Ever since the Angels won the World Series in 2002 the American League West division has really been in a downward cycle. The high-profile and successful teams in the AL have all been in the East and Central (Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox, Tigers), and other than the A's making the ALCS last year, there hasn't been a really good team in the division in the last few years. Unfortunately for those Pacific Time Zone teams, I don't see that changing much this year. In my opinion, none of the four teams in the division has improved itself in the Hot Stove league, and I would hazard a guess that the division will be won by a team that wins less than 90 games. Betting odds on the World Series are now available at WagerWeb.com!
Here is a recap and brief analysis of each AL West team's offseason moves:
Los Angeles Angels: For the last couple of years, when people talked about the Angels, they talked about how many excellent young prospects they had coming up. Well, it appears the Angels don't trust many of them (2B Howie Kendrick being the exception) because their offseason moves have basically stalled the chances these prospects have of being major-league regulars. The two big signings for the Angels in the last two months have been CF Gary Matthews Jr., signed away from division rival Texas, and Shea Hillenbrand, who was signed to play 1B. The acquisition of Matthews is going to move Chone Figgins to 3B. At 1B, Casey Kotchman was supposed to become a Jeff Bagwell type, with a +.300 average and good power. Kotchman was out with a serious case of mononucleosis last year, and the signing of Hillenbrand means he'll have to basically start over in his quest to stardom. The strength of the Angels remains the starting pitching and the same group returns this year (Bartolo Colon, John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Jered Weaver, Kelvim Escobar), so if the offense can score enough runs, the Angels should be the favorites to win the division title.
Oakland A's: The A's had a very nice season in 2006, finally winning a playoff series and advancing to the ALCS, where they got swept by the Tigers. Unfortunately for the A's, I think they took a step backward in the offseason. I think the loss of SP Barry Zito to Bay area rival San Francisco, DH Frank Thomas to the Blue Jays, and underrated OF Jay Payton to the Orioles will be too much for them to overcome in 2007. The A's only big-name acquisition this year is Mike Piazza, who will basically fill the same role that Thomas did a year ago as the primary DH. Other than those moves, the A's have basically decided to stand pat and hope that some of their young players like 1B Nick Swisher, SS Bobby Crosby, and 3B Eric Chavez can stay healthy and produce career-best numbers. The starting pitching is led by Rich Harden, who could be a Cy Young winner if he could ever stay healthy. Dan Haren is an excellent No. 2 starter, but the rest of the staff is shaky (Joe Blanton, Esteban Loaiza, Kirk Saarloos). The loss of Zito is going to be felt, and I don't see the A's having the same kind of success they had a year ago.
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Seattle Mariners: To me, the Mariners are a team that has basically just been treading water for a couple of years now. You always hear about them being in the running to sign big-name free-agents, but they never seem to get them. The ones they do sign (3B Adrian Beltre, C Kenji Johjima, SP Jarrod Washburn) end up being just mediocre-level players for them, and other than the always great OF Ichiro Suzuki and young fireballer Felix Hernandez, I don't see anything that indicates the M's are going to challenge for the division crown. The M's did make quite a few moves in the offseason, but again I don't see those moves being anything other than just mediocre talent for mediocre talent. On offense, they picked up OF Jose Guillen and 2B Jose Vidro (who will be the DH) from the Nationals. Both players have issues, Guillen with his temper and Vidro with injuries. The Mariners do have some good young hitting prospects in Adam Jones and Wladimir Balentien, so I think they'd be better served by seeing what those kids can do as opposed to paying big bucks to veterans with issues. For the pitching staff, the Mariners picked up a handful of other teams' cast-offs. In what was widely viewed as the worst trade of the offseason, the M's gave RP Rafael Soriano to Atlanta for SP Horacio Ramirez, who could be one of the worst SP in the majors. Soriano did have some injury issues in 2006, but he is still viewed as a great prospect and could be a great closer for the Braves, as soon as this year. If they wanted to deal Soriano they could've gotten a much better player than Ramirez for him. The M's also signed RP Chris Reitsma from the Braves and Miguel Batista from the Diamondbacks. Batista should give them some decent innings, but he's no better than a 5th starter on most teams, and with Seattle he's the No. 3 guy. The M's lost two starters from last year, Gil Meche and Joel Pineiro, but as I said, adding Batista, Ramirez and Reitsma and losing those two is just a swap of blah for blah.
Texas Rangers: The busiest team in the AL West the last two months has been the Rangers. This is another team, though, that just doesn't seem to get it. As long as I can remember the problem the Rangers have always had has been their starting pitching. The team has always scored plenty of runs but always seemed to allow more than they scored. The team tried to address the problem by making a deal with the White Sox for young SP prospect Brandon McCarthy. McCarthy is an excellent prospect and will fit right into the No. 3 spot behind Kevin Millwood and the re-signed Vicente Padilla. McCarthy has done well as a reliever for the Sox the last two years and has nothing left to prove, as he has shown he can get major-league hitters out. The problem for the Rangers is that their No. 4 and No. 5 starters are horrible (John Koronka and Kameron Loe) and shouldn't be in any team's rotation. The team really should've addressed that because even its top guys aren't really No. 1 and No. 2 starters, they would be No. 3 or No. 4 starters on good teams. The Rangers did make one nice move, taking a gamble on oft-injured closer Eric Gagne, whom they signed away from the Dodgers. The signing of Gagne will allow last year's closer, Akinori Otsuka, to move back to the set-up role where he has always excelled. If Gagne can return to form, the Rangers should be able to hold most leads they get. On offense, the Rangers did lose a little bit of pop in OF Carlos Lee, whom they picked up in mid-season last year. They also lost Matthews to the Angels and super utility-man Mark DeRosa to the Cubs. Their replacements will be OF Frank Catalanotto and Kenny Lofton and possibly Sammy Sosa (as a DH). Lofton was a nice low-priced signing and will be a good lead-off man for the Rangers, as even at his advanced age he can still get on base and steal some as well. Catalanotto is an on-base machine and will be just fine in LF. As I said, runs scored is never a problem for this team, it's that the Rangers have always allowed more than they scored, and unfortunately I think that will continue to be the case this year.
