MLB: You Can’t Spell Dodgers Without the Dee

The Los Angeles Dodgers lineup is littered with stars, headlined by Cuban sensation Yasiel Puig, followed by the likes of Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez, Carl Crawford and Andre Ethier. At one time, or another, these guys have carried the load for their team at the big league level. The Dodgers also have Dee Gordon, the son of former MLB pitcher Tom “Flash” Gordon, who presents a skill-set that separates him from the stars he follows. The Dodgers lone question mark headed into this season was who would be the starting second baseman?

That question is no longer relevant. Gordon is the starting second baseman and it appears he’s not giving it up anytime soon. Granted, we’re only 13 games into the 2014 season but Gordon has become a prized asset in this lineup of high-profile names. Gonzalez hit a home run on Sunday for the fourth consecutive game, while Gordon became the sixth Dodger in franchise history to swipe four bases in a single game. (Last Dodger with four stolen bases in a single game was Rafael Furcal; 2007). Gordon was wreaking havoc on the base paths, at one point stealing second, and then he stole third a couple of pitches later without a throw.

His speed has never been put into question, though. The struggle of hitting major league pitching has held him back from utilizing his legs. Nonetheless, through the first two weeks of the new season, Gordon is looking like a legit big league hitter. He’s keeping the ball out of the air, working counts, drawing walks (4) and spraying the ball all over the diamond (16 hits). His .400/.457/.525 split is impressive from what we’ve ever previously seen from him, and goes along with his MLB leading nine stolen bases. Manager Don Mattingly has plugged Gordon into the eighth or leadoff spot in his lineup and looks like a genius thus far.

The 2014 Dodgers lineup would also make for a superb package of Topps baseball cards. However while Gordon would likely be the least valued out of that package, that hasn’t been the case on the diamond these days. The Dodgers need Gordon in the lineup, day in and day out. This could be an overreaction to his hot start, or not, but either way Gordon’s talent will be a key to the Dodgers success this season.

Opening Night: Denorfia’s Dagger

It was opening night in San Diego on Sunday, where the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers kicked off the MLB season at Petco Park. Clayton Kershaw didn’t pitch for the Dodgers (15-day DL), so another southpaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu got the nod for Los Angeles. Those would be some big shoes to fill for the young Korean, but Ryu did his part.

Ryu struggled early with his command, eventually getting himself into and out of a first inning bases loaded jam with a 1-2-3 double play. Then he became Korean Kershaw. He ended up throwing seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, and at one point retired 16 consecutive hitters. Ryu would leave the game with a 1-0 lead, the lone run coming from a Carl Crawford RBI-single in the fifth inning.

Dodgers’ manager, Don Mattingly, went with Brian Wilson to begin the top of the eighth inning. Three pitches later and the game was tied; 1-1. Wilson left a pitch over the plate, and Padres pinch-hitter Seth Smith launched it over the right field wall. The eighth inning would only get worse after that. Wilson walked Yasmani Grandal, and then badly misplayed Everth Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt. With runners on second and third with no outs, Padres Chris Denorfia bunted through Wilson’s pitch, Juan Uribe was charging in hard from third base and couldn’t recover before Grandal stole the empty base without a throw. The Dodgers allowed Cabrera to steal second shortly after and then Denforia’s dagger of a two-run single gave San Diego the 3-1 lead.

Wilson never recorded an out, Chris Perez got one before Paco Rodriguez came in and struck out the rest. Houston Street, the Padres closer put the Dodgers to bed in the top-half of the ninth inning. The Dodgers left six runners on base Sunday night but left Ryu without any reward for his stellar performance in place of the two-time CY Young Award winner. It’s a loss that will linger for a bit, or at least for a day, until the Dodgers play San Diego again on Tuesday.

Final Score; San Diego Padres 3, Los Angeles Dodgers 1

2013 MLB Playoffs: Los Angeles Shouldn’t Look Past Three-Man Rotation

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced that they’re going with the four-man rotation in the National League Division Series, against the Atlanta Braves. “Pitching wins in the postseason,” is a phrase that you’ll frequently hear every October, which has been true for the most part.

