Thought of the day: Who will the Yankees use in replace of Granderson in left filed for a month?
The AL West is a division that went down to the wire last season, with an unexpected winner. The division has two teams on the rise, a team on the decline, and two teams that will have awful seasons... again. My predictions below.
1) Los Angels Angles of Anaheim: Josh Hamilton is one of the best overall players in baseball. For the Angles to get him is a massive pickup from a disastrous end to the season last year. Sure they lost ace pitcher Zack Grienke to the cross town Dodgers, but by adding Hamilton in center field, the Angels most definitely have the scariest lineup in baseball. With Mike Trout at the top of the lineup and Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton, and Mark Trumbo at the heart of it, the Angels will hit A LOT of home runs and bail out the pitching throughout the season. Jared Weaver looks to continue his job as the ace of a decently talented starting rotation. He is my pick for the CY Young Award.
2) Oakland Athletics: This team was the most fun to watch last season. They swooped in and stole the AL West crown and "bernied" away. With an insanely low pay roll, manager Bob Melvin's team of young and incredibly talented pitchers dominated the last two months of the season and were legitimate contenders for the World Series. They will do the same exact thing this year with outfielders Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick leading the charge. I can see this tam taking over the Bay Area like Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco did in the 80's this year. This team will clam the first spot in the Wild Card.
3) Texas Rangers: Oh how the might will fall... Losing Josh Hamilton to Angels was the worst thing that the Rangers could have ever thought of happening. I didn't see it happening and neither did they. Thy had a horrible off season losing catcher Mike Napoli and reliever Mike Adams on top of Hamilton's departure. Don't get me wrong. This team still has an incredible defense behind Elvis Andrus at SS and Ian Kinsler at 2B but they do not have the power bat that they had in Hamilton. Hamilton led this team to two World Series in the last three years and to have him not in the lineup will affect this team so much that they will miss the playoffs but finish over .500.
4) Seattle Mariners: Signing Felix Hernandez to a 7 year, $175 million dollar extension was a huge step forward for the Mariners, as well as adding Mike Morse to left field. But still, they have a lack luster offense and no pitching support. This team is moving in the right direction but very slowly. Towards the end of Felix Hernandez's contract is when this team can maybe make some noise in their division. Adding pitching at the trade deadline should help this team be a lot better than they were last year.
5) Houston Astros: I feel bad for this team. They moved from the NL Central to the AL West this season and they will falter mightily. The Astros are in full rebuilding phase and it will take some time. Lucas Harrell is a very promising pitcher as well as second baseman Jose Altuve. This team will be really bad for at least five years. But not as bad as this year. The Astros will lose the most games in all of baseball, at least 105 games. I hate to say it because the team is so young and inexperienced but this team needs to get a veteran pitcher as well as a good veteran bat to help the young players.
Questions or comments?
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