There is nothing that I love more than the month of March, not only is my birthday in March but baseball officially gets under way. The only thing I want for my birthday this year is a division title. Now, I know this is going to hurt the masses but I must admit my bloodline runs blue, yeah that’s right, Dodger blue.

And of course, the team standing in the way of my lone birthday wish is the hated Giants, or in your case your beloved orange and black. The Giants are the one team in the West division that will contend for the title, they have too much firepower on offense and depth in the pitching staff to not be at the top of the division come September. However, there are a lot of “if’s” for the Giants.

The Giants opted for quality over quantity this off-season picking up two solid pitchers and two veteran position players. Starting pitcher Matt Morris was the prize pick up of the off-season for the Giants and figures to be a solid two or three starter behind ace, Jason Schmidt and young gun Noah Lowry. The addition of outfielder Steve Finley, 40, adds some depth to the bench but also makes the Giants that much older.

The Giants biggest move of the season was an in house move. Their best player and arguably the best player in the game will be back in a Giants jersey. Barry Bonds returns to left field and more importantly to the line up. People sometimes forget amid all the steroid rumors, that Bonds is a game changer, similar, to a Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, or Walter Payton. Bonds’ presence in the line up causes pitchers to tremble and coaches to alter their strategies. Simply put, no Bonds equals no title.

The Giants, however, have a few other question marks heading into the 2006 season. One is the health of their 40-year-plus players, Bonds, shortstop Omar Vizquel, outfielder Moises Alou, and Finley. Secondly, the pitching staff has the potential to be great, but Schmidt, Morris and Lowry will have to pitch 200 plus innings if they expect to be in it come September. The bullpen has question marks of its own, if closer Armando Benitez can stay healthy he can get 40 saves. Newcomers Tim Worrell and Steve Kline will also have to contribute immediately.

The biggest mistake the Giants made this off-season was letting assistant General Manager Ned Colletti sign with the Dodgers. Since that pickup the Dodgers have signed shortstop Rafael Furcal, first basemen Nomar Garciaparra, third basemen Bill Mueller, center fielder Kenny Lofton, and pitchers Brett Tomko, Jae Seo, and Danys Baez. On top of that, the Dodgers signed Manager Grady Little.

The rest of the West Division is subpar. The San Diego Padres had their chance last season and they didn’t do enough in the off-season to challenge the Giants or Dodgers. The Diamondbacks are still a year away and the Rockies are consistently awful.

Just remember this, get your tickets for the September series when the Dodgers come to SBC Park because the West will be won here in San Francisco.