2021-2022 NBA Awards Predictions:

 

MVP: C Joel Embiid 76ers; C Nikola Jokic Nuggets G DeMar DeRozan Bulls

Rookie of the Year: F Evan Mobley Cavaliers; F Scottie Barnes Raptors G Cade Cunningham Pistons

Defensive Player of the Year: F Mikal Bridges Suns; G Marcus Smart Celtics C Rudy Robert Jazz

Sixth Man of the Year: G Tyler Herro Heat; G Jordan Clarkson Jazz Cameron Johnson Suns

Coach of the Year: Taylor Jenkins Grizzlies; Monty Williams Suns Nick Nurse Raptors

Most Improved Player of the Year: F Mikal Bridges Suns; G Darius Garland Cavaliers G Dejounte 

Murray Spurs

Executive of the Year: Arturas Kournikovas Bulls; Brad Stevens Celtics Pat Riley Heat

All NBA: 1st: Joel Embiid 76ers DeMar DeRozan Bulls Giannis Antetokounmpo Bucks Luka Doncic 

Mavericks Devin Booker Suns

2nd: Nikola Jokic Nuggets Jayson Tatum Celtics  Kevin Durant Nets Ja Morant Grizzlies Steph Curry 

Warriors

3rd: Karl Anthony Towns Timberwolves Pascal Siakam Raptors Lebron James Lakers Trae Young Hawks Chris Paul Suns

All Rookie: 1st: Evan Mobley Cavaliers Scottie Barnes Raptors Cade Cunningham Pistons Franz 

Wagner Magic Jalen Green Rockets

2nd: Josh Giddy Thunder Herbert Jones Pelicans Ayo Dosunmu Bulls Bones Hyland Nuggets Jonathan 

Kuminga Warriors 

All Defense: 1st: Rudy Gobert Jazz Mikal Brides Suns Giannis Antetokounmpo Bucks Marcus Smart 

Celtics Jrue Holiday Bucks

2nd: Jaren Jackson Jr Grizzlies Herbert Jones Pelicans Matisse Thybulle 76ers Chris Paul Suns Jarret 

Allen Cavaliers 

2022 MLB Standings, Awards & Playoff Predictions:

Central:

1. White Sox

2. Twins

3. Royals

4. Tigers

5. Guardians

East:

1. Rays

2. Blue Jays

3. Red sox

4. Yankees

5. Orioles

West:

1. Astros

2. Rangers

3. Mariners

4. Angels

5. Athletics

Central:

1. Brewers

2. Cardinals

3. Cubs

4. Reds

5. Pirates

East:

1. Braves

2. Mets

3. Phillies

4. Nationals

5. Marlins

West:

1. Dodgers

2. Giants

3. Padres

4. Rockies

5. Diamondbacks

Awards:

AL MVP: 

1. 1B Vlad Guerrero Blue Jays

2. 3B Rafael Devers Red Sox

3. 1B Jose Abreu White Sox

NL MVP:

1. LF Tyler O'Neil Cardinals

2. 1B Pete Alonso Mets

3. RF Bryce Harper Phillies

AL Cy Young:

1. Gerrit Cole Yankees

2. Dylan Cease White Sox

3. Shohei Ohtani Angels

NL Cy Young:

1. Brandon Woodruff Brewers

2. Walker Buehler Dodgers

3. Zack Wheeler Phillies

AL Rookie of the Year:

1. OF Julio Rodriguez Mariners

2. INF Spencer Torkelson Tigers

3. INF Bobby Witt Jr Royals

NL Rookie of the Year:

1. OF Seiya Suzuki Cubs

2. SP Hunter Greene Reds

3. C Keibert Ruiz/Joey Bart Nationals/Giants

AL Manager of the Year:

1. Charlie Montoyo Blue Jays

2. Chris Woodward Rangers

3. Scott Servais Mariners

NL Manager of the Year:

