San Diego Padres - a left fielder

To say left field was a revolving door for the Friars last season would be generous. It was more like there was no door at all, and anyone could just walk through and play. After trying all manner of flotsam there last year, including castoffs like Jose Cruz, Jr., Paul McAnulty, Russ Branyan, Terrmel Sledge, Rob Mackowiak, the Padres have still not found a solution.

Although Scott Hairston did hit like a man on fire after coming over from the D-Backs in a late season trade (.981 OPS in 87 AB), and is the putative starter if the season were to start today, before coming to the Pads he had an awful .659 OPS in 176 at-bats with the Snakes, so it’s hard to have any confidence in him.

Another reason it would be useful for the Padres to add at least one more capable player to their outfield mix is that their starting centerfielder is the aging and injury prone Jim Edmonds, who is highly unlikely to make it through a whole season without several trips to the DL.

Arizona Diamondbacks - a fourth outfielder

After an offseason in which they did just about everything right, the team’s only discernable hole is in the outfield. The Snakes seem committed to going with youngster Justin Upton as their everyday rightfielder, despite his unsightly .221/.283/.364 line last season. But now that Arizona has traded away its two best outfield prospects in Carlos Quentin and Carlos Gonzalez, if Upton falters or if either of the other two guys go down for any extended period, the D-Backs’ only replacement option off the bench is some 28-year-old 4-A dude named Jeff Salazar, a guy who nobody would want to see playing in the outfield every day.

Colorado Rockies - a left-handed reliever

Like the Diamondbacks, the Rockies are another team with very few holes left, having fulfilled their promise to the fans to return last year’s World Series squad virtually intact. They did “lose” Kazuo Matsui to the Astros, but that may well be a blessing, as it opens up a spot for top infield prospect and purported defensive wizard Jayson Nix, and even if Nix falters, the Rocks still have several other options to choose from at the keystone, including prospects Omar Quintanilla, Jeff Baker, and Ian Stewart, and former Braves star Marcus Giles, whom they just inked to a minor-league deal.

The Rockies are set to turn over half their bullpen, however, with LaTroy Hawkins having already bolted for the Yankees and free agents Jorge Julio and Jeremy Affeldt set to depart as well. Although the Rockies were able to sign Luis Vizcaino to fill Hawkins’ shoes, they probably need to sign at least one more reliever, especially a left-hander to fill the situational lefty role Affeldt handled last season, as they have no particularly appealing internal options to replace him.

Los Angeles Dodgers - continue resisting the temptation to trade away their young guns

A good argument could be made that the Dodgers could have improved their team dramatically by making no moves whatsoever this offseason, and just letting their highly touted, major-league ready prospects have a chance to show what they can do.

Of course, Ned Colletti being Ned Colletti, he had to go out and sign at least a few big names, giving fairly outrageous contracts to outfielder Andrew Jones and Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda. But so far he has resisted the deluge of trade offers for coveted young players like Matt Kemp, Clayton Kershaw, and James Loney, and if he can keep on resisting those offers, as well as the temptation to block them any further with free agent signings, the Dodgers should be in pretty good shape to make a run at the playoffs this season.

San Francisco Giants - EVERYTHING

Here is a short list of the things the Giants need: a first baseman, a second baseman, a third baseman, a starting pitcher, a closer, and three other relievers of any ability. Outside of the outfield (Rowand, Roberts, Randy Winn), and the young arms in the rotation (Cain, Lowry, Lincecum), this team is going to be absolutely terrible, and they have no promising prospects of any real note on the way either. The Giants are well nigh a stone cold lock to have the worst offense in the National League this year.

Continuing our tour of the majors to find out what each team needs more than anything else, we turn now to the NL West… 

Dodgers – a power hitter

The Dodgers are second to last in the National League in home runs, ahead of only the hapless Cardinals, and their .370 team slugging percentage puts them in company with such similarly punchless teams as the Nationals and the Pirates.  Jeff Kent leads the team with 7 homers and is on pace for 25 on the season. No other Dodger projects to hit even 20.

Padres – a third baseman

The neverending quest continues.  After last season, in which they tried out the likes of washed-up players such as Vinny Castilla, Mark Bellhorn, Todd Walker, and Russ Branyan at third base, the Padres thought they had finally solved their third base conundrum (at great expense) by trading their everyday second baseman Josh Barfield to the Indians for hot prospect Kevin Kouzmanoff.  Instead Kouzmanoff has batted .202 in 114 at bats.   That actually represents an improvement, as Kouzmanoff has gone 12-23 over the past week – two weeks ago, he was batting .108.  The Dodgers have actually gotten worse production out of Wilson Betemit, but at least they have top prospect Andy LaRoche if he can’t turn it around.  Kouzmanoff might continue his hot hitting and eventually right the ship, but if he can’t, the Padres have nobody to fall back on, and when I say nobody I mean nobody at all.

Diamondbacks – a catcher

Before the season started, Baseball Prospectus praised the hitting abilities of Miguel Montero and the defensive skills of Chris Synder, and wrote that together they “will form a productive, low-cost catching tandem for a few years.” Instead, the D-Backs got an as-yet-unnamed comedy act of some sort – I’m still debating between “The Two Stooges” and “Worse and Worser.” Arizona catchers are last in the entire National League with a .193 batting average and a .541 OPS, and it’s not really even close.

Rockies – a catcher

Although they have not been quite as hopeless at the plate as the D-Backs’ catchers, Rockies catchers Yorvit Torrealba and Chris Iannetta have been pretty lackluster as well, posting a .220 batting average and only 1 home run between them. Although it’s true that catcher is a defensive skill position, numbers like that are simply unacceptable in this day and age, and when you play half your games in Coors Field, downright unforgivable, as in Dan Dowd should track them down across the icy arctic wastes and slay them in cold blood if they don’t start hitting soon.

Giants – anyone under 30

Check out the ages of the Giants current lineup:

Dave Roberts - 35
Randy Winn – 33
Rich Aurelia – 35
Barry Bonds - 42
Ray Durham – 35
Ryan Klesko – 36
Pedro Feliz – 32
Benji Molina – 32
Omar Vizquel – 40

Average age – 35.6

The 2006 version of the Giants set the all time record for the oldest team in baseball history, and the 2007 team has a good shot to surpass them, with Klesko and Aurelia replacing the younger Lance Niekro and Shea Hillenbrand, and Benji Molina replacing the younger Eliezer Alfonzo.  It promises to be a constant struggle to keep all of these geriatrics in the lineup at the same time, but even worse, the Giants have no young hitting prospects of any note ready to fill in.  The Giants obviously think they can contend this year, and with their pitching staff, they have a shot, but if they are smart they would trade some of those “experienced veterans” for some up-and-coming young talent while the old guys still have any value or the ability to perambulate without a walker.