Hey everybody, starting this week I am going to break down every division in the MLB. I will debate whether certain teams have a chance and pick a preseason winner of each division. Then, I will break down the playoffs and crown a World Series Champion. This will take a few weeks and the last article should come out opening weekend. So, fingers crossed, as I hope everybody likes it.
Now, grab your hotdogs, Cracker Jacks and ball glove it’s baseball time in America once again!
Breaking down baseball is much more complicated than say breaking down football or basketball, simply because baseball has such a long season and have farm systems. So, a pitcher who starts the year in AA could be the hero in game seven of the World Series. Teams bring up players the whole year. Also, someone who starts out the year hot can turn cold by late July and find out he has been demoted to AAA. Also, there are a ton of injuries that can wreck your season as well, but I will try my best to break down the season without any biased towards my favorite teams and players.
To the National League East we go.
The NL East consist of teams from California to all the way to Colorado.
Los Angeles Dodgers
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies.
I’ll break down every team going into the year, then ill wrap it up with the final standing I think will be the final standing at the end of the year.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers are defending East Champions, but were sadly knocked out in the first round by the NL Champions, The Mets. Last year’s roster had some great pitching with Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. Greinke actually left after his Contract was up at the end of the season and will play for the Diamondbacks this year, more on them later. They also had Yasiel Puig, who had some trouble with the organization last year but still a valuable asset. They return the home run monster, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, and also haven Andre Either, Carl Crawford, and Howie Kendrick this spring.
They will definitely be in contention again for a division title as they have what should be a great rotation and stellar offense. They might have some bumps in the road if the injury bug hits their team but that goes with every team in both leagues.
The majority of their key players are back for another season in LA, and being familiar with your team helps out with everybody being on the same page and getting done what needs to be done.
San Diego Padres
The Padres were again busy this offseason as they were able to get Jon Jay from the Cardinals and Alexei Ramirez from the White Sox. They made a big splash last offseason getting Melvin Upton Jr. and Matt Kemp, but were still couldn’t get past fourth in the NL East. This year however I feel that they will make a major improvement from a year ago. They could possibly even battle for the division and a wild card spot. Their pitching needs attention though. They had a combined 4.09 ERA last year, that needs to be improved if they want to make a run at October this year.
All in all, I think they have a good offense, a defense that can be serviceable. If they can improve their pitching they will be a definite force in the East this year.
San Francisco Giants
It’s become a weird coincidence that they Giants have won it all on even years, 2010, 2012, 2014.
However, last year was not their year. The injury bug them often. Their All Star players like Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan, and Matt Cain, along with a whole list of others missed playing time last year due to a varying degree of injuries. There was a reason they finished with a 84-78 record, which some teams would be thrilled to have. The giants are too good not to be in the playoffs this year, that is if they can stay healthy.
Madison Bumgarner is back this year, and if he and free agent pick up Jeff Samardzija can lead the rotation, with guys like Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence in the offense they will but in the NL East title talks.
Arizona Diamondbacks
The Diamondbacks finished third in the division last year, and are looking to improve upon that. Offseason pickups like Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller should help them. They also bring back Gold Glove winner Paul Goldschmidt, who can help on both offense and defense.
They do however have some issues to address. They had a team batting average of .272, and a team ERA of 4.04. Both, need to be improved upon if they want to make a playoff berth this year.
They are also introduce some new uniforms this year that look pretty good.
I think they have a decent team in the East, but time will tell if they are playoff ready.
Colorado Rockies
Returning stars like, Jose Reyes and Carlos Gonzalez will have to lead this team going into the 2016 season. They still have a fairly young team, with a young team they have to learn to roll with the punches. Jason Motte a pickup from St. Louis this offseason will help their pitching out, which had an ERA of 5.04. They will still have a lot to improve on as they were the cellar dwellers finishing last in the division last year.
They will make strides forward, but I feel they still will have a lotto overcome in such a competitive division.
Finishing up, the NL will be, as it should be, a super competitive division in the 2016 season. The teams should have more parity in the division than years past.
The final Standing should go like this:
1st- San Francisco Giants
2nd- LA Dodgers – Wildcard
3rd- San Diego Padres
4th- Colorado Rockies
5th- Arizona Diamondbacks
So, both the Giants and Dodgers will go into the playoffs his offseason and we will talk more about that in a few weeks.
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