Spring Training Preview: The West Coast is the Best Coast

Now that the poor excuse for America’s favorite sport has finished its season with a blackout rather than a bang, it’s time for Major League Baseball teams to report for Spring Training in preparation for what could be one of the greatest seasons in the sport’s history.  For the second time in three years the World Series champion came out of the National League West. The only problem with this is that it was the San Francisco Giants, both times.  2013 is a new season, and as the rest of the teams in the NL West demonstrated this past offseason, it is going to be very difficult for the Giants to repeat as division winners or World Series champions.  Here’s everything you need know about the National League West as Spring Training gets underway.

Arizona Diamondbacks

2012 Roundup:

Record: 81-81 (38-34 vs. NL West); finished 3^rd, 13 games behind the Giants.

Team BA: .259

Team ERA: 3.93

The 2012 Diamondbacks started the regular season on a very positive note with a three game sweep of the eventual champion Giants, but after a 5-1 start they found themselves with a 23-28 record at the end of May.  They were never able to find their stride, hovering around the .500 mark throughout the rest of the season. Nevertheless, these Diamondbacks showed the rest of the division that they will be competitive in 2013.

Key Offseason Moves:

• Traded Justin Upton and Chris Johnson to the Braves for Martin Prado, Randall Delgado and three minor leaguers; they subsequently signed Prado to a four year contract.
• In a three team trade with the Oakland Athletics and Miami Marlins, the Diamondbacks traded Chris Young and cash to Oakland for Cliff Pennington and minor leaguer Yordy Cabrera, then turned around and sent Cabrera to Miami for Heath Bell.
• In a three team, nine player trade with the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds, the Diamondbacks sent Trevor Bauer, Matt Albers, and Bryan Shaw to the Indians in exchange for Tony Sipp and Lars Anderson, and Didi Gregorius from Cincinnati.  Anderson was later cut.
• Signed J.J. Putz to a two year extension after picking up his option.
• Traded Ryan Wheeler to the Rockies for Matt Reynolds.
• Signed free agent Brandon McCarthy to a two year contract.
• Signed free agent Cody Ross to a three year contract.
• Signed free agent Eric Chavez to a one year contract.
• Signed free agent Eric Hinske to a one year contract.
• Signed free agent Rod Barajas to a minor league contract.

After showing a lot of promise in 2012, the Diamondbacks are looking to capitalize on a strong offseason by putting together a 2013 regular season worthy of winning the NL West.  This roster has a lot of versatility with guys who can play everywhere, and a pitching staff that has the ability to surprise a lot of people.  However, it could be harder than ever to win the division this season with the deep pockets in Los Angeles hell-bent on winning it all right away.

Colorado Rockies

2012 Roundup:

Record: 64-98 (28-44 vs. NL West); finished 5^th, 30 games behind the Giants.

Team BA: .274

Team ERA: 5.22

The Rockies began the 2012 season with a fairly decent April, finishing with a respectable 11-11 record. With the benefit of hindsight, they probably would have preferred if the season ended then.  May, June, and July brought a combined record of 26-53 with the team reaching double digit wins in only one of the three months.  Injuries took their toll throughout the entire season as the Rockies stumbled to a last place finish for the first time since 2005.

Key Offseason Moves:

• Signed Dexter Fowler to a two year contract.
• Traded Matt Reynolds to Arizona for Ryan Wheeler.
• Signed Jeff Francis to a one year contract.
• Signed Chris Volstad, Manny Corpas and Yorvit Torrealba to minor league contracts.
• Named Walt Weiss manager.

A quick look at the projected lineup for the 2013 Colorado Rockies shows what could be a very strong team offensively, but there are questions surrounding the team’s pitching.  The Rockies switched to a four-man pitching rotation in mid-June, and reports out of Denver late last season were saying the team planned on utilizing this strategy in 2013 as well.  With superstar players such as Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos González locked up long term, the Rockies have put together a solid base for success in the future, it’s just a matter of placing the correct pieces around them, and that starts with pitching.

Can Clayton Kershaw round back into Cy Young form and lead a voracious starting rotation to the promised land in 2013? By SD Dirk on Flickr (Originally posted to Flickr as “Clayton Kershaw”) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

2012 Roundup:

Record: 86-76 (35-37 vs. NL West); finished 2^nd, 8 games behind the Giants.

