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. 

As long as the Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, no team should want to draw them in the playoffs. By Owen Main

It’s only six games and it’s not even the end of August yet, but the National League stretch run will be set-up by the next two series for both the Dodgers and Giants.

For their part, the Dodgers are in the midst of two series against play two playoff-caliber teams.

First, the Cubs come to town. Joe Maddon’s team has a bevy of young stars and would be in the playoffs if they started today.

After the weekend series against the Cubbies, the Dodgers will host the Giants, who have kind of had their number so far this season.

The Giants, meanwhile, host the National League’s best team — the St. Louis Cardinals — before heading down to Los Angeles for their showdown with the Dodgers. A good effort over the weekend and a series victory could have them even closer to the NL West lead.

By Wednesday night, the Dodgers may have strengthened their 2 1/2 game lead over the Giants or lost it altogether.

Rivals in this division’s close race are starting to play each other head-to-head as the season winds down. It’s unlikely both the Dodgers and Giants will make the playoffs, so games start to mean a little more. I guess what I’m saying is that it might be a good week to pay attention to baseball if you’re a Dodgers or Giants fan.

My prediction: things aren’t actually going to change that much. By Wednesday night, the Dodgers will have a 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 game lead and the stretch run will be as exciting as ever. The baseball season is a long one, but these little stretches are ones to pay close attention to.

On Wednesday night, the Dodgers finally clinched the National League West with a resounding 9-1 win over their rivals, the San Francisco Giants. This season has been a weird one for fans like me. I haven’t been allowed to consume most of the games, and so I have had hugely mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I want to get excited. This is, after all, probably the most consistent season a Dodger team has managed in the past 20 years. Their lineup is loaded and if they can get even a little hot at the right time, they have a great chance to win the World Series.

On the other hand, this Dodger team, along with their television partner, have robbed me of watching this historic season like I would have watched any other. For the first time in five or ten years, I haven’t been to a game this season. That’s saying a lot for how well the Dodgers have played and how many players they have who are worth watching.

The play of this guy was certainly worth going to MLB.com to watch the next day:

Seriously, people who write tons of negative things and warnings about Puig are crazy. Kershaw is a no-brainer MVP, and this team is rolling.

I’m trying to get more engaged. I’m trying. Without the games on all year, though, it’s just hard.

For me, 2013’s moment was obvious. With the Dodgers down 2-0, Diamondbacks pitcher Ian Kennedy hit Yasiel Puig in the face. Puig brushed it off like a champ and went down to first base.

The next batter, most importantly, was Andre Ethier. Ethier belted a two-run home run to tie the game. The Dodgers would go on to win the game and eventually the division en-route to an NLCS appearance.

Ethier’s homer was an immediate response to a real challenge — something that isn’t always easy to do in a sport where you can have two or three bad MONTHS and still have a decent season — more on Matt Kemp later.

This season, the Dodgers have kind of cruised. They haven’t ever reached their high potential, but have managed to play just well-enough to still be division leaders. On Friday night, they lost to the second-place Giants.

Let me rephrase that — On Friday night, the Dodgers were owned by the Giants. Absolutely crushed. They lost their number-three starter, Hyun-jin Ryu to an injury and were beaten 9-0 to start a three-game series on the road. With two games to play, it was easy to imagine a scenario where the Dodgers would be the second-place team by weekend’s end.

A healthy Hanley Ramirez will be a big key to the Dodgers’ postseason chances. By Keith Allison on Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons

The Saturday came. Behind a strong start by Zack Grienke, the Dodgers put-up 17 runs and won 17-0. This is what Dodger fans have thought the offense could be all season. Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez, and Yasiel Puig were all integral parts of back-to back four-run innings. Even Juan Uribe joined the act, belting a late homer against his old team.

The Dodgers let everyone know that, when they are healthy, they can be a scary-good team.

