Dodgers: How the league’s strongest division will impact the NL Champs

3. Colorado Rockies:

2017 Record: 87-75; 2nd Wild-Card Spot

My Predicted Record for 2018: 90-72

This is where the worry may begin to set in for Dodger fans, and it starts with the Rockies bullpen. So far this offseason, the Rockies have re-signed Jake McGee to a 3 year, $27-million dollar deal, they signed Indians reliever Bryan Shaw, as well as Cubs closer Wade Davis. The Rockies’ bullpen was one of their only weaknesses in 2018, and they have remedied that completely.

This is huge for Colorado.

The Rockies lost the wild card game to the Arizona Diamondbacks 11-8, a high scoring game by two boldly offensive teams. With Nolan Arenado leading the charge at the hot-corner, and Charlie Blackmon coming off of the best season of his career, the Rockies are in terrific shape.

They will undoubtedly challenge the Dodgers in 2018.

I’m not saying the Rockies will beat the Dodgers and make it to the World Series in 2018 because, as of right now, I can’t really see that happening. But I’m also not saying they won’t be there in the postseason, right alongside the Dodgers, either.

Nolan Arenado is doing what I think we all knew he would be doing at some point in his career, he is playing for a team destined for October. That team just so happens to be the same one that drafted him, back in 2009.

The Rockies bullpen is better, and their offense is still stellar. The Rockies could have beaten the D-Backs in the Wild Card game, and if they had, the NLDS may have been a completely different story.

The Rockies, though, still aren’t the biggest threat to the Dodgers in 2018.