An Early Look at the NL West

The Diamondbacks seem to remember how last year’s NL West turned out, and who could forget with the first place team winning by a game and both the Rockies and the Padres tying for second. They also seem to remember that they had some serious problems scoring runs, baffling the statisticians by winning 90 games while scoring 20 fewer runs than they allowed. Seems like the inhabitants of the Valley of the Sun want to prove they can win games with the bat, scoring 93 runs in 15 games, tops in the NL and 13 ahead of the second place Cubs. On top of that, they have at least 31 more runs then anyone else in the NL West; the Diamondbacks are out to prove last year was no fluke, and with Mark Reynolds, Justin Upton and (the other) Chris Young all slugging 5 home runs this early in the season its no wonder they can't help but win 8 in a row.

Just because they know how to hit doesn’t mean the D’backs forgot how to pitch, allowing just the 5^th fewest amount of runs behind the work of the now 4-0 Brandon Webb, who is tied for 4^th in all of baseball for strikeouts, Dan Haren who is 2-0 with 5 earned runs in 18 innings, and Micah Owings who is 3-0 with a 2.29 ERA and 19 K’s in 19 2/3 innings pitched. All 3 at the top of Arizona’s rotation have been lights out, and with the newly activated Randy Johnson this rotation is one of the tops in all of baseball, not just the National League.

Its not the Popes, it’s not the Friars, no it isn’t even the Cardinals (that’s the NL Central folks), it’s the Padres holding second. Although they’ve been successful, they’ve put all the pressure on the starting rotation to get things done. Lucky for Bud Black, they haven’t had a starter disappoint. Cy Peavy has been lights out in his first 3 starts, averaging 7 1/3 inning pitched. Greg Maddux is just being Greg Maddux; he wont rack up the strike outs but he knows how to make the youngest rookie and the oldest pro uneasy and confused in the batter’s box, with perhaps the greatest control in history. Randy Wolf just came off a no-no through 6 1/3 and has only 3 runs given up in 19 innings with 18 strikeouts. Even the 5^th pitcher in the rotation, Justin Germano is running amok with a whip of 1.00 and an ERA of 1.35 in 20 innings, allowing all 3 of his earned runs in one game. Chris Young is the only one not pitching up to par, but when 4 out of 5 of your starters are pitching at an ace quality level its hard not to stay competitive.

But the Padres are far from perfect. With Hoffman not being the reliable closer he used to be, and the rest of their bullpen coughing up leads left and right they won’t be able to keep up, especially with the way the Diamondbacks have been playing. LA is only one game back and with a far fiercer 1-8 the Dodgers could easily surpass the Padres and make a run for first place; that is if they can stay healthy. Benching Juan Pierre, one of the weakest hitting outfielders in baseball (and for a Giants fan to rip an outfielder for being a weak hitter must tell you it’s bad, try .353 SLG bad last year), was the right call on Torre’s part, and with this young team full of prospective talent and future power, you can’t help but think how good this team could be. And with 5 fewer runs allowed and 21 more runs scored than the Padres, on paper the Dodgers should be 3 games up, not a game back of them.

Bring up the rear are the pennant winning Rockies and the cellar-dwelling Giants. Both have been equally inconsequential on both sides of the ball, with the Rockies lacking the usual Rocky pop but with the usual pitching woes and the Giants playing as expected. While the Rockies have probably just caught a slow start after being swept out of the Series, the Giants non-battery is the saddest excuse for a lineup that Giants have ever seen. There isn’t much hope for the Giants to climb out of the cellar, and unless they make some fundamental changes at the corners there isn’t any logic in hoping for anything less than 85 losses.