The four-man rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Ricky Nolasco is arguably the best of the bunch headed into the 2013 postseason. Any rotation featuring Kershaw and Greinke would be tough to beat in any series. The Dodgers don’t plan on using a three-man rotation, even if they were to go down 2-1 in this best of five series.

Nolasco ended the regular season on a horrendous note, after going 5-0 with a 1.64 ERA in August. In the month of September, he finished with a 2-2 record and 6.66 ERA. It’s unclear which Nolasco will show up in the postseason and the Dodgers can’t afford to find that out the hard way.

Kershaw has never pitched on three days’ rest in his career, but that’s true for all pitchers until they end up doing it.

The Dodgers 25-year-old southpaw is invaluable and is arguably the best pitcher on the planet. Kershaw just captured his third consecutive ERA title (1.83), punched out 200-plus batters for the fourth consecutive season, and is the favorite to win his second CY Young Award in three years. You can’t convince anyone that any other pitcher belongs on the mound in an elimination game. (Kanye West is even capable of making the right decision on this one).

The three-man rotation should also be considered in Game 4 even if the Dodgers hold a 2-1 series lead over Atlanta. The Braves finished the 2013 regular season with the best home record in all of baseball; 56-25. So, Los Angeles should want to avoid going back to Atlanta for a decisive Game 5 of the series.

Throwing Kershaw on three days’ rest makes sense here, too. A win would avoid the long trip from Los Angeles to Atlanta to play that elimination game and would save Greinke for Game 1 of the next series. A loss would still have Greinke pitching in that elimination game in Atlanta, but would push both aces back in the championship series.

The postseason isn’t guaranteed every year, just ask the Washington Nationals. The Dodgers have two of the top pitchers in baseball and shouldn’t hesitate to use them. Pitching on three days’ rest was never a topic of discussion decades ago, it was just expected. Nowadays, it’s a rare feat. However, it’s still done when winning is the priority; Curt Schilling did it twice during the Arizona Diamondbacks 2001 World Series; Josh Beckett did it during the 2003 Florida Marlins World Series; and CC Sabathia hasn’t been afraid to take the ball when needed over the last couple of years.

If the Dodgers stick with the four-man rotation in this series, so be it, but Kershaw and Greinke are there for a reason.

Hanley Ramirez; “I See You”

The Los Angeles Dodgers are arguably the best team in all of baseball, at least for the moment. That’s something you couldn’t dare to say during the first half of the season, though.

Rookie sensation Yasiel Puig has accumulated most attention from around the league, which is warranted, but the recent success of the Dodgers has been triggered by the emergence of Hanley Ramirez. It was a season that began on the disabled list and seemed as if that’s where most of his time was being spent in 2013. Things have clearly changed.

On June 4th, Ramirez returned from his second stint on the DL. Since then, his .384 batting average is an MLB best. On July 11th for the first time since April 15th the Dodgers had finally climbed above the .500 mark and haven’t looked back. There’s not a doubt that Puig jump-started this engine, but Ramirez is the one keeping it on track.

The Manny Ramirez-esque easygoing attitude of Hanley has the Dodgers playing without a sense of urgency that you saw during most of the first half of the season. In 2008, Manny put up some gaudy numbers to carry the team all the way to the NLCS. This current run by Hanley has a similar feel to it, when something big always seems to happen when he’s up at the plate. Teams are slowly starting to treat him like they treated Manny back in 2008, which means avoid pitching to him when the opportunity presents itself.

He’s hitting anything and everything right now, with most of his hits getting hit harder and harder every single time. Since June 19th, Ramirez is hitting .431 (1st in MLB), with 27 RBIs (2nd in MLB) and has a .798 slugging percentage (1st in MLB). The Dodgers have gone 21-8 during that stretch and trail the Arizona Diamondbacks by just 0.5 games in the National League West division.

