How will the Dodgers and Angels do this year?

[Hack Wilson - real]

options 1-4 get 1 vote

options 5-8 get 1 vote

[Sccit]

dodgers will win it all

[MistaNova]

Considering how the only real threat the Dodgers have in their division is the Diamondbacks, I'd say they're (at the very least) going to win a wild-card spot.

As for the Angels, oh boy. Even though I somewhat expect the Athletics to win the division there's no real clear cut winner. As of this moment everybody's on the same level of mediocrity (except for the Astros who are on a different level of awful). The key for the Angels this year will be whether or not their starting rotation will be as shitty as it was last year (from what I've heard Skaggs is pretty bad and from what I've seen Santiago isn't exactly going be a game changer) and also if Pujols and Hamilton can bounce back. Howie Kendrick definitely won't be the monster he was last year (or the first half of last year anyway) and the team traded away Trumbo, Bourjos and Callaspo, three pretty big components of their offense last year. If Pujols and Hamilton can't return to their normal forms then it'll be up to JB Shuck and Kole Calhoun to provide some offense and lineup protection for Mike Trout. I wonder if they still feel like shit for trading away Jean Segura for half a season of Zack Greinke.
For now I say the Angels will be fighting with the Rangers for second place in the division and miss the postseason again.

[Hack Wilson - real]

the Giants have won two world series in the past 4 years or so, i can never count them out at the start of the season

[MistaNova]

I'm not fully educated on how good (or bad) the Giants are - I'm sure Halu Sination will be happy to enlighten us about how shitty the Giants are going to be - but from what I've gathered the key thing with them is health. If their main guys like Posey, Belt, Scutaro, Torres, Pagan, Pence and Sandoval can't stay healthy then the team's lack of depth will definitely hurt them. The Giants had better hope that Gary Brown is finally ready.
The starting rotation's a question mark too. Can Cain bounce back? Will Lincecum get his shit together? Will Vogelsong continue to regress? Will the team need to give some starts to Kickham or their top pitching prospects?

Overall the Giants are worthy of being called a contending team but it seems like they've got more holes and question marks than the Dodgers and Diamondbacks do. At least to me.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

I really only care about the Royals but since you all support my threads I will try to comment on the other MLB threads.

-Don't see any reason why the Dodgers shouldn't win over 90.  After all, they have Zack Grienke, a former Cy Young award winner with the Royals.  In fact I think their 6th starter who isn't even good enough to make their rotation would be a number 3 starter on a lot of teams.

-Don't see any reason the Angels shouldn't win over 90.  Did ya'll see the homeruns Trout and Pujos hit off Royals starter Bruce Chen yesterday?  Chen made good pitches to both hitters.  They were curves and changes low in the strike zone just as he was trying to do and they still muscled the balls out of the park to dead center.

[MistaNova]

-Don't see any reason the Angels shouldn't win over 90.  Did ya'll see the homeruns Trout and Pujos hit off Royals starter Bruce Chen yesterday?  Chen made good pitches to both hitters.  They were curves and changes low in the strike zone just as he was trying to do and they still muscled the balls out of the park to dead center.

The thing with the Angels is that their starting pitching was terrible last year. Weaver was hurt, Vargas was hurt, Wilson was forgettable, Blanton was terrible, Hanson was up-and-down etc... The team had a ton of offensive power (even with Hamilton and Pujols' down years) but didn't have the pitching to back them up. And this past offseason they gave away pieces of their offense for pretty lackluster returns (seriously, the best they could get for Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos was Tyler Skaggs, Fernando Salas, David Freese & Hector Santiago?!). Their pitching is going to have to really step up this year to support the weakened offense.

BTW, PECOTA projects the Angels to win 87 games and finish 2nd behind the A's in the AL West. PECOTA projects the Dodgers to win 98 games and finish first in the NL West. Which sounds pretty reasonable.

[Halu Sination]

Both team should hit the 90 win mark, but if I stopped paying attention to baseball and found out at the end of the season that both teams suffered major injuries from freak accidents and neither team made the play-offs, I also wouldn't be all that surprised.

DODGERS:
Three of the four Dodger outfielders can't stay healthy if their lives depend on it. Hanley Ramirez was also injury prone, as was Mark Ellis but he's gone now. The way our banged up squad lost to the Cardinals in October is pretty much the sole reason we fired our medical staff and trainers.

Now, Colletti's done a hell of a job assembling this squad but at some point he needs to start worrying about more line-up depth and stop signing so many pitchers. Our pitching was amazing all year long, and was consistent with an exception of ONE brainfart by Clayton Kershaw in our elimination game against Cardinals. On top of that, they're the only guys on this team who can stay healthy. But with our star position players out, we couldn't score runs for shit and their replacements were pretty atrocious out in the field.

Now we have like zero utility players left from that squad, and we replaced Mark Ellis with Dee Gordon at the 2B. Rangers tried to give us Ian Kinsler for free as long as we accepted the whole contract (yes I'm aware he's overrated but still) and we turned it down so we can use our money to sign every closer on the planet, ever. Everyone seems to be afraid that Juan Uribe is going to start sucking again now that he's in the beginning of another contract, but I think Colletti and Mattingly have no more patience for his BS. If he stops giving a fuck, we will find a replacement.

ANGELS:
In 2012, they had Weaver, CJ Wilson, Greinke, Haren, and Ervin Santana. They lost all but the first two in the following off-season. This front office fails pretty badly. I'll cut them some slack for the Bourjos/Freese trade because ultimately Trout wanted to be a CF full-time, but Trumbo for those two subpar pitchers is one of the worst uses of a trading chip I have ever seen. They did get old ass Raul Ibanez to replace Trumbo's home run power though. Needless to say, their batting line-up can do some serious damage.

Their pitching is horrendous though. They had a pleasant surprise with Jason Vargas but they let him walk, leaving them even more short-handed. And to top of it off, Angels didn't even make a bid for Tanaka, despite his wife wanting to live in the West Coast. And they failed to sign Matt Garza.

So yeah Angels are going to need all the offensive firepower that they can get now, because their pitching sure ain't leading them to the promised land.

[Halu Sination]

Dodgers just won their official season opener 3-1 against Dbacks in Sydney, Australia.  Kershaw with the win, Jansen with the save.

John Smoltz was doing the color commentary and he seems to agree with my thesis though... Dodgers are doing all kinds of makeovers with our pitching and our godlike bullpen when we have minor leaguers in our utility roles and a hole at second base. When we turned down Mark Ellis' option, I thought Dodgers had something huge planned for second, but nope. Just Dodgers being idiots.

[Chamillitary Click]

I think both teams win their divisions.

[Remedy360]

I think both teams win their divisions.

I'll give it to the Dodgers, but the Angels are gonna have to prove it, massive underachievers the last few years.

[TraceOneInfinite Flat Earther 96']

-Don't see any reason the Angels shouldn't win over 90.  Did ya'll see the homeruns Trout and Pujos hit off Royals starter Bruce Chen yesterday?  Chen made good pitches to both hitters.  They were curves and changes low in the strike zone just as he was trying to do and they still muscled the balls out of the park to dead center.

The thing with the Angels is that their starting pitching was terrible last year. Weaver was hurt, Vargas was hurt, Wilson was forgettable, Blanton was terrible, Hanson was up-and-down etc... The team had a ton of offensive power (even with Hamilton and Pujols' down years) but didn't have the pitching to back them up. And this past offseason they gave away pieces of their offense for pretty lackluster returns (seriously, the best they could get for Mark Trumbo and Peter Bourjos was Tyler Skaggs, Fernando Salas, David Freese & Hector Santiago?!). Their pitching is going to have to really step up this year to support the weakened offense.

BTW, PECOTA projects the Angels to win 87 games and finish 2nd behind the A's in the AL West. PECOTA projects the Dodgers to win 98 games and finish first in the NL West. Which sounds pretty reasonable.

Sounds like they lost some offensive firepower... and I know for a fact they lost some defense with Vargas going to the Royals.  Which by the way Vargas is lighting it up in spring training! 

[Chamillitary Click]

I think both teams win their divisions.

I'll give it to the Dodgers, but the Angels are gonna have to prove it, massive underachievers the last few years.

Despite Hamilton and Pooh aging, I can't count a lineup out that consists of them, Mike Trout and now Ryan Freese.

Staff is so suspect though.

[Halu Sination]

Not to mention Kole Calhoun who was on absolute fire since being called up last year and is on fire again during Spring Training. Howie Kendrick is always sick, Erick Aybar had a down year last season and will always be overrated but is still a good SS, and old ass Raul Ibanez still has very good power (even when he was playing at Safeco) and will make for a good DH.

Their offense is fucking scary. But all it takes is one injury in their starting rotation and that pitching becomes a fire dumpster. It's already weak as it is. And knowing Angels' luck these past few years... yeah.