The most glaring weaknesses remaining for National League West teams to fill:

Arizona: None. Roberto Alomar may prove inadequate at second base, but the Diamondbacks roster looks pretty fully formed.

Colorado: The Rockies have an inexperienced double-play combination in Aaron Miles and Clint Barmes, backed up by retreads Royce Clayton, Damian Jackson and Benji Gil (only one of whom may start the season in the majors). Overall, this looks like the division's last-place team.

Los Angeles: Nothing's changed. The Dodgers need a slugger to move Robin Ventura out of the starting lineup, if not another to move Alex Cora out. I also still have Joe Thurston and Chin-Feng Chen filling out the bench. It's probably time to see if these two can contribute for more than a few games each season (if Thurston is ever going to unseat Cora, this is the moment), but I'd expect the Dodgers to bring in better challengers than Jason Romano for these roster spots.

San Diego: The Padres have a promising lineup but can they possibly want to start the season with Phil Nevin fielding balls in the outfield? With a surplus of infielders, as well as reserve starting pitchers like Ismael Valdes and Sterling Hitchcock, San Diego is poised to make a trade. With anything short of an idiotic move, the Padres are ready to contend.

San Francisco: Neifi Perez at shortstop. Someone wake these guys up. And my guess is that live-by-the-hit, die-by-the-hit Marquis Grissom is due for a regression. The Giants won the division by 15 1/2 games last season but had a 28-12 record in one-run games, a level of luck 6 1/2 games better than anyone else in the NL West. San Francisco has a cushion to work with, but it's not as much as one might think.

Right now, this division has four contenders, and by April, let alone September, any one of them could be the favorite.

National League West Rosters - Updated January 8

* pitcher

According to the Washington Post, contract talks between the Baltimore Orioles and Vladimir Guerrero are about to end, one way or another:

Whether the process will end with Guerrero in an Orioles uniform, or with another team snatching him away, remains to be seen. But this unprecedented situation -- never before has the consensus top player on the market remained unsigned this late into the winter -- may finally reach an outcome.

One source speculated the Orioles may have placed a deadline on their standing offer of five years, $65 million.