Kuzul

After a weekend filled with free agent acquisitions and a big trade, the winner at the end of the day is the World Series champion Giants. Even though the Giants lost World Series MVP Juan Uribe, they were able to steal Miguel Tejada away from their division rival Padres.

Tejada is a little old and I wish we had the Tejada of 10 years ago, but he’s still an effective shortstop that has a reliable bat. If it wasn’t good enough to steal your rival’s shortstops and leave them with a gap in the middle, things got even easier for the Giants as the weekend progressed.

The big-name trade was finalized this morning as the Padres dealt superstar Adrian Gonzalez for Casey Kelly, Raymond Fuentes, Anthony Rizzo and a player to be named later. While the Padres did get some young talent for Gonzalez, it was not nearly enough.

Kelly may be a good young right-handed starting pitcher, but in many baseball circles he is more regarded as as a second or third starter in a rotation.

Fuentes has high potential, but is still extremely raw. Rizzo is a young first baseman who is doing well in the minors, but there is no guarantee on how well he will perform when he is called upon.

While the Padres did receive some pieces, they have taken some steps back and no longer seem like a strong competitor for the NL West title.

The other big move this past weekend was Jayson Werth leaving Philadelphia to join the Nationals. While the Phillies are still uber-talented, they lost a big bat and defensive presence in Werth.

Werth was one of the only hitters on the Phillies’ roster that had success against Giants pitching in the NLCS. And his big seven-year, $126 million contract makes it almost impossible for the Phillies to replace him with Crawford.

Crawford has been expected to demand a bigger contract than Werth, and he may be now out of the Phillies’ price range.

Continue Reading…

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

It seems as if the NL West teams want to make the end of the MLB regular season interesting. Although the Colorado Rockies are falling behind and are now 4.5 games behind first place, the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants do not seem to want full rights to that first place position.

One day the Padres will be in first place, and then the next day it’s the Giants. This may just come down to the final game of the season. The Padres and Giants play each other for their final three games, a series which most likely will determine who takes the NL West. Both teams are struggling to find any offense and are happy to get those blue moon games in which they score over six runs. Both have pitched well, with the Giants going on a 18 games streak of allowing no more than three runs.

Those last three games are going to be crucial, and it may just go to the team that can pull out the most runs. Both teams are solid pitching wise, although San Diego starters have been somewhat rocky recently. If lucky, the second place team may just get in to the playoffs through the Wild Card.

Currently, the Padres lead the Wild-Card standings by half a game over the Atlanta Braves, but that too is to tight to assume. They simply cannot take any chances and need to secure first place in the NL West. After such a shocking season, it would be disappointing to see the Padres fall short. It is as if they just ran out of gas and are pushing themselves to finally get to the finish line.

Who do you have as the surviving first place team? Personally, I am rooting for the Padres but am extremely nervous, especially after seeing starters such as Mat Latos struggle.

This is just an opinion…so please Pardon My Bias.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com