Sunday, April 01, 2007
NL West Preview
The San Diego Padres have good young pitching you probably never heard of, in addition to ace Jake Peavy and old man starters, Greg Maddux and David Wells. Check out the young studs Chris Young and the 6’10” Clay Hensley.
The Clarion likes rookie manager Bud Black, too. Still it says here the LA Dodgers have even more pitching. Peavy is coming off a down year, Maddux and Wells are forty-one and forty-three respectively. The Los Angeles Dodgers just nose out the Pads for the division title in the last week of the season.
As for the rest of the division, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who don’t have a single head turner or former All-Star in their starting line-up are being wildly over-estimated. Yankee fans know, National League or not, Randy Johnson is f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d. Done. Fur-gettabout-it. His slide piece was spinning like a top on a table last year. No bite on it at all, and he was getting wacked all over the yard. It wasn’t just that the mean ol' New York media hurt his feelings. He had a 5.00 era last year, and hasn’t pitched a shut out in two years.
As for the San Francisco Giants, the Clarion can’t be the only one hoping Bonds retires twenty homers into the season. Regardless, they wildly overpaid for nice guy, Barry Zito, who won’t be an updgrade over the ace they let get away to a division rival Jason Schmidt. Their every day line-up is old enough that manager Bruce Bochy could blend in without anyone blinking an eye.
The Colorado Rockies will score and give up runs in bunches. Wins are likely to be scarce. Matt Holliday will have a terrific rotisserie season. 1st baseman Todd Helton is on the decline. Other the other hand, 2nd baseman Kaz Matsui figures to rebound in the hitting friendly, higher altitudes. He could be a rotisserie steal. The bigger question is; the state of the major league baseball experiment in Colorado, in general. Is this a triple AAA state? The Rockies haven’t hit the 3 million mark in attendance since 2002. Heading into last year the Rockies' attendance had declined for four straight seasons to less than 2 million from an expansion debut peak of of 4.4 million. If baseball's claims about small market teams are true, why would Denver the 25th biggest city in America by some measures merit a team?
NL WEST 2007
1. LA Dodgers
over/under 91 wins
The Clarion takes the Over.
2. SD Padres
over/under 83 wins
The Clarion takes the Over.
3. SF Giants
over/under 79 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
4. AZ Diamonbacks
over/under 77.5 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
5. CO Rockies
over/under 75.5 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
The Clarion likes rookie manager Bud Black, too. Still it says here the LA Dodgers have even more pitching. Peavy is coming off a down year, Maddux and Wells are forty-one and forty-three respectively. The Los Angeles Dodgers just nose out the Pads for the division title in the last week of the season.
As for the rest of the division, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who don’t have a single head turner or former All-Star in their starting line-up are being wildly over-estimated. Yankee fans know, National League or not, Randy Johnson is f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d. Done. Fur-gettabout-it. His slide piece was spinning like a top on a table last year. No bite on it at all, and he was getting wacked all over the yard. It wasn’t just that the mean ol' New York media hurt his feelings. He had a 5.00 era last year, and hasn’t pitched a shut out in two years.
As for the San Francisco Giants, the Clarion can’t be the only one hoping Bonds retires twenty homers into the season. Regardless, they wildly overpaid for nice guy, Barry Zito, who won’t be an updgrade over the ace they let get away to a division rival Jason Schmidt. Their every day line-up is old enough that manager Bruce Bochy could blend in without anyone blinking an eye.
The Colorado Rockies will score and give up runs in bunches. Wins are likely to be scarce. Matt Holliday will have a terrific rotisserie season. 1st baseman Todd Helton is on the decline. Other the other hand, 2nd baseman Kaz Matsui figures to rebound in the hitting friendly, higher altitudes. He could be a rotisserie steal. The bigger question is; the state of the major league baseball experiment in Colorado, in general. Is this a triple AAA state? The Rockies haven’t hit the 3 million mark in attendance since 2002. Heading into last year the Rockies' attendance had declined for four straight seasons to less than 2 million from an expansion debut peak of of 4.4 million. If baseball's claims about small market teams are true, why would Denver the 25th biggest city in America by some measures merit a team?
NL WEST 2007
1. LA Dodgers
over/under 91 wins
The Clarion takes the Over.
2. SD Padres
over/under 83 wins
The Clarion takes the Over.
3. SF Giants
over/under 79 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
4. AZ Diamonbacks
over/under 77.5 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
5. CO Rockies
over/under 75.5 wins
The Clarion takes the Under.
Labels: baseball, Predictions, sports
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