All of this attention placed on Puig has probably created this monster in Ramirez, who has spent most of his career in the spotlight. The pressure to carry the load is off his back and now a few bad games doesn’t collect most of the blame as it would have in his days with the Miami Marlins. Credit for a win or blame for a loss in Los Angeles these days has strictly been directed towards Puig, which has allowed Ramirez to have a carefree approach this season.

The best hitter arguably in baseball right now hasn’t been talked about nearly as much as he should, but that’s been the secret all along. So the national media can continue to keep a close eye on the rise of Cuban phenom Yasiel Puig, while Hanley Ramirez and the Dodgers stealthily make their way to the top of the NL West division.

Yasiel Puig Could Save the Los Angeles Dodgers Season

The Los Angeles Dodgers had been long awaiting the arrival of one super-prospect, 22-year-old Cuban defector Yasiel Puig. The organization finally had no other choice but to call up Puig on Monday night against the San Diego Padres, with most of the team on the disabled list these days.

Whether this move should’ve happened sooner or not, the wait to see the phenom outfielder in a Dodger uniform was finally over.

Puig delivered a major league debut that’ll be talked about for years down the road, and it wasn’t because of his bat as most people would’ve expected, after he hit over .500 in spring training for the Dodgers. Despite going for 2-4 with two singles in his debut, the big right arm of Puig’s was getting all the attention after Monday night’s game.

The Dodgers had a 2-1 lead over the Padres in the top of the ninth inning, and then the “Cuban missile” known as Puig’s right arm happened. He gathered himself underneath a fly ball at the warning track to make out number two with a runner on first, after making the catch at the track he fired an absolute perfect strike to first and doubled up Padres outfielder Chris Denorfia, ballgame. (This walk-off double play was way cooler than most walk-off home runs I’ve seen this season).

What would Puig do for an encore on Tuesday night?

He only went 3-4 with two home runs, five RBIs, two runs, while leading the Dodgers to a 9-7 win over the Padres.

The Dodgers have found the answer they’ve been looking for, and the National League West is still in definite striking distance with plenty of baseball left to play. Last season, remember when the “Anaheim” Angels started 6-14 and then called up the eventual 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Mike Trout? Everything instantly turned around for the Angels. Trout’s impact alone lifted the Angels back into playoff contention for the rest of the season, only to come up short in the competitive American League West.

It’s not a stretch to say Puig could have that same impact on this Dodgers team, bringing almost the same dynamic style of play to the diamond as Trout. He probably won’t have the year Trout had last season, but that’s tough for anyone to accomplish. However, not one team is running away with the NL West anytime soon, so Puig’s impact could put the Dodgers right back into the division race in just a couple of weeks.

Puig and company look like they’ll be able to hold down the fort until Matt Kemp, Carl Crawford, and AJ Ellis return from the DL, which would give the Dodgers time to discuss possibly trading Andre Ethier to make Puig the everyday right fielder in Los Angeles.

Manager Don Mattingly has found the missing piece to the puzzle in Puig, and once the rest of his players get healthy he’ll finally get to piece this whole thing together. The Dodgers might have called up Puig just in time and his impact could take this team in the direction they’ve been destined for all season.

Don Mattingly Sends Forceful Message

Rumors have surfaced over the past week about Don Mattingly’s job security as the Los Angeles Dodgers manager, with the boys in blue currently 7.0 games back in the National League West and in last place almost two months into the season.

New ownership and its $200 million payroll that features a star-studded lineup put “World Series or Bust” type expectations on this ball club from the start. Injuries, poor execution and just flat-out bad baseball have gotten the Dodgers to this point of desperation.

Mattingly showed a sense of urgency before Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers, with a rare lineup change. It’s nothing new to see Andre Ethier get an occasional day off with a left-hander on the mound, but Ethier wasn’t penciled into Wednesday’s lineup with a right-hander on the hill for Milwaukee. Initial thoughts were that maybe Ethier was being bothered by some sort of injury, however, that wasn’t the case.

Mattingly didn’t hold back anything about his decision to sit Ethier when meeting with reporters during pregame.

“I’m putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be most competitive and going to compete the hardest” Mattingly said.

