Pitching Will Lead Giants to NL West Title

As opening day approaches, I'm making predictions for each of the six divisions in MLB.   I have projected won/loss records, runs scored (RS), runs allowed (RA) and run differential (RS-RA) for each team.  I don't have a complex formula to determine the results.  I just looked at last year's final numbers and moved teams up and down according to how much I thought they would regress or improve from last year to this year.

There never seems to to be a clear favorite in the NL West and this year is no exception.  In a division of mostly sub-par starting line-ups, pitching will ultimately decide the winner.  The Giants have one of the weakest line-ups in the majors, but their excellent pitching rotation will allow them to prevail over the more balanced Diamondbacks.

Projected NL West Standings

Team	W	L	RS	RA	RS-RA
San Francisco Giants	86	76	610	566	44
Arizona Diamondbacks	85	77	713	679	34
Colorado Rockies	81	81	780	780	0
San Diego Padres	76	86	607	651	-44
Los Angeles Dodgers	77	85	619	655	-36

Divisional Awards

MVP
Justin Upton, AZ
Troy Tulowitzki, COL
Buster Posey, SF

Cy Young
Clayton Kershaw, LA
Madison Bumgarner, SF
Tim Lincecum, SF

Breakout Players
Cameron Maybin, SD
Paul Goldschmidt, AZ
Michael Cudduyer, COL (Park effect)

Blogs

I won't waste time trying to give detailed analyses of teams I don't follow on a daily basis.  These blogs can tell you more about the teams than I can:

Giants 
McCovey Chronicles
Around The Fog Horn


Diamondbacks
AZ Snakepit
DBacks Venom


Rockies 
Purple Row
Rox Pile


San Diego Padres
Gaslamp Ball
Friar Forecast


Los Angeles Dodgers
True Blue LA
Dodger Dugout