USA TODAY International Edition
NL’s worst division is fascinating
SAN FRANCISCO – Madison Bumgarner opened the door Tuesday afternoon to San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy’s office, and immediately demanded to know what was going on.
“I just saw the lineup card,” Bumgarner said, “and I’m batting ninth? “Ninth? Are you kidding?” Bochy feigned surprise, conceded that he wanted to bat him sixth, but since Bumgarner was making his season debut, was overruled by his coaching staff.
Bumgarner laughed, walked out the door, but by the end of the evening, still was hitless, and winless, too.
Yet, only in this wacky NL West could the Giants (30-31) enter Wednesday still under .500, outscored by 32 runs, and be smack in the middle of this division race.
The division that defies all logic and rationale.
“It’s bizarre,” Giants starter Jeff Samardzija says. “It’s just a crazy division right now.”
Where else could the Arizona Diamondbacks lose 13 of 14 games during their worst stretch in franchise history, still have the lowest batting average (.218) in all of baseball, but be sitting atop the division with a one-game lead over the Colorado Rockies?
Yes, the same Rockies team that’s 1116 at home and is baseball’s only team to be outscored (by 28 runs) and still have a winning record.
Just two games back are the Los Angeles Dodgers. They got off to their worst start in franchise history, going 16-26, but gained four games in the standings by going just 5-7 during a 12day stretch in May, and finally reached .500 on Tuesday, even with Clayton Kershaw contributing just one victory along the way.
There are the Giants, who have already employed 22 pitchers, gotten just four victories from their top three starters, watched their hottest hitter (first baseman Brandon Belt) go down with appendicitis, and keep pinching themselves that they are just 2 1⁄2 games out.
And there are the San Diego Padres, who have the third-worst offense in baseball, struck out the second-most times, have been outscored by 47 runs, and yet are just 5 1⁄2 games out of first place.
“I was talking to [Chicago Cubs closer] Brandon Morrow the other day,” Giants reliever Tony Watson said, “and he said, “man, what is going on with your division?”
A year ago, the NL West produced three playoff teams, combining for 284 victories, including a league-leading 104 victories from the Dodgers.
This season, the NL West has been outscored by 43 runs, with only two teams producing a winning record, with no one on pace to win more than 86 games.
“We went like three weeks,” says Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, “where it seemed like we lost every game.”
And, yet, no matter how dreadful it has looked, everyone is still alive.
“I still think it’s one of the top one or two divisions in baseball,” says Bumgarner, “but the records sure don’t show that right now.
“It’s just real weird.”
Perhaps the best explanation for the division’s collapse is that its biggest stars happen to be on the DL, or underperforming:
Kershaw, the Dodgers’ three-time Cy Young winner, is on the DL for the second time this season, joining fellow starters Hyun-Jin Ryu, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill and Julio Urias; All-Star shortstop Corey Seager is out for the year; and Rookie of the Year winner Cody Bellinger, who hit 39 homers with 97 RBI and a .933 OPS last year, is hitting .225 with eight homers 25 RBI and a .711 OPS.
Arizona lost starter Taijuan Walker for the year, starter Robbie Ray has been on the DL for five weeks with an oblique strain, right fielder Stephen Souza has no homers and one RBI and is back on the DL, center fielder A.J. Pollock (broken thumb) has missed a month and will miss another, and perennial AllStar Goldschmidt is in the worst slump of his career, hitting .220 with eight homers and 20 RBI – including just .160 with a .599 OPS with the new humidor at Chase Field.
The Rockies spent $106 million on their bullpen, yet veteran relievers Mike Dunn (7.88 ERA), Bryan Shaw (7.36 ERA) and Jake McGee (4.91 ERA) have yielded 112 baserunners in 67 1/3 innings. Ace Jon Gray is 5-6 with a 5.68 ERA, and first baseman Ian Desmond is hitting .193 with only three homers in 96 at-bats at Coors Field.
The Giants have had nearly as many starts from Ty Blach (3-5,4.88) than the combined total from Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Samardzija, closer Mark Melancon has pitched just two innings, first baseman Brandon Belt, their leader with 11 homers and 31 RBI, went on the DL with appendicitis and outfielder Hunter Pence (.177, no homers, three RBI) has missed 40 games.
The Padres, who acquired veteran third baseman Chase Headley and his $13 million salary to get their hands on pitcher Bryan Mitchell, released Headley a month ago after hitting .115, and booted Mitchell (0-3, 7.08 ERA) out of the rotation. First baseman Wil Myers, who was moved to the outfield to make room for free agent first baseman Eric Hosmer, has played just 10 games. And catcher Austin Hedges, who hit 18 homers last year, is hitting .173 with two homers this season.
So feel free to figure out what just may transpire this summer in the only division where you can melt (Arizona), freeze (San Francisco), surf (San Diego), ski (Colorado) and shop (Los Angeles).
“We could have let this get away from us with all of the injuries and tough stretches,” says Bochy, “but to be where we’re at right now, we’re not happy with it, or content with it, but when you look at what we had to go through, you say, ‘OK, we’ll take it.”
Join the choir, with every team checking the rear view and seeing the Dodgers lurking, carried by a guy they tried to dump all winter and spring, only to be hitting a league-leading .344 with nine homers and 34 RBI.
“The records may not show it now,” insists Goldschmidt, “but we believe this is going to be a really good division.”
The NL West, blemishes, injuries, ugly performances and all, has four months to prove it.