In case you were wondering, the National League West is the best division in baseball. I know it’s only the beginning of June, but the division the Dodgers have won for so many years in a row has a few surprise teams. 

The NL West is historically good right now. It's the 3rd time in divisional era ('69) 3 teams from 1 division enter June 10 gms above .500.

— Joe Davis (@Joe_Davis) May 31, 2017

As of the writing of this article, three teams in the National League have 33 wins. They’re all in the NL West. The Houston Astros are the only other team in baseball with more wins than any of the top-three NL West teams.

Kiké Hernandez has been swinging a hot bat for the Dodgers during their current streak. By Owen Main

The Rockies and Diamondbacks both had great starts, but the Dodgers have come-on recently, winning 10 of 12 games before losing to the Cardinals on Wednesday night. 

The adage about a rising tide buoying all ships really applies here. We all know the Giants won a bunch of World Series titles recently and the Dodgers have asserted their past, present and future dominance of the division. 

But the Rockies and Diamondbacks have both recently refocused their organizational efforts and it seems to be paying-off through about a third of the 2017 season. 

I guess it’s possible that all three teams keep up their torrid paces throughout the season. They certainly have a head-start. For now, the division that people have scoffed at over recent years looks deep. Colorado and Arizona fans should enjoy it while it lasts. 

On Tuesday night, Cal Poly alum and former Big West Conference Player of the Year Mitch Haniger made his major-league debut. The 25 year-old outfielder started in left field, batting 7th. Facing Noah Syndergaard, Haniger struck out in his first at-bat and grounded out to second base in his second.

Here’s a second picture of Mitch Haniger that hasn’t been used by everyone and their brother. By Owen Main

In his third at-bat, Haniger tripled toward the pool in Chase Field’s right-centerfield gap. The hit drove in two D-Backs as they tried to come back against New York’s Thor. Here’s a link to a video, though you’ll likely have to watch one of those infernal “Toomgis” AMPM commercials before you’re treated to the sweet Haniger swing.

Later in the game, Haniger roped a hanging breaking ball down the left field line for his second hit — a double. Haniger became the first Diamondbacks player to notch a triple for his first big league hit and also the first to have three RBI’s in his debut.

Two springs ago, Haniger was in his first spring training with the Diamondbacks when I caught up with him for a conversation. After starting that season poorly in AA ball, Haniger was demoted to High A in the California League. This year, he worked his way all the way to Arizona’s Reno affiliate, where he was tearing it up.

Arizona brought him up tonight and it paid dividends.

Congrats, Mitch. You’ve got a whole lot of Cal Poly fans rooting for you.

Zack Grienke is going to the Diamondbacks. On Friday night, Ken Rosenthal broke the news via Twitter. My Dodgers/baseball-related twitter feed responded.

Sources: Greinke in agreement with #DBacks, pending physical.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2015

Dave Stewart: pic.twitter.com/ZBW18XTmrp

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) December 5, 2015

#Dodgers home opener next year is against Diamondbacks. Should be fun.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 5, 2015

Well the Dbacks certainly found a solution to me always forgetting that they exist.

— Stacey May Fowles (@MissStaceyMay) December 5, 2015

They took on $100 million for Carl Crawford and gave Ethier $85M… https://t.co/mz0W5FaHR9

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) December 5, 2015

Again: Greinke deal is six years, $206M with deferrals, per sources. Deferrals will lower present-day value of contract.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 5, 2015

I'm still in disbelief about Greinke to Arizona, but losing him is a torpedo below the waterline for LA.

— Michael Baumann (@MJ_Baumann) December 5, 2015

I want to have a giant mutliplayer Halo team up, in which I piss everyone off by team killing while debating what the Dodgers next move is

— Doctor Eephusblue (@EephusBlue) December 5, 2015

Dear Diamondbacks: Ok, you're even for that pool thing.

— Sons of Steve Garvey (@sosgsosg) December 5, 2015

I'm told Dodgers never got comfortable with guaranteed 6th year to Greinke.

— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) December 5, 2015

I'm online and I need a new avatar.

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) December 5, 2015

@Dodgers The Howard chimes in. #Dodgers #GreedIsNotGood. https://t.co/8TZAR4SBa3

— Howard Cole (@Howard_Cole) December 5, 2015

Sooooo the Giants are still out there w $ to spend too. Dodgers will still be bidding against them.

