Ok we are now mere days away from the start of the MLB season start in Tokyo, Japan where the Boston Red Sox will face off against the Oakland A's in the highly publicised opening series. We will return to that series in a later post but now we set our sights on the AL West.
2007 Final Standings:
Name: W-L GB
Los Angles Angles of Anhiem 94-68 ---
Seatle Mariners 88-74 6.0
Oakland A's 76-86 18.0
Texas Rangers 75-87 19.0
Offseason moves by team
Angels: The biggest signing was without a doubt Torii Hunter. Hunter brings incredible defence and a above average bat to LA. He has in previous seasons shown his power potentiel. The only real concern with Hunter is that he is Injury prone but after he missed only two games in 2007 he should be ready to go. In the pitching department the Angles accuired Jon Garland from the White Sox for shortstop Orlando Cabrera. Garland isn't a top of the rotation guy but he should be able to eat up around 200 innings.
Mariners: The big new guy in Seatle is pitcher Eric Bedard. Bedard is comming off a 13-5 3.16 season in Baltimore and should provide a good young boost to the Mariners rotation that also includes "king" Felix Hernandez. Also accuried to the rotation but under little less fan fare than Bedard is Carlos Silva. He will provide good solid inning eating but nothing spectacular. The loss of Jose Guillien to the Royals was adressed with the signing of Brad Wilkerson.
A's: The A's we saw last season is no more. The "moneyball" era of Billy Beane is offcially over. Gone is Mark Kotsay, Nick Swisher and Dan Haren and the list just goes on forever. The replacements are ventren guys that are on thier back end of thier carrer such guys as Mike Sweeny and Emil Brown. Of course both very capable guys but let's face it they played in Kansas City not exactly the baseball town of America.
Rangers: If the A's lost a lot of players the Rangers gaiend a lot of players although the quality of them is sketchy. No doubt that Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton have great qualities but the antics of Bradley that will hunt him this season will be a problem and also with the only pitching help accuried being Jason Jennings it will be another tough season for the ragners fans.
2008 prediction
Los Angles Angles of Anahiem
Seatle Mariners
Oakland A's
Texas Rangers.
The Mariners will be the only serious challenge to the Angles. if Ichiro turns in another great season and the pitching works out then it will be a close race all the way to September but ultimtly the Angles will prevail.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment