NL West: Around the Foghorn Staff Predictions for 2018

As we prepare for Opening Day on Thursday, the staff at Around the Foghorn has put together our predicted order to finish in the NL West this season.

Not that anyone needs a reminder — or wants one — but last year the Los Angeles Dodgers won the division, followed by the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Diego Padres and yes, the San Francisco Giants finished in last place.

This division looks to be one of the best in all of baseball this year with the Rockies improving their bullpen, the Giants improving their offense and the Padres youth growing up.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks didn’t do much in the offseason to improve, but they return just about everyone and will likely be the favorites.

Here are our staff predictions for 2018 in the NL West:

Jake Mastroianni

Los Angeles Dodgers

Colorado Rockies

San Francisco Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres

Daniel Sperry

Los Angeles Dodgers

Colorado Rockies

San Francisco Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres

Michael Saltzman

Los Angeles Dodgers

Colorado Rockies

San Francisco Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Diego Padres

Jeff Young

Los Angeles Dodgers

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Francisco Giants

Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres

Luke Corvello

Los Angeles Dodgers

San Francisco Giants

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres

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Hiren Patel

Los Angeles Dodgers

Arizona Diamondbacks

Colorado Rockies

San Francisco Giants

San Diego Padres

Taylor Wirth

Los Angeles Dodgers

Arizona Diamondbacks

San Francisco Giants

Colorado Rockies

San Diego Padres

As you can see, the two unanimous picks for the division are the Dodgers in first and the Padres in last. The battle will be for the three spots in the middle.

Last year the top three teams in the division all made the playoffs — if you consider the Wild Card game the playoffs. There is a good chance that could be the case this year as well, so jockeying for second and third place in the NL West is no joke.

Most people seem to think the Giants will finish in third place with the Diamondbacks finishing second. That means the Giants could still have a good chance of making the playoffs.

We’ll see how everything unfolds. As we all know, you can’t predict baseball. As obvious as some of these picks seem now, we could look very silly in a few months. That’s what makes baseball so great!