This year, the NL West promises to be really rough enough to be described as the "Wild Wild West." According to Fangraphcom , an American baseball statistics site, predicting each team's performance in 2024, four of the five NL West teams, excluding the Colorado Rockies, are expected to win more than .500.

The four teams - the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks, the San Francisco Giants, and the San Diego Padres - have starkly different strengths and weaknesses. However, there is something in common that runs through these four teams: the "starting pitcher." All four teams worked to strengthen their starting rotation and achieved some results.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says this season's Dodgers starting rotation will start with Tyler Glasnow, Bobby Miller, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone and James Paxton. After the exhibition game, he went down to the third starting line to give Yamamoto, who has been struggling, an extra day off, and Miller, who debuted last year, was promoted to the second starting line instead.

All of them are fire bowlers who can throw fastballs with an average speed of mid-150km. The Dodgers are almost the only team that can throw balls this fast with all five starting rotation members. Another fire bowler, Walker Buehler, who has recovered from Tommy John surgery, is set to return, and Clayton Kershaw will return in the second half of the season. There are some uncertainties, including Glasnow's health, Stone's first full-time season as a starter, and Yamamoto's question mark, but there has never been a starting rotation so good in both quantity and quality recently.

The team that will face the Dodgers is Arizona. Jack Gallen, who pitched 210 innings last year and ranked third in the National League Cy Young Award with 17 wins (nine losses) and a 3.47 ERA, and Merrill Kelly, who had 12 wins (eight losses), are comparable to the Dodgers' one-two punch. Ahead of the opening of the season, he added depth to the rotation by recruiting Jordan Montgomery, who moved from the St. Louis Cardinals to the Texas Rangers last season and helped Texas win the World Series. If Line Nelson, who played his first full-time season as a starting pitcher last year and showed good performance in exhibition games with four wins and an ERA of 2.66, continues his performance in exhibition games this year, it will be the strongest rotation in terms of stability.

San Francisco's starting pitchers are also second to Dodgers and Arizona. Logan Webb, who was second in voting for the NL Cy Young Award last year, and Blake Snell, who won the NL Cy Young Award, are the second starting pitchers. Jordan Hicks, who will switch from the bullpen to the starting pitcher this year, will be the third starting pitcher. The combination of Webb, the best grounder in the league, and Snell, who can hit a batter with the ball, raises expectations just by imagining it, and raises expectations for Hicks' control by reducing his ball speeds. Kyle Harrison and Keaton Wynne are concerned about starting the fourth or fifth inning, but Alex Cobb, who will return in May, and Robbie Ray, who will return in the second half, also have insurance.

San Diego focused on strengthening its rotation after a large number of starting pitchers became free agents after the end of last season. With only two remaining players, Joe Musgrove and Darvish, San Diego planned to give up the starting positions to three to five players, including Michael King, Johnny Brito and Ramon Vazquez. However, as the season opened near the corner, the New York Yankees acquired Chicago White Sox ace Dylan Siege, which they were aiming for, and the rotation was upgraded. In addition, King, who will switch to starting this year, is raising expectations by showing an impressive 2.79 ERA in exhibition games.