1. Buck Showalter Mets

2. Craig Counsell Brewers

3. Gabe Kapler Giants

AL Executive of the Year:

1. Ross Atkins Blue Jays

2. Chris Young Rangers

3. Thad Levine Twins

NL Executive of the Year: 

1. Billy Eppler Mets

2. Scott Harris Giants

3. Carter Hawkins Cubs

AL Comeback Player of the Year:

1. 3B Alex Bregman Astros

2. CF Mike Trout Angels

3. 3B Yoan Moncada White Sox

NL Comeback Player of the Year:

1. Chrisitan Yelich Brewers

2. OF Cody Bellinger Dodgers

3.  SP Madison Bumgarner Diamondbacks

AL Reliever of the Year:

1. Liam Hendricks White Sox

2. Raisel Iglesias Angels

3. Emmanuel Clase Guardians 

NL Reliever of the Year:

1. Josh Hader Brewers

2. Kenley Jensen Braves

3. Craig Kimbrel Dodgers

Playoffs:

AL:

#1 Seed #2 Seed Bye: Rays & Astros.

#3 White Sox VS #6 Yankees: White Sox Win.

#4 Blue Jays VS #5 Red Sox: Blue Jays Win.

#1 Rays VS #4 Blue Jays: Rays Win.

#2 Astros VS #3 White Sox: White Sox Win.

#1 Rays VS #3 White Sox. Rays Win.

NL:

#1 Seed #2 Seed Bye: Dodgers & Braves.

#3 Brewers VS #6 Cardinals: Brewers Win.

#4 Giants VS #5 Mets: Mets Win.

#1 Dodgers VS #5 Mets: Dodgers Win.

#2 Braves VS #3 Brewers: Braves Win.

#1 Dodgers VS #2 Braves: Dodgers Win.

World Series:

Dodgers VS Rays: Dodgers Win.

 

2022 MLB Preview:

 

Central: This is the White Sox’s division to lose as they have the most talent in this division with their offense, top of the rotation and bullpen. They added Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly to add to the core of CL Liam Hendricks, Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet.. Their offense again will carry them as they still have 1B Jose Abreu, 3B Yoan Moncada, C Yasmani Grandal, SS Tim Anderson, LF Eloy Jimenez and CF Luis Robert. The question will be the production out of 2B/RF as all they did was add the versatile Josh Harrison and AJ Pollack(who has never played rightfield). The top of the rotation will not be a question with Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease, but the backend will be an issue as they lost Carlos Rodon in free agency and only added Vincent Velasquez. 

The Twins always have a top offense and this season will not be different as they made a bunch of trades that resulted in getting C Gary Sanchez, 3B Gio Urshela and then signing SS Carlos Correa after trading Josh Donaldson to allow them to afford these players. Those moves help add to the core of 2B Jorge Polanco, INF Luis Arraez, 1B Miguel Sano, CF Byron Buxton and RF Max Kepler. They added three veterans to their rotation in Sonny Gray, Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer to replace Michael Pineda, Matt Shoemaker and Kenta Maeda(Tommy John surgery out for most of year), but that’s them just shuffling the chairs on the Titanic and their bullpen will hold them back from the playoffs. 

The Royals might have one of the best lineups in baseball because of how talented their position players are offensively and defensively. C Salvador Perez, 1B Carlos Santana, SS Adalberto Mondesi, 3B Hunter Dozier, DH Ryan O’Hearn, UTL Whit Merrifield for their bats, and defensively have two gold glovers in outfielders Michael A Taylor and Andrew Benintendi and gold glove caliber INF Nicky Lopez. Their rotation has two up and coming pitchers in Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, and Zack Greinke there for a reunion but not much after that, plus their bullpen only has one reliable pitcher in Amir Garrett who they got for Mike Minor in a trade. 

