NL pt4

Howdy stranger! Now let's turn our steely, or, perhaps, fawning eyes to the NL West. Gone, long gone, are the heydays of the former San Diego/Albuquerque  now Oklahoma City franchise. This is a team in retool modus. Ya, I said modus. Not much to get excited about. Defensively, the team is sharp at short. Speaking of "Yikes", let's look at the catching. Yikes! They do have a Piazza type in Chico Borbon, with a better arm, but won't help the pitching much, Hope the pitching coach is good, if that even helps, which I don't think it does. Aside from Borbon the offence is swing and a miss or boom, ball go bye-bye types. There's a really fast guy, but he's not the best baserunner. I find that this world has a thing for power bats, noticing a lot more power in line-ups, this season. They did sign Santiago Lee to keep opposition from piling runs on, late in games, which is good. I suppose. To be fair, the pitching isn't bad at all. It's just that they won't get much help, and they have two catchers that tend to shrug when the pitcher looks in for a sign.

"What a bullpen!" That's what the imaginary fans of Las Vegas are saying. Too bad about the rest of the team. Not very dissimilar to OKC. Pitching is the strength, defence is weak, but with better catchers. The offence is worse. The line-up features Louie Twitchell, who can hit when not striking out, and some speed, but is not very threatening. The pitching is, actually, pretty good. Though he's the number 2 starter, the best in the rotation is Mitch Jensen, starting his sophmore season. I'm not certain that this squad will see a turnaround from last season's downturn, and this could be the start of a rebuild.

Ok, now we got a team that can get to the ball and make a play on it. Wow, so very strong up the middle. except at catcher. what's with the West and their disdain for capable backstops? I dunno. Run production will be somewhat of an issue. Season 26 MVP, Andres Silva will slug 40, as usual, and there's a couple other guys, but this won't be a team that piles up runs. Pitching is notch below the other teams in the West, and might struggle with control out of the bullpen. Andrea McCartney has two brothers. Their names are Elizabeth and Margaret. true fact. The rest of the rotation ain't shabby, especially Wayne Payton. I always marvel at rocketcy's ability to get the max out of his team, and season after season, and has been the division champ three out of the past four seasons, winning 94 games last season. I can't see it happening this season, but I'll not be shocked in the least if rocket guides this squad to 100 victories this season.

Hmm, I think I know which team won't win the division, theArizona BOO-YAHS. Sorry bbwinks, just saying like I sees it. Scoring runs is going to be a huge challenge for this team, with the best hitter, I s'pose, being the fading Jack Bergen. There's not a lot of power, but there's a couple high contact guys. But, yah, three runs a game would be awesome for this line-up. Pitching is the equal of the hitting, so yah, keeping the opposition to five runs a game would also be awesome. Weak, as well, are the gloves. It's just not going to be a good year for the Season 13 World Series winning franchise.

The MidWest farmer's daughter really make you feel all right

I wish they all could be California girls