By Jonathan Lee
July 31, 2012

An arms race occurred at the trade deadline in the National League West.  Both the Dodgers and Giants made major moves to improve their respective rosters to try and win the division title and avoid the roll of the dice that will be the one game Wild Card playoff.

L.A. started off the frenzy early acquiring Hanley Ramirez from Miami to fill a huge void in the infield.  While most of the trade rumors were focused on pitching, the team traded for Shane Victorino to further bolster their lineup.  The Dodgers also acquired reliever Brandon League from the Phillies to fortify the backend of their bullpen.

San Francisco meanwhile traded for a former Phillies outfielder of its own getting Hunter Pence to man right field.  Pence has struggled this season, but is under team control for another year and provides another solid bat in the Giants lineup which will get even stronger when Pablo Sandoval returns from the disabled list.

The Dodgers improved their playoff odds by five percent post trade deadline, but the Giants made an even large leap jumping up over 10 percent.  The two teams are in a virtual tie at the top of the division, and are almost even according to our projections for the playoffs.  This should be one of the more exciting races the rest of the season.

The Diamondbacks though were the big loser in the division.  Before the trade deadline they were actually neck and neck with the two leaders out West despite facing a 3.5 game deficit in the standings.  Arizona however sat mostly idle and watched Los Angeles and San Francisco make major moves to improve their teams.  The only move it made was send reliever Craig Breslow to the Yankees in exchange for Matt Albers.  That kind of trade won’t move the needle anywhere.  As a result Arizona is now clearly third in the division dropping nearly 16 percent in playoff odds.