Colorado Rockies: A sign of the times in the NL West

Even though the season is still very young, there are a lot of takeaways from the games thus far. The biggest takeaways pertain to the NL West. As of now, I’d say the NL West is in complete disarray from how it was last season. And that’s a wonderful thing to see. The changing of teams standings in the NL West truly shows we’re entering a new era for this competitive division.

Who would’ve thought that the Los Angeles Dodgers would be 2-5 and in fourth place to start the season? Who would’ve thought that the Arizona Diamondbacks would be 5-1 and in fist place? Lastly who would’ve thought the Colorado Rockies would be 3-3 in 2nd place. We all figured the Padres and Giants would be where they are right now.

Seeing the standings so early gives us all a sense of optimism that the Rockies can overcome the Dodgers. It appears to be a serious struggle for them as of late. It took them more than 2 full games to score one run. Now that may not seem like a long time, but it’s the Dodgers we’re talking about. This shows us all that there are chinks in that blue armor and that its very possible to pounce on them and quickly go for the kill. Just ask the San Francisco Giants, as they had two, one-run shutouts against the Dodgers.

A lot of people have been surprised at how slow the Dodgers have started out this season. They had a very quiet offseason, meaning we’d be seeing the same faces (and I include Matt Kemp in that category since he was with them for a long time before he was traded away). So, because of this teams in the NL West, like the Giants should expect the same things to come from LA.

This will be key when the Colorado Rockies play them next month. We’ve already seen what happens when the Dodgers collapse as it happened last season when they had their 11-game losing streak. It wasn’t pretty and that was prime time for the Rockies to take advantage of them losing. It’s very rare that LA slips up, but right now is the perfect time for the Rockies to cement themselves in 2nd place or even 1st this month in order to get some separation as we get deeper into the season.

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The way things are going right now, both the Colorado Rockies and the Arizona Diamondbacks could bury the Dodgers into oblivion. It’s been done before as the 2010 and 2011 seasons for the Dodgers aren’t seasons they’ll be ecstatic to talk about. So it’s not impossible to stop the Dodgers from getting anywhere near the top 2 spots in the division, though I never said it’d be easy.

The Colorado Rockies have a good team for the season. The newest additions that will most definitely make an impact are Wade Davis and Bryan Shaw. The bullpen is completely stacked and will be extremely reliable as they have been so far. The lineup is loaded with great bats in Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, and DJ LeMahieu and many others to look out for. The starting rotation is starting to come together we’ve seen good starts from German Marquez, Chad Bettis, and Jon Gray (last night). It’s as if all the puzzle pieces have come together. All the Rockies have to do is take advantage of the situation they’re in.

One could say the Los Angeles Dodgers are the Golden State Warriors of the MLB: a team that you know and expect to win during the regular season and make it to the playoffs. Once they’re there the Dodgers are the Warriors, when they blew a 3-1 lead (never forget). The Dodgers continually get to the playoffs every year, but they can’t seem to actually do what they set out to do. They are essentially the Washington Nationals, but they can beat the Cubs.

I’m not done with my basketball metaphor just yet. The Colorado Rockies, in this situation, are the Toronto Raptors. They’ve had some okay years but the last few have been pretty good and they’ve been rewarded with a playoff spot. Don’t ask me who the Cleveland Cavaliers are because I couldn’t tell you. When it comes to basketball, people get tired of the same old same old. The Rockies should be tired of that as well.

The Colorado Rockies are in a nice situation. How long will they be in this situation? I don’t know. So, they have got to strike while the iron is hot and start to detach themselves from the other four teams. In doing so, they’d have an all but guaranteed spot in the postseason. People have to start realizing that it’s a sign of the times.

Next: The curious case of Trevor Story

The Dodgers are not going to stay on top forever. Now’s the time to prove just that and show everyone the Colorado Rockies are now the team on top of that high hill.

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