Wild West

The Colorado Rockies have returned to Earth. The San Diego Padres have disappeared from the top and the San Francisco Giants are taking this “Us against the World” thing seriously.

The National League West, considered by some to be the best division in baseball from top to bottom, is providing some drama this season, but it’s just not the story everybody expected.

There has been a big twist in the plot. There is no plot. The only thing thickening is the nacho cheese in the laps of the jaw-dropped fans who can’t believe what they are watching.

It seems the Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers are the only teams living up to the expectations and keeping this talented group from looking like a bad pay-per-view boxing match on a Saturday night – over-hyped and over-priced.

The three other teams in the division have losing records.

I bought it all back in March and bragged about it to anybody that would listen. This is the best division in the game I said. Well now, I want my $49.95 back or at least half of it. Call it buyer’s remorse. I’m still looking for the truth in the NL West advertising.

It’s only May. But we’ve been waiting for this division to start play since the Rockies and Padres needed an extra day to determine the NL Wild Card. We want a knockout. What we have received so far is Butterbean boxing or a bad night of Lucha Libra, Mexican wrestling. It’s good for a laugh, but deep down inside we know it’s not the real thing and it can get much better.

And maybe it will. It has to.

Any fool, even this one, will agree that one month does not a season make, and that’s the good news. This soap opera will keep our attention in one way or the other. There is no way the Padres and the Rockies are this bad. Can the Diamondbacks be this good? How big will the Joe Torre factor in Los Angeles get played up in the media? And speaking of the Dodgers, what is wrong with Andruw Jones?

What hasn’t gone right for Arizona? Ace Brandon Webb and Dan Haren have been as advertised and the bullpen has not missed a beat since trading closer Jose Valverde. Offense is not an issue this year, in large part because young players Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Justin Upton are a year older and more experienced.

Their team slogan last year was “Anybody, anytime.” This year’s should read something like “We are not fooling anybody with our wide-eyed act this year because we are a good team, professional athletes and have the ability to beat your team with anybody, anytime.”

Granted, it’s not exactly catchy and would probably look ugly on a t-shirt but remember these guys used to wear pinstriped uniforms and Barney the Dinosaur purple as the primary color.

A few things have been as expected. The brochure I read said the Giants can pitch and so far it’s true. Tim Lincecum and company are legit. Barry Zito, on the other hand, has been as productive as the other famous Barry that once wore the orange and black this year and that guy has basically been forced into retirement. Zito to the bullpen and now he’s back in the rotation? Maybe there are a few more twists to come in this novella.

The Giants are expected to finish last in the division this season and maybe that happens, but it looks like they are not going to the basement without a fight.  The offense is ranked 19^th in batting average in the Major Leagues with a .252 mark. By comparison, the Padres are second to last in the category with a .230 batting average. The Giants pitchers boast a 4.02 ERA, good enough for the eighth spot in the National League. The Padres are right behind them at 4.16.

Lincecum and his teammates are either deaf, determined, or just hard-headed. They refuse to listen to all the negative talk about their team and the whole weakest offense in the game label that once was the biggest knock on this team is not on their radar anymore. It still exists. It’s just not on the radar.

The Giants are in third place behind Arizona and Los Angeles.

The Padres might want to learn a thing or two about resilience from their Bay Area neighbor. A big issue for the Padres has been an erratic bullpen and an overall lack of speed on the bases or on defense. Ace Jake Peavy is 4-1 with a 2.22 ERA but a Cy Young Award winner performing up to his ability is not a surprise.

Needless to say, the bottom of the standings is not where the Padres expected to find themselves after a month of play. Nobody expected it. And the “last-place Rockies” just doesn’t have the same ring to it as the “2007 National League Champions” but that’s the reality for now. Losing shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to injury and the fall of young closer Manny Corpas has not helped.

Inconsistent play can even make champions look like … the opposite of champions.

The story is just unfolding and there is plenty of baseball to be played. Here’s hoping for some fun in the NL West sun. The first month is not what we paid for. The last month better be free of charge.

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• Posted on May 7, 2008 at 1:54 pm
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• Filed in: Dailies