when she asks me to do something. This reminds me, the bathroom needs cleaning. I'll do it later. Anyway, the NL West. I agree with Reid that the NL West is a horrible division. I'm all in favor of contracting them into the Pacific Coast League. Unfortunately, that won't happen. So, we're left with allowing a .500 ballclub into the playoffs. Now even though only 1 team in the division last year cracked the .500 mark, which was by the thinnest of margins, that doesn't necessarily mean the division itself won't be a tough division to win. The teams will pretty much beat up on each other and none will really distance themselves from their opponents. It'll come down to wire and somebody has to win the division, only to get beat in the first round of the NLDS. Who will it be? Keep reading.....
1)Los Angeles Dodgers: Adding Furcal, Mueller, and Nomar to the lineup make them one of the division's better offenses. A solid rotation gets better with Jae Seo and the pen is improved with Baez and Lance Carter. If Gagne remains healthy, Grady Little will succeed in his first go-around as Dodgers skipper.
2)San Francisco Giants: The Giants are still a good team and with Bonds in the lineup will challenge for the division. They're an old team which may wear them down a little. The rotation has the potential to dominate with Morris, Schmidt, Lowry and Cain but also has the potential to be very inconsistent. Bonds will no doubt miss time but should put up decent power numbers, assuming he sees pitches to hit.
3)San Diego Padres: Last year's division champs (I'm ashamed to refer to them as champs) will struggle to repeat. Peavy and Park looked sharp in the WBC but not many pitchers didn't. Piazza will add no value. The lone Padre bright spot may be in the play of Josh Barfield, who will make a run at the NL ROY.
4)Arizona Diamondbacks: The offseason's biggest winner was Brandon Webb as the D-Backs acquired Orlando Hudson to gobble up all of the ground balls he gets. Not enough improvements to contend. Will need huge years from El Duquee, Ortiz, Shawn Green and Luis Gonzalez to have a remote shot. Won't happen, but it's the NL West so who knows?
5)Colorado Rockies: There's nothing to see here. Todd Helton, if healthy, will have a great year but hey it's the Rockies.
3 divisions down, 3 to go. Tomorrow brings us to the AL West. We;ll work our way from the west coast to the east coast and wrap things up Saturday with the AL East. Until next time, take care.
J-Boogie
Hey look at that! All I had to do was click a button, cut and past a URL and I have a link. That was pretty easy. Maybe now I'll go clean the bathroom. Who am I kidding? I'll do it later.