AL West Preview

Yes, with the unusually warm winter and spring that we've had in the northeastern United States, you'd have thought that baseball season never left. But, it has left us ever since the epic World Series back in October where the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th World Series title in franchise history over the back to back American League champion Texas Rangers, which come from this very division. Plus, this division had some of the biggest news over the offseason. The biggest news concerning a specific team was of course that the player every team coveted, Albert Pujols chose to bolt St. Louis for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Plus, the biggest free agent pitcher on the market, C.J. Wilson also chose to go to the Angels rather than re-sign with his former team, the Texas Rangers. But, there was other news concerning the entire division, and quite frankly, all of baseball. That news being that the Houston Astros will be moving from the National League Central to the American League West, setting up for the first time since 1993, symmetry in each league with 15 teams in each league and interleague play throughout the entire season. But, that comes in 2013, in 2012, there are four teams in this division. And, this division is divided in half, with the haves and have not teams. The have teams are the Rangers and Angels, the have not teams are the Mariners and Athletics. Now, on to the picks. As always, these will come in reverse order, from the worst to the first place finishers.

Oakland Athletics

This team gutted itself over the offseason, trading away their biggest name players, all pitchers. Those being: Gio Gonzalez to the Nationals, Trevor Cahill to the Diamondbacks, and Andrew Bailey to the Red Sox. But, they also went out and resigned their center fielder, Coco Crisp to an extension which didn't make much sense. As Crisp is getting older, his offensive production is no longer up to par with the upper half of Center Fielders throughout the league. Oakland also landed the biggest international free agent in Yoenis Cespedes, a Cuban defector who projects to be one of the top outfielders in all of baseball. Plus, Oakland is praying they can get a fraction of what Manny Ramirez was in 2008 after his 50 game suspension. So, Oakland has a few big players, otherwise, they're relying on a bunch of rookies to help them, but they're in a continuous rebuilding state untii they get a new stadium.

Seattle Mariners

Seattle has plenty of talent, however all of it is very young and fairly unproven. They've got two star players they will rely on heavily, those being Felix Hernandez and Ichiro. Hernandez, the 2010 y Young award winner in the American League, is the leader of a bunch of good arms which include: Jason Vargas, Blake Beavar, and Hector Noesi. Seattle also has a pretty good closer in Brandon League, who was an all-star last season. The biggest problem with Seattle is their offense. They scored a league low 556 runs last season. So, that's why they traded a very good pitching commodity in Michael Pineda to the Yankees for star catcher/designated hitter Jesus Montero. Montero will help complement a young offense which includes a pretty good second baseman in Dustin Ackley, Ichiro, and Justin Smoak will hopefully come around. Luckily for Seattle fans, they've still got a glut of prospects who are looking pretty good and hope to make this team pretty good in a few seasons.

Texas Rangers

This is a toss up between who is first and who is second in this division. Between the team who is the back to back defending American League champs as well as the team who won the free agent lottery this winter. So, I just will have it be like this for now. Texas has an incredibly stacked lineup from 1-9, as each hitter is so good, it's crazy. They've got speed in Craig Gentry in center and Elvis Andrus at shortstop. Then pure power guys in Mike Napoli and Adrian Beltre. Then a combo of speed and power in Josh Hamilton and Ian Kinsler.  There is not an easy out with any of these hitters. The biggest question mark for the Rangers is going to be their pitching. Granted, they've got some good pitchers in Derek Holland, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis. But, there are questions in Yu Darvish, the man brought in to replace C.J. Wilson as the ace of the staff. How will Darvish react to Major League hitters and such? Also, how will Neftali Feliz adjust from being a closer to starter? Will he fatigue towards the end of the season? Finally, the closer position is up in the air as Joe Nathan, former closer of the Twins has had some health issues in the past with his shoulder and then with his control this spring, hasn't looked like the Nathan from circa 2009, which is a concern.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Angels finished 10 games behind the Rangers last season, and that was without Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson, their prized free agents. And, with Wilson and Pujols, their WAR, or Wins Above Replacement, a metric used to determine how many wins these players would bring in over someone who is average would be  what determines WAR. Wilson's WAR was a 5.9, or roughly six wins more according to fangraphs.com. Then, Pujols' WAR was a 5.1, or roughly five wins more. So, if you just add those two players in, the Angels would have won the AL West last season by one game. The Angels also have a great mix of older and younger players who are fantastic in Peter Bourjos, Mike Trout, Kendrys Morales if he;s ever healthy again, Howie Kendrick, and Jered Weaver. The older players include Pujols, Bobby Abreu, who even at age 38 can still produce. So, the Angels have a pretty good thing going in Anaheim and will be contenders for a while especially with their new television deal they signed with Fox Sports, who are paying them $3,000,000,000 for the next 20 years.  And, yes, that is 3 Billion dollars. So, the Angels are going to be rich for a while.

Throughout the week: previews for other divisions and a final four preview!