Spring training is well under way in Florida and Arizona though most regulars still haven’t played more than a few innings in their games. Pitchers are working out the kinks and working through sore muscles and hope does spring eternal in the daily papers of almost every home cities team. Today’s topic, the National League West is a darn good competitive division and the one race that is sure to go down to the wire with the runerup probably taking the wild card. 4 out of the 5 teams in the west seemed to have improved if that’s possible, the one exception is the Giants who will play the season without superstar slugger Barry Bonds. Bonds, possibly blackballed, seems to be out of baseball for good, despite the general consensus that the man can still hit and produce runs at a very high level. Irregardless of my thoughts on his legal issues and steroids, I will miss the excitement that he generated by standing in the batters box, staring out at a usually over-matched and jittery hurler. Bonds in the last several years exhibited prodigious and frequent power and was so often pitched around that his on base percentage was about 1 out of 2 times up or .500, unheard of. He was that good!
Countdown to Major League Baseball opening day! 17 days 8 hr 51 min 33 sec
The Colorado Rockies are my pick to win the division. They may not make it to the World Series but they sure do have a good young team led by young superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitski and slugging left fielder Roy Holliday. Helton with Hall of Fame like numbers and Atkins at 3rd make for solid corner men and if Marcus Giles has a good year and the decent but not great pitching comes through it will be all good at Coors field this summer. Pass me another frosty one please. Rockies tickets.
The Arizona Diamondbacks added an AllStar pitcher in Dan Haren and if Randy Johnson can come back and be a big winner along with ace Brandon Webb this could be the year for the D Backs. A possible question mark is Brandon Lyon now entrusted with the closers role. I like him though and with kids Juston Upton and Chris Young patrolling the outfield with sparkplug Eric Byrnes and a decent infield the pitching and defense should help offset the lack of power. Diamondbacks tickets.
The San Diego Padres have potentially a great starting pitching staff of veteran proven winners and so far this spring they have looked sharp. The problem is new center fielder Jim Edmunds is hurting allready and he isn’t getting any younger. Additionally other than slugging first sacker Adrian Gonzalez there isn’t much pop anywhere else unless you want to count star shortstop Kalil Greene’s bat. Peavy, Young, Maddox, Prior, Wolf and pray for rain I mean hits. Padres tickets.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be great and alot of fun to watch but it will take them a year to mature and meld under new manager Joe Torre. However if phenom Clayton Kershaw comes through and the veterans like Kemp, Garciaparra, Pierre and 20 million dollar man Andruw Jones have great years which is conceivable,( I mean really now do you think Jones is a 226 hitter,) and then AllStar catcher Martin, and kids Loney and Kemp etc perform like expected these guys are the sleeper team of the whole league! But thats alot of buts and ifs.. Dodgers tickets.
The San Francisco Giantshave a new center fielder in Aaron Rowland and 2 young stud pitchers in Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain to go along with Barry Zito. umm Randy Winn is ok and Benji Molina of the flying and famous Molina catching brothers is terrific for sure but Durham and Vizquel are getting older and they need to replace Bonds in the lineup and because that’s impossible this team will settle into the cellar at some point before June and probably that’s where they will stay..Giants tickets.
So that concludes my Major League Baseball preseason preview. If your in Florida or Arizona support your team and see the kids up close and personal. Gets some autographs, get some sun and get into baseball mode. It’s a timeless and true game, baseball now and then is much the same. That there is occasionally problems is a shame, but all is fair for fortune and fame!
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