NL West: Three-Headed Monster

California is dominating the National League. The three best NL teams in RDIFF are the Padres, Dodgers, and Giants, respectively.

All the talk this offseason out west was the Dodgers and Padres and their glorious collision course that would bring baseball fans excitement for 19 games plus a highly expected postseason rematch. While those two teams have been a dominant force in the National League, leading in Run Differential (Padres: +81, Dodgers: +73), it is their divisional rival up North that's atop the division. The Giants will enter June with a 34-20 record, a mark that leads the NL and is second only to the Rays (35-20) in all of baseball.

On paper, the Padres and Dodgers have a much more eye-catching roster, but the Giants' veterans in Crawford, Longoria, and Posey have been carrying their load thus far. Combine that championship pedigree with young star Mike Yastrzemski and key bats in Donovan Solano, Mauricio Dubon, and Wilmer Flores, San Francisco isn't messing around. We'll see if they continue their hot run into the summer months.

The Dodgers have looked incredible at times, and have had cold streaks throughout. They're getting key guys back from the IL, but injuries are still prominent in LA's clubhouse. Mookie has been cold this season, batting just .247 with 5 home runs. The young guns have stepped up, and Los Angeles has a roster so deep that anyone can go off at any given moment. There should be nothing but optimism surrounding this ball club, but their divisional rivals won't let them get away with falling asleep. After a three game sweep of the Giants in San Francisco, LA lost 3 of 4 to them at Dodger Stadium, helping propel the Giants back to the top of the division.

San Diego has gotten 16 blasts from superstar Fernando Tatis Jr., and leads baseball in ERA (2.69) by a long shot, with the next team behind them, the Mets, sitting at 3.09. The Padres have gotten the better of the Dodgers in the meetings between the two clubs this year, going 4-3 in their matchups, but have lost 5 out of 9 meetings with the Giants. If it's any indication, these three teams will be in slugfests all year with one another.

The expanded postseason introduced last season in which 16 teams qualified compared to the traditional 10 is likely returning, but there is no official word on the 2021 playoff format. Come on, MLB. Assuming each league will have 8 teams in the playoffs, the top two teams from each division would make it, and two wild card teams would be included: whoever has the next best record outside of each division's top two.

The Dodgers would be a wild card team today, even though their record is better than anyone else in the NL besides their division rivals in the Padres and Giants.

This is not to say the Dodgers will remain at third in the NL West, and the landscape still most likely favors them coming out on top, but the point is that San Francisco, San Diego, and LA are absolute Juggernauts heading into June, and the rest of the National League is in for a battle whenever these teams come to town. Special condolences in advance to Arizona and Colorado, who have to play them a million more times this season.

For any cynical human reading this thinking the Giants can't keep it up, which may ultimately be the case as the Dodgers and Padres continue to round into form, the rest of the NL has been no match for these teams SO FAR, and that's what we'll work with since the NL East has sucked and the Cubs haven't been reliable in 5 years.

It may be way too early for any of this, but if this three-headed monster holds, these teams and their fanbases can be content with the clubs' performances as May comes to an end.