NL West

As you can probably imagine, life around our house is anything but normal. Starting with the line of Arizona Diamondbacks bobble head dolls that greet visitors to “the shrine” as my wife calls it where I have two Chase Field seats, a piece of Bank One Ballpark adorning one wall, and of course second base .

What? They're still looking?

With less than a week before the official start of spring training, the Chicago Cubs are still looking to fill arguably their greatest off-season need: a reliable right-handed setup man for their new closer Carlos Marmol.

After "kicking the tires" on a host of potential candidates such as Frasor, Park, and Gregerson, Chicago is left with no better solution than they had at the end of the '09 season.

After the Colorado Rockies found themselves in the playoffs for the second time in three years, there were questions as to what would happen as the offseason approached.

The Colorado Rockies are never going to go after big-name free agents. They will never be in a bidding war with the Yankees and Red Sox for the highest priced players.

Those days are over.

After the failed signings of Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, whom the Rockies spent nearly $175 million on in 2001, the franchise shifted gears and decided to build from within.

In desperate need of some offense, the San Francisco Giants added a bat last night.

According to SI.com’s Jon Heyman via Twitter , the Giants have signed Mark DeRosa to a two-year, $12 million contract. DeRosa is expected to play third base for the Giants in 2010.

I’ll get to the Giants' part of this in a second, but for DeRosa and his camp, this has to be considered a loss. I know it’s hard to fathom someone losing when they just made $12 million, but it is.

What a difference a month makes.

On Aug. 30, Ronnie Belliard was traded from the Nationals to the Dodgers, who were in the middle of a pennant race and were looking to shore up their middle infield. In the five months prior, Belliard was only getting sporadic playing time with the Nationals and when he was playing, he wasn't producing. His .246/5 HR/22 RBI/.296 clip in 187 at-bats with the Nationals made it very clear that Belliard was no longer in the Nationals' long-term plans.