MLB Fastball 05.23.08: Giants, Rockies and Padres Bringing Down The NL West

Posted by Neil Borenstein on 05.23.2008

The National League West grabbed the NL Wild Card playoff spot in each of the last two seasons and even had a representative in the World Series last year. In 2008, however, the NL West has taken a few steps back. In this week’s return edition of MLB Fastball, Neil Borenstein takes a look at three of the four worst teams in the entire league right now – the San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres.

Bringing Down The NL WestGiants, Rockies and Padres Sporting Sub-.400 Winning Percentages

Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports/Getty ImagesJust one year after leading his team to the World Series, Matt Holliday and the Colorado Rockies are 10.5 games back in the NL West standings.

While most divisions remain at least mildly competitive through 45-plus some odd games this season, the National League West has already become nothing more than a two-team race. While the Arizona Diamondbacks (28-18) and Los Angeles Dodgers (25-21) sport two pretty respectable, over-.500, records, the rest of the division leaves a lot to be desired.

The San Francisco Giants (19-29), Colorado Rockies (18-29) and San Diego Padres (17-31) are all playing under .400 baseball. The Padres are actually the worst team in the entire league and, with the Seattle Mariners included, all of the teams comprise the four worst clubs in Major League Baseball right now.

For the Giants, this was to be expected. The team is in its first post-Barry Bonds season and is very much a team in transition. You don't lose your superstar from the past 15 years and just expect to move on. San Francisco entered this season with low expectations and is delivering on them.

In the pitching department, only Tim Lincecum has given us anything to speak of. The 23-year old leads the Majors in strikeouts (69) and is second in the National League with a 2.17 ERA in only his sophomore campaign. It's not pretty in the starting rotation after Lincecum, though.

Barry Zito continues to show just how much he doesn't deserve to be making $18 million a season by becoming the first Giants starter since Jesse "The Crab" Burkett in 1890 to go 0-8 in his first eight decisions. Zito has clearly lost a step and being on pace for fewer than 100 strikeouts is just one indication of that. Zito isn't alone, though. Matt Cain (2-3, 4.57 ERA), Jonathan Sánchez (2-3, 4.39 ERA) and whoever else manager Bruce Bochy decides to trot out the mound aren't getting the job done, either. Neither is a somewhat lackluster bullpen, led by closer Brian Wilson (14 saves, 5.49 ERA.)

Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports/AP PhotoBarry Zito is the first Giants pitcher since 1890 to go 0-8 in his first eight decisions.

All of these pitchers do have something in common, though, which draws back the finger of blame just a bit. They all have to deal with a lack of run support. And that's to be expected from a team that has only scored 171 runs this season, which ranks 28th in the entire league. That, again, has a lot to do with adjusting to life after Bonds. A team cannot expect Aaron Rowand to be its best offensive player and put up a lot of runs.

For the Rockies and Padres, where they stand now is a bit unexpected. I'm not so sure it should be, considering Colorado reached a high that couldn't possibly transition into this year and San Diego's pitching was bound to falter at some point, exposing the relatively non-existent Padres offense.

Colorado is one year removed from making the World Series. To even make the playoffs last year was an impressive feat for the Rockies. But a 14-1 finish to the regular season garnered them the NL Wild Card. What followed was even more remarkable, as the Rockies went on to sweep both the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS en route to earning the franchise's first ever World Series berth. The miracle run was cut short by a four-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. But the Rockies were still the biggest surprise of the 2007 season.

They did it, however, with pitching that didn't appear suited to make that kind of run again. And with the league's fifth worst team ERA (4.57), the Rockies are exposed. Many of the miracle workers on the mound for the Rockies last season just aren't producing in the same fashion this year.

Jeff Francis was essentially the team's ace last year with 17 wins, a 4.22 ERA and 165 strikeouts. This season, he has only one win to his name in nine starts with an ERA nearing 6.00 (5.87.) Franklin Morales pitched only eight games last season, but three wins and a 3.43 ERA placed him firmly in the team's future rotation plans. One win in only five starts and a 6.39 ERA may have reversed those plans.

The only pitcher that has actually come out stronger this season than last is Aaron Cook. Cook already has six wins this season in 10 starts when he only had eight last year over 25 starts. A 3.06 ERA and 32 K's also make him the only bright spot in the Rockies' rotation.

