NL West Season 15 Preview

NL WEST SEASON 15 Projected Standings

Team	Owner	W-L	Summary
Colorado Springs Organizational Filler	voteforlou	105-57	Returning close to the same team, a recovered CL York might be the difference
Colorado Mile High Club	Fregoe	88-74	Getting better each year, but pitching still a season away from where they need it. But the next generations Mile Highers are going to make noise now.
Salem Slammers	liamsar	85-77	Adjustment season to a new city, Durbin is still the "fastest man on Earth" let's see if the lineup around him get score him more often.
Cheyenne Marmots	djgaffer	83-79	Solid top to bottom for regular season, might peter out in the Playoffs

Salem Slammers
74.9M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Power hitting offense, Salem is going to ask the hitting to carry the team in S15. This will be a new approach for this franchise and with this group it will have mixed results
Defense: Good all around fielding bunch most are here for their bats first, but they all seem to have brought plus gloves to the field. Opponents will have a hard time getting this team to make many mistakes
Rotation: Michael Foster is no longer a capable 6+ inning starter, he still has skills and can pitch but he's not going to get you anything past the 7th inning. Lamb and Casey are quality young arms, but not a true ace which the team needs to solidify the rotation for the future.
Bullpen: Felipe Liriano has had success as a closer in San Diego, but the move up the coast might expose Liriano as a fraud. Like the rest of the pen, Felipe might not be good enough to count on every day. Buckle up this corp. will give you a ride.

Colorado Springs Organizational Filler
78.1M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Pedro Cela is the new standard for elite players, he is surrounded his great hitting corp. who should eat up the weak pitching and challenge the tough arms.
Defense: Solid yet unspectacular Brinkley could get tangled up at 1B and the options at CF are thin with the glove. Look for a few runs to roll by the Fillers.
Rotation: Starting Tandem of Telgheder and Perez is one of the best in the league; outside of them the rotation has a steep drop of long relievers and flawed pitchers. CSP should be able to piece together a strong rotation with what they have it just will take a keen daily eye on the team to do so.
Bullpen: York Bradford's elbow issues in S14 hurt the Fillers and sent them scrambling to fill holes in the bullpen, now with a recovered York the team should be better than last season. York no longer throws at the same velocity or has the same control, so look for his low split versus lefties becoming an issue.

Colorado Mile High Club
61.6M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Lucas Martin could be the 2nd Coming, He has All-star potential, and when he hits his stride could be averaging 40/40 every season. Walker is still a solid leadoff hitter if you can get over his strikeouts and the rest of the lineup though lacking the overall power of the early generation Colorado Mile High Club should knock in the runs.
Defense: Steve Smart is an all-star defender still, add in a number of young studs to mentor and you have a dedicated group of ballers fielding against you.
Rotation: Vincente, O'Malley and Hurst are all very young with huge upsides, calling them up early might have stunted their growth and could cost the Mill-Highers in the long run, but They are here now and should pitch well enough to get a few wins by themselves
Bullpen: Colorado has picked up a number of ex-closer through the last few seasons, Bell, Greenwood, Feliz, and Matthews have all had great success elsewhere, but like all pitchers seem to struggle in the thin air. Expect the pen to find a groove and put up better numbers in S15.

Cheyenne Marmots
58.0M Estimated Opening Day Payroll

Offense: Cheyenne is a team that can hit in stretches and then just disappear. They have very capable hitters who will struggle with the elite pitching in the NL. Expect them to struggle when the playoffs roll around and they are forced to face the best night after night.
Defense: The Marmots make their money in the field, Chris Durbin is defensively there weakest hole at 2B and he's not going to make a lot of errors.
Rotation: 4 good starting pitchers led by Nolan Ryan-like Kiki Soto, The rotation is a good mix of youth and grizzled veterans which should serve the Marmots well throughout the season.
Bullpen: Outside of Super reliever Babe Allen, the Bullpen is full of guys who are best suited to pitch to 1 batter and sit back down. There is a good chance the pen will wear out and cost Cheyenne in the long run.