AL West Predictions

Who finishes where in the left coast's division of the DH league? Here are mine:

1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2. Oakland Athletics
3. Seattle Mariners
4. Texas Rangers

I'm having a funny feeling that the LAAAAA's are gonna fall apart this year with Lackey having a bad season, Escobar bouncing around on the DL and their other pitchers being pretty average.

Despite Bedard's awful Spring, I think he and Felix will make an excellent top of the rotation, and the M's bullpen is pretty dominant. They might not score much, but I think their pitching will hold the opponents down. Having a back end of the rotation of Silva, Washburn, etc... is pretty good depth. They rack up innings and are solid "no. 3's"

A's need a healthy season out of Harden. They won't get it, and Blanton isn't even sniffing an ace's jockstrap.

The Rangers..... the rangers the rangers the rangers the rangers. hmmmm......... pick one thing and do it badly. They picked all aspects of baseball and do it all badly.

1. Seattle 88-74
2. LAAAA 84-78
3. A's 76-86
4. TX 70-92

Seattle Mariners. They need a power DH though. Bonds makes too much sense.

Oakland A's. Billy Beane picked up a lot of young talent. Look for the A's to make a late season run.

Texas Rangers. They still have a lot of hitting. By the end of the season, we could see Saltamalacchia at 1B and Teagarden behind the plate (if rumors of arm problems aren't true).

Anaheim Angels. Their pitching was already in injury disaster mode, now Escobar is out for the season. They have no depth in the minors. They're going to be looking for a lot of pitching and will only find other teams excess available (hello Red Sox). Might be time to review how Scioscia uses his pitchers, way way too many quality arms coming up lame (hello, Colon).

You're really that high on the Mariners, FAB? I'm of the opinion that their 2007 run differential will turn out to be a better predictor of their 2008 performance than their 2007 W-L record will.

It's more a case of seeing the rest of the division fall around them. They are likely to be the lowest winning percentage playoff team in baseball. Beddard, King Felix and Putz should all be solid with no injury issues. The Angels are in deep trouble already, they have absolutely no depth in starting pitching and it's too late to get any without giving up the farm, something they've been reluctant to do. Vlad and Anderson aren't exactly the pictures of health either.

LA----------This will be a close race I like Scioscia over McClaren
Seattle----Good Starting Pitching may get em there
A's----------Scrappy Tough team will fall short
Texas------Like to see Gabbard and Murphy be successful here.

I bumped this because it didn't seem necessary to create a new thread -
Seattle just canned McLaren as manager.

New "interim" GM... new manager... worst record in MLB... is anyone else as afraid as I am of the Mariners making Bedard being available at the deadline?

Maybe the Phillies will get him! I would hope that the M's would rather have Bedard pitching in the NL......

The Phillies landing him would be a good thing. It's the idea of him coming back to the AL East that gives me nightmares.