Heading into the season, I’ve seen several media publications project their standings, and to no one’s surprise, they have the Los Angeles Dodgers winning the NL West. However, many of them have flip-flopped the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks for second place in the standings. Baseball America is in the category of favoring the latter as they project the Friars to finish third in the division.
The Diamondbacks are coming off an 85-77 season, in which they finished sixth in the National League in runs scored (813) and seventh in team ERA (4.25). For comparison’s sake, the Padres finished 13th and 12th in those categories, respectively.