NL West Divisional All-Stars

This Divisional team might be the strongest of all the NL teams, as the Western division boasted two playoff teams and one other contender not far behind. So without any further ado, here's how they stack up.

NL West Divisional All-Stars

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POS	NAME	swp	swp/g		TEAM(S)
2B	*Felipe Lopez	1,733	11.5		ARI/mil
CF	Matt Kemp	2,347	14.8		LAD
LF	Manny Ramirez	1,449	13.9		LAD
1B	Adrian Gonzalez	2,305	14.4		SD
SS	Troy Tulowitski	2,304	15.3		COL
3B	Mark Reynolds	2,337	15.1		ARI
RF	Andre Ethier	2,223	13.9		LAD
DH	Pablo Sandoval	2,142	14.0		SF	3B
C	Bengie Molina	1,345	10.2		SF
SP	Tim Lincecum	2,678	83.7		SF
	Dan Haren	2,409	73.0		ARI
	Matt Cain	2,078	63.0		SF
	Randy Wolf	1,940	57.1		LAD
	Ubaldo Jimenez	1,904	57.7		COL
CL	Jonathan Broxton	2,152	29.5		LAD
RP	Ramon Troncoso	825	11.3		LAD
	Juan Gutierrez	788	12.1		ARI
	Ronald Belisario	732	10.6		LAD
	Edward Mujica	698	10.4		SD
	^Rafael Betancourt	678	11.1		cle/COL
P	Jeff Weaver	552	19.7		LAD

Felipe Lopez qualified for the West due to the time he spent with Arizona before his trade to Milwaukee. Hitting for more average than ever before, Lopez enjoyed a very solid season as a leadoff hitter, despite not flashing much speed on the basepaths. He beat out the defensive wizardry of LA's Orlando Hudson (who likely would have earned the honor if not for his second-half slump) and the finally-developed power of Colorado's Clint Barmes.

The highest-scoring batter on the team, Matt Kemp, bats second here, as the only player with any significant at-bats in the two-hole. Kemp is the total package, a five-tool player, who, at 24 years old, looks to help the Dodgers for many years to come. After spending far too many games in low-leverage/low-pressure spots in the batting order to give Joe Torre some peace of mind, he finally moved up to the traditional production spots so that his talents could shine out the clearer.

Despite missing 50 games due to a steroid-related suspension, no other left fielder matched the production of Manny Ramirez in '09. His power numbers suffered a little, but he was still getting on base at his career clip. And according to swp, 104 games of Manny is worth even more than 156 games of San Diego's Chase Headley.

Adrian Gonzalez and his career-highs in homers and walks was pretty much the lone bright spot in a lousy season for the Padres. He will undoubtedly be the subject of myriad trade rumors throughout the hot stove season, so this might be the last time he anchors the NL West team. He finished well ahead of perennial contender Todd Helton, who seems to be unaffected by age.

Troy Tulowitski was untouchable at shortstop, returning to the form that saw him finish a close second to Ryan Braun in the 2007 Rookie of the Year voting. He had some people worried after 2008, but there's certainly no need to worry now, about his bat or his glove, despite the Gold Glove snub.

Mark Reynolds got a boost in his swp due to his mammoth home run and impressive stolen base totals (44 and 24 respectively), but I placed him low in the order due to his major league record 223 strikeouts in '09. No use putting fantasy Manny on base only to leave him there with a fantasy Mark Reynolds strikeout. His runner-up, Pablo Sandoval, gets a spot on the team as the DH, which is fitting for a panda-shaped dude without a natural position. He showed that he can hit, no matter where he played, batting .330 and driving in 90 runs for an offensively starved Giants team.

Batting between the two third base candidates is right fielder Andre Ethier. His inclusion completes the second team-sweep of outfielders on a Divisional All-Star team; recall that all three Phillies made it onto the NL East team. Arizona's Justin Upton was hot on his tail, but Ethier pulled out the victory with a 30-100 season, more than helping the Dodgers pick up the slack during Manny's absence.

For catcher, I made an executive decision to include Bengie Molina, even though Arizona's Miguel Montero had a slight edge in swp (a measly 3 points) and ppg (an even measlier 0.3 points). Something about me just trusts Molina's veteran leadership and increased power output. Who cares if he doesn't walk and is one of the slowest players in the league? Plus Molina is a free agent and unlikely to return to the NL West next year, so this may be his last chance. Furthermore, Montero's basically guaranteed a spot in the Wild Card team, so we haven't heard the last from him.

NL Cy Young award repeater Tim Lincecum is the staff ace. It's good that the voters recognized true greatness this year without just catering to the guy who won the most games: with just 15 wins, he's the least-winningest pitcher in history to pick up the Cy Young. But his league-leading 261 strikeouts, paired with his (also league-leading) 4 complete games should dispel all doubts about his freaky delivery.

The underrated control artist Dan Haren follows Lincecum, providing perhaps the best fantasy one-two punch anyone could hope for. Haren had the best WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched) and strikeout to walk ratio of any pitcher in the National League, yet received only 1% of the Cy Young voting share. Behind Haren is Lincecum's Giants teammate Matt Cain, whose 2.89 ERA and 14 wins also received no Cy Young support due to a deep class. At just 24 years-old, though, Cain still shows some potential for improvement.

Extremely reliable pitch-to-contact lefty Randy Wolf and developing young ace Ubaldo Jimenez fill the last two spots of the rotation. Dodgers fans will lament the likely departure of Wolf through free agency after his deceptively good 11-7 2009, while Rockies fans will enjoy watching Jimenez induce ground ball after ground ball with his 100 mph stuff for years to come. Guys that missed the mark: a pair of Dodgers - future star Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley of the disappointing second half -, a pair of Rockies - journeyman Jorge de la Rosa and the always playoff-bound Jason Marquis -, and a single Padre: de facto staff ace Kevin Correia.

Jonathan "the huge scary bear" Broxton is the closer, winning out a close battle with first-year stopper Heath Bell. The NL West had an impressively strong class of closers this year, with Brian Wilson and Huston Street also putting up very good numbers. Despite Bell leading the league in saves, Broxton's strikeout numbers just couldn't be beat. And any time a pitcher posts a WHIP under 1.000, you know you're looking at something special.

The rest of the relief corps is made up of two Dodgers and two relative unknowns. Ramon Troncoso has matured into a legitimate setup man after just one year of MLB experience, and it's likely that the same will happen next year for Ronald Belisario. He spent some time on the DL this year with a sore elbow due to overuse, but he's still young and has plenty of time to bounce back. A good deal of Juan Gutierrez's swp are due to the 9 saves he picked up filling in for the injured Chad Qualls, and Edward Mujica started 4 games for the Padres, but both still qualify as relievers.

For the fifth man, Juan Rincon, I made an executive decision to put him on the team, as San Diego's rookie Luke Gregerson actually barely beat him in swp. But I put Rincon on the team because of his track record and his strong performance after being acquired by the Rockies. Jeff Weaver will act as the swingman, despite being left off the Dodgers' post-season roster.

Next time, I'll compile the best players of all the guys that missed making the three divisional teams to create the NL Wild Card Divisional All-Star Team.