— fansmanship (@fansmanship) December 5, 2015

Just woke up from a nightmare that the Dodgers wasted Kershaw's prime.

— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) December 5, 2015

The thing about Grienke for me is that he was both reliable and fun. He pitched inside when he needed to. He stood-up for his teammates on the field. He was a pitcher who could hit, and who flipped his bat like nobody’s business. Aside from Clayton Kershaw, he was one of the easiest Dodgers for me to root for in the last decade. Part of it was that he didn’t fit the mold of someone trying to fit in with Los Angeles. He was different. He is the kind of guy fans of other teams are lucky to be able to root for.

It’s not that it wasn’t the right move for the Dodgers to let a pitcher in his 30’s walk to the tune of 6 years and $200-plus million. These are the kinds of moves other teams make and are happy about it in the end. Those teams are just not usually the Dodgers.

Teams like St. Louis let players like Albert Pujols go and get to the World Series despite that. The Dodgers haven’t made it to the World Series since 1988.

Now, they’ve let Grienke move on, to sign with a division rival. One of their most dependable guys is gone, and him not being in Dodger blue next season makes me (maybe more than) a little sad.

Howard Cole’s post in Forbes is probably worth reading if you’re trying to get perspective and calm the anxiety that comes with not having two of the best 5 pitchers in baseball on your roster. But having those guys wasn’t all it took to make it to the World Series. There’s more to it than that. I’m trying to calm myself about it.

Here’s the paragraph whose first two sentences need to become my calming mantra over the next month or two of Dodgers fansmanship:

You either trust the front office men or you don’t. I trust them. Arizona came calling with their cash and their cacti, and Greinke bit. Bully for him.

Farhan Zaidi, the Dodgers General Manager, isn’t feeling the kind of pressure that Dodger fans are right about now.

“We have enough alternatives in free agency and the trade market, that there’s no time pressure on our part to land a starting pitcher,” Zaidi said. 

Everyone who is using their logical mind probably has good points. But Zack Grienke is a great pitcher. Whoever is the number-two for the Dodgers will not be as good. The Dodgers are always looking to make moves. Signing other pitchers is always on the table. There are players on 29 other teams to trade with, too. Like Howard said: you either trust the front office or you don’t. I still do. Yep, I’m going to just keep repeating that… .

Mitch Haniger is trying to break through in his third full season in professional baseball. By Owen Main

A former Big West Conference Player of the Year and All American at Cal Poly, Diamondbacks outfielder Mitch Haniger enters his fourth professional season in 2015 with some questions.

In my short conversation with Haniger from last Thursday afternoon, I found out how closely he followed the Cal Poly baseball team last season, what it’s like to be traded, and what his outlook is like for this season.

Talk to him for a few minutes and you can’t help but like this week’s podcast guest, Mitch Haniger.

The Padres. Off the top of my head, I think of them as kind of a laughing stock, but they haven’t been as bad as that, necessarily. Over the past 10 years, they won 90 games once and had four total winning seasons. The Friars have had fewer than 78 wins in each of the past four years and five of the last six. The closest they’ve got to the division title over the past four years is 16 games back.

So, honestly, I can’t blame the team for blowing things up this offseason. I can’t blame AJ Preller for trying to do something different.

Different is a good way to describe the Padres’ offseason.

They traded with the Dodgers for a declining Matt Kemp, and most of his salary. They added Justin Upton, Wil Myers, and Will Middlebrooks, among others. Their pitching staff, if it stays healthy, can be really good. This week, they signed James Shields to a contract that was way less than many expected from Shields.

At the very least, the Padres have a ton of right-handed power and names that should bring in closer to 2004’s 3 million fans, compared with the 2.1 or so they’ve been averaging over the past five years.

Good for fans…

My first thought about everything that’s happened in San Diego is that I’m excited for Padres fans. As a UC San Diego alumnus, I am thrilled for Padres fans. Whether they’re good or not, they’ll at least be a relevant talking point on the national stage this year — more than can be said for the team’s recent past.

Myers, Upton, and Kemp will be really fun to see in the lineup if they can stay healthy. Bud Black has a knack for getting a ton out of his pitching staff. The Padres may be the most interesting early-season MLB.TV teams to see just what their games look like and how they actually play on the field.

