Despite only having four teams in the division the American League West is the most unpredictable division in all of baseball. Its always hard to peg who will have the best team because the Oakland A's usually win with younger talent, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim has older talent, The Texas Rangers usually are not very good even though they went to the World Series last year, and the Seattle Mariners are as bi-polar as a team can get when one year they will have the best record in baseball then the next year they will have the worst. So here is my attempt to predict who will win the AL West:
1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim- The AL West has not had a real dominate team since the 2002 Mariners and has been pretty week but this year the Angels could be the most dominate team to come out of the division since then. The pitching has a solid one two three starters in Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, and Ervin Santana but Joel Pinerio and Scott Kazmir do not intimate anyone. Joel and Scott are good starters and will most likely win ten to twelve games but I predict they will have more loses than wins. They have a solid closer in Fernando Rodney and Scott Downs has been a good middle reliever for a lot of years. The bats got a little better with the subtraction of Hideki Matsui and the addition of Vernon Wells. Dont forget about Torii Hunter either has he can hit the homer or gap a double anytime at the plate. If first baseman Kendry Morales can continue to improve and hit for average then the hitting should be top five in the AL and Bob Abreu as a designated hitter is not too shabby to have either.
2. Texas Rangers- The defending AL Champions check in at number two mainly for one reason, the loss of Cliff Lee. The Rangers just do not have the front line pitcher of a Lee they can count on to produce quality start after start. C.J. Wilson is their best starter pitcher but would be a number two on most teams but the key will be Tommy Hunter and if he can improve from last season and continue to throw the ball with confidence then he should see a huge jump in his win total. If baseball was just about hitting then the Rangers would win the AL Championship every year. They have great bats even with Vladimir Guerrero gone. Nelson Cruz, Michael Young, Adrian Beltre, and Josh Hamilton is about as good as it can get for a one through four can get. The player to watch out for is Ian Kinsler. If he is able to consistently hit for power and average then the Rangers should find themselves in the thick of things for the wild card and the division.
3. Oakland Athletics- This team uses its farm system just about as good as anyone in the Majors. The only problem is are the young guns talented and ready for the big time. Dallas Braden threw a perfect game last year on mothers day and quickly became a household name but the other starters Trevor Cahill and Brett Anderson need to improve greatly if they want to contend for a wild card spot. The hitting use to be horrible but has gotten better with Josh Willingham, CoCo Crisp, and David DeJesus. The big addition in the offseason was Hideki Matsui as the designated hitter. He might be getting older but he still has an above average bat. The player to watch out for is second baseman Mark Ellis. He posted a .291 average last year but had a dip in homeruns and RBI's, if the Atheletics want to improve and have a chance Ellis needs to keep his average and up his homers and RBI's.
4. Seattle Mariners- The Mariners have not been very good as of late and its not because they do not have star power. They have arguably the best pitcher in Felix Hernandez and the best hitter Ichiro Suzuki. Pitching is their biggest weakness because behind Hernandez the Mariners do not have a proven starter or closer. They have a great up and comer at first base in Jeff Smoak but he still is a couple of years away from being the elite player he can be. They still have good bats in Chone Figgins and Michael Bradley but Figgins is not a homer threat but when he gets on base he might as well just start at second since he is going to steal it any ways. Michael Bradley has been an off and on hitter in his career and when he is on he is about as hard to get our as anyone but when he is off he is not someone you want around your ball club. The player to watch is the closer Brandon League. If he has less than five blown saves this year expect the Mariners to win around seventy games but even that might be stretching it.
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