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“NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST-FACT VS FICTION”
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We are at mid-June on the baseball schedule and the teams are in turmoil in the National League West.
We are 6-weeks away from the Baseball Trading Deadline, and one big deal has already been made, but there may be limitations on other teams making deals.
A quick look at NL-West storylines:
DODGERS:
The calvary is on the way and it might save the Dodgers season heading into the playoffs. LA has had 18-pitchers on the disabled list this first half of the season and the jury is still out what they will get out of the biggest names on that pitching staff.
Shohei Ohtani’s first outing was a statement, and now we wait to see how quickly he can build his innings and pitch counts from one start to another.
Clayton Kershaw has re-emerged with a couple of solid starts after spending the first third of the season recovering from surgeries. As a 4th or 5th starter-he is trustworthy.
It does not appear there will be any Roki Sasaki sighting this year, because of the shoulder impingement that led to a cortisone injection. Such an impressive start has come to a crashing halt. They have to rebuild his mechanics. Fix his psyche. Hope they can build a pitch count for him. He might not be ready till September if at all.
Blake Snell has not pitched this season and has been slow to rebound from his own shoulder woes. Might he be a month away, but what will he be like when he gets back, with his history of lousy starts. They owe him alot of money and he drags a pretty shoddy reputation to the mound with him based on first half failures virtually every year.
Tyler Glasnow may be the next in line, but you wonder about his propensity to breakdown with shoulder issues, forearm strains, now back tightness, as they try to fix his delivery to protect all the moving parts. He likely is the next to arrive in the rotation, but for how long.
An alarm bell also rang this week with a 3rd bad outing in a row from Yosh Yomamoto, with the analytics people admitting the ace cannot hold up to pitching in a 4-man rotation. They may try to slot him once a week, where his career ERA is (0.67) on 6-days rest. Stay tuned for that scouting report next.
The LA bullpen is deep, banged up, recovering, but in recent weeks, the Dodgers have gone to bullpen days twice a week. How look does that hold up?
LA is rich, deep in talent, unafraid to gamble, deep in the pockets despite its payroll. Maybe there is another trade rental like last year’s Jack Flaherty rental.
SAN FRANCISCO:
A rock solid first half of the season on the mound, rotation and in the bullpen. Think about this, they are a home run out of first place and have zero wins from Justin Verlander. And they had 7-wins from Robbie Ray, with his history of arm problems.
The arrival of Raf Devers from the Red Sox shocked the world. Now he joins Willy Adames and Matt Chapman in what could be a strong batting order, after an anemic first half at bat. But we await to see how Devers hits in the bigger yard that is Oracle Park, vs what was the Green Monster, the Pesky Foul Pole and all things Fenway Park.
PADRES:
The good ship AJ Preller is taking on water. They have half a rotation. Dylan Cease has two wins and it’s mid June. Nick Pivetta, who was the third wheel in the rotation on opening day, has 8-wins.
And despite a spotty resume, think about the number of decent innings they have gotten from Randy Vasquez, Ryan Berget and Stephen Kolek.
But the starters struggle to get to the 5th-6th innings, there is a ton of over reliance on the bullpen, and there is really nothing left to bring up from El Paso.
The great unknown is whether there are very many innings left from Yu Darvish, having his 3rd straight summer of elbow issues. And the mystery of how to treat Michael King’s shoulder impingement. And of course there is no Joe Musgrove.
How do the Friars stay in a pennant race with 3-key starters either not winning, or not even on the roster. Think of past summers, when all those starters made 30-starts each. Feels like this is the price being paid for what those guys gave you 3-summers in a row.
Preller’s winter shopping spree at Dollar General netted him home runs from Gavin Sheets, some decent play from super sub Jose Iglesias, but virtually nothing else. A black hole in left, non-hitting catchers, not much of a bench bunch.
Complicating it all, there’s not much to use as trade bait. Ownership seems to have a lid on the 210M-payroll the GM has spent on. No one wants the big veteran contracts he has handed out either.
Hate to think the (14-3) Padres start was the best baseball you will see from this team. They are under .500 since then. It feels like they are on borrowed time despite the stars in the lineup and in the batting order.
ARIZONA:
Last year was a surprise. This year is a disappointment, as they struggle to stay at .500.
Losing front line starter Corbin Burnes for the year with elbow surgery was devastating, alot of money to a guy who never had arm problems.
The devastating shoulder surgery for Jordan Montgomery, all that wasted money invested in him. Ditto for Eduardo Rodgriuez who has hardly been a good investment. Not much help for once-ace Zac Gallen.
They never replaced departed 1st baseman Christian Walker either. It’s just a fractured team right now.
COLORADO:
Are they still in the National League West? What a disgrace. I am sure there are roster changes coming. Should be an ownership change too. The worst start for a major league team since 1899.
If they were healthy, maybe somebody would make a run at Rockies pitchers German Marquez or Kyle Freeland or maybe 3B-1B-Ryan McMahon.
Their season was over by May 1st.
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