Vigilante Sports

1. LA Dodgers – Will Manny be the Manny of the 2nd half last year? Or the dope who wrecked the Red Sox clubhouse? I think the answer to that will impact how the Dodgers do in October, but either way, they’ll get there. This is a team stacked with young talent. Kemp, Ethier, Martin, Loney and the additions of Orlando Hudson at 2nd base makes their offense top notch. The Dodger’s pitching is a little questionable without much help in the rotation behind Chad Billingsley. If Clayton Kershaw can step up and be a #2 starter for them, they are very dangerous.
2. Arizona Diamondbacks – Another team that has a ton of young talent with emerging stars Justin Upton, Stephen Drew and Max Scherzer. They are very young. They do have a solid rotation with Webb, Haren, Garland, Davis and Scherzer. That will keep them competitive.
3. San Francisco Giants – Obviously the Giants pitching staff will have to carry this team. Tim Lincecum (whose arm could fall off at any moment), Matt Cain, Barry Zito and Randy Johnson (hopefully no back trouble) are definitely capable. The offense is untested to say the least. A mix of veterans (Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria and Bengie Molina) and young players (Pablo Sandoval, Travis Ishikawa and Kevin Frandsen) could prove to be very streaky. A team definitely rebuilding around their top two starters (Lincecum and Cain).
4. Colorado Rockies – Still sufferering from the letdown of the 2007 playoffs. They caught lightning in a bottle and now seem to be a tailspin because it didn’t last. Suck it up and make your team better. Just not happening. There is some emerging talent here too with Ian Stewart, Chris Ianneta and Ryan Spilborghs. They just seem to have young talent that just never matures into dominant players.
5. San Diego  Padres – A team in a bad spot. New ownership should help, but they are strapped and the only bright spot is Jake Peavy (pretty bright, but not enough).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under MLB. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.