National League West
Winner: Dodgers. Their entire offseason seemingly revolved around Planet Manny. But has anyone else noticed that, aside from MBM, they've got a pretty good lineup? I have no idea how Uncle Joe's going to formulate his order, but I'll give it a shot.
Rafael Furcal: Career .352 OBP with great speed
Orlando Hudson: He's lost a step or two in the field, but a .367 OBP means he still gets on base.
Andre Ethier: Clubbed 20 HRs and posted .375 OBP/.510 SLG line last season.
Mannywood: Enough said.
Matt Kemp: As a 23 year old playing in canvernous Dodger Stadium last season, Kemp posted a .290/.340./.459 line with 35 steals. Prime breakout candidate.
James Loney: Bit of a disappointing year, but good defense with a .360ish OBP and 20 HRs should suffice.
Russell Martin: .380 on-base .400 SLG catcher who will steal you 20 bases. Too bad the Dodgers weren't serious about trading him this past offseason.
Casey Blake: Still scratching my head about this one.
Who To Watch: Pitcher Chad Billingsley. With 201 K's in 200 IP last season, Billingsley has the stuff of a front-line starter, and at age 24 his command (80 BB's last season) should see improvement.
Arizona Diamondbacks: Everyone knows about their two aces, Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, but the Dbacks' postseason aspirations falls into the hands of a young lineup that could be one of the big surprises of the 2009 season.
Last season, Arizona ranked 20th in the league in runs scored and -- not coincidentally -- 19th in team on-base percentage. The trio of Stephen Drew (76 extra-base hits) Connor Jackson (.376 OBP, 1st among D-Back regulars) and Justin Upton (.210 ISOp at age 20) anchors a young but promising lineup that needs significant improvement from hackers Chris Young (.313 OBP, bleh) Mark Reynolds (204 whiffs and a .320 OBP) and a resurgence from 1B Chad Tracy if the D-Backs plan to play baseball come October.
Interesting Story line: How about 3B Mark Reynolds? In 2008, Reynolds made contact at the plate an astoundingly low 62.3% of the time, about 18% less than league average, and in turn lead the world in strikeouts with 204. To his credit, Reynolds did manage to club 28 HRs, but one-trick hackers who make contact with less than two out of every five pitches thrown out of the zone might have a tough time sustaining a career in the big leagues.
Giants: The Giants' starting rotation is one of the best in the National League. Tim Lincecum, the reigning National League Cy Young award winner, anchors a staff comprised of Matt Cain -- ignore his win-loss record and concentrate on his innings (217), strikeouts (186) and ERA (3.76) -- an aged but effective Randy Johnson (3.9 K/BB ratio last season), Barry Zito (still searching for something positive to say) and the promising Jonathan Sanchez (157 K's in 158 IP).
But like their division counterparts in Arizona, the Giants struggle (mightily) to hit the ball. Last season, San Fran ranked 29th in runs scored, 28th in team slugging percentage and 24th in team on-base percentage out of 30 Major League teams. And sadly for Giants fans, their offensive ineptitude appears primed for a 2009 redux.
Aaron Rowand (.339/.410), gritty as he is, will collect $8 million this season and is owed $52 million over the next four seasons, signing bonuses included. Not bad for a 4th outfielder whose best days (offensively and defensively) are well behind him.
Speaking of bad contracts, whenever you can sign a below-average defensive shortstop with a .699 OPS for 2 years and $18 million during the midst of the worst economic crisis since The Great Depression, you have to do it. Brian Sabean, take a bow.
Edgar Renteria, the shortstop at whom I aimed my vitriol, mans an infield of "who's-who" in baseball...no really, who are these guys? First baseman Travis Ishikawa? 2B Kevin Frandsen, who's collected just 358 uninspiring AB's during his brief big league career? And while 3B/C/OF Pablo Sandoval's stats look impressive at first blush, beware of the sample size. Sandoval's, 21, started 2008 in High A and earned a promotion to the big club after eviscerating minor league pitching. But as in the case with all young players who break into the majors, he needs a couple hundred ABs to truly kick-start his development.
Primed for Prime Time: Starter Jonathan Sanchez. At 26 years young, the lefty Sanchez last season ranked 9th in the majors in Swinging Strike percentage, a stat that measures the frequency at which a pitcher induces a swinging strike. Furthermore, the putrid NL West should provide ample fodder on which a young, hard-throwing lefty can feast.
Colorado Rockies: Months after trading away its best hitter, All-Star outfielder and 2007 NL MVP runner-up Matt Holliday, Colorado received the grim news that it would have to play 2009 without its best pitcher, Jeff Francis.
The 28 year-old Francis, who started Game 1 of the 2007 World Series and underwent season-ending arthroscopic surgery on his pitching shoulder in February, suffered an disappointing 2008 season for Colorado. He logged career lows in ERA (5.14) and WHIP (1.48) before being shutdown in early September due to his bum shoulder.
But more importantly, Francis' absence leaves a gaping hole in Colorado's rotation. Aaron Cook, 3.96 ERA with a slightly above-average 1.32 GB/FB ratio, will pitch in Francis' stead as the de facto "ace," followed by promising youngsters Ubaldo Jimenez and Jorge De La Rosa, the oft-traveled NL extraordinaire Jason Marquis and Greg Smith. For the Rockies to have any shot at competing, Jimenez needs to build on his strong 2008 performance (3.99 ERA at Coors with 7.7 K/9) and the rest of the staff needs to provide 650-700 "good" innings, which has about as much of a chance of happening as Meaghan Fox showing up on my doorstep.
Expect a rebound from former shortstop Troy Tulowitzski, whose infirmities -- a torn quadriceps tendon, slicing his hand on a bat -- lead to a disappointing 2008 sophomore campaign, during which Tulo (a terrible nickname) posted a pedestrian .263/.332/.401 line. In the 2nd half, however, the slick-fielding shortstop looked the part of his 2007 form, hitting .327 with a tidy .858 OPS.
In the dumps...The San Diego Fathers: Burdened by the suffocating economy, erstwhile owner John Moores' ugly divorce and the prospect of losing a reported $30 to $40 million, the Padres rang in the new year by slashing payroll and trying desperately to unload their best player, former Cy Young winner Jake Peavy.
With 99 losses last season, the $74 million Padres crashed and burned their way to the ignominious honor of having the third worst record in the league. Aside from Pratt favorite (and on-base machine) Brian Giles, one of the lone bright spots in the putrid Padres' offense was 1B Adrian Gonzalez. The former #1 overall pick in the 2000 amateur draft, Gonzalez belted 36 dingers in the Grand Canyon California, played gold-glove caliber defense at first-base and won the Pratt's Blog award for "Player Who Most Needs To Get The Hell Off His Team."
And continuing with the divorces theme, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the team's gross mistreatment of Padre stalwart, Trevor Hoffman.
Hoffman, who spent 16 seasons in San Diego, is the game's all time leader in saves, the face of the franchise and at times the only reason Padres' fans actually showed up to the ballpark. The impetus of the fallout is still murky, but anytime you tell your classiest and most loyal employee to get the hell out, you have to do it.
What To Look For: San Diego has great weather, and it hosts the Super Bowl from time to time.
Tulo is a former shortstop?
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