That’s about as clear as a message as you’re going to get from a manager. The recent rumors about Mattingly have clearly been taken personal. He knows that his job isn’t safe if the losing continues, so if he feels someone isn’t giving it a 100 percent than all power to him for putting his foot down.

Ethier is hitting just .264 with four home runs and 15 RBIs this season. He isn’t the only Dodger struggling, though. Matt Kemp is hitting .265 with two home runs and 16 RBIs, but Mattingly obviously doesn’t see any issue with his effort.

The job of a manager is to get the best out of his players and this message was an indication that he wasn’t getting that. This could be just another managerial tactic that we’ve seen before, where a player gets a wakeup call from his manager, but who knows. What we do know is that if Mattingly ends up losing his job he’ll make sure that his players on the field are fighting for him till the very last out.

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N.L. West Rundown: Very early season shows West will be tough

The Los Angeles Dodgers (8-10) snapped a six game losing streak yesterday, taking one of three games over the weekend against the Baltimore Orioles.

So far it’s been a frustrating start for the Dodgers to say the least. First, Hanley Ramirez starts the season on the DL, then, Zack Greinke breaks his collarbone in a bench-clearing brawl with the San Diego Padres, and now Chad Billingsley got placed on the 15-day DL yesterday with discomfort in his throwing elbow.

It doesn’t help that the rest of the National League West division has been playing great baseball during the Dodgers’ struggles. The Dodgers will begin a three-game series with the New York Mets tomorrow, and then travel back to Los Angeles to face the Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend.

Colorado Rockies (13-5)

It’s been somewhat of a shock around the baseball world to see the Rockies at the top of the National League West division, at least for the time being. This team can flat-out hit the baseball, with Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Dexter Fowler leading the way.

Opposite of the Dodgers, the Rockies snapped a seven-game winning streak yesterday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Unfortunately, Colorado was hit by the injury bug this week as well, when starting pitcher Jhoulys Chacin got placed on the 15-day DL with a back strain.

The Rockies will begin a three-game series tonight with the Atlanta Braves at home, and will follow that up with a four-game series on the road against the Diamondbacks starting Thursday.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): The Rockies offense ranks first in baseball with a .282 team batting average.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): This Rockies offense will eventually fall off a bit during the long season.

Biggest contributor: Troy Tulowitzki, hitting .328 with six home runs and a team-leading 17 RBIs.

Biggest disappointment: Jeff Francis, with a 1-1 record and 8.25 ERA in three starts.

Biggest surprise: Jhoulys Chacin, with a 3-0 record and 1.46 ERA in four starts.

San Francisco Giants (12-7)

The defending World Series champs are coming off a three-game sweep against the Padres. It was much-needed after the Giants got swept in a three game series against the Brewers.

They will be in the race for the long haul once again, with a legit starting five and timely hitting. The bullpen has been one of the brightest spots for this team, making it difficult to beat them if they have a lead after seven innings.

Believe it or not, Barry Zito has been their most reliable starter so far this season, posting a 3-1 record with a 3.42 ERA in four starts.

The Giants will start a three-game series tonight against the Diamondbacks at home, and then will begin a three-game series over the weekend with the Padres in San Diego.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): Matt Cain (7.15 ERA) and Ryan Vogelsong (5.89 ERA) will eventually come back to earth.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): The Giants’ offense ranks 24th in baseball with just 11 home runs this season, so they won’t usually beat you with the long ball. However, the Dodgers rank even lower than that with 10 home runs so far this season.

Biggest contributor: Pablo Sandoval, hitting .290 with three home runs and team leading 17 RBIs.

Biggest disappointment: Buster Posey, hitting .232 with one home run and eight RBIs.

Biggest surprise: Brandon Crawford, hitting .317 with three home runs and seven RBIs.

Arizona Diamondbacks (10-8)

The Diamondbacks have surprised some people to start the 2013 season. After trading away all-star Justin Upton in the offseason, they have taken on a new approach of grinding out wins.

They lost two of three games over the weekend in Colorado against the hot-hitting Rockies.

