National League West

Predicted order of finish:
1. Nobody
2. Los Angeles
3. San Francisco
4. San Diego
5. Arizona
6. Colorado

That’s right, nobody will win the NL West. So that will leave two wild card spots for the Cubs!

What, somebody has to win? Damnit! Fine, how about the…

Dodgers

I’m convinced that Paul DePodesta doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing. Only a nitwit would rather have no-legged JD Drew than Adrian Beltre for basically the same money. Only a dope would think bringing in the biggest jagoff in the National League to play second base (Jeff Pornstache if you’ve forgotten) is a good idea. You get the point, I’m sure.

And yet, why am I picking the Dodgers? Because Barry Bonds’ knee fell off, that’s why.

Oh.

Honestly, the Dodgers are a mess. Eric Gagne has a bum leg, Drew’s got two of them. Derek Lowe is still… Derek Lowe. They have Jose Valentin at third base? They have Hee Seop Choi singing karaoke at first base? And I picked them?

Well, just wait until you see the rest of the mess in this division.

Giants

We think we have it bad with Dusty Baker saying and doing stupid things in the Cubs’ dugout, but at least he doesn’t fall asleep during games like Felipe Alou. Actually, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing for Dusty to try?

The Giants built this team to go around Barry Bonds, and why not? Even though he’s a complete asshole and a steroid user, he’s the best player any of us have ever seen. But the only guys they could afford are old, so you end up with Moises Alou pissing himself in right, Marquis Grissom trying not to fossilize in center and Omar Vizquel at short?

Talent wise, they are better than the Dodgers, but these dudes are old and Barry won’t be around to prop them up for at least three months.

Plus, they have Brett Tomko starting games for them and Armando Benitez is always one blown save away from a complete mental breakdown. No thanks.

Padres

I’d have picked the Padres if only a third of their team wasn’t somehow withering up? Remember when Ryan Klesko, Phil Nevin and Brian Giles could hit, you know…homers? They like to blame it on PetCo park, but I ‘m pretty sure they’re playing half their games in other places.

Mark Loretta’s due to come crashing back to reality sometime soon, and Sean Burroughs isn’t all that good. They have Dave Roberts in center, and he’s only useful in fantasy baseball not the real thing. (Oh, don’t get a Boston fan started on that, though).

I do like Jake Peavy, but I’m not sold on Brian Lawrence or Adam Eaton. And their manager has an Albino eyebrow. So that’s just weird.

Diamondbacks

So let me get this straight. They’re broke, out of money, bankrupt, right? So they spend huge money on Troy Glaus and Russ Ortiz, decide to bench Alex Cintron and Scott Hairston so they can spend more money on losers like Craig Counsell and Royce Clayton and they trade for Shawn Green? They have no clue, do they?

They lost 111 games last year. Yikes. How can you do that? Didn’t they get to play the Rockies? Did they lose all of those games?

The D’backs also have Javier Vazquez, and you’d think he’ll be pretty good again away from Yankee Stadium, right? Theoretically, I suppose that’s true. But how many times does a guy go from good to horrible and ever get back to good again?

Rockies

I think the upset of the century is that they were able to find a team that would actually take Charles Johnson off their hands. That’s the best thing they’ll do all year.

That and have Todd Helton kick Wayne Hagin’s ass.