Well it seems like everything in NL West is extremely close. This division is a perennial race to the last week of the season, where one team comes out on top by a half game or something of that nature. Expect more of the same this year, I don't see any teams winning more than 93(ish) games.

Hitting

1. Dodgers
• Two words made the Dodgers my number one choice - Manny Ramirez. His numbers after the trade to the Dodgers was nothing short of ridiculous last year. He is teaming up with young and improving guys in Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, James Loney, and the versatile Rafael Furcal to put up big numbers this year in Los Angeles.
2. Diamondbacks
• The Diamondbacks and Dodgers are the top 2 by a good margin here. So, since the Dodgers got the nod for number one, the Diamondbacks are pretty obvious here. This is one of the youngest and most exciting lineups in baseball. Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Mark Reynolds, Chad Tracy and the exciting Justin Upton team up to make a solid offensive threat. I can see this unit having stretches of greatness, but the down periods that they are destined to have make them inferior to the Dodgers.
3. Giants
• The Giants have been suffering ever since the loss of Barry Bonds. I think this is the year they are finally going to make a positive stride and get back towards winning ways. They have some solid bats in Aaron Rowand, Fred Lewis, and young phenom Pablo Sandoval. Sandoval is only 22 years old, he was signed as an amateur free agent in 2003 at the age of 16? Ridiculous! This guy has a sky-scraping ceiling. Don't be surprised if he drives in 100 runs this year.
4. Rockies
• The loss of Matt Holliday kills the Rockies. They do play in the most hitter friendly park in the league, but they are just lacking the tools to be a good offense. Garrett Atkins, Troy Tulowitski, and Brad Hawpe will have to carry the load, and I just don't trust those guys with it.
5. Padres
• The Padres, unlike the Rockies, play in one of the league's most pitcher-friendly parks. It also doesn't help that they don't have many threats in their lineup. Adrian Gonzalez, Brian Giles, Chase Headley, and Kevin Kouzmanoff provide the base for the offense, which isn't a bad core of guys. All in all they probably have better hitters in their lineups than the Rockies, but the home field makes all the difference here. They are last, but not by much.

Pitching

1. Diamondbacks
• The Diamondbacks have 2 great starters. Brandon Webb and Dan Haren are both top 15 starters in the league, and there aren't many teams who have that. This rotation could be one of the best if Garland, Davis, and Scherzer put together good seasons. There's no doubt that Max Scherzer has great things coming, but they might still be a year away.
2. Padres
• Jake Peavy is one of the game's best pitchers, despite looking awful in the WBC and spring training. I'm not real worried about him though, I still think he's going to have a great season. Chris Young is recovering from that terrible shot he took to the head last year, and I think he's going to come back with a different kind of bang this year. I'm not real familiar with their 3-5 games, in fact I've never heard of Cha Seung Baek, but he's asian, so he must be pretty decent!
3. Dodgers
• The Dodgers actually almost took the 2 spot here. I love Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw. However, the loss of Derek Lowe will hurt them a lot. Billingsley and Kershaw have an extremely high ceiling, and they could soon be the game's best 1-2 combination.
4. Giants
• The Giants were also very close to grazing a 2 or 3 spot, but unfortunately they fell the whole way to 4. That's pretty harsh, considering they have (arguably) the game's best pitcher. Tim Lincecum was last year's Cy Young winner, and he led the league in strikeouts. It's not like they have don't have any other good starters, Matt Cain and Randy Johnson are both very capable starters, in their own ways. I love the Giants rotation, this division is just really deep on pitching.
5. Rockies
• The Rockies are the only sure thing on this list. There was no doubt in my mind that they were #5. The Coors Field thing goes without saying, but again, it doesn't help at all that they don't have really good pitchers. Sure, Aaron Cook and Ubaldo Jimenez have both shown great signs at times, but I just don't trust either of them. Even if these two do but up good numbers again, can you really tell me that Jason Marquis, Franklin Morales, Jeff Francis, and Jorge De La Rosa are gonna be effective as starters in Colorado? I don't think so.

So here's my final standings for the 2009 National League West:

Los Angeles Dodgers....................91 - 71
Arizona Diamondbacks..................88 - 74
San Fransisco Giants....................82 - 80
San Diego Padres.........................74 - 88
Colorado Rockies..........................62 - 100