A great case study

The additions of high strikeout right-handed power-hitting outfielders will make for an interesting case study this season. The relative inability — according to advanced defensive metrics — of any of the three outfielders to play center field effectively could be interesting to watch. Speaking of advanced metrics, the Padres should have a really high strikeout percentage as a team and not much hitting from players who play defensively in the infield. Despite bullish projections for the Tim Federowicz/ Derrick Norris platoon at catcher, ZIPS projects all of the Padres’ positions to have 2-3 win players. The Padres should be improved at the plate.

While the three outfielders are really great hitters, their projected defensive value will be an interesting test over the course of the season. If defensive metrics are as shaky as some say, the Padres may turn out to improve enough to contend. If defensive metrics are accurate, the Padres may actually be limited to an 80-85 win team.

The case study for the pitching might be just as interesting. Having already flown in the face of conventional advanced statistical wisdom, Preller signed James Shields this week. While he has been a solid pitcher, Shields isn’t a darling of the advanced stats community. Don’t get me wrong, he’s been a really solid pitcher over the past few years, but according to Fangraphs, he hasn’t been worth more than 4.5 WAR at any point in his career. Shields is solid, but he’s worth closer to the relatively modest four year contract he ended up with versus a megadeal he was rumored to be getting earlier this offseason.

What does it mean for the National League West?

The Padres are really just kind of fitting-in in their division. The Giants have won three of the past five World Series titles with great pitching and timely hitting while not being an advanced statistics poster child. Alongside the Giants now, the Diamondbacks and Padres are all making personnel choices that could be described as “old school.” It’s all setting us up for a season of, basically, the Dodgers vs. everyone else.

The Dodgers, who have hired a cadre of forward-thinking, new-school baseball executives, ready to use advanced statistics and all information possible in personnel (and, presumably in game) decisions.

Then there are the defending world champions and two other teams hell-bent on proving that grit, toughness, and old-school baseball still are what wins.

I can’t wait to give it a season or so to see who comes out on top. Someone will be right, and someone will be left to try to justify their offseason and organizational decisions.

As a Dodger fan, I’m glad because I believe what the Dodgers have been doing is generally a good plan. I’m glad because I don’t think what the Padres did will be great for them in the long run. I’m especially glad, though, that we’re not trying to copy the Giants. They’ve been successful, but in LA, how you do it is as important as whether you do it. I want the Dodgers to do it their way.

Yasiel Puig is, by far, the most interesting player in baseball right now, and he doesn’t even have a beard. By Owen Main

Nobody can say Yasiel Puig doesn’t care.

In the midst of one of the greatest starts to a career ever, Puig has been a lightning rod for both criticism and praise. He is a hitting machine one minute, and one of the worst base runners in the majors the next. It’s the kind of combination we haven’t seen since Manny Ramirez.

No matter how you describe him, Puig is compelling. His at-bats must be watched. Last night, Puig walked in the 5th and continued the circus as he tried to score on an error by the Diamondbacks outfielder. The Cuban was out from here to Havana.

He came up again in the 6th inning with runners on first and second and one out. It was one of the most entertaining at-bats of the night.

Kennedy got two strikes on Puig with pitches just out of the strike zone. Puig kept his swagger and, in this case at least, his poise. The final two pitches were a curveball low and away and a fastball up and out of the strike zone. Puig took them both and earned a trip down to first base.

Watching Puig as dialed-in as he was, taking pitches that seemed like they would be tantalizing to a young, unbridled rookie, made the Dodger fan inside of me giggle.

Then Puig did something that made only the most beastly, competitive, testosterone-driven part of me giggle. After not getting a single real pitch to hit in the at-bat, Puig stared down Kennedy, who had hit Puig in the head about a month ago, as he trotted to first. Puig may think of himself as an “alpha dog,” but if he plans to survive the league and fulfill his promise, he must learn to just go to first base. Right or wrong, if he keeps doing that, he’s going to get himself hurt.

Puig was the last batter Kennedy faced last night and later in the inning, the Dodgers scored their final two runs in a 6-1 drubbing of the first-place Diamondbacks.

His focus allowed him to walk twice in innings the Dodgers scored runs. His athleticism allowed him to almost get to a ball in the gap later in the game that was an inch from being the catch of the year. His youthful exuberance, though, got him thrown out at home after a stupid base-running decision. The Dodgers are lucky it didn’t affect the outcome of last night’s game. Dodger fans are also lucky that Puig will come with the same combination of excitement, youth, and IT factor tonight.

When he is playing, it seems like anything really is possible. Say what you will, this has to be the most entertaining player in baseball. Can’t wait to see what he does tonight.