Their pitching staff currently ranks eighth in baseball with a 3.44 team ERA, while their offense ranks ninth in baseball with 84 runs scored through the first 18 games of this season.

Without Upton, the Diamondbacks are finding ways to win and sit just three games out of the National League West division. However, they lost one of their key contributors last week due to an injury — starting second baseman Aaron Hill, who got placed on the 15-day DL with a broken left hand.

They will start a three game series tonight in San Francisco, and then will return home to play four games against the Rockies starting on Thursday.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): The Diamondbacks will be one of those teams that stick around for most of the season and will try to knock you out of playoff contention.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): The Diamondbacks don’t have that one player in their lineup that strikes fear into the opponent.

Biggest contributor: Paul Goldschmidt, hitting .329 with three home runs and a team-leading 13 RBIs.

Biggest disappointment: Brandon McCarthy, with an 0-2 record and a 7.06 ERA in four starts.

Biggest surprise: Gerardo Parra, hitting .289 with one home run and three RBIs.

San Diego Padres (5-13)

Every Dodger fan is now forever rooting against the Padres for obvious reasons, and the team sits in last place in the division. The Padres got swept over the weekend in San Francisco and haven’t had too many bright spots so far this season. Their 4.49 team ERA ranks them in the bottom half of baseball and they have allowed the fourth-most home runs in baseball with 23 this season.

Surprisingly, the Padres’ success this season has come against the Dodgers.

The Padres will begin a six-game home stand tonight with three games against the Brewers, and then three games against the Giants over the weekend.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): Four of the Padres five wins this season have come against the Dodgers.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): The Padres don’t have the fire power to compete with a healthy Dodgers team.

Biggest contributor: Yonder Alonso, hitting .262 with two home runs and team leading eight RBIs.

Biggest disappointment: Carlos Quentin, hitting .174 with no home runs and three RBIs. (Public Enemy No. 1)

Biggest surprise: Nick Hundley, hitting .320 with one home run and five RBIs.

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The Dodgers may be getting glimpse of real Luis Cruz

Manager Don Mattingly figured 78 games was a big enough sample size to give Luis Cruz the third base job headed into the 2013 season, without looking at the bigger picture.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are struggling through the early stages of the 2013 season, as they currently sit at .500 (7-7) and in fourth place in the competitive National League West division.

All-Star Matt Kemp has been at the forefront of the teams’ early struggles, hitting just .185 with four RBIs, no home runs, and 17 strikeouts in 54 at-bats. It’s hard to imagine that Kemp stays in this slump for an extended period of time based off of his track record in the big leagues.

The real issue for the Dodgers could be with their everyday third baseman, Luis Cruz. Dodger fans fell in love with Cruz during the 2012 season, when he finally got the opportunity to play in Los Angeles, after numerous injuries occurred on the big league club. Cruz took full advantage of that rare opportunity and never looked back. He started 48 games at third base, 23 games at shortstop, two games at second base and played in 78 games overall.

In those 78 games, Cruz got 283 at bats and finished the season hitting .297 with six home runs, 34 RBIs and a .431 slugging percentage.

The bigger picture is that Cruz might not be an everyday player at the big league level, especially if you look back at his track record. The 29-year-old only had 56 major league games under his belt before last season, which should be a red flag right there. Most everyday players in the big leagues don’t usually play 10-plus years of minor league ball before earning that label.

Before last season, Cruz had just 154 major league at bats in his career and never got more than 70 at bats in a season.

Now, 36 at-bats into Cruz’s 2013 campaign, he is hitting just .103. This should be a concern for the Dodgers going forward because they’ve been playing musical chairs on the right side of the infield with Hanley Ramirez on the DL and Juan Uribe, Nick Punto and Jerry Hairston Jr. getting opportunities off of the bench.

Cruz’s track record doesn’t show the consistency of your ideal everyday player, so if he doesn’t come out of this slump than this might actually be who he really is. He has shown his pop to the left and right center gaps, while flashing the leather at multiple infield positions, so Cruz might not be consistent enough as an everyday player in the major leagues, but he could still be a valuable asset off of the Dodgers bench.