Sunday’s game was the only close one of the series. Unfortunately for the Giants, Clayton Kershaw was what Clayton Kershaw is — the best pitcher of his era. The lefty gave up two earned runs in eight innings of work, raising his ERA to 1.70. He walked one and struck-out nine to earn his 19th win. If he isn’t both the MVP and Cy Young winner this year, something’s wrong.

Matt Kemp is playing pretty well, too.

My suspicion is that Kemp is finally starting to round into form after major shoulder and ankle injuries. The fact that he has 20 home runs this season is a testament to his health and ability to stay flexible with where he is playing defense.

Here’s his 20th. Cue the bubble machine.

In the words of Vin Scully, “Matt is having trouble keeping his feet on the ground.”

The Dodgers have a lot of players with a lot of injury history. If they can manage to get them into the playoffs mostly healthy and able to contribute, then this will be a formidable team. For everything I’ve seen on twitter about Don Mattingly and his in-game decision-making woes, his greatest achievement could be to manage a roster into the playoffs without any of the large contributors being injured.

For the sake of Hanley Ramirez’ ribs, I’m just thankful the Dodgers aren’t playing the Cardinals again this year…

This week, the Dodgers clinched the National League West Division Title and will at least make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2009.

In a year that saw the Dodgers fall 9.5 games back in the division, winning the division has to be some relief off the organization and players. They were expected to be at this level the whole season but injuries and lack of chemistry hurt them early-on. Eventually, they became the team that Dodger fans envisioned at the season’s start.

The Dodgers made the playoffs, now can they win the World Series for the first time in 25 years? By Joe Juarez [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The uproar has me scratching my head. Why is this at all controversial to people? Many Arizona players and management called the celebration “classless,” but I don’t get why.

Even former Vice Presidential candidate, John McCain took out his anger about the situation on twitter by tweeting the following:

No-class act by a bunch of overpaid, immature, arrogant, spoiled brats! “The #Dodgers are idiots” http://t.co/KfZZliBFBV

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) September 20, 2013

If the Diamondbacks didn’t want the Dodgers to celebrate on their home field, then they should have beaten them. They had a three run lead in the game and blew it. Even better, if they didn’t want Yasiel Puig swan-diving into the pool, they shouldn’t have given up their 9.5 game lead in the division. It’s as simple as that.

The Dodgers did nothing wrong by celebrating in the pool at Chase Field. It’s a pool, it’s meant to be swam in. Almost all the fans were gone, so there was no security issue either. If such controversy is being made about an away team celebrating on an opponent’s field then why is it acceptable for any team to celebrate after they win a title on the road? If the D-Backs had lost the World Series at Chase Field, would they have asked the AL team to no celebrate on the field? Of course not.

I know that a division title isn’t the same as a championship but after what the Dodgers went through this season, this celebration was deserved especially against the Diamondbacks. Coming from an organization that earlier in the season, demanded a group of Dodger fans sitting behind home plate to either change their clothes to Arizona merchandise or leave the game, calling another team classless is like the pot calling the kettle black.

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

While there are still many bona fide power hitters in the majors (Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Robinson Cano, etc.), building a strong pitching rotation has become more of a prominent priority for successful teams. Just last season (2011), baseball had a pitcher, Justin Verlander, win both the MVP award and the CY Young award in the American League. Pitching has always been important to America’s pastime but now it’s more crucial than ever.

Here is my sixth installment and this time I’m taking my talents to the National League, breaking down each team’s potential starting rotation for the 2013 season with the average Earned Run Average (I know averaging an average isn’t scientifically sound, but I’m doing it anyway…): This time, the spotlight is on the NL West…

San Francisco Giants:

1. Matt Cain (16-5, 2.79 ERA, 193 Strikeouts)
2. Madison Bumgarner (16-11, 3.37 ERA, 191 Strikeouts)
3. Tim Lincecum (10-15, 5.18 ERA, 190 Strikeouts)
4. Ryan Vogelsong (14-9, 3.37 ERA, 158 Strikeouts)
5. Barry Zito (15-8, 4.15 ERA, 114 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.77

