NL West, House of Surprises [David Stefanini]

Raise your hand if you thought the Arizona Diamondbacks, without Randy Johnson, would be have the 2nd best record in the NL (behind the New York Mets). Neither did I. The NL West is a very close division. The Diamondbacks have the most wins in the NL, but they are .001 percentage points behind the NY Mets for #1 seed in the NL. Their lead-off hitter is a guy who can hit the ball out of the park, and that's about the only place he hits it. If it isn't a home run its an out, I think he is playing his own HR Derby.

3 games behind the Diamondbacks are the San Diego Padres. The Padres have an amazing pitching staff, but can't seem to get the bats going. They don't give the pitchers enough runs to get them wins. However, they hold a half game lead in the wild card over the Atlanta Braves.

The Colorado Rockies are third in this division 5 games out of first. I don't think they are a serious contender.

The LA Dodgers, this was the team most people expected to win this division. Instead they go 4-10 in the month of August so far and find themselves 6 and a half out of first place, 3 and a half out of the Wild Card. Brad Penny has been a great pitcher for them all year, but this team can not score any runs. Thy went 3 games in a row without scoring a single run!

So who should come out on top in this division? I think the San Diego Padres will. They start a series against the Astros tomorrow, which should lead to a nice series win for the Padres, but after that it gets hard. They have to play the Mets and Phillies on the road, then come home for a huge 4 game set against the Diamondbacks. I think the goal for them as to be to steal a series win away from either the Mets or the Phillies.

The Diamondbacks are running into the Braves tomorrow, so the Padres should be able to make up games this weekend. They have the Astros who they should be able to run over, and the Diamondbacks should lose most of the games against the Braves.