AL West Preview

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Key Additions
The Angels' key addition was one to help fill their key loss, that being Fransisco Rodriguez. His replacement this season is Brian Fuentes. Fuentes will probably not get as many saves this year as K-Rod did last year, but he can be just as effective, as K-Rod's effectiveness was vastly overhyped and therefore is attainable. Fuentes just needs to save about 88-90% of his games to be about on par with K-Rod's performance last year as far as helping the Angels win the division.

Key Players

Joe Saunders-With John Lackey's injury that will keep him out through all of April, it is important that Joe Saunders steps up as the Angels' #1 starter. Saunders had a fine season last year, but has been doubted throughout the offseason. If he's able to silence the doubters and come up big early in the season, he can take a back seat to Lackey in Mid-May and cruise through the rest of the year.

Vladimir Guerrero- With Mark Teixeira leaving the Angels, it is very important for Vlad to pick up the slack and remain the hitter that he's been his entire career. This offseason it was revealed that Vlad is a year older than he claimed to be, which led a lot of people to doubt his ability to produce this year, but if the Angels want to maintain their stranglehold on this division he needs to come up big.

Player to Watch

Howie Kendrick- Kendrick has been described by many scouts as a future batting champion, and up to this point he has failed miserably to meet these expectations. He has shown signs of brilliance, but has thus far been mediocre. Look for a possible breakout year from Kedrick this season, as he's now had the maturity of several big league seasons.

Conclusion

There's really no reason to expect the Angels to relinquish their domination of this division, as there aren't any really legitimate challengers. Expect a relatively easy win for them in this division.

Oakland Athletics

Key Additions

By far the biggest addition for the A's has been Matt Holliday. Holliday is a beast of a hitter, and has been both at and away from Coors field. The A's badly needed a good middle of the lineup hitter, and rather uncharacteristically, went out and traded prospects for a big name superstar. Matt Holliday's performance in the first half of this season, as well as the A's performance as a whole, will decide whether he is shopped or not at the trade deadline.

Key Players

Matt Holliday- Already mentioned, Holliday is the A's big middle of the lineup hitter. He needs to produce quite a bit in order for the A's to challenge the Angels in this division, although he will have some help from Jason Giambi. Holliday's performance will largely decide whether he remains in Oakland all season.

Jason Giambi- The A's other big addition, Giambi will play a big part in their offense this season. After a couple of mediocre seasons, Giambi returned to old form somewhat last season, belting 32 HR and 96 RBI. If he can reproduce these numbers in the weak A's lineup, they will be able to compete, as their pitching, while very young, is certainly solid.

Player to Watch

Brett Anderson- Anderson is consistently ranked as a top 5 pitching prospect, and he will be able to prove or disprove this analysis early this season, as he is scheduled to be in their starting rotation from day 1. He was scheduled to start tonight, but the game has been postponed due to the dead of Nick Adenhart. Anderson has the potential to be this year's Tim Lincecum-esque pitcher, as his potential has been generally accepted to be limitless.

Conclusion

With good young pitching and a much improved lineup, the A's may be able to compete this season, but they will certainly be competing for years to come if their pitchers are able to develop effectively into the future aces that many of them are projected to be.

Texas Rangers

Key Additions

The Rangers only addition of note was Omar Vizquel, who is literally double the age of their other shortstop, Elvis Andrus.

Key Players

Josh Hamilton- No story is as good as the story of Josh Hamilton. I'm sure you've all heard it 800 times, so I won't bother telling it, but in any case, the bottom line is that Hamilton needs to produce in the middle of this lineup if the Rangers want a snowball's chance in hell of winning this division. Hamilton's season last year was beastly, but he really started to shut it down come September. Hamilton needs to produce all season this year to give the Rangers a chance.

Kevin Millwood- Millwood is the Rangers "ace", if there is such a thing in that ballpark. Millwood needs to work on his consistency, as well as his ability to pitch, in order to stabilize this rotation that deals with the massive handicap of pitching in a little league ballpark. If their #1 starter can go pitch a quality start 75-80% of the time, it gives the rest of the rotation, as well as the bullpen, a chance to lessen their load quite a bit.

Player to Watch

Elvis Andrus- Andrus came over in the Mark Teixeira Braves trade, and the Rangers have moved Michael Young from SS to 3B to make room for the 20 year old SS. Andrus has started the season off well, and is said to certainly be the SS of the future for the Rangers. He will undoubtedly learn an incredible amount from Omar Vizquel, who has been playing SS since shortly before the Vietnam War. Andrus may very well have a breakout season this year and possibly win AL ROY.

Conclusion

The Rangers, simply put, need to score 8 runs a game to stand a chance in this division. Their pitching is terrible, and is made even worse by their ballpark, and until they start to play their games in a legitimate park, they will have a very hard time developing anything that resembles a pitching staff.

Seattle Mariners

Key Additions

The biggest addition for the Mariners was Ken Griffey Jr., who at this point of his career should not be terribly effective. The Mariners also lack much in terms of outfield prospects that can learn from Griffey, so its safe to say that his signing was mainly just to let the old man ride out into the sunset at the same place that he exploded onto the national scene two decades ago.

Key Players

Felix Hernandez- My pick for the AL Cy Young Award, King Felix needs to dominate at the top of this rotation. If Felix is able to pitch to his potential, and Erik Bedard is able to avoid any freak accidents, the Mariners may be able to compete for this division. It all starts with Felix' ability to remain consistent. He tends to be rather streaky, shutting out opponents for several starts then getting shelled or injured, so he just needs to be more of a consistent #1 starter if they want to compete.

Erik Bedard- The Mariners don't have any legitimate hitters not named Ichiro, so their 2nd key player is their #2 starter. If Bedard remains healthy this entire season, he will probably be one of the top #2 starters in baseball. He was able to dominate consistently in 2007, with a 3.17 ERA in 182 innings, and last year he was effective when he did pitch, with a 3.67. If he can put together a 200+ inning season, the Mariners will have an excellent 1-2 punch at the top of their rotation.

Player to Watch

There is honestly not a single young player of any merit on this team. I guess Mike Tuiasosopo has some potential, but the Mariners are just horrendous as far as having any young players that aren't named Felix Hernandez, who many forget is only 23. I guess watch Felix Hernandez as often as possible.

Conclusion

This team needs a miracle to compete for the division. If Felix and Erik Bedard both win 20 games, and Jarrod Washburn is a solid #3, then the rest may work itself out and this team should win 80-85 games. But that's certainly asking an incredible amount from 3 pitchers, 1 of which is very young, 1 of which is very injury prone, and one of which isn't very good. If those 3 all pitch well they might compete, but don't expect anything out of this dying franchise.