American League Western Division 2010

Seattle made a ton of noise in the off season picking up Chone Figgins, Ryan Garko, Cliff Lee, Casey Kotchman, Milton Bradleyand Jack Wilson while losing just Adrian Beltre. If that does not fix your issues, what will? Look for Seattle be right there the whole season.

 

1. Texas Rangers

2. Seattle Mariners

3. LA Angels

4. Oakland A’s

 

First: Texas:

 

The Rangers seemed to storm out the gate for the last few years only to welter down the stretch but we see some signs of real improvement with the addition of Vlad Guerrero, pitchers Darren Oliver and Rich Harden. Texas has enough of talent on offense to return to its normal place among the league leaders. The Rangers rotation is so talented and deep entering 2010 they are in the hunt for the American League West title or a wild card berth.

 

PROJECTED ROTATION:

1. RHP Rich Harden

2. RHP Scott Feldman

3. RHP Colby Lewis

4. LHP Derek Holland

5. LHP Matt Harrison or RHP Brandon McCarthy

 

PROJECTED LINEUP:

1. CF Julio Borbon

2. 3B Michael Young

3. LF Josh Hamilton

4. DH Vladimir Guerrero

5. 2B Ian Kinsler

6. 1B Chris Davis

7. RF Nelson Cruz

8. C Jarrod Saltalamacchia

9. SS Elvis Andrus

 

Second: Seattle:

Overall, the Mariners did the most in the off season and are far better than last season with the addition of 3B Chone Figgins (signed as free agent from Angels), LHP Cliff Lee trade with Phillies), LF Milton Bradley (trade with Cubs), 1B Casey Kotchman (trade with Red Sox), RHP Brandon League (trade with Blue Jays), 1B Ryan Garko (free agent from Giants).

PROJECTED ROTATION:

1. LHP Cliff Lee

2. RHP Felix Hernandez

3. LHP Ryan Rowland-Smith

4. RHP Ian Snell

5. LHP Jason Vargas or Doug Fister

 

PROJECTED LINEUP:

1. RF Ichiro Suzuki

2. 2B Chone Figgins

3. LF Milton Bradley

4. 3B Jose Lopez

5. DH Ken Griffey Jr.

6. 1B Casey Kotchman

7. CF Franklin Gutierrez

8. C Rob Johnson

9. SS Jack Wilson

Third: Los Angeles:

The Los Angeles Angels lost in the off-season losing Figgins, Vlad, Escobar, and John Lackey. We cannot count out the Angels but the rest of the division did a lot to catch up to them.

 

PROJECTED ROTATION:

1. RHP Jered Weaver

2. RHP Ervin Santana

3. LHP Joe Saunders

4. LHP Scott Kazmir

5. RHP Joel Pineiro

 

PROJECTED LINEUP:

1. SS Erick Aybar

2. RF Bobby Abreu

3. 1B Kendry Morales

4. CF Torii Hunter

5. DH Hideki Matsui

6. LF Juan Rivera

7. 2B Howie Kendrick

8. 3B Brandon Wood

9. C Mike Napoli/Jeff Mathis

 

Fourth: Oakland:

The Oakland Athletics have not had any power hitting in forever and have played small ball with speed and defense. What happened this year? More defense and more small ball with Aaron Miles, Jake Fox and Coco Crisp.

PROJECTED ROTATION:

1. RHP Ben Sheets

2. RHP Justin Duchscherer

3. LHP Dallas Braden

4. LHP Brett Anderson

5. RHP Trevor Cahill

 

PROJECTED LINEUP:

1. LF Rajai Davis

2. CF Coco Crisp

3. C Kurt Suzuki

4. DH Jack Cust

5. 3B Kevin Kouzamanoff

6. RF Ryan Sweeney

7. 2B Mark Ellis

8. 1B Daric Barton

9. SS Cliff Pennington