Editor's Note: How the West Has Won

The NL West was supposed to be the worst division in the Major Leagues. That theory has quickly died, though no one seems up to giving a big, hearty "Mea Culpa" to the mistaken belief. Don't get me wrong. This division had very little going for it at the beginning of the season. The Dodgers won the West with just 84 wins. The Padres looked like they were a glorified Triple-A team. The Giants had the worst lineup of the bunch. The only shining beacon of the division would be the Dodgers, and even then Sports Illustrated's Baseball Preview edition predicted the Boys in Blue would garner only 88 wins, four more than last season's net-total. Unfortunately for the pundits, their theories were soundly squashed. The Dodgers are baseball's best team, and the Giants and Rockies are leading the pack for the NL Wild Card. Only two teams in the National League boast a winning record against ballclubs west of the Rocky Mountains. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have the privilege of calling their pitching staffs the best in the Majors, not just the NL. Yet no one has taken a step forward to apologize. The East-Coast leaning general consensus is that the Western Division is still subpar, and the Dodgers have fattened up on h'ors-doeuvres, not the real meat of the league. Call me biased, but the NL West deserves the credit that it has earned.