Dodgers, Giants rise above ‘noise’ in West
“The Dodgers and Giants have been the class of the
A.J. Pollock didn’t want to hear it. The Diamondbacks center fielder was asked about the National League West and how he thought things might play out in the division this season. But as soon as it was brought up that Arizona likely would be chasing the Dodgers and Giants once again, Pollock had heard enough.
It wasn’t so much that Pollock disagreed with the notion. The Dodgers, after all, have won the NL West each of the past four years and Los Angeles and San Francisco have finished first or second four times in the past five seasons overall with seven playoff appearances between them.
According to the vast majority of prognosticators, the division will go to either the Dodgers or the Giants in 2017 with a retooled Rockies team lurking just behind them.
“Yeah, yeah,” Pollock began, “but let me just say when you’re hearing something, it’s because there’s noise out there and you’re actually choosing to listen to it. We’ve got to choose not to listen. We’ve got to choose to just keep focused. That’s on us. It’s a lot of the noise. It’s meaningless. It’s the writers and it’s great for the fans, but for us?
“Look, there’s nothing wrong with hearing it, but putting stock into it and actually listening to it is another thing. We learned a lot from that last year, so I think we’ll hopefully do a better job this time.”
Pollock, of course, was referring to the Diamondbacks tearing up the Cactus League a year ago and, having added a pair of new starting pitchers, Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller, raising expectations. Instead, they failed miserably and it would up costing manager Chip Hale and General Manager Dave Stewart their jobs.
Coming off a 69-win season, expectations have been tempered.
“We do have some history of rebounding from bad seasons,” Diamondbacks Managing Partner Ken Kendrick said. “You’d like to think the core is there and with some of the changes that we’ve made that there is a real potential for a turnaround. You’ve got to go out and play the games, though.”
The Diamondbacks, now led by firstyear manager Torey Lovullo and a restructured front office run by new GM Mike Hazen, won’t find it any easier in the NL West this year.
The Dodgers still have the best pitcher in the National League, Clayton Kershaw, and one of the game’s brighter young shortstops, Corey Seager. The Giants are rotation-heavy with Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Moore and Matt Cain and they still possess the league’s top catcher, Buster Posey.
San Francisco also won the free-agent race for closer Matt Melancon, who has been as good as any finisher in the game the past few seasons.
“I think it’s going to be a really tough race,” Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi told reporters during the Cactus League’s annual media day session. “The Giants get Melancon with some of their closer struggles last year and having one of the top guys in the game, they’re obviously a favorite in our division. And then you’ve got the Rockies and Diamondbacks, both teams with a lot of good, young talent that gave us a lot of trouble at times last year.
“This division, I think, has continued to evolve and improve in our time here. It’s going to be another tough race this year, for sure.”
division for a while now.”
The Rockies, usually known for being a thrifty organization, could make things interesting after an expensive offseason that brought them a new first baseman, Ian Desmond ($70 million over five years), lefty reliever Mike Dunn ($19 million over three years), right-hander Greg Holland ($7 million for one year) and infielder Alexi Amarista ($1.25 million for one year).
They have three legitimate raking machines: slugging third baseman Nolan Arenado, who led the NL in RBI (133) and shared the lead with 41 homers; second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who won the NL batting crown with a .348 average; and shortstop Trevor Story, who was on his way to winning NL Rookie of the Year honors until suffering a season-ending thumb injury.
Colorado, though, has been hit hard by injuries, losing Desmond to a broken hand, outfielder David Dahl to a fractured-rib issue and catcher Tom Murphy to a forearm fracture. That latest injury prompted new Rockies manager Bud Black to say, “Yeah, we’ve had a tough time with bones here lately.”
On top of that, pitcher Chad Bettis is, unfortunately, battling cancer again.
“We don’t really pay attention to what people are saying about us,” Colorado’s Story told reporters. “We’re a pretty tight-knit group. We’re a very confident group. We have a belief we can be really good.”
The Rockies have never won a divisional title and as for the San Diego Padres, they haven’t won the NL West since the second of their two straight division crowns in 2006. The Padres could still make some noise, however, if their pitching comes together and they catch enough breaks.
“It’s always tough. It’s always a challenge,” Padres General Manager A.J. Preller told reporters at the Cactus League media day. “The Dodgers and Giants have been the class of the division for a while now and the Rockies keep adding to their club. … It’s going to be a tough division, no doubt.”
Pollock and the Diamondbacks will agree on that. It’s going to be tough, all right. The Diamondbacks, though, aren’t going to listen to the noise.
“That’s exactly what we’re preaching,” second baseman Brandon Drury said. “I mean, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. If we do what we’re capable of doing, we’ll win baseball games. But A.J. (Pollock) is totally right. If you’re worried about what the Dodgers or Giants or the Rockies or Padres are doing, then you’re not focused on what you’re doing and you’re not going to execute. We’re just focused on what we’re doing in here.”
Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb echoed that point.
“All I know is that on paper, we’ve got a really good team,” he said. “We’ve got the talent. We’ve got the pitching. We’ve just got to go out and play, so there’s really no point in me saying anything about expectations. It’s the same as last year. We have to go out and execute on the field. It doesn’t matter what I say in this interview or what anyone says, really. It’s just about executing.” 1. Mike Trout, Angels: No matter what you think of the Angels, Trout makes them relevant and he could easily win his third MVP honor.