NL West

When a ridiculous amount of criticism—whether in good and harmless fun or something different—is hurled an athlete's way, it can be used as motivation or just laughed at altogether. Hunter Pence is doing the latter.

It has been a special 2014 season for the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, but they received some unfortunate news Friday regarding starting pitcher Josh Beckett. Ken Gurnick of MLB.com filled fans in on the latest:

While the Arizona Diamondbacks have struggled this season, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has certainly been one of the team's brightest spots. Unfortunately, according to a tweet from the team's official Twitter account, he'll be out of commission for a while due to a fractured left hand:  

Los Angeles Dodgers star Yasiel Puig is known for making some crazy highlight plays. And while this one didn't make much of a difference in the final score, it was still pretty impressive.

The Arizona Diamondbacks have fallen out of the playoff race, and that likely means they will be a seller at this week's trade deadline. One player several teams could have interest in is closer Addison Reed, who's apparently available if the price is right.

The San Francisco Giants have this special trick that they like to perform on seemingly over-the-hill veterans that involves turning them into, well, not over-the-hill veterans.

And now Jake Peavy could be next.

A year ago, Jake Peavy was shipped to the Boston Red Sox and subsequently helped his new team win the World Series. The San Francisco Giants will be hoping he can make a similar impact in 2014. The team confirmed the news on Saturday:

If Yasiel Puig is having a sophomore slump, it might be the best sophomore slump of all time.

There's been a lot of handwringing lately about the Los Angeles Dodgers' second-year outfielder. He's hit just one home run since June 1 and had a disastrous showing in the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game.

The swagger, suddenly, has turned to uncertainty.

The Giants face their NL West division rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, at home Friday. I spoke with Aaron Boone, 12-year MLB veteran and current analyst for ESPN's Baseball Tonight, to preview the important three-game series. 

Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez were bored Monday night.

After a weekend of painful plunks to their respective left hands, the two Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves confined to the dugout for their away opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates.