![\"MlbHlSq\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/MlbHlSq.jpg\" "\\"MlbHlSq\\"")
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to look back at each of the six Major League divisions one-by-one over the next six weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 We start with the home of the 2010 World Series champions.<\/p>\nWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to look back at each of the six Major League divisions one-by-one over the next six weeks.\u00c2\u00a0 We start with the home of the 2010 World Series champions.<\/p>\n
BaseballGB predictions<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n San Francisco Giants (92-70)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Giants\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 World Series triumph was an incredible story.\u00c2\u00a0 Their pitching staff was certainly \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWorld Series worthy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, yet the offence was patchy at best for much of the season and they were not your typical dominant force defeating all-comers on the road to glory.\u00c2\u00a0 They pushed past the Padres midway through September and almost came unstuck in the final series of the season, only securing their playoff place with a win over San Diego on the final day.<\/p>\n It was almost a case of their great pitching going to waste.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, they snuck into the postseason and then rode the crest of a wave all the way to the big prize.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n The question then is can this relatively unfancied World Series-winning team retain their title in 2011?\u00c2\u00a0 The pitching staff is likely to be just as good, while Buster Posey is a fantastic young player to build an offence around.\u00c2\u00a0 Some would say that if this 2010 Giants team can win a World Series then there are plenty of others good enough to win it all in 2011.\u00c2\u00a0 That may be true, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also true that the Giants will be one of those teams in the mix.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n San Diego Padres (90-72)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Padres are in an unenviable position.\u00c2\u00a0 They greatly exceeded expectations in 2010 and if they had made it to the postseason, even a swift exit wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have dampened the joy and sense of achievement too much.\u00c2\u00a0 Missing out altogether, albeit by the slimmest of margins, meant that they were left with nothing to show for their efforts and you have to get the sense that they could well fall back down to earth with a bump next year.<\/p>\n The Padres lived and died with their pitching, with a terrific bullpen and the immensely talented young ace Mat Latos.\u00c2\u00a0 Bullpens are notorious for changing fortunes from season to season, while Latos tired in September at the end of a heavy workload in his first full Major League season.\u00c2\u00a0 The potential is there for the pitching to be just as good, but it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t guaranteed.<\/p>\n The offence consisted of Adrian Gonzalez and some timely hits here and there by the rest.\u00c2\u00a0 The first baseman will be a free agent at the end of the 2011 season and it looks certain that he will not be staying in San Diego.\u00c2\u00a0 The Padres\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offence without Gonzalez is no offence at all really and his impending departure is likely to hang over the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s season, or until he gets traded.<\/p>\n Colorado Rockies (83-79)<\/strong><\/p>\n The Rockies were the heavy favourites for the NL West among the BGB writers, including myself.\u00c2\u00a0 With no team really standing out above the others in the division, Colorado\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s charge in the second-half of 2009 was too much to ignore.<\/p>\n Ubaldo Jimenez had a Cy Young-calibre season, highlighted by a no-hitter against the Atlanta Braves in just his third start of the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Troy Tulowitzki hit 27 home runs and drove in 95 runs despite missing over a month of the season with a wrist injury.\u00c2\u00a0 Carlos Gonzalez put together an outstanding season at the plate, helped in part by Coors Field.<\/p>\n The trouble for the Rockies was that those three performers were not backed with quite enough support from the rest of the roster.\u00c2\u00a0 They nearly pulled off one of their patented late runs, winning ten in a row at the start of September to put them just 1.5 games off the division lead.\u00c2\u00a0 They couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keep up that pace though and ended the season on a downer by losing their last eight games.<\/p>\n Los Angeles Dodgers (80-82)<\/strong><\/p>\n Joe Torre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reign in L.A. came to a lacklustre end as the Dodgers failed to mount any sort of challenge for a postseason place.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n It seemed like the whole of the organization was stuck in a state of limbo.\u00c2\u00a0 The ongoing divorce case involving the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s owners, the McCourts, was a soap opera behind the scenes and also created doubt about General Manager Ned Colletti\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to improve the roster due to financial constraints.\u00c2\u00a0 Matt Kemp, such a star in 2009, took a big step backwards as his commitment and attitude were called into question.\u00c2\u00a0 All the while, Torre\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thinly-veiled plans to pass the managerial torch to his Bench Coach Don Mattingley gave the impression that 2010 was a transitional year.<\/p>\n Some bright spots did emerge during the season, particularly on the pitching staff.\u00c2\u00a0 Clayton Kershaw had an excellent year alongside Chad Billingsley at the front of the rotation, Hong-Chih Kou was dominant out of the bullpen, and the 6 ft 6 inch flamethrower Kenley Jansen proved the Dodgers made a smart choice in converting him from being a catcher.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Arizona Diamondbacks (65-97)<\/strong><\/p>\n There was more misery in Arizona as the Diamondbacks came close to hitting the three digit mark in the loss column.\u00c2\u00a0 A.J. Hinch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appointment as manager always seemed a curious choice and that failed experiment came to an end half-way through the season.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n The team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s record didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t improve greatly under Kirk Gibson, but there were some positives to take from the season.\u00c2\u00a0 Kelly Johnson proved to be an inspired addition, Ian Kennedy had a solid year in the rotation, Stephen Drew showed why he was so highly touted as a prospect and Dan Hudson was sensational in eleven starts after being acquired from the White Sox for Edwin Jackson.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n The D-Backs made a good choice in appointing Kevin Towers as their new GM after the season finished and that should provide some hope in the desert. However, Towers will have to work his magic with the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s major trading chip, Dan Haren, having been dealt to the Angels for a less-than-impressive return prior to the trade deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to look back at each of the six Major League divisions one-by-one over the next six weeks. We start with the home of the 2010 World Series champions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[136,133,132,553,135,134],"class_list":["post-9503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mlb-2","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-san-francisco-giants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9503"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9517,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9503\/revisions\/9517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Joe<\/strong><\/td>\n Dodgers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mark<\/strong><\/td>\n Rockies (WC: Dodgers)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Matt<\/strong><\/td>\n Rockies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Russ<\/strong><\/td>\n Rockies (WC: Giants)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Steve<\/strong><\/td>\n Rockies<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n