The series on reviewing the division predictions continues with the NL West. Before the season started, The NL West produced the last team to be eliminated, so they are next on the list. Final season standings are here.
It was tough not to pick the Dodgers to win the division:
The Dodgers surround that great base with good players. There are no negative WARs in this core. It’s a great plan a few superstars and a lot of solid players. Los Angeles will be tough to beat in the NL West in 2017.
The Dodgers depth allowed them to plug holes as they lost the three superstars mentioned in the original post, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Seager, and Justin Turner to various injuries for part of the season. They just didn’t seem to have a poor player in the lineup.
The best prediction put the Padres in fourth place:
At least there is upside in the offense. Manuel Margot, Hunter Renfroe, and Austin Hedges are youngsters without much major league experience, so they have plenty of room to grow. Margot’s strength is getting on base, Renfroe’s strength is his power, and Hedges hits for a good batting average for a catcher. There’s a good chance the Padres don’t finish last in the division this season.
Renfroe hit for power, but otherwise these three were not that impressive.
The worst prediction came from putting the Giants second and the Diamondbacks last. They would finish in those two positions, just the reverse from what was predicted.
The Giants put together their own set of stars. While no one is at the level of Kershaw and Seager, five players in the current Giants core produced at least four WAR in 2016. There is some upside a Jarrett Parker slides into the lineup. He came to the majors late in his career, already in his prime, but that also means the Giants will get his best now.
Only Buster Posey managed a four-WAR in 2017. With Madison Bumgarner missing a large chunk of the season, the pitching was poor.
For Arizona:
Looking at the WAR of the core players on the Diamondbacks, the question that comes to my mind is how many of these players can bounce back.
Most of them did.
So the post picked the division winner, third, and fourth correctly. It missed big on two and five. I’ll give this one an okay, or a three on a scale of 1 to 5 with one being the worst and five being the best.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2hGhW2e
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