My NL West Preview

1. Los Angeles Dodgers - The Dodgers just narrowly missed the playoffs in 2012, even after making two big midseason trades that shipped Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, and Josh Beckett to the Dodgers. In the offseason, they signed big ticket pitcher Zack Greinke on a six year $147 million dollar deal. Their starting rotation could be one of the strongest in baseball with Clayton Kershaw, Greinke, Beckett, Chad Billingsley, and Aaron Harang. There could be some competition for that last spot as they also have Peter Moylan and Ted Lilly on the team, but those arms could be in the bullpen. Their bullpen isn't that bad either, they have some great arms there with Brandon League, Kevin Gregg, Mark Lowe, Matt Guerrier, J.P.  Howell and closer Kenley Jansen. In the terms of their offense in addition to the pieces I already mentioned, they have decent supporting pieces in infielders Jerry Hairston Jr., Skip Schumaker, Nick Punto, Eliezer Alfonso, speedster Dee Gordon, Mark Ellis, Juan Uribe, Brian Barden and Luis Cruz. They also have some supporting pieces in the outfield with Alex Castellanos and Tony Gwynn Jr. Some of those pieces should be on roster by opening day and some of those will be in the minors come opening day. I wouldn't be surprised if most of those players are on the roster come September. This team is dangerously good on paper, and they could win the NL West in 2013 if not get a wildcard.
2. San Francisco Giants - The Giants are the defending World Series Champs coming into 2013. Most of their championship team is back for 2013. They still have a somewhat strong rotation with Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner, Ryan Vogelsong, Barry Zito, and Tim Lincecum. I'd like to see how Tim Lincecum performs because he had somewhat awful 2012 regular season and was limited to the bullpen in the playoffs. We'll see if he bounces back in 2013. Their bullpen should be as strong as they were last year with Yusmeiro Petit, Sandy Rosario, Chad Gaudin, Scott Procter, Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Castilla, and closer Sergio Romo as the closer. It will be the first full year with Sergio Romo, so it will be interesting to see how he does with a full season under his belt after replacing the Brian Wilson last year. Everything is pretty much back offensive wise. 2012 MVP Buster Posey is their catcher. In the infield, they still have Pablo Sandoval, Brandon Crawford, Brandon Belt, Conor Gillaspie, and they resigned Marco Scutaro in the offseason. In the outfield, the Giants still have Hunter Pence, Gregor Blanco, Andres Torres, and brought back Angel Pagan. This team has it all back from their championship season last year. It will be really interesting to see how this NL West race finishes up at the end of the season. I do think both the Giants and Dodgers make the playoffs with one of them winning the division and the other getting one of the wildcards.
3. Arizona Diamondbacks -The Arizona Diamondbacks won this division in 2011, but this team looks a lot different than that team did. They lost Justin Upton and Chris Young in the offseason in trades. In the Upton Trade, they acquired Martin Prado, w ho will bring some pop to help replace the power that Upton and Young provided in the Diamondbacks lineup. Another thing about this team is that they have a great back end of their bullpen, but the question is how often will they get to them. They have two great eighth and ninth inning guys in Heath Bell and J.J. Putz. Their starting pitching is decent with Ian Kennedy, Daniel Hudson, Brandon McCarthy, Wade Miley, Josh Collmenter, and Trevor Cahill. They have a few bullpen arms besides Bell and Putz with Brad Ziegler, Nelson Figueroa, and Garrett Mock. The Diamondback still have pop in their lineup despite losing Upton and Young. In addition to Prado, they have Miguel Montero, Rod Barajas, Willie Bloomquist, Paul Goldschmidt, Cliff Pennington, Aaron Hill, Didi Gregorius, Mark Teahen, Josh Wilson and Eric Chavez as their infield bats. In the outfield, they have Jason Kubel, Gerado Parra, Cody Ross, Eric Hinske, and Jeremy Reed. This team has the potential, but most likely won't make the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how they replace the two bats in Justin Upton and Chris Young though.
4. Colorado Rockies - The strength of the Rockies is clearly their hitting. They still have the old vet Todd Helton at First Base, Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, and Michael Cuddyer providing most of the punch. They have a decent supporting cast around those guys with Tyler Colvin, Eric Young Jr., Dexter Fowler, DJ LeMahieu, Josh Ruttledge, Ramon Hernadez, Wilin Rosario, Yorvit Torrealba, and Chris Dickerson. This team's weakness is their pitcher. Compared to the rest of the division, the Rockies have a weak rotation with Jeff Francis, Drew Pomeranz, and Jorge De La Rosa. They have some other arms who could fill out those two other rotation spots in Chris Volstad and Jhoulys Chacin. In the bullpen, the Rockies have Matt Belisle, Manny Corpas, Mike McClendon, Miguel Bautista, Wilton Lopez and their closer Rafael Betancourt. If the Rockies aren't in this race by July, I could easily see Todd Helton and Carlos Gonzalez on the trade block. This team however because of their pitching won't make the playoffs in 2013.
5. San Diego Padres - The San Diego Padres in 2013 have some decent pitching led by their ace Edison Volquez. In addition to him in the rotation they have Jason Marquis, Freddy Garcia, and Clayton Richard. In the bullpen, they have Luke Gregerson, Cory Luebke, Tim Stauffer, Faustino De Los Santos, Joe Thatcher and closer Huston Street. Offensively, the Padres have some power threats in Carlos Quentin and Chase Headley. In addition to that, they have Will Venable, Nick Hundley, Yonder Alonso, James Darnell, Everth Cabrera, Cameron Maybin, Mark Kotsay, Cody Ransom, and John Baker. This team will produce offensively and if the pitching lines up with it they could pose a threat in this division. If not they could very easily finish in fourth and last in this division.