Steve's MLB Preview: AL West

Now its time to cover the Major Leagues, oops I mean the American League. The AL West doesn't get a whole lot of attention in this Yankees-Red Sox world. Hell, even the AL Central is gets some attention with the Tigers and Indians making some noise. One common thread between all 4 of these AL West teams is that they have pretty good pitching, and each team is better than most of the NL teams I've covered. On to the picks

1. Seattle Mariners - I think the Mariners proved last year that they can compete in this division, and they are far, far away from being a "small market" team. The Mariners were the 7th highest paid team in baseball in 2007, only spending $3 million less than the Angels. The Mariners lineup is solid from top to bottom, though I'm not sold on them using Jose Vidro as a DH. I'm surprised they didn't try to get another big bat to fill that spot. I'm only marginally impressed with the addition of Erik Bedard, but he joins an already solid pitching staff and could make a few wins difference. Yes, I mentioned solid twice, and solid is good enough to win this division.

2. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim - The Angels are going with a half youth movement for this season, with a very young infield and veterans Garrett Anderson, Vladimir Guerrero, and new addition Torii Hunter in the outfield. On paper, the pitching staff looks to be pretty good, but Jared Weaver can be very inconsistent and I don't like the trade for Jon Garland. I'm trying to think of a pitcher that Kenny Williams has traded away that didn't have some sort of severe injury the following year, or completely sucked. Remember Mike Sirotka? No? He was the ace of the 2000 playoff team, they traded him to Toronto for David Wells and he found out he was injured and never played again. Freddy Garcia is suddenly washed up too. Look for Garland to blow something out around May.


3. Texas Rangers - The Rangers have the look and feel of a 3rd place team. They will be hopelessly mediocre/below average as they have been pretty much the entire decade. Do you realize that this franchise started as the 2nd Washington Senators in 1961, so they've been around 47 years without winning a title? If you count never winning as a "drought," they are 4th behind the Cubs (1908), Indians (1948), and Giants (1954). Oh, and they have the completely insane Milton Bradley, but I understand his rage. Imagine if you had a twin brother, and your last name was Parker, and you went through school being called the Parker Brothers and always asked if you were following a Trivial Pursuit when studying for a test. Wouldn't that eventually lead to you going postal? And in that situation, you would at least have your brother to relate to, Milton is in this by himself. I think I've spent too much time on this....

4. Oakland Athletics - Is Billy Beane playing some money ball with us again with this year's team, or do they just suck? I'm leaning towards the latter. Who would have thought about 6 years ago when the Giants, A's, Raiders, and 49ers were all playoff teams that by 2007, they would all be bottom feeders and their only sports hopes would lie with the Golden State Warriors? It looks like the Sharks are doing pretty well too, but I live in a city whose minor league hockey team plays at the state fairgrounds, so its kind of hard to follow the NHL.