Thank god, it is almost time to put on the jerseys, slip on the championship rings, and start defending a championship. I’ll get everyone started with a little preview of the upcoming season. I’ll go division by division, projecting the standings and briefly talking about each team.

Today, I’ll start with the AL West, and move East until Opening Night on Sunday.

This is easily going to be the worst division in baseball. The Angels won 100 games last year, even though they Pythagerom Therom record had them winning 84. I think it will be a dog fight between Oakland and the Angels, and I’m only giving the edge to Oakland because it looks like GM Billy Beane has a plan, and I will never bet against that man and his front office. However, if their very young pitching can’t step up, this division could be that much worse and we could see 3/4 teams under 75 wins.

Oakland Athletics

As I said previously, this team is going to be contingent on how good their young pitching goes. The rest of the team is made of the prototypical Beane team of OBP mashers and a very un-Beane move in 1 year of Matt Holliday.

Player To Watch: OF Matt Holliday

If Holliday is still an A after July 31, then this team is for real. If not, Beane will be rebuilding early.

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels are an old team, who are got older. They went out and got Bobby Abreu who is on the wrong side of 30, but at least fills the need of a high OBP guy. However, the Angels needed to replace Mark Teixeira and they failed miserably on that end. 

The pitching is solid, but very risky. SP’s John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Kelvim Escobar are all starting the season on the DL, and could all miss anywhere from a week to a month of the season. If they come back healthy and strong, it will be a big boost to their chances.

Player To Watch: 1B Kendry Morales

Morales will be called upon to be a big bat in this line up and he is coming off a down and injury laden season so expectations aren’t very high, but he could surprise and provide some much needed pop.

Seattle Mariners

This is a team that doesn’t have many terrible players, but not a lot of great ones either. They will win some more games than the Rangers due to their pitching, but do not expect much out of this team. Ichiro is another year older, and eventually he has to start nosediving sometime.

Player To Watch: SP Eric Bedard

Bedard is in his walk year, and he will be looking to flash the kind of heat and deception that he was throwing in Baltimore. He faltered last year, partly due to injury problems which could still be hindering him. If he can get back to his peak, he will fight Felix Hernandez to be the star, and maybe just maybe make his team competitive.

Texas Rangers

The Rangers are a study in diversification. They have a very solid line up in a hitter friendly park. Names like Hamilton, Kinsler, and rookie Chris Davis will strike fear in pitchers hearts. However, this may be one of the worst pitching staffs of the decade. We may see no long-term starter have a sub-4 ERA. Luckly, for Texas they have a nice stash of young arms in the minors that are very close to major league ready, and this is a team that could seriously compete just a year from now.

Player To Watch: OF Josh Hamilton

Will last season be a fluke or just a peak of what is to come from the most highly tauted talent of the decade. A regression is to be expected, but anything close to last season’s first half will be as breath taking as his Home Run Derby show.

COMING UP TOMORROW: NL WEST!