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The chic pick for most improved NL team in 2010 is almost unanimous - Arizona. After all, they practically lost their 2008 Ace and cleanup hitter to injury for the entirety of last season. They added depth to their rotation and bullpen and could get some notable turnarounds from young hitters.

In this article, I'll outline the roster locks, Spring Training Battles and after the jump, analyze each position in more detail, with a little different format than last time.

Roster Additions: Edwin Jackson, Ian Kennedy, Adam LaRoche, Kelly Johnson, Aaron Heilman, Bob Howry, Zach Kroenke

Roster Subtractions: Max Scherzer, Daniel Schlereth, Eric Byrnes, Doug Davis, Yusmeiro Petit, Jon Rauch, Scott Schoeneweis

Roster Locks

Rotation: Dan Haren, Brandon Webb (if healthy), Edwin Jackson, Ian Kennedy

Bullpen: Chad Qualls, Aaron Heilman, Bob Howry, Clay Zavada, Juan Gutierrez

Infield: Mark Reynolds, Stephen Drew, Kelly Johnson, Adam LaRoche, Ryan Roberts, Augie Ojeda, Miguel Montero, Chris Snyder

Outfield: Justin Upton, Chris Young, Conor Jackson, Gerardo Parra

Roster Battles

Fifth Starter: Billy Buckner had the most experience starting of any candidates and is the favorite heading into Spring Training. Bryan Augenstein, Kevin Mulvey and Rodrigo Lopez will more than likely get a start sooner or later if they don't start the team there. Pick: Buckner

Two Bullpen Spots: Zach Kroenke is all but assured of being in the bullpen after being a Rule 5 draft choice (though the D-Backs scrapped that plan with James Skelton early last year). If Kroenke doesn't make the team, Zavada would be pushed into a LOOGY role. Blaine Boyer has the edge for long man, with Leo Rosales, Esmerling Vazquez and to lesser degrees the losers of the fifth starter battle in contention. Picks: Kroenke and Boyer

Bench: There was talk that Augie Ojeda would be traded with the acquisition of Kelly Johnson, but it appears he'll stick around. All AJ Hinch will need to decide is his 25th man. With Parra as the lone outfielder on the bench, that might lead to an outfielder, though Ryan Roberts' ability to play OF allows for an infielder or relief pitcher as well. Twenty-five year old outfielder Cole Gillespie would seem like a logical choice, though 31-year-old 1B/LF Jeff Bailey seems to have a chance as well. Pick: Gillespie

Offense

Below, I have attempted to quantify where Arizona will improve/decline. To do this, I took CHONE projections for the projected starters and distributed value from bench players across positions they would play. This ignores injuries and other players, but CHONE was chosen in part due to generosity in projected playing time to balance that out. There will still be more ABs than can be taken, but I chose to choose the most optimistic approach for Arizona to see what the damage is. To compare how they changed, I used the positional WAR I calculated this offseason.

First Base

Adam LaRoche was brought in this offseason to refurbish a completely broken first base position. No matter what he produces, he'll far outproduce the -0.90 WAR Arizona got last season. In fact, LaRoche projects to 2.0 WAR from CHONE, and with Ryan Roberts getting some of his ABs there, the D-Backs figure to get about 2.5 WAR from the first base position. ADDED value for 2010: +3.4 Wins

The rest follows after the jump.

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Chris Pizzello - AP

The McCourts didn't do Joe Torre any favors this offseason.

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With full rosters reporting to Spring Training, I figured I probably out to finally get my butt on the proverbial playing field again.  Today, I'll run through all the personnel comings and goings of the back-to-back NL West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

In With the New, Out With the Old

Los Angeles is the second largest TV market in the United States, making up nearly 5% of the United States.  Contrary to the benefits that figure to come from that, Ned Colletti worked this season as if he were operating the Florida Marlins.  

Zero Dodgers were offered arbitration.  The most any player will be paid in 2010 of those earning a new contract or extension (non-arbitration-forced) is Vicente Padilla, at $4.05million.  That's barely half what Huston Street will make this season, and Padilla's salary would cover Jamie McCourt's expenses for her eight houses only until the last day of the regular season.

Therein lies the rub.  Whether the organization wants to admit it or not, the McCourt's divorce has severely hamstrung the team's assets.  It's awfully difficult to make positive change in the offseason if you have no change to throw at anyone.  Here's a quick run-down of notable players leaving the predominant 25-man roster and those who were brought in (2010 WAR projections from CHONE): 

Assuming instrinsic progression negates regression precisely, the Dodgers downgraded a little more than three wins in this cursory overly-simplistic glance.  After winning the division by three games.  And there's certainly a case to be made that the Dodgers will experience more regression in 2010 than progression, or that projected playing time for the bench is unrealistic.  Okay, so I admit there will also be far more moving parts and increased roles for internal players, but that would be no fun to look at. 

Mainstays

In large part, Ned Colletti kept his division champion roster intact.  The spring is the time to battle for position on the roster for the upcoming season, but these fifteen players can take it easy and know they will return to the same role they had last season:

Rotation:  Clayton Kershaw, Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda

Bullpen:  Jonathan Broxton, Ramon Troncoso, Hong-Chih Kuo, George Sherrill

Infield:  James Loney, Rafael Furcal, Casey Blake, Russell Martin

Outfield:  Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier

Bench:  Brad Ausmus

Additionally, recently signed Reed Johnson will the the fourth outfielder and Vicente Padilla will rejoin the rotation that he made seven starts in last year.  Provided his leg heals from a shotgun wound.

