National League West Preview

Last year, the National League West (NL West) was known as the bottom-dweller, or the laughing stock of the Major League. I foresee this year differently for the NL West because some of the teams who struggled should thrive in 2009.
The Las Angeles Dodgers won the division by two games last season, but it really was never that close. The Arizona Diamondbacks made a late charge in the last 10 games of the season but by that time L.A. had already clinched the division.
The aforementioned Diamondbacks had a relatively decent year but would have been better if their key players could have stayed healthy. The Colorado Rockies followed up a surprising 2007 season with a very disappointing 2008 campaign. They ended up 10 games behind the Dodgers and had a record under .500. This means they did not win 50% of their games.
The San Francisco Giants, to me, had the most disappointing season in the NL West. They had a Cy Young Award winner, Tim Lincecum, and their pitching was still not enough to help them out. A Cy Young Award is the award that goes to the best pitcher in the league. The worst team in this league was the San Diego Padres. They finished with a 63-99 record and it is not looking good for this year again.
I picked the Dodgers to repeat this year as N.L. West champs but it is a tough decision over the Giants. The Giants acquired Randy Johnson in the off-season and, on paper, the pitching rotation looks stout. The way I see it, the order would look like this: Dodgers, Giants, Diamondbacks, Rockies, and Padres.