The Angels were baseball’s only 100-game winner in 2008, and have won this division in back-to-back seasons. Last year, they won for fun, partly because they were good and partly because the rest of the division was not very good. They won the division by 21 games in ‘08, being the only team in the division to finish over .500. This year, they may be the best team in the division again, but there will be some competition for the title.

Oakland is always ready with the next great free agent pitcher, but this year we won’t know who it is for a few months. But eventually, one of their young arms will show he is a stud and the A’s could find themselves in the hunt for the division in the second half of the year.

Seattle packs a wicked 1-2 punch on the mound, but lacks the depth and bats to really put a winning season together, while Texas has all the hitting a team could ask for, but no sign of a pulse in their starting rotation. Hint: When Kris Benson is your number three starter before the season starts, you could be in trouble.

Previews in order of 2008 finish.

Los Anaheim Angels

This offseason, the Angels picked up Bobby Abreu to play left field, joining Torii Hunter in center and Vladimir Guerrero in right to give them one of the best hitting outfields in the game. Otherwise, not a whole lot of changes were made to the position players for this year. With any luck, Mike Napoli can stay healthy and get more than 227 at-bats, and if he does, this team will take a solid step forward from last year’s already solid offense.

Pitching is what got the Angels to 100 wins last year. But 2008 will start with two of their top starters on the shelf with injuries. John Lackey and Ervin Santana will probably each miss the first month of the season, leaving only Jered Weaver and Joe Saunders as your experienced pitchers on the staff. This will be a young crew until the big boys can get back, so don’t be surprised to see the Angels off to a slow start this year. Having one bad-to-average month for the Angels could make this division a whole lot tighter than it was in 2008.

You also can’t ignore that they lost one of the best closers in baseball coming off of an amazing season. Never underestimate the power of a worse bullpen. No K-Rod could hurt more than they anticipated.

Texas Rangers

Simple equation: lots of runs + no pitching = no playoffs. Don’t expect a change in that formula this year. The only thing that stays consistent with this team is that you can make money playing the ‘over’ in all of their games. The Rangers led the league in both runs scored and runs allowed last year, each by a comfortable margin. In the hitter’s ballpark that they play in and with the below-average pitchers that they employ, that’s not going to change.

The Rangers return Vincente Padilla and Kevin Millwood as their 1-2 jab at the top of the rotation, with their 4.74 and 5.07 ERAs, respectfully. Kris Benson is their number three starter. Let me repeat that: Kris Benson is their number three starter. Here’s an average pitcher with shoulder problems and hasn’t thrown in a big league game since 2006, and he won the number three starters job. That’s all you need to know about the depth and quality of the Rangers starting pitching.

The lineup is as good as it gets — at least for where they play. Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler and Michael Young anchor a lineup that will certainly miss Milton Bradley. But as they’ve shown in the past, this team can produce runs even when you take a great player out of the lineup. Big things are expected from 23-year old Chris Davis, so don’t be surprised to hear his name a lot this year.

The Rangers will probably stick to the same formula this year: hit well, pitch bad, no October. But as always, they’ll be fun to watch get there.

Oakland A’a

Your new-look Oakland A’s have revamped their lineup this year, adding some scary bats to the lineup. They added Matt Holliday, one of baseball’s most dynamic young hitters and they brought back Jason Giambi, who can still get on base and hit the long ball. They have a giant question mark in the healthy (for now) Eric Chavez, and the human strikeout machine, Jack Cust, who will still be able to hit for power.

Pitching has been one of the strengths of the A’s in the past, and this year isn’t supposed to be any different. Justin Duchscherer was set to be the ace of the staff, but surgery a week before the season starts has ruled him out for the first month of the season and perhaps much longer. That means that 25-year old Dana Eveland is your new ace. The entire staff is 25 or younger, so we really don’t know what to expect here. The A’s have had tremendous success with young pitchers in the past, so I’ll give Billy Beane and Co. the benefit of the doubt. Who am I to say that one of the young pitchers in this rotation is not the next Zito, Harden, Haren, Hudson or Mulder. There’s a track record with this team that I will not question or criticize. Somewhere in this rotation is a great young pitcher, we’ll just have to wait to find out who.

If Oakland gets Duchscherer back by May, and Giambi and Holliday provide what they are expected to, this team could take a solid step forward. With back-to-back seasons of playing sub-.500 ball, don’t be surprised to see the A’s back over .500 and in the hunt for the division this year. In the past, they’ve made tremendous gains after the All-Star break. If they can keep the wheels on until the middle of the season, there’s a chance they come flying late.

Seattle Mariners

The big question for me about the Mariners is just what are you getting from the top half of the starting rotation. Felix Hernandez and Eric Bedard, on paper, could be the best 1-2 punch in the game. But they are not. After an amazing 2007, Bedard played injured for part of 2008 and ended up with just 15 starts. Hernandez is just 23 and only getting better, but we keep waiting for that one breakout season. Unless these two can make 28+ starts each and both have an ERA under 3.50, this could be a long season for the M’s.

Seattle won just 61 games last year, in part because they had the third worst run differential in the game, getting outscored by 140 runs. That’s a sign that you have a lot of fixing to do. But for the most part, the Mariners are running it back with the same team. They added Endy Chavez, but I wouldn’t wish that on a softball team. Chavez does add to their already loaded defensive situation in the outfield, but he is a .270 hitter with absolutely no power. This team could struggle to score runs again. Ichiro is always dependable to put up solid numbers, but he’ll start the season on the DL. By the time he returns, the Mariners’ hopes for reaching the playoffs might already be over. Ken Griffey, Jr. returns to Seattle to be the DH, and can’t hurt, but at this point, I’d be surprised to see him end up being the missing piece of the puzzle.

There is hope to improve from the 61 wins they had a year ago, since I think a healthy Bedard alone can improve that number. The playoffs is very much a longshot, but getting to the 75-80 win mark is a realistic goal. Finishing the season over .500 would be a great year.

Prediction

I think this division is going to be ugly all around. The Angels will likely win the division by default, since they have room to come down and others have to rise up. I don’t know that those two things have passed each other yet, so they will likely remain on top. The A’s, with some great pitching from their young guys could make this a race at the end of the year, but I’d be very surprised to see Seattle or Texas make a run at this division this year.

Los Anaheim Angels, 87-75
Oakland A’s, 83-79
Seattle Mariners, 74-88
Texas Rangers, 68-94

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