The Tigers have in back to back seasons signed veterans to help their team like this year signing SS Javy Baez for six years to lead this infield that already has 2B Jonathan Schoop, 1B Miguel Cabrera, 3B Jeimer Candelario, and they traded for gold glove catcher Tucker Barnhart. They even signed Eduardo Rodriguez for five years to help this young rotation out that has Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal and Spencer Turnbull, plus they added Michael Pineda. The questions will be is how this outfield is aligned as they have five outfielders like Robbie Grossman and Akil Baddoo, plus outside of them picking up Andrew Chafin their bullpen is led by Michael Fulmer who should be in the rotation not the bullpen. 

The Guardians of Cleveland are continuing the recent trend of their previous name where they keep selling off pieces or don’t do much in the offseason to improve their team. Teams were looking to trade for 3B Jose Ramirez so do not be surprised if he and DH Franmil Reyes are traded as their outfield is not set with three centerfielders and the other infield spots are also not set. They let long time starting catcher Roberto Perez leave and only have backups to replace him, and their rotation wasn’t the most healthy last season, so unless Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale stay healthy it is going to be a long season.  

East: The Rays are not a team you can count on not just making the playoffs but winning their division as they won 100 games last year. There is some sort of magic they have with pitching staffs with their openers, bulk guys, and their magic with the bullpen. Two of their starters in Tyler Glasnow, Yonny Chirinos and their best reliever Nick Anderson will start the year on the injured list, so they will turn to their pitching depth for both the rotation and bullpen plus they signed two time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. They have a great outfield/DH combo of Austin Meadows, Manuel Margot, Kevin Kiermaier and reigning rookie of the year Randy Arozarena. Their infield has 2B Brandon Lowe, Yandy Diaz, a rookie of the year runner up in SS Wander Franco, and Mike Zunino behind the plate. 

The Blue Jays came to play this season after winning 91 games/just missing the playoffs as they traded for 3B Matt Chapman, OF Raimel Tapia, signed pitchers Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi and Yimi Garcia. Their rotation already had Hyun Jin Ryu, Jose Berrios and Alek Manoah not to mention Ross Stripling for starting options. By getting Chapman they can shift Cavan Biggio to 2B where he is more comfortable to form a top infield with SS Bo Bichette and 1B Vlad Guerrero Jr., plus have a good outfield of George Springer, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Teoscar Hernandez.

The Red Sox still have a great lineup in SS Xander Bogaerts, 3B Rafael Devers, DH JD Martinez, 1B Bobby Dalbec, and they signed Trevor Story to play 2B. They still have Alex Verdugo, UTL Kike Hernandez, C Christian Vazquez and they brought back Jackie Bradley Jr. for defense. When this rotation is fully healthy it will have Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, James Paxton, Michael Wacha whom they both signed, and Nick Pivetta plus two young pitchers they developed. Their bullpen will again be led by Matt Barnes but this time they added a few veterans to help him in Jake Diekman and Matt Strahm plus resigned Hansel Robles. 

The Yankees also have a great lineup in outfielders Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks; infielders Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, resigning Anthony Rizzo, trading for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner Falefa. The issues that comes up with who is not going to start with all of this talent and they traded away Sanchez so they do not have a starting catcher. Their rotation if fully healthy as well, has Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Jameson Taillon and Domingo German, but that is a big if. Plus that dominant bullpen isn’t what it used to be with Zack Britton starting off the year hurt and with mostly journeymen relievers/starters filling the pen alongside closer Aroldis Chapman. 

The Orioles despite losing over 100 games have some nice pieces on their roster in 1B Trey Mancini, DH Ryan Mountcastle, outfielders Anthony Santander, Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays plus a top prospect in all of baseball in C Adley Rutschman. Their rotation still has John Means, Dean Kremer and signed Jordan Lyles who most likely will be traded. Their bullpen, back end of the rotation and the fact they do not know how their infield will lineup outside of 1B will hold them back to be a bottom tier team as they only signed Rougned Odor to that infield. 

