NL West

The Rockies may as well kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.

The NL West hasn't gone the way most of the "experts" thought it would. The team leading the division, the San Diego Padres, was expected to be the bottom feeder, while the predicted leader, the Los Angeles Dodgers, sits in third place seven games back.

That sets up for a showdown in the bay area this coming weekend between the first place San Diego Padres and the second place San Francisco Giants who are just two and a half games back. The two teams have met eight times this season with the Padres coming out victorious in seven of those games.

Take a glance around the league and you will likely see most successful teams have a solid cleanup hitter penciled in behind the player batting third to prevent the four-finger salute.

Mark Teixeira enjoys the services of Alex Rodriguez. Albert Pujols has Matt Holiday. Chase Utley knows opposing teams would prefer him not be on base with Ryan Howard coming to the plate. 

Heading into 2010 Pablo Sandoval was a consensus top seven third baseman. That may not mean much, but given the lack of depth at the position, he was the swing point between getting a good option and getting a big risk.

While some of the risks have paid off (i.e. Adrian Beltre), Sandoval’s 2010 has been nothing short of disastrous. Looking at his line thus far will make you cringe if you are one of the unfortunate owners who selected him:

Imagine spending 20 years of your life working for one of the most storied franchises in Major League Baseball history, then showing up for work on a Sunday morning only to be told by your boss that you no longer have a job.

On Sunday, August 8, this was the case for one such person, as well as nine other workers who walked away from Dodger Stadium unemployed.

It seemed as if Drew Goodman was intentionally taunting Rockies fans all night long.

As all the teams approach the middle of August, there are still teams looking for that final push for the playoffs. The Dodgers are one of these teams; they were buyers at the trade deadline with the acquisition of Ted Lilly and they are five-and-a-half games out of first place.

The San Francisco Giants have finally begun to start pulling away from the pack of wolves in the NL West. The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers are falling behind in the standings, and it is fast becoming a two-horse race between the Giants and the San Diego Padres.

With the final out of a very long game against the San Diego Padres where the Diamondbacks were drummed 10-1, the team gathered their things and headed to the airport to make the trip to Milwaukee for a three-game series with the Brewers after which they will travel to the nation’s capital for a three-game series with the Nationals.