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Andre Ethier Finding His Way against Lefties

The reoccurring issue with Andre Ethier over the past few seasons has been his inability to hit left-handed pitching. It’s an issue that has put the Dodgers in frustrating situations when opposing teams happily bring in a left-hander out of the bullpen to put away Ethier in key moments late in a game.

Over the past three seasons, Ethier is hitting just .225 against lefties, with a .276 on base percentage and a .324 slugging percentage.

Those aren’t the type of numbers that the Dodgers have in my mind for their starting right fielder, who is due $13 million dollars this season.

The Dodgers are just four games into the 2013 season, but Ethier’s early success against lefties has been a bright spot so far.

It started on Tuesday night, when San Francisco Giants left-hander Madison Bumgarner was shutting down the Dodgers offense at a rapid pace for eight shutout innings.

The Dodgers came out of the 3-0 loss with just two hits off of Bumgarner. However, Ethier had one of those two hits, when he doubled in the bottom of the second off of the 23-year-old. He ended up striking out in his last two at bats against the lefty, but that double down the right field line was a good sign.

On the very next night, Ethier continued to show signs of improvement.

The Giants decided to bring their lefty specialist Javier Lopez into the game to face Adrian Gonzalez in bottom of the sixth, and a strikeout was the end result. Lopez’s night would usually be over after that, but manager Bruce Bochy kept his guy in the game, daring Ethier to get a hit against the lefty specialist.

Once again, Ethier roped a double down the right field line, forcing Bochy to use another arm out of his bullpen.

Last night, Ethier was at it again.

Jonathan Sanchez of the Pirates was on the mound, and it didn’t take Ethier long to keep this early success against lefties going.

In the bottom of the second, Ethier sent a high fastball by Sanchez into the right field pavilion for a solo home run and his first long ball of the 2013 season.

The Dodgers need Ethier in the lineup every day and if he can hit left-handed pitching consistently that’s where he’ll be.

All of the talk of minor league super-prospect Yasiel Puig getting his shot this season with the Dodgers relies on Ethier’s ability to hit left-handers, and right now he’s getting the job done. It’s a pretty small sample size to get excited about, but this early success could be a sign of good things to come.

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NL West Rundown: Who will push the Dodgers this year?

Opening day is here. Considered by many as just another day on the calendar, it’s far from it around the baseball world.

All 30 MLB teams, 750 players and thousands of fans of their respective teams are never more optimistic than today, with the same goal of playing deep into October and winning the World Series.

The National League West division of course has more than a few storylines entering this season.

It’s a division headlined by the defending world champion San Francisco Giants and one of wealthiest teams in sports history, the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Giants and Dodgers should be the two ball clubs battling it out at the top of the division for most of the 2013 season, while the other three teams try to stay competitive and in striking distance during the dog days of summer.

San Francisco Giants
The defending World Series champs are basically going to battle with the same team as last season. After an offseason that included resigning Marco Scutaro, Angel Pagan and giving 2012 National League MVP Buster Posey a nine-year/$167 million contract extension.

The Giants success over the last few seasons has been because of their starting rotation, and that won’t be any different going into this season either.

Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong will hold down the front end of the rotation once again, with former Cy Young Award winners Barry Zito and Tim Lincecum at the back end.

For whatever reason this team will probably be overlooked entering the 2013 season, but after winning two World Series Championships in the last three years overlooking this team again would be a travesty.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): They won the 2012 World Series and nearly everyone from that team is returning in 2013. Do I really need to say anymore?

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): It’s tough to say if the Giants are improved going into the 2013 season, while the Dodgers offseason moves make them a lot better than last year on paper.

2012 Biggest contributor: Buster Posey, .336 BA, 24 HRs, 103 RBIs.

2012 Biggest disappointment: Tim Lincecum, 10-15, 5.18 ERA, 186.0 innings pitched.

2012 Biggest surprise: Marco Scutaro, .362 BA, 61 games, 44 RBIs.

Arizona Diamondbacks
The 2013 Diamondbacks look a lot different from last year’s team that finished exactly at .500 (81-81). They decided to trade away 2011 Silver Slugger Award winner Justin Upton to the Atlanta Braves for Martin Prado and a couple of prospects. The trade was reportedly made to change the clubhouse mentality of the Diamondbacks, where manager Kirk Gibson wants to win with hard-nosed ball players that he can relate to.