West: This is the Astros division to lose as they have the most talent in this division and are a proven winner as they keep making the World Series two of the last three seasons as their offense is still intact with 3B Alex Bregman, 2B Jose Altuve, 1B Yuli Gurriel, DH Yordan Alvarez, outfielders Kyle Tucker and Michael Brantley. They made some moves to bolster the bullpen by adding Phil Maton, Rafael Montero last year/this year Hector Neris to help Ryan Pressly, Pedro Baez and Ryne Stanek but isn’t as good as their bullpen used to be. Their rotation lost Zack Greinke but because of the recent health of this rotation as Justin Verlander is coming off Tommy John surgery, Lance McCullers isn’t always healthy they have young pitching depth to rely on in Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Christian Javier and Luis Garcia plus still have veteran Jake Odorizzi. They still do not have a starting centerfielder after trading Myles Straw last year and Carlos Correa leaving in free agency leaves a hole at SS because Aledmys Diaz and Niko Goodrum are really backups. 

The Rangers had enough of finishing in last place the past few seasons with the moves they made to shore up the pitching staff. They added Jon Gray for four years, Garrett Richards, Matt Moore, Martin Perez coming back to his original team to help Dane Dunning/Kolby Allard, relievers Greg Holland, Brandon Workman and Dan Winkler to help Jose Leclerc. On offense they added SS Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, INF Brad Miller, C Mitch Garver, INF Matt Carpenter, outfielders Kole Calhoun and Jake Marisnick. The question will be about chemistry between the new players and the returning players like Adolis Garcia, Willie Calhoun, Nate Lowe and Nick Solak. 

The Mariners missed out on the playoffs last year with 90 wins so they went out and added Robbie Ray(reigning Cy Young/strikeouts/ERA leader) to help Marco Gonzales and Justus Sheffield but after that they are thin in the rotation. The bullpen is hoping Ken Giles can come back from Tommy John surgery to be their closer to help move Diego Castillo, Drew Steckenrider to setup roles with Sergio Romo whom they signed. They already had a talented outfield of Mitch Hangier, Kyle Lewis, Jarred Kelenic, Taylor Trammell and Julio Rodriguez who hasn’t even debuted yet but traded for Jesse Winker to add to that mix. Their infield was already going to be good with Ty France, Abraham Toro, JP Crawford, Evan White, Adam Frazier whom they traded for and also got Eugenio Suarez in that Winker trade. They do not have a good starting catcher which is their other weakness besides the rotation but it will be how they align both the outfield and infield with the trades they made. 

The Angels still have Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, and Anthony Rendon but seem to be at the bottom of the division standings most seasons because they cannot stay healthy and that is where all the money is tied up in. They added Noah Syndergaard, Michael Lorenzen, and Daniel Ponce De Leon as starting up options to help Ohtani and resigned Raisel Iglesias, brought in Archie Bradley, Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera to help the bullpen. They hope that Jo Adell finally stays healthy/figures it out so they have a right fielder, Jared Walsh can repeat his production last year, Matt Duffy/Tyler Wade platooning at 2B helps David Fletcher get back to being productive as he moves to SS. 

The A’s who always have been known to not spend money on big free agents and trade veterans for prospects decided to go all-in on a rebuild by trading away Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Chris Bassett, Sean Manaea, not bringing back Starling Marte/Mark Canha, Marcus Semien(the previous offseason), Sergio Romo, Jake Diekman and Andrew Chafin left their bullpen. They are looking to trade Frankie Montas as SS Elvis Andrus’s contract is hard to trade but we can see more trades like Tony Kemp, Ramon Laureano, Chad Pinder, Stephen Piscotty, Jed Lowrie, Eric Thames and Stephen Vogt to name some veterans on their team. Another big loss was letting manager Bob Melvin who guided them to the playoffs/close to the playoffs every year go to the Padres. 

