Skip to main content

AL West Preview

1.Oakland Athletics * Division Winners
Lineup:
C Jason Kendall
CF Mark Kotsay
RF Milton Bradley
3B Eric Chavez
C Bobby Crosby
1B Dan Johnson
DH Frank Thomas
2B Mark Ellis
LF Nick Swisher

Rotation:
LHP Barry Zito
RHP Rich Harden
RHP Estaban Loazia
RHP Danny Haren
RHP Joe Blanton
Closer: Houston Street

The Al West looks to be a very tough division with every team (besides the Angels) improving in the offseason. The A's look to have the deepest overall squad with a tremendously strong pitching staff. The A's need to get a full season out of Milton Bradley and Rich Harden, but this is the most talented A's team since the days of Giambi, Damon and Isringhousen.

2. Los Angeles Angels
Lineup:
3B Chone Figgins
SS Orlando Cabrera
RF Vlademir Guerrero
LF Garret Anderson
1B Casey Kotchman
CF Darrin Erstad
DH Juan Rivera/Dallas McCpherson
2B Adam Kennedy
C Jose Molina

Rotation:
RHP Bartolo Colon
RHP John Lackey
RHP Kelvim Escobar
RHP Jeff Weaver
RHP Ervin Santana
Closer: Francisco Rodriguiz

The Angels always have one of the best bully's in the league, but their offense has downgraded with the loss of Molina. Their rotation upgraded with the addition of Weaver, but they still lack a lefty. I am a little worried about their lack of power outside of Vlad, but they have a lot of playoff tested veterans and they should be in it all season.

3. Texas Rangers
Lineup:
DH David Dellucci
RF Brad Wilkerson
SS Michael Young
1B Mark Texiera
3B Hank Blalock
LF Kevin Mench
CF Gary Matthews Jr.
C Rod Barajas
2B Ian Kinsler

Rotation:
RHP Kevin Millwood
RHP Adam Eaton
RHP Vicente Padilla
RHP Juan Dominguez
LHP C.J. Wilson
Closer: Francisco Cordero

As always, the Rangers have a potent offense, but their starting pitching is what will need to carry them into the playoffs. It improved marginally this winter with the additions of Millwood, Padilla and Eaton, but they also lost their 2 top starters from last year in Kenny Rodgers and Chris Young.

4. Seattle Mariners
Lineup:
RF Ichiro Suzuki
CF Jeremy Reed
3B Adrian Beltre
1B Richie Sexson
LF Raul Ibanez
DH Carl Everett
C Kenji Johjima
2B Jose Lopez
SS Yuniski Betancourt

Rotation:
LHP Jamie Moyer
RHP Felix Hernandez
LHP Jarrod Washburn
RHP Joel Pineiro
RHP Gil Meche
Closer: Eddie Guardado

The Mariners are a very young team and still maybe a year or 2 away from being back in the running. Hernandez and Pineiro have the potential to lead the staff, but Pieneiro has been inconsistant during his young career. Their lineup looks pretty good, but they need more production from their middle infield.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Giants Still Need Infield Help

On Saturday, the Giants finalized a 2 year contract extension with Freddy Sanchez, who they acquired in July for Tim Alderson. The new deal for Sanchez will pay him 12 million over the next 2 seasons instead of 8.5 million for just 2010, which was his option for 2010. I've voiced my disappointment in Sanchez a few times here since the Giants dealt for him over the summer. He wasn't able to stay on the field full time to help this club with their run at the NL Wild Card, and even when he was in there, he didn't seem to make much of an impact in th e lineup. Now, I wasn't necessarily hoping the Giants would cut ties with Sanchez (they probably would have had to pay 4 million or so to buy him out), just didn't think he was worth upwards of 10 million dollars, and would have liked to see the Giants pursue someone like Orlando Hudson with that money. The Giants already have an infielder who's being paid about 3-4 times what his play over the last 2 seasons would indi...
201 comments
Read more

WORLD SERIES: Giants Move Up 2-0 on Texas

PreGame After taking game one in a surprising slug-fest , the Giants look to go up 2-0 on the Rangers in the World Series on Thursday night. The Giants are sending out Matt Cain, a guy who I'm sure every Giants' fan is pretty confident in. He'll be a opposed by C.J. Wilson, who's in his first year as a full-time starter, but has been brilliant in the role. He did struggle his last time out though, so hopefully the Giants can get to him early and get into his head a bit. I'm going to do something I've never done here on this unique occasion, and sort of do an in-game post. updating this post every time I feel I have something to add. So go Giants, and be sure to check back throughout the game, and after, to vent or whatever! As long as Matt Cain keeps rolling, and the Giants keep coming up with those clutch 2-out hits, we should be OK. Texas has that high-powered offense that can score in a hurry, as we saw last night, so the Giants cannot let down and have to t...
87 comments
Read more

Giants Notes: Lincecum Signs, Ross to Boston

Well, even though I touched on it a little bit in our last post, I haven't really had a chance to get my thoughts out on the new Lincecum deal since he and the Giants agreed earlier in the week. Also, on the other end of things, the Giants missed out on shoring up their outfield by letting Cody Ross sign in Boston for only $3 million in 2012. First off, obviously, wanted to talk a bit about Lincecum. I've already said here that I didn't expect him to sign a long-term deal that takes him through free agency, but it doesn't mean he wants to leave San Francisco like everyone is suspecting. I mean, if I were Lincecum, I'd probably do the same thing, even if I planned on eventually signing with the Giants long-term. Why take a chance at mitigating your value to just sign a deal? Granted, a 5 year, $100 million deal isn't anything to sneeze at, in this market, if he were a free agent, Lincecum could probably easily command a 8 year, $200 million deal. If he could get ...
119 comments
Read more