Los Angeles Dodgers:

1. Clayton Kershaw (14-9, 2.53 ERA, 229 Strikeouts)
2. Zack Greinke (15-5, 3.48 ERA, 200 Strikeouts)
3. Josh Beckett (7-14, 4.65 ERA, 132 Strikeouts)
4. Hyun-Jin Ryu, stats from Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) (9-9, 2.66 ERA, 210 Strikeouts)
5. Chad Billingsley (10-9, 3.55 ERA, 128 Strikeouts)

Average Combined 2012 ERA: 3.37

Arizona Diamondbacks:

1. Ian Kennedy (15-12, 4.02 ERA, 187 Strikeouts)
2. Trevor Cahill (13-12, 3.78 ERA, 156 Strikeouts)
3. Brandon McCarthy (8-6, 3.24 ERA, 73 Strikeouts)
4. Wade Miley (16-11, 3.33 ERA, 144 Strikeouts)
5. Tyler Skaggs (1-3, 5.83 ERA, 21 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 4.04

San Diego Padres:

1. Edinson Volquez (11-11, 4.14 ERA, 174 Strikeouts)
2. Clayton Richard (14-14, 3.99 ERA, 107 Strikeouts)
3. Jason Marquis (8-11, 5.22 ERA, 91 Strikeouts)
4. Eric Stults (8-3, 2.91 ERA, 55 Strikeouts)
5. Casey Kelly (2-3, 6.21 ERA, 26 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 4.49

Colorado Rockies:

1.  Jose de la Rosa (0-2, 9.28 ERA, 6 Strikeouts)
2.  Jhoulys Chacin (3-5, 4.43 ERA, 45 Strikeouts)
3.  Drew Pomeranz (2-9, 4.93 ERA, 83 Strikeouts)
4.  Juan Nicasio (2-3, 5.28 ERA, 54 Strikeouts)
5.  Jeff Francis (6-7, 5.58 ERA, 76 Strikeouts)

Average Combined ERA: 5.90

The stats above are from the 2012 season and based off of ERA alone. We know averaging ERA’s isn’t a great metric, but we’re doing it anyway.

This is one of the tricky divisions to evaluate because I believe that every team in this division can be good next season. That being said, a “good season” has a different meaning for each team.

For the Colorado Rockies, their pitching can’t get any worse than it was last season, with the starting rotation posting almost a 6.00 ERA (above). The Padres numbers also weren’t pretty, but San Diego is a young team and young teams can do some damage in this division.

Three teams can actually contend: The Giants, Dodgers, and D-backs.

Arizona contended until the last week or so of the season until finally fading away.  The Diamondbacks won 81 games last season and 94 in 2011, winning their division with basically the same core players that they have now. There is no reason they can’t repeat that success this year.

Speaking of those big-dogs, how can we forget the World Champs? The Giants have the same rotation and lineup as they did this past year. Why fix what isn’t broke, right? Repeating is a very difficult thing to do in sports (except in the Alabama football program’s case) but with reigning National League MVP, Buster Posey, it isn’t too farfetched to think about a repeat. The Giants will be trying to become the first team since the Yankees from 1998-2000 to win back to back championships.

As for the other big-dog team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have spent a whole lot of money on what people are now calling, “the new look Yankees”. Throw in the Boston deal from August combined with the offseason spending (Greinke and Ryu) and the Dodgers payroll for the 2013 season is over $200 million. The main question being asked about this team is “Will they live up to the hype?” and my answer to that is yes. They went 8-2 to end the season, just barely missing the Wild Card.

Not often am I to say this about my favorite team because I am a very harsh critic about sports (I will admit it) but I truly believe that Magic Johnson and the rest of the Dodgers management will end the 25-year title drought and bring the title back to Los Angeles. Whether or not I am right about the Dodgers, the NL West is set to be a barn-burning race.