Central: The Brewers have one of the best trios at the top of their rotation in Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and reigning Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and have a top duo in the bullpen with Josh Hader and Devin Williams. They also have Brent Suter and Brad Boxberger in the bullpen as well plus Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser are nice back end starters. Their offense is also talented with outfielders Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, added Andrew McCutchen and Hunter Renfroe. The question will be how their infield is setup outside of Willy Adames at SS, Kolten Wong at 2B, while Luis Urias, Keston Hiura, Mike Brosseau and Rowdy Tellez will split time at 3B/1B/DH(when Renfroe or McCutchen doesn’t DH). Adding Pedro Severino to backup offensive catcher Omar Narvaez is good as he is defensive specialist. 

The Cardinals went on a historic run to make the playoffs last year winning seventeen straight but they will not have to do that as they have top outfield of Tyler O’Neil, Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson, added Corey Dickerson and Albert Pujols to DH. Their infield still has Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman and Yadier Molina is still the catcher. Their pitching staff will again be the issue as they will have to repeat last year’s deadline by getting a few starters because despite having Jake Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Adam Wainwright at the top and adding Steven Matzto replace Carlos Martinez the common theme is health as Flahtery, Mikolas, Matz and Dakota Hudson are coming off injured seasons. Their bullpen is also taking a hit as their closer Alex Reyes who could also be in the rotation will start the year on the injured list, Andrew Miller retired and Jordan Hicks is coming off an injured season as well. 

The Cubs decided to try to be competitive this year after trading away all of their core stars from that World Series team last year by adding Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly, Wade Miley, Daniel Norris, Mychal Givens, Chris Martin, David Robertson, Jesse Chavez, Robert Gsellman and Steven Brault to the pitching staff. On offense they added C Yan Gomes, INF Jonathan Villar, SS Andrelton Simmons, OF Clint Frazier and Japanese All-Star outfielder Seiya Suzuki. They still got C Willson Contreras, Ian Happ, OF Jason Heyward and Kyle Hendricks too but manager David Ross has a hard job ahead of him on figuring out who is going to play where and who is starting or relieving. 

The Reds decided that being close to the playoffs wasn’t good enough by being in the middle so they had a fire sale of players in Sunny Gray, Amir Garrett, Wade Miley, OF Jesse Winkler, C Tucker Barnhart, 3B Eugenio Suarez and let Mychal Givens, Michael Lorenzen, Brad Brach, Sean Doolittle and Nick Castellanos leave in free agency. Positives are without Suarez, Mike Moustakas can slide over to 3B his actual position, with a DH keep Joey Votto fresh, still have rookie of the year Jonathan India, added Tommy Pham, Colin Moran, Hunter Strickland and Mike Minor. The biggest issues are they still do not have a SS, a real centerfielder as Nick Senzel is still an infielder playing outfield, know who is actually playing RF and is Tyler Stephenson good enough to be a starting catcher plus pitching depth in the rotation/bullpen.

The Pirates are one of the worst teams in baseball as they finally said goodbye to OF Gregory Polanco signaling the end of that talented outfield of him, McCutchen and Marte. They do not know is going to be in the outfield besides Bryan Reynolds whose bad experiment in the centerfield is going on, traded away their gold glove catcher Jacob Stallings, Moran left and still haven’t figured out who is the shortstop between Kevin Newman and Cole Tucker. They do have third base locked up with Ke’Bryan Hayes, two good 1B/DH gap filling options in Yoshi Tsutsugo and Daniel Vogelbach. They only have two good starters in Mitch Keller and Jose Quintana who will probably be traded with veteran relievers Heath Hembree and Duane Underwood Jr.

