The most unexpected thing in baseball happened last year regarding a NL West Division team: the Giants won the World Series. How did they do it? Pitching of course. And that's how they will wrap up the NL West this year. I'm saying it outright, the Giants are my favorite to win the NL West. Now admittedly I am a Giants fan and have a bias but to be honest I didn't expect them to get to the World Series last year, let alone win it. I picked the Phillies. What a pick that was.
The Giants will take the NL West with their superb starters: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, and Jonathan Sanchez. This rotation may be only second to the Phillies. In fact, depending on how well they do, they might equal them. Plus the Giants have the NL Rookie of the Year, Buster Posey, who's expectations will be high. Plus a returning Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell and Andres Torres still grace the lineup. I know they're not exactly the best players but that's how the Giants won it all. Also, Pablo Sandoval is said to have lost some weight which could give him new life plus how did we get Miguel Tejada?
The Dodgers, though, look like the best choice for overthrowing the Giants. They have formidable pitchers with Clayton Kershaw, Hiroki Kuroda, Chad Billingsley, Jon Garland, and Ted Lilly, all of which had ERA's under 4. Plus, they got the former Giant, Juan Uribe, to add to their lineup of Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. The Dodgers will make the Giants earn the top spot.
As for the other teams, the Padres' great run from last year won't carry over as they have lost Adrian Gonzalez. They will likely have a worse year. The Rockies basically are built around Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki. And the D'backs' only threat I can see is Chris Young.
In summary, I see a head to head race between the Giants and Dodgers with the Giants eventually coming out on top. The Dodgers might have a shot at a Wild Card spot, though.
P.S. Don't forget to tune into the Sports Khan Radio Show every Thursday at 2 PM on KSUNradio.com... Pretty Good.
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