They also traded away last years starting center fielder Chris Young to the Oakland A’s for new starting shortstop Cliff Pennington.

Arizona still made a few moves this offseason that could keep them in the division race this season. They signed veteran third baseman Eric Chavez, veteran right-hander Brandon McCarthy, outfielder Cody Ross and traded for veteran reliever Heath Bell.

Despite an injury that will keep him out for the first couple of weeks to start the season, Arizona fans should be excited about their new center fielder, Adam Eaton. Even after losing a player of Upton’s caliber, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the 2013 version of the Diamondbacks sneaks up on teams and makes some noise in the NL West.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): The new-look Diamondbacks could be a lot better than people think, especially with this new group of hard-nosed ball players.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): The Dodgers can match up with this team from position-to-position on paper, but first need to put it all together on the diamond.

2012 Biggest contributor: Miguel Montero, .286 BA, 15 HRs, 88 RBIs.

2012 Biggest disappointment: Justin Upton, .280, 17 HRs, 67 RBIs.

2012 Biggest surprise: Wade Miley, 16-11, 3.33 ERA, 194-2/3 innings pitched.

Colorado Rockies
The Rockies were one of the most disappointing teams in baseball last season due to numerous injuries and one of the worst pitching rotations in baseball history. They ended last season with a four-man starting rotation and a league-worst 5.22 team ERA.

In 2012, Rockies starters went a combined 29-68 with an atrocious 5.81 ERA. That was only one of the problems, though. It didn’t help that one of the game’s top players, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, was injured for most of the season.

Colorado looks to completely turn the page on last season’s disaster, hiring first-year manager Walt Weiss to run the show.

It definitely doesn’t lack star power, with Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and a veteran Todd Helton featured in the middle of its lineup.

If the Rockies can fix up that pitching staff from last season, meaning fix up by leaps and bounds, then this Rockies team could be a threat in the NL West.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): A healthy Rockies lineup could give any team a headache.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): If the pitching staff is anything close to what it was last season then the 2013 Dodgers lineup will be feasting every time they take on Colorado, especially at Coors Field.

2012 Biggest contributor: Carlos Gonzalez, .303 BA, 22 HRs, 85 RBIs.

2012 Biggest disappointment: Todd Helton, .238 BA, seven HRs, 37 RBIs.
(It would have been an understatement to put the entire pitching staff right here.)

2012 Biggest surprise: Tyler Colvin, .290 BA, 18 HRs, 72 RBIs.

San Diego Padres
The Padres have new ownership entering this season. However, that’s probably not going to help them on the field right away. They finished in fourth place in the NL West with a 76-86 record last season, despite playing much better after the all-star break.

The one bright spot was Gold Glove winning third baseman Chase Headley, who hit .286 with 31 home runs and led the National League with 115 runs batted in.

Unfortunately, Headley will start the 2013 season on the disabled list after fracturing his thumb in a spring training game. The Padres will also be without starting catcher Yasmani Grandal to start the season because of a suspension for the first 50 games for testing positive for testosterone.

From the looks of it, it’s going to be an uphill climb for the Padres in the NL West in 2013.

Reason to be worried (as a Dodger fan): Injuries can happen to any team at any time, so the Dodgers just need to worry about staying healthy.

Reason to be optimistic (as a Dodger fan): Once again, the Dodgers could match up with almost every position with this team on paper, but you don’t win games on paper.

2012 Biggest contributor: Chase Headley, .286 BA, 31 HRs, 115 RBIs.

2012 Biggest disappointment: Cameron Maybin, .243 BA, eight HRs, 45 RBIs.

2012 Biggest surprise: Huston Street, 2-1, 1.85 ERA, 23 saves, 39.0 innings pitched.

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