NL WEST PREVIEW

For years the NL west has been the laughing stock of baseball. The Giants have a plaque of J.T Snow and Rich Aurillia at AT&T Park, Colorado has a humidor, Dodgers have divorcegate and underneath all that camouflage  I almost forgot they play baseball in San Diego. And no I did not forget there is a 5th team but its to easy to make fun of a team that has a pool in their stadium so I will just breakdown how the standings will unfold:

Arizona Dbags : When the headline of a team’s media guide reads that they are pleased to welcome back Adam Laroche you can pencil them in last place.  There key additions include  drum roll please.. Armando Gallaraga which guarantees they will handle all the losses and bad breaks with class and dignity. What do you do when you have the worst bulpen in baseball? You sign JJ Putz? The equivilant to doing nothing.. Maybe it will be addition by subtraction. They let Brandon Webb, who has spent more time on the DL than the pitchers mound, go to the Rangers and the golden sombrero that is Mark Reynolds will strike out with the Orioles this season.  Prediction: Kirk Gibson gets so frustrated he tries to put himself in as a pinch hitter in the 9th inning of a game but even he can't even stop the inevitable 5th place finish. 

San Diego Padres: Last year’s Butler of baseball engineered one of the biggest choke jobs in a division in recent history.  Only reason it doesn’t get talked about more is because the only time anyone mentions the Padres is to talk about a little trade they made this offseason with the Red Sox.  Key additions include Cameron Maybin, Jorge Cantu, Jason Bartlett, and Brad Hawpe which should give the offense some extra power they did not have last year. Too bad no one hits homers in Petco: not even the great Jorge Cantu.  Prediction: This team does not have the pitching depth it had last year and trading Adrian Gonzalez will hurt more then they hoped. Expect them to panic and trade Heath Bell before the deadline resulting in a 4th place finish.

Giants: Last year everything went so right for this team that Cody Ross became a superstar and Aubrey Huff made giants management think all those years with the Orioles and Rays in his prime never actually happened. Being rewarded with a 2 year 22 million dollar extension will inevitably go down as the worst move in the NL west this offseason. You would think Sabean would realize the demise of the Marlins after winning the world series was not that they actually got rid of everyone on their team in a fire-sale,  but was in fact that they lost Renteria. Expect the curse of Renteria to hit S.F this summer. Prediction: Pablo Sandoval balloons to 350 pounds, stars on A&E’s “Heavy” while Brian Wilson will want to rage all summer. Expect a World Series hangover, resulting in a 3rd place finish.

Rockies: Carlos Gonzalez and Tulo could be the face of my franchise if I decide to run a team in mlb 2k11 this year. The rockies stood relatively still this off season which will come back to haunt them. They were in the running all off-season to get Uggla but are now stuck with Eric Young Jr. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with Eric Young Sr let alone his son. Jim Tracy will make enough mistakes and the Rockies will finish in second Place

Dodgers:  For a team that had no money to spend this offseason with their hands tied in a divorce they did a great job of stock piling mediocre players that include but not limited to: Thames, Barajas, Uribe, Lilly, Garland, Kapler. Problem is these players must have had good agents and fooled Ned Coletti into showing them the money.  Key additions include: me as a new owner of a 6 game mini plan and a bunch of triple A players, However Dee Gordon will be this year's buster posey leading the Dodgers to a division title.