TBOH MLB Predictions: NL West
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies open the 2016 MLB season on Monday, April 4th while six other clubs open up today and we present our TBOH predictions for the season.
Our annual process of polling the staff here at TBOH as to their predictions for the coming season has been completed, and so we’re rolling out those picks in a series of pieces.
The TBOH staff will reveal our cumulative staff choice, as well as our individual picks, for the order of finish in each of Major League Baseball’s six divisions, the two Wildcard teams from each league, and our World Series favorites.
To determine the staff cumulative pick for each division, I took the predicted order of finish from each of our writers and assigned a numerical value. Teams picked for first place received one point, teams picked to finish in fifth received five points. Thus, the lower your overall total points, the higher your predicted finish. The total points are listed next to each team name.
We’ll also be revealing our staffers picks for the Most Valuable Player Award in both the National and American Leagues, as well as the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year Award winners in both leagues.
Finally, our staffers have chosen their MLB manager who is most likely to become the first casualty of the season, the first to be fired this year.
Enjoy our picks, and we would love to hear your own. Please feel free to leave your choices in a comment. We’ll be sure to read them.
NATIONAL LEAGUE WEST DIVISION – Staff cumulative pick
- San Francisco Giants (8) – not so surprising they are picked to win, but that Buster Posey, Hunter Pence and crew are nearly unanimous
- Los Angeles Dodgers (16) – Chase Utley is back in Dodger blue, and Clayton Kershaw still fronts the staff, but something seems missing
- Arizona Diamondbacks (18) – they stole Zack Greinke from the Dodgers, and led by Paul Goldschmidt they could push for a Wild Card
- San Diego Padres (29) – it’s a clear drop from the top three teams out west to the bottom two clubs
- Colorado Rockies (34) – the Rockies have plenty of offense in a hitter’s dream park, but their pitching is going to get slaughtered
Matt Veasey – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, Colorado, San Diego
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Ethan Witte – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Diego, Colorado
Mike Azzalina – San Francisco, Arizona, Los Angeles, San Diego, Colorado
Alexis Girardo – Arizona, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Colorado
Tyler DiSalle – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Diego, Colorado
Ryan Gerstel – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Diego, Colorado
David Mosemann – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arizona, San Diego, Colorado
Next: TBOH Predictions: AL East Division