The Arizona Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks finished 2011 strong, winning the NL West. They had a record of 94-68 and may very well repeat something similar to that in 2012.

A major part of The Diamondbacks' success was their young and effective starters. Ian Kennedy won 21 games for The D-Backs and Daniel Hudson won 16. Their ages are 27 and 24 respectively. In the 2011-2012 offseason they traded for another young starter in Trevor Cahill. Although Cahill didn't win 18 games with a sub 3.00 ERA like he did in 2010, the 23 year old had a 12-14 record with a 4.16 ERA over 207 innings. That is good enough to be an effective number 3 starter in the NL West.

The Diamond Backs have a young and effective offense as well. Lead by Justin Upton in right field. Upton had a .369 on base percentage, 31 home runs and a .529 slugging percentage, giving him a 141 OPS+. Another offensive superstar in Phoenix is Chris Young. Although his OPS+ is only 103, he can hit home runs and get on base. In 2011 he had a .331 on base percentage and 20 home runs. Miguel Montero is their young catcher. He is 28 years old and is in the prime of his career. Montero had a 121 OPS+ in 2011 making him one of the best offensive catchers.

In the bullpen is Takashi Saito, JJ Putz, and the newly acquired Craig Breslow. Saito and Putz had ERA's close to 2.00 and Breslow had an 3.79 ERA. That adds up to a decent back end of the bullpen.

The Diamond Backs play in the National League West which isn't a powerful offensive division. It is oriented around pitching and The D-Backs definitely have that. They will compete well with Th.es Giants and it can go either way.