Projections for Upcoming Baseball Season (AL West)

Last season in the AL West, it was a two team race to the finish. The other two teams in the division, had otherwise disappointing seasons while they tried to put pieces in place for the future.

Here are my projections for the AL East division in the MLB this year:

Los Angeles Angels: 1^ST IN AL West.

Reasons why: The Angels have a good rotation and a terrific offense. Getting Albert Pujols will make them a heavy favorite to win it all this year. Mike Scioscia is a terrific manager and will help keep this team together for the long run. They barely lost out to the Rangers in the division race last year, look for them to win it this year.

Texas Rangers: 2^ND IN AL West

Reasons why: The Rangers have majority of their core players that helped get them to the World Series coming back. I’d be a little worried about Josh Hamilton’s stint in rehab and how well he can recover. Also, I’m concerned that Joe Nathan may not be the same closer as he was last year for Minnesota. He blew a lot of saves and cost his team a lot of wins last year. I see them making the playoffs again, but if they run into the Tigers, the rematch probably will go the other way with the Tigers winning this time.

Oakland Athletics: 3^RD IN AL West

Reasons why: This is a young, talented, yet ineffective team. They have a lot of inexperienced players, and they don’t have a very deep rotation or bullpen. Manager Bob Melvin will have his hands full with this team as they battle the Mariners for the last seed in the division.

Seattle Mariners: 4^TH IN AL West

Reasons why: Last season was a huge mess. Players went through slumps,
injuries picked up, and the once great euphoria of winning, gave way to
frustrating losing streaks and a miserable last place finish. Ichiro Suzuki can
still hit, but I don’t think the Mariners will use him in the leadoff spot. The
one guy who I think will have a break-out year for them is Justin Smoak. He’s
got good power and instincts. They’ll battle the A’s for last place. Hopefully
they won’t finish with 100 losses or more this season.