My final prediction is of the NL West. This division will go down to about the end of the season, with the top two teams making the playoffs. The West will end in a very tight race and the team with the better pitching will come away as the winner. My prediction below.
1) San Francisco Giants: The defending World Series Champions will look to win their third World Series in the last four years and will have a good chance of doing so. With one of the strongest starting rotations in all of baseball, the Giants will rely on ace Matt Cain and an incredibly underrated Madison Bumgarner to lead the team, instead of a very inconsistent offense. In order for the Giants to become a truly complete ball club, the offense needs to come together shine all season long. Catcher, Buster Posey is the future of the Giants and will hope to be the player that the offense models around.
2) Los Angles Dodgers: The Dodgers went out of their way to sign a $7 billion dollar television deal this off season, as well as signing the biggest free agent pitcher on the market, Zack Grienke. Grienke redefines the starting rotation because of the way he will compliment ace Clayton Kershaw so well. Their one two punch will be one of the best in baseball. They will strike out a lot of hitters and pitch a lot of innings. To add to the great starting rotation, the Dodgers offense will hopefully be 100% healthy again, and new players such as first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, shortstop Hanly Ramirez, and left fielder Carl Crawford will try and communicate and gel together well with returning superstar center fielder Matt Kemp. If the Dodgers have another injury plagued season, manager, Don Mattingly will lose his job and some star players may be moved.
3) Arizona Diamondbacks: This team is young and somewhat inexperienced but the addition of Martin Prado from the Braves in the blockbuster Justin Upton deal will change all of that. Prado is a versatile player, that can play all over the diamond and hit incredibly efficiently He will be the new leader for the D-Backs propelling them to have a record of over .500. The pitching will be the biggest question mark of the season with Heath bell apart of the relief core and the inconsistent starting pitching. Adding former Oakland Athletic, Brandon McCarthy will help a great deal but as long as the bullpen is shaky the Dbacks will do no damage in the regular season. But this team is incredibly young, I believe that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the next few years.
4) Colorado Rockies: This team isn't TOO awful in my eyes. The offense is loaded with talent even without star short stop Troy Tulowitzki. Tulu, hurt most of last season, is back healthy and looks to add a lot of production in the lineup, along with outfielders Carlos Gonzalez, and Dexter Fowler. While the offensive production is no problem, the pitching is. The Rockies did nothing this off season to bolster their horrendous pitching staff and it will lead to another disappointing season. On a team with so much offensive talent, the Rockies upper management should have done something to help the pitching out but since they didn't,, the team will suffer a very, very slow season.
5) San Diego Padres: The Padres did absolutely nothing this off season to help a bad starting rotation and a mediocre batting lineup. Somewhat of a surprise for many fans last season when manager, Bud Black's team finished 10 games under .500. They were making a lot of noise toward the end of the season but ultimately failed to do anything. This season will be completely different. The lack of pitching depth will hurt the Padres so much that I can see them losing around 90 games and drastic changes coming in San Diego before the season ends.
Questions or comments?
Tweet me: https://twitter.com/NeilShelat6
Email me: nshelat6@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment