The All-Star Break has come and gone. It’s time to take stock of where the divisions stand as we enter the trading period and the start of the second half of the season. The NL West is one division with a clear winner from the first half, but two more teams could make the National League Wild Card race interesting, and the bottom dwellers might take a big role in the trade deals to come.

The Front Runners:
The Los Angeles Dodgers are far and away the best team in the National League West, and some even think they’re the best team in baseball. As of July 20th, 2009 Joe Torre’s team is in first in the league with an overall record of 58-34, and FOXsports online has the team in the No. 1 spot in their Power Rankings. The numbers are there to back up the Dodgers’ high expectations entering the second half of the season. L.A. leads the National League in hits and batting average. Their team ERA is 3.58, the second best in the majors. Manny Ramirez just came back. During the month of July Manny has batted .302 with a .581 slugging percentage, so it appears that he hasn’t lost too much from his time out.

The Dark Horses:
For the past few weeks the San Francisco Giants have been the most common team in the second spot in the NL West standings. MLB tickets for Giants games have been getting hotter and hotter as the team that entered the season with little hope slowly and quietly took over the top spot in the NL Wild Card race at a record of 50-41. While it would be a long shot to win the division (L.A. would have to have an unprecedented implosion), the Giants have the pitching to get to the playoffs. S.F. currently has the best team ERA in baseball (3.46) behind the efforts of starters Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain, and bullpen work by Justin Miller and Jeremy Affeldt. The Rockies are also in the thick of this early Wild Card race, as they have a 50-42 record.

The Rocks got hot shortly after Jim Tracy took over as manager. They went on an 11-game win streak in June and kept smoldering in July, thus far winning 9 of 15 games in the month. The Rockies have a powerful offense led by home run hitters (like Brad Hawpe and Ian Stewart) and a middle-of-the-pack pitching unit. Arizona and San Diego are at least 19 games back on the Dodgers. Will they make moves to invest in the future?

The Future:
With his team firing on all cylinders, it’s unlikely that Joe Torre will want to add or remove any major elements from his roster in the coming weeks. The rest of the teams in the division are another story all together. The Giants will likely try to add a heavy hitting bat to improve their lackluster lineup. Adam Dunn has been mentioned. The Rockies might deal a hitter or two for another starting pitcher.

Roy Halladay would be ideal, but his price is steep. The Padres have been rumored to be looking to deal Jake Peavy, although an earlier attempt this season failed. The Diamondbacks have a few players who would make nice bargaining chips. Stay tuned with what’s going on in the NL West, and get tickets to see the Dodgers, Giants, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres at StubHub.com, where you can find tickets to sold-out games.

Written by Brent Warnken, sponsored by StubHub. StubHub sells MLB tickets, sports tickets, concert tickets, theater tickets and more to just about any event in the world.

[tags]MLB, sports, tickets, baseball[/tags]