1) Los Angeles Angels2007 Record: 94-68 (1st in AL West, lost in ALDS) Manager: Mike Scioscia (9th Season) New Additions: CF Torii Hunter, RHP John Garland Key Losses: RHP Bartolo Colon, RHP Greg Jones, RHP Chris Resop, IF Dallas McPherson, SS Orlando Cabrera, OF Tommy Murphy, OF Nick Gorneault Outlook: The Angels are the slight favorites in what should be a very tight, two-horse race atop the AL West. If nothing else, the Halos defense, baserunning, and reputation for fundamentals gives them the nod. Torii Hunter's addition to a lineup which has been offensively challenged in past years takes some of the pressure off superstar Vladimir Guerrero, Gary Matthews Jr, and Garret Anderson. The Angels have terrific pitching led by John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar. John Garland joins Jared Weaver and Joe Saunders to round out one of the top rotations in baseball. Francisco Rodriguez, Scot Shields, and Justin Speier make up one of baseball's best back end of a bullpen. The AL West race should go down to the wire, where eight head to head games between the Angels and Mariners in the last two weeks of the season will likely be the difference. The Angels have a bit more starting pitching, big game experience, and do the little things to win close ball games. 2) Seattle Mariners2007 Record: 88-74 (2nd place in AL West) Manager: John McLaren (1st Season) New Additions: LHP Erik Bedard, RHP Carlos Silva, IF Miguel Cairo, OF Brad Wilkerson Key Losses: OF Jose Guillen, OF Adam Jones, LHP George Sherrill, RHP Jeff Weaver, 1B-OF Ben Broussard Outlook: The additions of Erik Bedard and Carlos Silva to a weak rotation gives a Seattle a big shot in the arm to close the six game gap on the Angels from 2007. The Mariners were 10th in the AL a year ago with a 4.73 ERA, so adding the talented strikeout master Bedard to a team who plays in spacious Safeco Field will be a big help. The Mariners have some very hard throwers in their bullpen, led by J.J. Putz who emerged as one of the top relievers in the game last year. Seattle is a middle of the road offensive team, and will need veterans like Ichiro, Raul Ibanez, Richie Sexson, and Adrien Beltre to produce. The Bedard trade signals that Seattle is a win-now team, and this is their golden opportunity to take the division away from the deeper, bigger market Angels. I think they win in the low 90s and fall just short, by a game or two. 3) Texas Rangers2007 Record: 75-87 (4th in AL West) Manager: Ron Washington (2nd Season) New Additions: OF Milton Bradley, 1B-OF Ben Broussard, RHP Kazuo Fukumori, CF Josh Hamilton, RHP Jason Jennings, LHP Eddie Guardado, IF Edgardo Alfonzo Key Losses: DH Sammy Sosa, OF Brad Wilkerson, RHP Akinora Otsuka, RHP Edinson Volquez, IF-OF Jerry Hairston Jr. Outlook: Same old story for Texas, lots of offense and still not enough pitching. The bandbox in Arlington doesn't help matters either. The additions of Bradley, Hamilton, and Broussard as well as getting former All-Star game MVP Hank Blalock back from injury should help an offense that included Michael Young, Ian Kindsler, and superstar in the making Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Kevin Millwood hasn't lived up to his contract to this point (most Boras clients don't), but neither has Vicente Padilla. I do like the addition of Jason Jennings who when healthy is an innings eater who keeps the ball down in the strikezone, making him a good match for Arlington. Still, the back end of the rotation is a mess, and the bullpen is horrendous. Fukumori is one of the more intriguing signings in baseball and we'll see if he can help the Rangers in any way. After a terrible start last year, Texas accually played pretty solidly going 29-28 to finish out the last two months of 2007. They'll carry that into '08 reaching the .500 mark and leaproging Oakland out of last place, although the Rice University Owls could probably leapfrog the A's this year. 4) Oakland Athletics2007 Record: 76-86 (3rd in AL West) Manager: Bob Geren New Additions: OF Emil Brown, RHP Joey Devine, RHP Kirk Saarloos, OF Carlos Gonzales, LHP Gio Gonzalez, LHP Dana Eveland, OF Ryan Sweeney, LHP Brett Anderson Key Losses: RHP Dan Haren, 1B-OF Nick Swisher, OF Mark Kotsay, DH Mike Piazza, OF Shannon Stewart, IF Marco Scutaro, RHP Colby Lewis Outlook: The "Moneyball" Era is offically over in Oakland. Although the A's didn't have a dynasty like the Yankees did in the late '90s as they made just one ALCS during the era, having eight straight winning seasons with a bunch of playoff appearences off of Oakland's small payroll is quite impressive in itself. The A's traded/failed to re-sign all of their key veteran players with the exception of injury prone players Rich Harden, Eric Chavez, and Bobby Crosby. Oakland will be fortunate to break the 70 win mark, but A's fans should be confident in one of the best GMs in the game, Billy Beane. The A's recieved six talented young players from Arizona in the Haren trade, and other useful parts for Swisher and Kotsay. Beane understood that his team simply was not as good as the Angels and Mariners, and wisely waved the white towel and went into rebuilding mode. Oakland drafts well and will be competitive by 2010. |