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00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid. We got Matt Letosky in the house from Sporting News.
00:04We'll touch on the very latest in Major League Baseball, go around the National League West today.
00:09Matt, once again, great to have you back here on Newswire on this President's Day. Thanks for coming on the show.
00:14All right, so good news for the Dodgers as if they really needed any more good news.
00:18Shohei Otani back on the mound, throwing his first bullpen of spring training.
00:22This is as close, Matt, to a super team as we have seen in a long time.
00:26I know that the Yankees won a bunch of World Series in 96 and 98, and they sort of had that dynasty there for a while.
00:33But the Dodgers are really in a position not just to be happy to make the postseason, but anything less than winning the World Series.
00:41I mean, that's super high expectations.
00:43Yeah, it's probably an interesting feeling for the fans, right, because it's all or nothing.
00:50You got to win, but certainly I think most fan bases would trade places with them right now,
00:55knowing they're going into the season with the ability to root for this team.
00:58And they're loaded top to bottom, the pitching staff, the rotation.
01:04They always deal with injuries, but they have enough depth that they should be able to survive it.
01:09Obviously, they have a great lineup. They have the best player in the world.
01:13There's really no holes in the team.
01:16I mean, obviously, again, you can point to injuries, you can point to potential attrition, and how is that going to weaken them?
01:22And are they going to be vulnerable in that regard?
01:26But overall, given their depth, given their resources, and given their talent level,
01:31they're clearly the class of the division, of the NL, I would say of the entire league.
01:36And the only drawback to that is if you're a better looking to get in on some action for them, there's simply no value.
01:43I mean, you've got to get real creative to find value with anything betting on the Dodgers,
01:48because otherwise it's priced in. Their talent is priced in all their lines, I'll put it that way.
01:55Yeah, and in addition to their season win total, which is the highest of any win total I can ever recall since tracking this,
02:01I've definitely seen some 100s and 101s and maybe a 102.
02:04I don't ever remember seeing a 104 and a half, and so that's just the nature of the beast here.
02:09When you have so many great players, maybe taking them to win the NL at plus 140 is a thing.
02:14You never know what could happen in the World Series. That's why I say that, because again, strange things happen.
02:18Freddie Freeman doesn't hit a grand slam. You never know how things can change there.
02:22But so the daunting task for the rest of this division as they open up camp and get ready to play some spring training games
02:28is who is second, Matt, behind the Dodgers?
02:31There's a couple of really good candidates, and then it just depends on how you feel about the Giants.
02:35But let's start with the Padres, at least for the time being. Kind of quiet offseason for them.
02:40Their owner passed away last year. There was this battle between who's going to own the team and not,
02:45and so naturally that puts the finances in a little bit of a bind.
02:48Seems like they worked that out, and they did sign Nick Pavetta to a four-year, $55 million contract.
02:53But the postseason is going to be the deal for this team.
02:59To think that you could win the division, I'm not saying it's far-fetched, anything can happen,
03:03but their win total is 85-and-a-half, so that tells you they're supposed to be a pretty good team.
03:08Yeah, and I think they are, and I think we saw that last year. We saw how they pushed the Dodgers,
03:13and at one point there's a lot of people thinking, hey, this is the year.
03:17They're going to break through. They're actually going to do it, and they weren't quite able to finish the job.
03:24But they are very talented. They have pitching. They have hitting. They kind of have it all.
03:30I think this cloud sort of hangs over them, though, with all the rumors about needing to shed payroll,
03:35and is this guy going to be gone, and is that guy going to be gone?
03:38It worries you a little bit if you're looking to get in on them early that if this starts slowly,
03:46if this starts poorly, are they going to sort of not throw in the towel completely,
03:51but are they going to sort of throttle it back and look to make some moves and save a little money?
03:57But overall, talented team, like you said, quiet offseason.
04:01I think a lot of times when people are approaching preseason predictions or looking to get some preseason bets down,
04:08they really like the teams that shook things up a lot.
04:11There's a little bit more imagination when you have a team like that, and the Padres didn't do that.
04:17So maybe they're getting slept on a little bit, honestly,
04:20because the talent's there to once again make a very deep run in the postseason.
04:24Yeah, 85.5 is their win total, and to win the NL, they're 12-1.
04:28To win the World Series, they are 26-1, and the Padres have been that team that has given the Dodgers fits,
04:35but there are 162 games, not like 15.
04:38And so that's the deal.
04:40The Dodgers may beat up on everybody else.
04:42All right, now let's go to another team in the NL West real quick,
04:45where I think the major move, of course, was adding Willie Adamas to the San Francisco Giants lineup,
04:51but really the bigger move, I think, Matt, I don't know if you agree or not,
04:54was changing up the front office, where Buster Posey is now running the Giants.
04:58And so they did make some moves, but they've had a really hard time acquiring talent through free agency.
05:04It just seems like a lot of players don't want to sign with them.
05:07The strength of the team will be their rotation, where they added Justin Verlander,
05:11as we would probably call him their third starter, maybe their fourth.
05:15Logan Webb is great.
05:16Robbie Ray, when healthy, is great.
05:17Hicks had a really good start to last season,
05:19and Kyle Harrison, once upon a time, was thought to be an ace.
05:22He'll slot in as their fifth starter.
05:24But, you know, certainly just hard to generate offense in that park,
05:28and I wonder if Buster Posey changing the way that they view players and doing things
05:33make this a better team or worse.
05:36I guess we'll find out.
05:37Yeah, that's just it.
05:38It's a transition here, and like you said, the pitching is there.
05:41And any time a team has pitching, that's going to keep them in every game.
05:44Then you need to generate just enough offense.
05:47And you can have one of those runs.
05:49You can have a really good year with that kind of formula.
05:52Is this team that team?
05:53I don't know.
05:54It's tough to look at them in the division they're in
05:56and feel overly confident about them.
05:59But this is a bit of a transition year, like you said,
06:02and I think it will be interesting to watch from afar.
06:04I don't think a wild card is out of the question by any means,
06:06but definitely not a team that I'm over-the-top excited about for a pennant
06:11or anything beyond that.
06:13Yeah, 79.5 is their season win total.
06:17And the reason why it is under 80 is because there's another team
06:20that has a higher win total than them, and that, Matt,
06:22is the Arizona Diamondbacks who acquired Corbin Burns this past offseason.
06:27We'll leave the Rockies out for another day or another conversation.
06:30But, you know, certainly there is just as good a chance as Arizona
06:34finishing second in this division as San Diego.
06:36I think that that's kind of the way it lines up with the Dodgers being fourth.
06:40Yeah, I agree.
06:41Again, this is a team that made some improvements in the offseason.
06:44Again, kind of what I was saying, people look at that and get excited.
06:47But the other thing you've got to remember with this team is you've got
06:50an MVP candidate player in Corbin Carroll who had a down year.
06:53So just that sort of internal improvement can really raise the floor,
06:57raise the ceiling of this team when you add in bringing in an ace
07:00like Corbin Burns.
07:01This is the team I think a lot of people are looking at that can really
07:04make a run, can potentially challenge the Dodgers in the postseason,
07:07and I think the ingredients are there for that too.
07:10So don't get overly excited about a team just because they made some moves,
07:13but they're very talented.
07:15Our friends in Denver, Matt, are going to be upset with us.
07:17We apologize.
07:18We'll get to the Rockies another day.
07:19Thanks for coming on, Matt.
07:20Appreciate it.