East: The defending World Series champions Braves did say goodbye to franchise stalwart 1B Freddie Freeman but traded for and extended Matt Olson for eight seasons and signed closer Kenley Jansen away from the Dodgers. Their lineup is still stacked with 3B Austin Riley, C Travis d’Arnaud, 2B Ozzie Albies, outfielders Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna, and the return of Ronald Acuna. The issue will be is they do not have a true centerfielder as all of their good outfielders are corner guys, so with the new DH rule one of them will be the DH. They still got a good rotation of Max Fried, Charlie Morton, Ian Anderson, recently signed Collin McHugh and the return of Mike Soroka. Outside of Jensen they still got Will Smith, added Tyler Thornburg, Brad Brach, Darren O’Day, Nick Vincent and the return of Kirby Yates. 

The Mets have always spent money on free agents and this offseason wasn’t any different as they added Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt through trade, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Adam Ottavino, Alex Claudio and Mike Montgomery. The biggest difference is the last three managers had no experience managing in the big leagues (Mickey Calloway, Carlos Beltran and Luis Rojas) and Buck Showalter has help built four teams in playoff teams(Rangers, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Orioles). They will still have a top rotation even with the departure of Syndergaard because Jacob DeGrom, Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Taijaun Walker and Bassitt give them a top five rotation. Their offense will also be good because of the DH so Dominic Smith can DH because Pete Alonso is at 1B, Canha/Marte can flank Brandon Nimmo, but they also can rotate the DH so Jeff McNeil, Robinson Cano and JD Davis can get at bats. The issue besides where to play everyone is the bullpen as Edwin Diaz hasn’t been as dominate as he was before, Trevor May had a down season last year and the rest of bullpen will be former starters/guys on minor league deals outside of Ottavino. 

The Phillies are trying to finally make the playoffs this year after not making it for ten seasons as they added Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos to play LF/DH to help RF Bryce Harper, 3B Alec Bohm, 1B Rhys Hoskins, C JT Realmtuo, SS Didi Gregorius and 2B Jean Segura in the lineup. Their rotation still has Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin and Kyle Gibson, but after having one of the worst bullpens last year they hope by adding Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, Jeurys Familia, Ryan Sherriff to Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez it will make a difference. The other issue will be who is in CF between Odbuell Herrera who they brought back, Mickey Moniak and Matt Vierling. 

The Nationals have fallen on rough times since their World Series championship in 2019 but they still have Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, Joe Ross in their rotation, got Josiah Gray in a trade(last season), added both Anibal and Aaron Sanchez to minor league deals, but the question will be the health in this rotation. Their bullpen also has been issue for years but still have Will Harris, brought back Sean Doolittle, signed Steve Cishek and Carl Edwards Jr. to help out. They still got one of the best offensive players in Juan Soto. The experiment in RF was bad idea, which they are still going to do without any real reason unlike last season when they had Schwarber pushing him as they have no set outfield outside of him. Outside of Josh Bell at 1B, Nelson Cruz at DH they do not have a set infield or catching situation. They got two top prospects from other teams at catcher, so how are you going to know who is better when they both need at bats. Maikel Franco, Alcides Escobar and Cesar Hernandez are not the best starting options in the infield. 

The Marlins saw their CEO/minority owner Derek Jeter leave the franchise because he didn’t think they wanted to spend money to be competitive. The only major moves they made were signing Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler to corner outfielders/DH when they have two first basemen/DH guys already. They did trade for C Jacob Stallings to replace Jorge Alfro, and Joey Wendle to help out in the infield despite a set infield of Brian Anderson, Miguel Rojas and Jazz Chisholm. They have some nice young pieces in this rotation with Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Sixto Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo, but nothing impactful in the bullpen and no centerfielder. 

