NL West

It's not even because Manny Ramirez wears Los Angeles Dodger blue (OK, that's part of it).

In news I'm sure you'll hear from my fingers first, Ramirez has tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG). 

Although his agent, that bastion of credibility and integrity Scott Boras, tried at first to spin it away with a story about a prescribed medication for a personal ailment, I'm beginning to think that might not be the case.

Right off the bat, hCG is a female fertility drug.

No Manny.  No Furcal.  No Blake.  No Martin.  All of them were missing from the starting lineup.

No problem!

Who needs stars at the plate when you have a star on the mound!  Chad Billingsley pitched solidly, and the offense scored big in two separate innings as the Dodgers defeat the Padres 7-3 at Dodger Stadium.

The first month of the season has never been easy for Giants starter Barry Zito. Even when he was at his best in Oakland, the stats he put up in April made it look the subsequent months would be a struggle.

However, for the first time as a Giant, Zito has found a groove in his first five starts of the season. His ERA is under four for the first time since June of 2007 and his dominance at home is something to note.

This offseason, Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd knew that he would need to add depth in the starting pitching department.

I'm going to level here, I really don't like ranking all the teams. It just seems overdone and hack. Also, one mistake can ruin it for the team, so right now I am going to start with the top ten pitchers for the past week.

1) Zack Greinke: Duh. How can this guy not be at the top of the list? Everyone was expecting big things from him and he has delivered. First, in his first four starts he doesn't allow one run and wins all the decisions (4-0).

I know, I know—I'm a tad late with this one. Not only have the San Francisco Giants already started their next series against the Colorado Rockies, but the first pitch for the second game is only minutes away.

And it's all the more inexcusable because the series I've been dragging on was a fantastic offering that saw our good guys slay the evil Los Angeles Dodgers twice in three chances.

The Colorado Rockies have made a habit of struggling early.

For the third straight year, the club has stumbled out of the gate and looked like a team that was nowhere near finding their stride.

The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated their neighbors from San Diego on Thursday 8-5, in a game which could be described as a knife fight—only both sides were using butter knives.

Each side tried to give away the game. The Dodgers,with yet another ineffective start from James McDonald; and the Padres, with a shaky bullpen and a magic bullet of a throw from rightfielder Brian Giles that eluded every glove in it's path to allow Casey Blake to bring in the eventual winning run.

Before this season began, we wondered what exactly National League Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum could do for an encore.

After two starts to begin the year that left people scratching their heads, The Franchise is back to what he looked like a year ago and everybody is enjoying the show.

His ERA may be almost one-and-a-half runs higher than it was through five starts a year ago and half the number of wins, take away the two dismal starts to begin the season and Lincecum has been everything a staff ace represents.

Aaron Cook has been an interesting case so far this season. In four starts coming into Wednesday's day game against the Padres, Cook has looked terrible.