After the jump, I'll go a little into the Spring Training battles.

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In October, I set out on a project to report the strength of each of the NL West teams position by position utilizing WAR.  

If you missed any of the prior articles, this is where you can catch up.

This project proved more difficult than I expected, given that Fangraphs does not have offensive or value splits by position and Baseball Reference does not carry WAR  in its tables.  Thus, I had to do all the work myself.  The overall method was highlighted in the first base and second base articles, but here is a quick rundown:  1) Extract positonal splits for every player in the division from Baseball Reference.  2) Apply component park factors from Statcorner.com for every offensive event.  3) Calculate wOBA from this data using Fangraphs' formula and convert it to Batting RAR (Runs Above Replacement).  4) Utilize UZR for the defensive component, and calculate positional and replacement RAR, just like Fangraphs.  5) Sort, organize and sum.

The prior installments can be found below.

C | 1B | 2B | 3B | SS | LF | CF | RF | P

For your convenience, I have tabulated the rankings of each team at every position below.  If you disagree or can't fathom why one ranking is as such (say...the top two teams in CF for example), I encourage you to check out that edition - it's all explained there.

The very first thing I notice in the above table, other than the Rockies pitchers kicking butt, is the Dodgers.  Every team had at least two positions that they were tops in the division, but not Los Angeles.  Actually, they took "consistently good" to a ridiculous level, having the 3rd best catching, first base, rotation and overall staff and placing second at every other position.

 This is the perfect place to evaluate where each team's strengths and weaknesses were in 2009.  That's essentially what I was going for with this series, but there are some very interesting developments after the jump.  If you're skeptical of WAR or intrigued by it, I urge you to continue reading.

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For nearly two decades, Rockies fans have dealt with national analysts and out-of-state fans dismissing the statistics for Rockies hitters, since you know, we play baseball on Pandora the moon.  What has not yet seemingly caught on (unless purple glasses blind me) is an equal amount of credit given to Rockies pitchers for throwing half their innings at least thrice the altitude of all other teams.

Granted, park effects aside, the Rockies have never had great pitching.  From 1993-2004, Colorado finished dead last in NL ERA all but twice, finishing a couple runs ahead of one team those two years.  But those days are gone now.  As has been hinted at and outrightly stated here on numerous occasions, the Rockies were sabermetrically elite in 2009.

Overall, Colorado had the 10th best ERA in Major League Baseball, 7th best in rotational ERA; so even ignoring park effects, Bob Apodaca's staff was impressive.  The starting pitchers also finished 6th in FIP and 4th in xFIP.  Due largely in part of the extremely stout back end of the rotation, our Rockies sat atop all of major league baseball in pitching WAR in 2009.  Naturally, that makes the Rockies look awfully good against the rest of the division.  The following table on Fangraphs' RAR (runs above average) shows why Colorado belonged in the postseason.  Not only are the Rockies on top overall, but they also had the most value in the rotation AND bullpen.

By the way, the Padres' numbers are not a misprint.  They were THAT bad in 2009.  For a more visual comparison and LOLPads, here's the above table graphed.

Note:  For the hitters' series, I computed my own park effects to hitters' positional splits using Statcorner's component splits.  Conversely, the numbers in this article are straight from Fangraphs, though rounding errors apply.

Take the jump for a closer look.

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The NL West boasted three very strong offensive right-fielders last season.  Justin Upton and Brad Hawpe each made All-Star appearances, while Andre Ethier took home a Silver Slugger.  What you might not realize is just how close those three were in offensive production last season.

With the fearsome trio eating up at least 580 PA each in right field, they represented the resounding majority of PA for their teams.  Brad Hawpe and the Rockies led the way with a park-adjusted .367 wOBA, followed by J-Up and the Snakes at .366, followed by Ethier and the Dodgers at .365.

Naturally, what separates the three teams in overall value then is defense, which proves to be quite the unequalizer.

Hawpe was so statistically weak defensively that the Giants actually passed the Rockies on the list, while Will Venable and Randy Winn each passed Hawpe for overall value.

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Matt Kemp was a beast this season, but that doesn't mean the Dodgers had the best CF spot last season.  For the second straight week, Los Angeles surprisingly gets pushed to second place by a team without a primary starter.  

San Diego started the season with Scott Hairston and Jody Gerut platooning in center field, but by the All-Star break, both had been jettisoned, with the only returning position player being their new center fielder who had been in AAA all season to that point.

But don't let Petco Park and the constant new faces fool you.  The Padres were strong in center field last season.

Hairston saved almost all his San Diego offense for his CF starts, posting a ridiculous .458 wOBA in 148 PA.  His eventual replacement, Tony Gwynn Jr, had the best OBP in the division outside of Hairston matched with fantastic defensive play.  That was enough to supersede the Dodgers, who had neutral defense and just a 13 point wOBA* edge.  This can teach us two things - it is indeed a team game, and don't discredit the Padres' offense, as Petco Park can mask a lot.

All the proof and stats are under the fold.

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Do not place undue trust in WAR for catchers. How much of a catcher's value do you think is in his defense? I'll give you a hint: it's a lot. FanGraphs has unfortunately yet to give an effort to quantifying this vital aspect of the game, other than with the positional adjustment. In fact, catchers should possibly be considered a separate group of players with a separate replacement level and therefore be treated as different from all other position players.

Now, given that I have ruined the legitimacy of all ensuing data, let's look at the numbers.

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