West: The Dodgers still have a stacked team even with the losses of Corey Seger, Kenley Jansen, Max Scherzer, Joe Kelly, Corey Knebel and Matt Beaty because they signed 1B Freddie Freeman for six seasons, UTL Hanser Alberto, Daniel Hudson, Tyler Anderson and OF Kevin Pillar. Their rotation of Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw coming back, David Price and Trevor Bauer (whenever he can play after a suspension that is coming), is one of the best plus Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May(coming off surgery), Andrew Heaney, Danny Duffy, Jimmy Nelson and Anderson as other options. The lineup with the addition of Freeman make it probably the best in baseball with 3B Justin Turner, Max Muncy, C Will Smith, SS Trea Turner, 2B Gavin Lux, outfielders Cody Bellinger and Mookie Betts. The only issue which they can solve with some trades is the bullpen with who will close the games out as only Blake Treinen, Hudson and Tommy Kahnle coming off surgery have closer experience so they traded away AJ Pollack to get Craig Kimbrel so they have a closer.

The Giants surprised people by winning over 100 games/winning the division which they probably can’t replicate but will definitely try as they still have the infield of SS Brandon Crawford, 1B Brandon Belt, 2B Tommy La Stella, 3B Evan Longoria, the DH spot for Darin Ruf and the outfield of Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade and the addition of Joc Pederson. This will officially be the first season without C Buster Posey as they will turn to prospect Joey Bart and veteran Curt Casali, plus their bench has useful pieces in Wilmer Flores and Mauricio Dubon. They are repeating last year’s decision on beefing up on veterans coming off down seasons/injured seasons hoping it works as they added Carlos Rodon, Matt Boyd, Alex Cobb , Carlos Martinez and Jakob Junis to the rotation of Alex Wood, Anthony DeSclafani and Logan Webb. Their bullpen is still suspect with only Jake McGee and Tyler Rogers as relievers of any note as they will look to add some relievers at the deadline. 

The Padres had high hopes for the playoffs but collapsed towards the end of the season, the hope is hiring an experienced manager in Bob Melvin should help to avoid this as the two previous managers had no experience managing in the majors in Jayce Tingler and Andy Green. Their lineup is still stacked despite Pham, Frazier being gone they still got SS Fernando Tatis Jr, 1B Eric Hosmer, RF Wil Myers, 3B Manny Machado, 2B Jake Cronenworth, and newly acquired DH Luke Voigt. The catching position is murky as they have four catchers who could start, have Jurickson Profar in LF when he is an infielder/has no real backup outfielders, and CF Trent Grisham is a gold glove outfielder but his hitting is suspect. Their rotation on paper is stacked with Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, Chris Paddack , traded for Sean Manaea and Mike Clevinger but health will be an issue as most have an injury history. What will hold them back is their bullpen as their only experienced reliever is Craig Stammen as the rest are former starters. 

The Rockies did lose Jon Gray in free agency along with SS Trevor Story but still have a rotation of German Marquez, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela at the top of the rotation, with Peter Lambert, Austin Gomber and Chad Kuhl as back end guys. They did add Alex Colome to close games hoping it will go better than previous free agent reliever signings to push Daniel Bard and Carlos Estevez to set up roles. Their lineup is still stacked as they added Kris Bryant for seven years to anchor the lineup of 1B CJ Cron, OF Charlie Blackmon, 3B Ryan McMahon, traded for OF Randal Grichuk and added Jose Iglesias to play SS. They do not have a starting catcher, the signing of Bryant makes the alignment of who goes where difficult as who is at DH/1B/3B/LF and how bad their outfield defense will be then.

 The Diamondbacks will finish in last place for a third straight season as they do not know who will play 3B/CF/RF as they have two catchers/two first basemen as one will DH but meaning the other will play the outfield alongside David Peralta. They have solid players in 2B in Ketel Marte and C Carson Kelly plus SS Nick Ahmed is a gold glove SS, but outside of those three and Peralta the lineup doesn’t offer much. Now the rotation still has Madison Bumgarner, Luke Weaver, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and they added Zach Davies so they will be in games because of the rotation and the bullpen also improved. They added Mark Melancon to close, Ian Kennedy, Keone Kela, Kenyan Middleton and Oliver Perez to help out Chris Devenski.