April 5, 2010

BP Unfiltered

Colletti sizes up NL West

by John Perrotto

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The Dodgers have won the last two National League West titles. So who better to break down the NL West than Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, the man who put together the roster of the last two division champions.

Here is how Colletti sees the NL West in 2010:

"I think from top-to-bottom, it's going to be a heckuva division. I think we have a pretty good club. We have one of the better lineups in the league and we should be able to score runs. The question for us, like it is a lot of teams, is pitching. We're going to ask a lot of a couple of young pitchers in Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley and we're going to need them to step up to another level.

"Colorado was probably the best team in our division over the last two months of last season and they have a good club again. They are going to be very tough to beat. San Francisco's pitching is outstanding, probably the best in the league. Arizona is going to be better after adding (first baseman) Adam LaRoche and (second baseman) Kelly Johnson to their lineup. And everyone is counting out San Diego but they're going to be better than people think because they have a lot of good young pitching.

"It's going to be interesting and whoever wins this division is going to really earn it."

John Perrotto is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
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