The bullpen has faired better, but has faced its struggles, too, specifically at closer. Manuel Corpas started the season as the team's closer, taking over for Brian Fuentes. But four blown saves in April forced manager Clint Hurdle to do some finagling. That led to Fuentes taking back his closing role. Fuentes has been okay and is probably a more comfortable option than Corpas. But even he has three blown saves this season.

Unlike the Giants and Padres, however, this team wasn't supposed to be led by pitching. That was hardly Colorado's strong suit. When you have Matt Holliday, Brad Hawpe, Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton leading the charge for you at the plate, offense is the name of your game. And last year, it was for the Rockies. They ranked fourth in hits (1,591) and fifth in team batting average (.280), RBIs (823) and runs scored (860) during the regular season. This year the Rockies are not nearly as proficient. They are batting .259 as a team and are 21st with 198 runs scored.

Two of the reasons for this decrease in offense revolve around the team's offensive ace and a kid geared up for a solid sophomore season. While Holliday's batting average (.324) is a-okay, his power numbers aren't. For someone who hit over 30 home runs in each of the last two seasons and grabbed 137 RBIs last year, he's barely on pace to hit 20 homers and 80 RBIs in 2008. Tulowitzi, who had a tremendous rookie campaign with 24 homers, 99 RBIs and 104 runs scored, fell off quite a bit this year after signing a six-year, $31 million contract extension over the offseason, which, at the time, was the largest contract ever awarded to a player with less than two years of experience (Ryan Braun's eight-year, $45 million extension signed on May 15 with the Milwaukee Brewers has since surpassed Tulowitzki's deal.) Tulowitzki is now injured with a tendon tear in his left quadriceps that should have him out until after the All Star Break. But even before he went down, he was batting a paltry .152 with only 10 runs in 26 games.

The Rockies can boast about one aspect of their game, at least. Defensively, they're still pretty strong, ranking tied for second in fielding percentage at .988 after finishing first last year with a .989 mark. Defense, however, isn't going to get this team back into contention.

Neither will it for the Padres, who actually rank first in the league in fielding percentage (.989.)

Photo Credit: Yahoo! Sports/AP PhotoThe San Diego Padres will be without their ace, Jake Peavy, for at least a couple of weeks thanks to a right elbow strain.

That aside, the Padres were built (and I use that term very loosely) as a team that lives and dies by its pitching. With Jake Peavy on the shelf with dreaded elbow problems, Chris Young tossing with a 4.50 ERA and Randy Wolf winning only two games with a 5.05 ERA, that leaves the veteran Greg Maddux as one of the only few bright spots in the rotation. And with three wins and a 3.94 ERA (which is good for him at this point), that's sort of not saying much.

General manager Kevin Tower may have finally realized what the rest of the world really already knew – the Padres don't have the tools to win when their ace goes down and the rest of the starting rotation is not pitching up to snuff. He called out his team and said there would be moves considering he didn't want to have to watch the team that he put together play as poorly as they have been for another four months of the regular season. Well, ain't that peachy?

Granted, I did give the man some props back in December for at least aiming toward offensive improvement by signing Jim Edmonds and Tadahito Iguchi. But Edmonds has since been released and Iguchi is only going to do so much.

Adrián González is once again the Padres' offensive leader, and he's not doing too poorly this season. His 37 RBIs tie him with Xavier Nady and Braun for second in the National League and his 12 homers are seven more than any other Padre. Brian Giles has also been producing well with a .308 batting average, 19 RBIs and 13 doubles. But the likes of Kevin Kouzmanoff, Khalil Greene, Jody Gerut and Josh Bard, which are hardly players to go nuts over to begin with, are struggling. And that lack of offensive depth is going to be even more exposed with a pitching staff that was first last year but currently ranks 21st in the Majors with a 4.40 team ERA.

After a couple of years of real progress in the NL West, it really looks as if the division is taking a few steps back with three teams that aren't even remotely ready to compete. But until each organization gets the fixes they all pretty much need at the plate and on the mound, the only spots the Giants, Rockies and Padres will be playing for are for those outside of the bottom four in the MLB.

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Until next time!

~ Neil Borenstein