San Francisco Giants – They started
off the season by getting swept by the Diamondbacks and now they have
gone 9-5 and have won every series. The biggest difference this year
is the offense. They have scored 3 runs or less only 3 times this
year. Like I said in my preview, the offense has made a big
improvement with Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey playing like
all-stars. The biggest concern of the young season is Tim Lincecum.
Not only has his velocity gone down, but it looks like he can not
control his fastball. Lincecum has also said he is scrapping his
slider which might cause concerns about his elbow. But Lincecum is
a smart pitcher and he is known to reinvent himself and will be able to turn it around. Matt Cain and Madison
Bumgarner are pitching wonderfully after signing big extensions. Barry Zito has been a great surprise this year. Brian Wilson has been lost for the year, but I don't think this will affect the Giants as much as losing Andrew Bailey for the Red Sox. Santiago Casilla will get the first shot at save opportunities. But Bochy can plug in Casilla or Sergio Romo on any given night.
The most frustrating thing to watch is
how they are handling Brandon Belt. As I said in my Preview, they
were setting him up to fail. Belt got off to a slow start and now he
rarely gets to play. There have been talks in the Giants front office
that they think Belt is a bust. If that is the case why not trade
him? Or send him down to the minors so that he can get some
consistent playing time and if they still don't think he can play in
the big leagues, he is at least improving his trade value. The
Phillies are doing something similar with Dominic Brown, he is in the
minors hitting .350 but he still can not play defense to save his
life. Even if the Phillies don't want him, he is increasing his trade
value for other teams to take a chance on. I believe Belt can be a
very good player, he just needs the opportunity. If the Giants
don't see it that way, at least get something for him and not just
let him rot on the bench.
Arizona Diamondbacks – The Diamondbacks are a .500 team right now and I don't think this the best they can play. Justin Upton and Paul Goldschmidt is off to a slow start. Chris Young is off to a scorching hot start, but now he is on the DL. Stephen Drew has yet to take the field this season yet either. As the season progresses I see this line-up going back to being one of the best run scoring line-ups in the national league. The area this team can upgrade on is the starting pitching. Daniel Hudson has gotten off to a slow start, but it seems that he is hurt, so hopefully his DL stint and can help him get it together. Josh Collmenter is just not good. He had decent success last season mainly because of his funky delivery, but now that hitters are seeing more of him, he is getting rocked. Trevor Bauer is tearing up AA ball right now, 4-0 with a 0.40 ERA 28k in 22 innings. The biggest argument to Bauer is that he walks too many batters right now, but even though he walks batters he will make bats miss and he will give you better results than Collmenter or even Joe Saunders – I don't see him keeping up his 1.93 ERA.
Los Angeles Dodgers – This team is
off to a fantastic start, but I'm not jumping on their bandwagon just
yet. 13 of their first 16 games were against the Padres, Pirates, and
Astros and the one series they played against a good team (Brewers)
they lost the series. They do have the best player on the planet in
Matt Kemp and arguably the best pitcher in the league in Clayton
Kershaw. They have a line-up with Juan Rivera and Juan Uribe as everyday players and that doesn't bode well for any team. Dee Gordon is an intriguing player, if he gets on base he can cause havoc, but he needs to get on base first and he strikes out way too many times. They have a rotation
that features Aaron Harang and Chris Capuano behind Kershaw, with nothing else. I don't see this team
keeping up the way they are playing and I want to see them play
against the better teams before I say they are legit. They will come back down to earth and win 80 games at best.
Colorado Rockies – The Rockies have
started off the season 9-8. Playing in Coors Field and having a
line-up anchored by Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, I think they
are a .500 team at BEST. Michael Cuddyer is having a good start, but Todd Helton are off to slow starts, which leads one to wonder how much does he have left in the tank. But with role players such as Chris Nelson and Marco Scutaro filling out the line-up, I don't see them winning more than 75 games. Their best pitcher right now is 49 year old Jamie Moyer
with a 2.28 ERA. This team just does not have the pitching to
compete. Drew Pomeranz has the highest ceiling out of all their
pitchers and I see him as a legit 1 or 2 starter, but behind him I
don't see anyone on this pitching staff who will be higher than a #5
starter on any other team.
San Diego Padres – The Padres are in
no position to compete this year. Chase Headley is quietly having a very good start to the season and they still have one of the best defensive middle infield in Jason Bartlett and Orlando Hudson. And they have made some great moves
for the future however. They sent their ace Matt Latos to the
Cincinnati Red for two great young prospects in Yonder Alonso and
Yasmani Grandal, and Edison Volquez. They also sent a couple minor
leaguers for Carlos Quentin. They have a promising young rotation
that features Tim Stauffer and Cory Luebke. Also Anthony Bass and Joe
Weiland are two very good young pitchers to keep an eye on. This team
is not competing for anything this year, but they have some
interesting young pieces for the future.
