AL West Preview
The AL West – baseball’s easiest road to the postseason. These teams just have to outlast three others to get in, it’s that simple. I never understood why this hasn’t been addressed. And after reviewing the potential these four teams have, plus the staggering amount of flaws each team has, it’s really embarrassing that one of these teams will make the postseason. This might be a bigger problem for baseball than steroids.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
The injury bug has hit them hard as their ace, their No. 2 and their rehabbing former No. 2 starter will all break camp on the DL. While it shouldn’t be too long for Lackey and Santana, elbow problems should never be taken lightly. But if the youngsters can keep this team afloat through mid-May, the influx on talent that should be returning from the DL should boost their starting rotation and make it impossible for them not to win this flawed division. The pick-up of Abreu was solid and inexpensive (how fumed must he be that Matthews will be paid more than double than him to ride the pine?) although the Angels seem to keep putting Band-Aids on their situation. But the lineup is deep and full of guys with 20-25 HR type power. They should feast on mediocre pitching. And while they should win the division this year and probably the next, they don’t appear to be moving in the right direction, so I don’t think they’ll be making it to heaven anytime soon. Although none of this stopped Sports Illustrated from predicting they’d reach the World Series; then again, this goes back to the AL West being the easiest road to the postseason and the MLB postseason being a crap-shoot.
Rotation: Saunders, Weaver, Moseley, Adenhart, Loux (Lackey, Escobar, Santana on DL)
Key Relievers: Fuentes, Arredondo, Shields, Oliver, Jepson
Lineup: Figgins, 3B; Aybar, SS; Abreu, LF; Guerrero, RF; Hunter, CF; Morales, 1B; Napoli, C; Rivera/Matthews, DH; Kendrick, 2B
Oakland Athletics
Billy Beane’s like Roddy Roddy Piper: Just when you think you know the answers, he changes the questions!!! Seriously, how out of left field was that trade for Matt Holliday (and yes, that pun was intended)? The A’s are constantly changing their methods and you can see that in just two years, Beane rebuilt that minor league system to the point where they have a seemingly endless supply of young pitching (and if they struggle in the first half of the season, look for more young pitching being traded to them for Matt Holliday near the trade deadline). And bringing back Giambi was both genius and the most predictable scenario – but it’s good to have the wild and crazy Oakland Giambi back, not the boring corporate Yankee Giambi. Even Yankee fans will probably agree, since the Giambi Era in NY can probably be best described as forgettable. I’d like the A’s chances more if Duchscherer wasn’t hurt (and it doesn’t look good in the long run for the Duke) but with their young stable of pitchers and solid lineup, they have as good a chance as anyone to take this division.
Rotation: Eveland, Braden, Anderson, Cahill, Outman (Duchscherer, Gonzalez on DL)
Key Relievers: Ziegler, Casilla, Devine (DL)
Lineup: Ellis, 2B; Cabrera, SS; Holliday, LF; Giambi, 1B; Cust, DH; Chavez, 3B; Suzuki, C; Buck, RF; Sweeney, CF
Seattle Mariners
Well, if you remember from my preseason predictions last year, you’ll know that the Mariners were my dark horse team and that I predicted they’d win the AL West behind Hernandez and Bedard. So you must understand why I can't do so again - they burned me and burned me badly. It's like when you get burned by a guy in fantasy, you just can't bring yourself to take him the next year. Thus, while I’m tempted to make the crazy pick again this year (as it looks like Bedard is healthy and Hernandez might finally fulfill all that promise and potential with a stellar season), I cannot overlook that their lineup leaves a LOT to be desired. Ichiro is great, but the rest of the lineup is about appealing as poop on a stick. Unless there’s something in the rain that turns Griffey back to pre-Cincinnati Griffey. Although the Mariners spectacular outfield defense should help out mediocre fly-ball pitchers like Washburn and Silva have above average years, their one weak spot in the field is at shortstop - someone needs to convince Betancourt that the baseball is not a live grenade. Solid pitching, great defense, it looks like the Mariners are building something here, but again, there’s just not enough firepower in this lineup. It’s a shame too, because they could have tried bringing in a guy like Adam Dunn, but after surviving the Richie Sexson experience, maybe they weren’t prepared to have another .240, 40 HR, 180 K guy on their team.
Rotation: Hernandez, Bedard, Washburn, Silva, Rowland-Smith
Key Relievers: Morrow, Batista, Lowe
Lineup: Ichiro, RF; Lopez, 2B; Griffey, DH; Beltre, 3B; Branyan, 1B; Gutierrez, CF; Chavez, LF; Johjima, C; Betancourt, SS
Texas Rangers
This is a lineup that is built to mash … obviously. Since what seems like the beginning of time, the Texas Rangers have been a solid offense squad. Kinsler and Hamilton are bona fide superstar hitters. Cruz and Davis are primed for big years. Young just keeps on hitting, year in, year out. But the usual and typical problem, as always, is that the Rangers have crappy pitching. They have potential in the minors and I like some of the talent in the bullpen (although there’s a reason they were able to get some of them). And I love that they have Mr. Anna Benson in the rotation, which means we’ll probably get some outrageous story that involves her beautiful breasts and DSLs. I wonder if when the Rangers are on a road trip the whole team will try to get Kris to cheat on her, just so she’ll go through with her promise of banging everyone in the clubhouse to get back at him. If I were a Ranger, I definitely would try to make this happen.
Rotation: Millwood, Padilla, Benson, McCarthy, Harrison
Key Relievers: Francisco, Wilson, Guardado, Turnbow
Lineup: Kinsler, 2B; Young, 3B; Hamilton, CF; Blalock, DH; Davis, 1B; Cruz, RF; Saltalamacchia, C; Murphy/Jones, LF; Andrus, SS
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