NL West

Dodgers (91 – 71): Is there really any difference between Grady Little and Terry Francona? Little managed himself out of Boston with one decision while Francona sat back and watched the Boston miracle of 2004 transpire. Little will have a lot to work with in ’06 with the new acquisitions of Furcal, Mueller, Garciaparra, and Lofton, and the departure of trouble child Milton Bradley. This club will only get better as the recently signed free agents are joined by the deluge of young talent from the best farm system in baseball. That depth will allow the Dodgers to make up for any injury bumps throughout the season much like the Braves did in ’05. They may be ready to make another Rookie of the Year run much like they did from ’92 to ’96 when they developed Karros, Piazza, Mondesi, Nomo, and Hollandsworth. The new crop of Chad Billingsley, Andy LaRoche, Joel Guzman, and Jonathan Broxton could be household names for years to come. The free agents they signed also gives these young guys the time they need to develop. DIVISION WINNER

Giants (86 – 76): Old and getting older. By trading away Edgardo Alfonso for Steve Finley they get even older. Finley will be 41 by opening day and age may finally be catching up with him as his OPS suggests from ’02 to ’05: .869, .863, .823, .645. He joins the other geriatric All-Stars of Omar Vizquel (38), Jose Vizcaino (38), Moises Alou (39), Tim Worrell (38), and the loveable and immortal Barry Bonds (41). Don’t forget that they are managed by Felipe Alou who will be no spring chicken at age 71. This compulsion to sign aging stars has also had an impact on their farm system as other teams take their draft picks as compensation for the signings. In last year’s amateur draft they didn’t have a pick until the fourth round, and they haven’t had a first round selection since 2003. That coupled with their proclivity to trade away anyone in their system for a rent-a-player has led to them parting ways with pitchers the likes of Joe Nathan, Fancisco Liriano, Jerome Williams, and Jesse Foppert.

Diamondbacks (80 – 82): These guys are a hard team to measure. They’re sort of boring, though they may have made themselves a bit more exciting by adding Eric Byrnes for a year. They made a good move in re-acquiring Miguel Batista, who excelled in Arizona as a swing man. This year they will begin to work in their buffer crop of hitting talent as Conor Jackson, Carlos Quentin, Chris Young, and Stephen Drew push major leaguers Tony Clark, Shawn Green, Byrnes, and Craig Counsell from the lineup. Their pitching is still a couple of years away from being ready and they would serve themselves well by finding some takers for Russ Ortiz and Orlando Hernandez before their value becomes nil. They also need to find a closer who will last them more than half a year. Believe it or not, Byung-Hyun Kim is still the most consistent and uninjured closer the franchise ever had.

Padres (78 – 84): The Padres seem to have realized that they’re not going be a home run hitting club in their current stadium. At least the way their roster is currently constructed, they haven’t added anyone who’s capable of increasing their home run output from a year ago. That team of a year ago was possibly the most unglamorous postseason team that I can think of, and they rolled over and died as expected in the first round. They never even led in one inning of any of the three games against the Cards. Their admission to the postseason may have been more a cause of the rest of the division’s lackluster play, than of their own ability to win games. And that division, which let them win while being only two games over .500, has corrected many of its flawed teams of 2005. The Padres, on the other hand, overpaid to keep Giles and Hoffman until father time catches up with them. This team will be scrappy with the likes of Dave Roberts and Mike Cameron, but they will not be as good as they were last year.

Rockies (70 – 92): There are still a lot of growing pains yet to go through for this young team. If they could they should clone Jeff Francis, he’s figuring out how to win games at Coors Field (8-4, 4.88 ERA), now he just needs to figure out how to win games on the road (6-8 6.40 ERA). With kids like Francis, Fuentes, Atkins, and Barmes the future is looking up for the mile highers, but a winning season is still a year or two away.