National League West: April review

May 1, 2:14 PMColorado Rockies ExaminerTravis Lay

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The Dodgers have had plenty to cheer about thus far in 2009
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) 

One month down, five more to go. Will the standings look similar in September? Will the Dodgers cool down or will the Arizona bats heat up? Lots of time left in 2009 but let’s check out how each team did during the first month.

Los Angeles Dodgers (15-8)

• The Good – Manny Ramirez, Orlando Hudson and Chad Billingsley. The two horses for the Dodgers are performing like everyone expected and Hudson is killing the ball. Manny is batting .372 with five home runs and 15 RBI and he is making everyone around him better. Hudson is a good example of Manny’s impact on the rest of the order. Hudson was a steal late in the off season and is batting .337 with three home runs and 19 runs. Pretty good for a guy with a career .283 average and someone who has never hit more than 15 home runs in a season (he is on pace for 24 home runs). On the bump Chad Billingsley has been a horse. He is 4-0 in five starts with an ERA of 2.14. He has thrown 33 innings (over six per start) and has struck out 34 and only allowed 22 hits. The sort of ace a team needs to make a run at the World Series.
• The Bad – Not too much bad on this team right now. After two very bad starts last week the kid in the rotation; Clayton Kershaw, has an ERA north of seven. He has thrown 21 innings of baseball and allowed 30 base runners. While he is still striking out a bunch (26 in those 21 innings) he is putting too much traffic on the base paths.
• Predictions – With young studs like Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier and James Loney and a backend to their rotation in Jonathan Broxton the Dodgers aren’t going anywhere. For any of the other four teams to pass them it might take a key injury in the Dodgers roster.

San Diego Padres (11-11)

• The Good – They are 11-11. I think most baseball folks didn’t think they would win 11 games all season. All joking aside the fact that they are at .500 at the end of April is a big surprise to everyone. The biggest surprise? Jake Peavy is 2-3 with a 5.74 ERA – he isn’t even pitching well yet. Adrian Gonzalez is carrying this team right now. Gonzalez leads the team in average, home runs, RBI, runs, hits, total bases, walks and on base percentage.
• The Bad – Once teams figure that they should just pitch around or walk Gonzalez, then what do the Padres do? Scott Hairston is hitting really well right now, but will he keep it up for the next six months?
• Predictions – They will fall off, they just do not have the pitching or the offense to sustain this record. They will still finish in dead last in the division.

Lincecum is heating up (AP Photo/Dino Vournas)

San Francisco Giants (10-10)

• The Good – Pitching and lots of it. Everyone knew they had really good starting pitching and they are proving everyone right. The Giants are currently third in the NL in ERA and fifth in strikeouts and batting average against. Matt Cain is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA, Tim Lincecum is 2-1 with 43 K’s, Jonathan Sanchez is 1-1 with a 2.60 ERA and Randy Johnson and Barry Zito are trying to keep up with the kids.
• The Bad – Their offense. They rank last in the NL in runs and third to last in OPS. Just like as expected in the preseason the Giants have a lot of pitching but no run support. Bengie Molina is a fine hitting catcher but not many teams want to rely on their catcher to drive in all their runs and that is just what the Giants are doing.
• Predictions – Lincecum will battle for the Cy Young again this year and Cain and Sanchez will be strong, but the team will not win because they cannot score runs. The three vets they have aren’t very good and the kids are still young and that combo does not equate to plating runs.

Arizona Diamondbacks (9-13)

• The Good – Dan Haren is awesome. He has been known to be much better in the first half than second and this season he is off to a blazing start. Haren has an ERA of 1.54, 36 strikeouts to only five walks in 35 innings pitched and his WHIP is 0.74 (means less that he is allowing less than one person on base per inning, very good). His record is only 2-3 which takes me to the bad… 

Dan Haren has been one of the few Arizona bright spots (AP Photo Marcio Jose Sanchez)

• The Bad – Hitting has been an issue for this team and they aren’t scoring runs when their best pitcher is on the mound. Haren had allowed only four runs in his first three starts and he was awarded with three losses. Arizona is fifth in the NL in strikeouts and is being led by Mark Reynolds and Chris Young who both have 24 each already. They are 13th in runs and OPS.
• Predictions – Guys like Justin Upton, Young and Reynolds will be carrying this offense before too long. The Diamondbacks are 9th in the NL in home runs and by the time the year is over they will be top five. I still believe they have the best shot at giving the Dodgers a run for the division crown.

Colorado Rockies (8-12)

• The Good – The kids. Dexter Fowler and Ian Stewart have been bright spots for the Rockies so far in 2009. Dexter is starting to make a splash nationally as he is being mentioned, reviewed and even the subject of more columns among national publications and websites. Ian Stewart is forcing himself into the everyday line at some position, whether it is second, third or the outfield.
• The Bad – Where to start? Bullpen and pitching overall. The Rockies bullpen is 9th in the NL in save percentage and that doesn’t include the close games when the Rockies were trailing by one or two and the bullpen entered the game and gave up four or five runs. The Rockies have already switched closers twice this season (Huston Street to Manny Corpas and now back to Street). Their team pitching is second worst in the league with a 5.46 ERA and a league worst .294 batting average against. They are 1-6 in close games in 2009 and that is mostly due to poor bullpen work.
• Predictions – They are starting to warm up at the plate. They currently rank 5th in the league in runs scored and 5th in batting average with runners in scoring position. Aaron Cook’s last outing was promising and Ubaldo Jimenez has to get better. They already rank 9th in the league in quality starts and they can get better. It is doubtful they challenge the Dodgers for the division unless guys like Troy Tulowitzki, Ubaldo and Garrett Atkins really turn it on. They should finish ahead of San Diego and Arizona, however.

After a month of the 2009 season the only real surprise are the San Diego Padres. Other than that everyone knew the Dodgers were going to be good, the Diamondbacks would strikeout a lot, the Giants would pitch with the best of them and the Rockies would struggle in some fashion.

The standings will still move a lot over the course of the season, but I think it is safe to say that the Dodgers might go wire-to-wire in 2009.