Commish Preview: National League West

National League West

2023 Standings:

Colorado 104-58

Los Angeles 99-63

Arizona 88-74

San Diego 83-79

San Francisco 73-89

Offseason Review:

The World Series Champions will return largely the same team, swapping out Aristedis Aquino for Marcell Ozuna. After being bounced in the National League Wild Card game, the Los Angeles Dodgers experienced a bit of a makeover. In are Marcus Stroman, Kumar Rocker, Sam Huff, Joey Gallo, and Jonathan Guzman. The Diamondbacks, like Colorado, also return a majority of their 2023 roster while one top prospect, Cole Henry, should be a fixture at the Major League level. The Padres went out and made their big move by trading for Byron Buxton from the Cincinnati Reds. Lastly, the San Francisco Giants had some money to play with and spent it wisely. They brought back key bullpen arms Tyler Duffey and Trevor Gott and added Corey Knebel to the backend of their pen. On offense, Jason Martin was the big signing. Martin comes over from Arizona after producing a 2.2 WAR season.

2024 Thoughts:

Let's shake things up a bit, eh? The National League West has been the best division in FTD for the past few seasons and I see no reason that that changes in 2024. The Rockies are the defending World Series Champions, the Dodgers won 99 games, the Diamondbacks won the second Wild Card spot and then eliminated their foes in LA, the Padres won 83 games and finished fourth and the Giants have arrived. You thought 2023 was a bloodbath? Wait for the sequel. The Rockies return a team that won 100+ games in the toughest division in baseball and then went on to win the World Series on top of that, it's hard to argue with that type of success. Tie in that this is the second straight World Series appearance for the Rockies and it just further proves that this wasn't just a one year fluke with the help from Coors Field. Still, there's always that Coors factor. Could the Rockies pitchers just completely struggle at any point due to the Denver air? Yeah, its entirely possible, which is what makes predicting this division so difficult. The Rockies probably have the best 26 man roster on paper, but there are endless factors that go into their success with Coors being the biggest. As far as the Rockies biggest rivals go, the Dodgers had themselves quite the active offseason. Now a year removed from moving on from Mookie Betts, Corey Seager and Dustin May, the Dodgers find themselves exploring all options in attempting to unseat the Rockies from atop the division. The talent is there in L.A., there's no question about that, but will they remain healthy? It's been a huge contributing factor to the Dodgers inability to finish on top over the past few seasons with Cody Bellinger missing 40+ games in each of 2022 and 2023 and Clayton Kershaw tearing his UCL in 2023. Tie in Brusdar Graterol being just a pitch away at any time, and there are legitimate concerns about whether the stars of Hollywood can hold up over the course of 162.

I have a lot of thoughts on the West, so for the first time in this series we are going to split this up into two paragraphs. The Diamondbacks over performed slightly in 2023, but there's little doubt that the club is talented. They won 88 games without Alek Thomas for much of the season and will add former top draft pick T.J. Reeves into the mix in 2024. Zac Gallen is an ace and Carlos Rodon found the most success he's had at the Major League level since 2016 this past season. Still, I have questions on whether Luis Castillo and Madison Bumgarner can form 40% of a playoff worthy rotation in this tough division. Scouts love Castillo, but he struggled mightily in 2023 and was shifted to the bullpen. Luckily, Arizona has enough Major League ready pitching that they should be able to move on quickly should the aforementioned options falter. Ask around the league on the Padres 2023 results and you'll get mixed answers from everyone. Some think they underperformed, while the Padres GM thinks his club over performed. I tend to agree with Jason's line of thinking on this one, although the pythagorean records had San Diego much closer to Arizona than how they finished in the standings. The Padres are in a bit of a tough spot. They don't posses the deep roster construction that other clubs in this division do at this current time, but they have as good of star power as anybody in the division with Fernando Tatis Jr. and MacKenzie Gore. It'll be interesting to see how the club pivots over the coming months and offseason if success isn't found and progress isn't made towards a long term extension with their young Cy Young winner.

Alright, one more paragraph and we will dedicate this one solely to the San Francisco Giants before moving on to the predictions that are sure to upset somebody because they feel they have a playoff worthy team. Remember while reading, somebody has to finish last, fourth and third. Alright, San Francisco, let's ride. I was excited coming into the offseason to see how the Giants moved forward with the young talent that was so close to ready and the money they had available. I'll start with the bullpen and say that signing Knebel and bringing back Duffey and Gott to a familiar environment will pay dividends. I thought the rotation could have used another veteran arm, which I'm sure Tyler will also tell you, to go along with his young starters and maybe push arms like Gohara and Suarez to the backend rather than be mid rotation. Now to the offensive side and ooh wee let us have some fun in San Francisco. Marco Luciano, Drew Bowser and Jairo Pomares have made the big league club out of Spring Training to go along with Sean Roby, Heliot Ramos, and Hunter Bishop. Joey Bart is the veteran on this club at this point at 27 years old. It's going to be fun to see, but with a team this young it is inevitable that there will be ups and downs through the year. The kayaks will be out in full force this summer as the Giants attempt to finish over .500 for the first time since 2016.

Final Prediction:

1. Colorado Rockies 98-64

2. Los Angeles Dodgers 96-66

3. Arizona Diamondbacks 86-76

4. San Francisco Giants 84-78

5. San Diego Padres 81-81

*All thoughts and predictions are for entertainment purposes only. Please do not take things personally and I would love to be proven wrong by each GM.