Team BA: .252

Team ERA: 3.34

The 2012 regular season could not have gotten off to a better start for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  After starting 9-1, the Dodgers finished 16-7 in the month of April, marking the most wins in franchise history in the first month of the season.  A ten-inning victory over the Chicago White Sox gave them a 42-25 record on June 17, which was quite impressive considering the injuries (specifically to Matt Kemp) the team had endured up until this point.  Alas, this marked the beginning of the end for the Dodgers; they lost fifteen of their next twenty games leading into the all-star break, and played .500 baseball throughout the second half of the season.  In mid August, the new owners attempted to salvage the season in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox, but it proved too be late.  In the trade, the Dodgers acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto, along with their contracts that totaled over $260 million.

Key Offseason Moves:

• Signed free agent Zack Greinke to a six year contract.
• Signed free agent Ryu Hyun-jin to a six year contract.
• Re-signed free agent Brandon League to a three year contract.
• Signed free agent J.P. Howell to a one year contract.
• Traded Jake Lemmerman to the Cardinals for Skip Schumaker.
• Signed Mark McGwire as hitting coach.
• Named Sandy Koufax advisor to the chairman.
• Agreed to a one year extension with Vin Scully.
• Reports of a $7 billion Television deal with Time Warner (reports last week said Major League Baseball still has not received the paperwork to review this deal).

Although 2012 did not finish the way Dodgers fans would have liked, the events that transpired throughout the regular season and well into the offseason have provided renewed hope that the Dodgers organization can finally rise out of the ashes left behind from the oppressive reign of Frank McCourt. One of the most important additions in all of baseball this past offseason could be the addition of Mark McGwire to Don Mattingly‘s coaching staff. His legacy is tainted with steroids, but his talent as a pure hitter was matched by few and his insight will be important to the Dodgers lineup. This roster has the potential to be the best in baseball.

San Diego Padres

2012 Roundup:

Record: 76-86 (34-38 vs. NL West); finished 4^th, 18 games behind the Giants.

Team BA: .247

Team ERA: 4.01

It seemed as if the San Diego Padres were doomed from the very beginning of the season; a 3-12 start led to a 34-53 record at the end of the first half. They followed this up with a 42-33 record in the second half of the season, and made a strong push at the end in an attempt to finish with a .500 record before they dropped six of their last 8, ultimately finishing with a 76-86 record.

Key Offseason Moves:

• Traded Andrew Werner and Andy Parrino to Athletics in exchange for Tyson Ross.
• Re-signed free agent Jason Marquis.
• Signed free agent Freddy Garcia.
• Signed Chase Headley to a one year extension.

The Padres did little this past offseason to help their chances in the NL West, and the one year contract to Headley seems to send the signal they have zero interest on keeping him long term. With that being said, this is not a bad team by any means, it just doesn’t help that other teams in the division have gotten much better as of late. The pitching rotation needs to get better if the team wants any chance of contending late in the season.

To win the NL West, you’ve got to go through AT&T Park. By Coasttocoast at the English language Wikipedia, via Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco Giants

2012 Roundup:

Record: 94-68 (45-27 vs. NL West); finished 1^st, tied for the third best record in the NL.

Team BA: .269

Team ERA: 3.68

At the start of the 2012 regular season it did not seem as if Buster Posey was going to win his second World Series title.  The Giants limped out to a 24-23 record by May 27. From then on they went 70-45 to finish a top the NL West for the second time in three years.  In the first two rounds of the postseason, the Giants went 6-0 in elimination games after coming back from series deficits of 0-2 and 1-3 against Cincinnati and St. Louis, respectively. Against the Tigers in the World Series, the Giants pitching posted a 1.46 ERA and held Detroit to a .156 batting average, clinching the World Series with ease.

Key Offseason Moves:

• Re-signed free agent Angel Pagan to a four year contract.
• Re-signed free agents Jeremy Affeldt and Marco Scutaro to a three year contracts.
• Signed free agent Andres Torres.
• Lost Melky Cabrera, Brian Wilson and Aubrey Huff.

In 2012 the Giants once again showed the baseball world that pitching is the key to winning in the playoffs, but will their passive offseason plan payoff?  Similar to the offseason after their World Series title in 2010, the Giants opted to keep the core of their team intact and focused on keeping the chemistry together; this plan clearly did not work in the 2011 season, so who’s to say it will work now? This past season the Giants got a lot of help since their number one hitter, for much of the season, was using steroids.  This offseason approach has created a number of questions that they Giants will be forced to answer this season.  With the roster the Dodgers have put together, making a case for the Giants to win the division has become much harder, but their pitching, once again, gives them the best chance to do that.