2011 MLB National League West Predictions
The San Francisco Giants changed everyone’s views about the NL West being a strong division after winning the World Series in 2010. Before them, people didn’t really think of the teams from the West as a real threat. The National League West consists of
the San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies, Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The San Francisco Giants definitely surprised everyone with their World Series win in 2010, but can they do it again? The team is expected to suffer from winning-the-world-series-hangover in 2011, but there’s a good chance that might not happen. They dominate
their pitching with five of the best pitchers in the division, especially Tim Lincecum. Their offence may be tired from being so overworked last year, but let’s just hope they strike the right balance and you never know they might take everyone but surprise
again this year.
They may be the youngest team around, but the Colorado Rockies might dethrone the Giants. They have the likes of Ubaldo Jimenez and Jhoulys Chacin on their rotation and with them they have the best young hitters as well, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki.
They were 31-50 last year and if they manage to improve, they can definitely go further in the competition.
The San Diego Padres have managed to fade away with time so there aren’t many hopes of them being anything past average this year as well. Their offence was once something worth looking at, but with Adrian Gonzales gone, they don’t even have that left. The
burden of managing the offence is left on newcomers like Jason Bartlett and Brad Hawpe. Even though they’re talented, they haven’t reached their potential of carrying a game by themselves without other experienced players. Let’s hope, that if nothing else,
the young talent on the team gets some experience from participating for the division title.
The Dodgers were expected to win the division last year. That would have been their third division title, but the Giants didn’t let those plans become successful. The biggest drawback was the offence which was average to say the least and that along with
fairly average pitching didn’t quite do it for the Dodgers. They have Juan Uribe on offence, he performed very well in 2010, let’s hope he can keep that up and not struggle in 2011.
The Diamondbacks finished third in the National League with 180 home-runs but still hit just .250 as a team. The team hasn’t performed in quite some time and there is no sign that point towards 2011 being any different. Daniel Hudson is an inexperienced
but powerful young starter and he along with Dan Haren and Edwin Jackson, who were traded midseason, are the only players who anyone can expect to perform. Other than them, the situation with their rotation is worrisome and unless the Diamondbacks make some
major changes in their line-up, they would probably stay in the background. Their improved ERA of 5.74 was still the third worst in MLB history and that’s a warning for them to finally step up their game.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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