So, being an Angels fan, this is going to be tough to be unbiased, but I will do my best. Sports Illustrated picked the Angels to win, about half of ESPN picked the Mariners, I've heard of a lot of people picking the Rangers because of their offense...and all of them could be right, the division is that close.
Angels:
Let's be honest, we got raped this off season. We lost our #1 starter, lost our lead off man, lost one of our more dependable relievers in Darren Oliver and oh yeah, Vlad Guerrero left town too.
Picture yourself as a GM, would you resign a 31 year old John Lackey who has started 08 and 09 on the DL? You would? Would you sign him to a 5-year $83 million dollar contract? If you would...you better be from Boston or NY...good decision to not resign from my prospective.
To quickly go over all of the other losses, Darren Oliver is 95...Vlad the impaler is WAY past his prime and it was very evident last year and Chone Figgins signed a $45 million dollar contract in his 32 year of life...no thank you.
That being the case, the Angels did the best they could to refill thos holes without spending eleventy-billion dollars
- They signed an aging lizard in Hideki Matsui
- Signed Joel Pineiro (whoopdy friggin-do)
- Got Fernando Rodney to take over as closer once Fuentes starts blowing saves in week 3.
- They paid to have Gary "The Black Plague" Matthews Jr. leave the clubhouse
All in all, this team...believe it or not...isn't much worse off than they were last year.
Pitching:
Weaver, Saunders, Ervin Santana, Joel Pineiro, Scott Kazmir
It's THE deepest 5 man rotation out there...all of these pitchers aren't outstanding, but they are all good solid pitchers, who can pitch deep into games and have the ability to win a lot of games...which is hard to say for most teams.
Defense:
Chone's departure opened up a spot for the up and coming Brandon Wood who is a gold glove caliber 3rd baseman already. His only issue is that he strikes out pretty much every time he's up to bat. Vlad hasn't played defense in a couple of years so no change there.
Offense:
Here's where it gets interesting...
Chone's departure opened up a spot for the under-appreciated Erick Aybar who is an on base machine and should be just fine swiping bags up top. The addition of Hideki Matsui, if he stays healthy, could add some major power to the Angels lineup. We're talking a 3,4,5,6 who could ALL hit 20-25 HR's and that is always a dangerous thing to have. Overall I think they are actually a better team offensively.
The Angels will win close to 90 games this year because of the depth of their pitching rotation and the managing of Mike Scoscia. That's always good enough to win the division.
Rangers:
Off season: Added Rich Harden, Vlad Guerrero, Darren Oliver
They did a great job of securing some bullpen help and getting a big name pitcher to come in and get 5 innings of work for them every outing. Like I said, I don't think Vlad helps them a ton, but he's good for 100 games at DH, hitting around .285 and hitting maybe 20 HR's.
This team is young, they are fast, they are solid defensively and my god can they hit when they are on.
Pitching:
Their glaring weakness is the starting pitching on this team.
Rich Harden, Scott Feldman, Tommy Hunter, Matt Harrison, Colby Lewis
Thank god they have a very solid bullpen or they would have to slug their way through the year (which they could do)
If Harden can stay healthy, they have one really good pitcher. Then they have two decent pitchers and two crappy pitchers. I just can't see them being very competitive until they get two of their young pitchers up and starting (which could happen this yr btw). This is going to be the key to this team and I don't think it's a good thing.
Defense:
Incredibly solid. Great up the middle, really fast outfielders with cannons and Micheal Young is a SS playing 3rd...
Offense:
They are potentially one of the scariest offensive teams in the majors. Borbon, Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Vlad, Cruz, Michael Young, Chris Davis, Elvis Andrus...top to bottom every player can hit, most with power. The scary thing is their weakest bat, Chris Davis, has a STUD triple A player behind him in Justin Smoak ready to come up whenever he can get a chance.
I think this teams pitching loses them a lot of games this year, but I think they put up 85 wins, just enough for second place.
Mariners:
The Mariners were BUSY this off season...Figgins, Cliff Lee, Jack Wilson, Bradley
They definitely improved their pitching, drastically improved their defense but did basically nothing for their offensive woes.
Pitching:
One of the best one two combo's in all of baseball with king Felix and Cliff Lee taking the mound and one of the better bullpens in the AL West.
Ryan Rowland-Smith is an up and coming youngster who could add some major depth to their rotation and help them immensely in the long run.
Defense:
The best defense in the AL West.
Offense:
They are horrible, there's just no way around it. Their most potent hitter outside of Jose Lopez is an aging Ichiro Suzuki, then either Milton Bradley or Ken Griffey Jr...What THE fuck. Casey Kotchman is hitting 3rd in their lineup for god sakes. Good luck scoring 7 runs, ever. You can't win with two good hitters, you just can't.
These guys are so bad offensively I can't see them winning much more than 80 games. That being said, 35 of those wins will come straight from Felix and Cliff Lee. Good enough for 3rd in my book.
Athletics:
Off Season: Kevin Kouzmanoff, Ben Sheets
They are the dumb asses that signed Ben Sheets, for an UNHEARD of 10 million dollars, good signing Billy Beane, what the f are you smoking lately?
Pitching:
Young STUDS. Brett Anderson, Ben Sheets, Justin Dousche bag, Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Braden
All of them have MAJOR potential. Brett had his coming out party last year, Ben and Justin are both coming off of major surgery so that should be interesting. Gio has filthy stuff, but he's very inconsistent.
Basically their whole year is riding on their #2 and #3 staying healthy...not a good feeling if they are both coming off of Tommy John.
Defense:
They're pretty good...um, yeah nothin else.
Offense:
Well, they're better than Seatle...but that's obviously not saying much. Kurt Suzuki is a masher and Rajai Davis is a speedy stud, other than that they are just mediocre.
These guys are probably good for 70 wins because they're #2 and #3 are both not going to make it through the year unscathed. If they do, watch out...this team could Seattle Mariner their way into third place, but they aren't doing any better.
We're going to be doing breakdowns of every division from here on out so keep posted.
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