MLB Preview Special

American League West

Harder to pick than you’d think.

Winner: The Athletics. Wait. Hear me out. They’ve got pitching and hustle, without the hype, expectations (in spite of winning the division last year), and headcases. If the Angels falter, as I predict they will, look for the A’s to take advantage of it. These guys know how to win in the clutch. It took a peak-form Verlander shutting them down for the A’s to be knocked out last year.

The rest in no particular order.

Angels: One of the greatest baseball teams ever assembled (even though they’ll disappoint). The addition of Josh Hamilton to this lineup is like sending a lightning bolt into a transformer (it’ll blow out and not work for half the season). Albert Pujols is one the greatest players of his generation (who’ll get all of his numbers in when they don’t matter). Is there any player more complete than Mike Trout (whose sophomore slump is totally predictable)? Jered Weaver and and CJ Wilson one of the best one-two punches in starting pitching in the league (until Weaver come back down to earth, and CJ chokes in the clutch as usual). World Series or bust this year (they’ll have plenty of company in Los Angles in the “bust” category this year)! Could everything really go wrong for these guys this year, given all the talent on their team? Two words, “Miami Marlins.”

Mariners: Have graciously moved in their fences to help their division opponents hit more home runs. At least the stadium should stop being the designated no-hitter/perfect game ballpark. Hell, between this and San Diego’s stadium modifications, the MLB batting average may go up. Oh, and the team? Whatever.

Astros: Yeah. What am I supposed to say here? They may win some games late in the season, as other teams are playing a bunch of their minor league guys in the big leagues too.

Rangers: For a team that’s had some recent success, their inability to sign free agents is truly disturbing. Mike Adams, Mike Napoli (he did fail his physical initially with the Red Sox), Koji Uehara, Josh Hamilton (arguably run out of town for personally sabotaging the team last year), Ryan Dempster (no loss), Cliff Lee (no long term loss there either apparently), Prince Fielder, Zack Greinke (may have actually dodged a bullet there), and I’m probably leaving people out. You have to wonder what sort of reputation the team has developed that’s scaring or running them off. Or is it the Texas heat in the summer? I don’t know, and nobody’s talking. Heck, they may even be losing Nolan Ryan.

Assuming they can stay healthy, ironically their pitching should be pretty good this year, even though their Right Field has the dimensions of a Williamsport field. (I’m sure Josh Hamiliton’s home run numbers won’t suffer from not playing half his games in Arlington.) I think Pierzynski was a good pickup, and I look forward to seeing Profar in action. But, I don’t think these two will account for the power outage. The main good news is that they have what is considered to be one of the best farm systems in baseball. If they can’t sign free agents, they’ll need it.