FanNation - The Republic of Sport

The title says it all . . .

1. Seattle Mariners - 93-69

The Seattle Mariners were a surprise last season, owning a record of 88-74 and staying close in the Wild Card race for the majority of the season.  This year, they will be even better.  During the off-season, Seattle traded top prospect Adam Jones for SP Erik Bedard.  This durastically improves their weak spot that may of left them out of the playoffs last year; starting pitching.  Last year, they didn't have anyone above average in the rotation who ws not named Felix Hernandez.  Hernandez (3.92 ERA) and Bedard (3.16 ERA) will have to carry the load because I doubt that either newly aquired Carlos Silva (unconsistent) or veteran Miguel Bautista (too old) can do it.  Their bullpen is also a bit shakey and didn't address it in any way possible in the off-season.  They still have J.J. Putz (40 saves) but no bullpen to take some pressure of him.

The Mariner's free-swinging offense is a good one.  They have Ichiro Suzuki (.351) who fought for the AL Batting Title last year and the belting Adrian Beltre (26 homeruns) just to name a few but the offense does have it's weak spots too.  An example here would be Richie Sexson who hit a lowly .205 last year or Raul Ibanez and Jose Vidro, who are all 33 years or older and a re losing some of their stuff that combined for an average of over .300 and 27 homeruns.  Invest in the youth . . . soon . . .

??? - Seattle needs to fix up some parts of their offense, a big one would be 1B where Sexson dwells right now.  I would suggest trading Kenji Johjima, who is in the final year of a contract, to a contending team who needs a catcher, such as the Washington Nationals and try to get Dmitri Young, who hit .320 last year.  Prospect Jeff Clement could then play catcher.

2. Los Angeles Angels - 92-70

The Los Angeles Angels didn't have any power and they made that clear when they traded for Torii Hunter who smashed 28 bombs last year.  And now - they still don't have much power.  Vladimer Guerreo saw a big drop in homeruns in 2007, only hitting 27.  The Angel's fifth best homerun hitter is Maicer Izturis, who just hit 6 last year.  They do have some speed and some hitting though.  Seven out of the nine guys on their lineup hit over .285 last year and three of them hit over .320.  They also take pride in their three players with at least 18 swipes apiece, featuring Chone Figgins who led the team with 41.  It wouldn't be crazy to call Los Angeles's lineup one of the best in the league, their 9th hitter hit .289 last year but it would be pretty crazy to say that their pitching rotation is even in the Top 10 in the league, let alone Top 20.

Los Angeles did add Jon Garland to their rotation in the off-season, a pitcher who is average and had a 4.23 ERA last year.  Not good.  He will be their second starter until Kelvim Escobar (3.40 ERA) and John Lackey (3.01 ERA) come back but there is a big question behind this.  Will they ever be back permanently?  Both of these players have suffered their shares of injuries and that will leave unproven Jered Weaver to hold out and be the staff ace for a little while and this will make trade bait Ervin Santana pitch in a Los Angeles jersey a little longer.  Their bullpen is solid, at least, with Scot Sheilds pitching mostly in the 7th and 8th innings and Francisco Rodriguez closing things out.

??? - Why is Gary Matthews still playing in an Angels uniform?  They need to trade him to clear some of their crowded outfield.  Try trading Matthews for starting pitching and let veteran Juan Rivera and youngster Reggie Willits battle it out for the leftfield spot.

3. Texas Rangers - 78-84

The Texas Rangers probably had one of the biggest off-seasons off anybody in the league and yet, it went pretty much unnoticed.  First: the offense.  Texas managed to capture slugging CF Josh Hamilton from the Cincinatti Reds.  Hamilton hit 19 homeruns in 298 at-bats last year and could hit as many as 40 this season if last year was for real, and I think it was.  Ben Broussard, who hit .275 last year for the Seattle Mariners, was a quality pick-up as well as was Kevin Mench, a good back-up infielder.  One of my favorite pick-ups in the off-season for the Rangers that got almost completely no attention was the signing of Milton Bradley.  Bradley hit .303 and 13 homers in 209 at-bats last year and was on pace to hit around 40 if it were not for the leg injury that cost him the rest of the season.  Hank Blalock, Michael Young and Ian Kinsler are all good players who should help Texas's climb upwards.

Now the pitching.  To put a long story short: Their pitching absolutely sucks.  Kevin Millwood, the team's number one starter, had a whopping 5.16 ERA last year, and this shouldn't be too hard to figure out, but he is the only opening day starter with an ERA of over five.  Their next three pitchers: Vincente Padilla, Jason Jennings and Kason Gabbard, aren't too good either, with ERA's of 5.76, 6.45 and 4.65 respectivly.  The only bright spot is newly aquired Luis Mendoza, who had a 2.25 ERA in a few games last year, but is that a fluke?  I wouldn't count on it not being a fluke . . . bad wording, I think its a fluke.

??? - The Rangers need pitching and they are going to need to give up something for pitching - in most cases.  What they should do is sign Roger Clemens in Free Agency who would probably be happy to come back.  Clemens is getting older but he is still better than what the Rangers have.

4. Oakland Athletics - 70-92

The Oakland Athletics, who have usually always had strong teams, are falling apart . . . and they will have a very embarrasing season.  The Athletics traded their best pitcher who is not perenially injured . . .

coughcoughRichHardencoughcough

. . . in Dan Haren, who had a 3.07 ERA last year.  This isn't a huge loss, the A's still have an average pitching staff, but I don't see how this helped them at all.  They didn't get great prospects in return so they will have to see how far veterans Harden and Joe Blanton can carry them.  Not far, I am guessing.  Harden, like I said, always gets injured.  If he didn't get injured all of the time, he might even be a future Hall of Famer but the problem is he always does get injured.  Harden practically swore that he wouldn't get injured again before the 2007 season and look what happened: injury.  It will be up to Joe Blanton and he has never been more than a slightly above average pitcher.  At least their rotation is deep of average pitchers, no major weak spots.

Oakland's offense is one of the worst in the league, not one everyday player in their lineup this year had an average of over .290.  Terrible, just terrible.  Eric Chavez and Jack Cust both have a lot of power but the both strike out waaaaay too much to be considered "good players."  They aquired Mike Sweeny and Emil Brown in the off-season but I don't see how either of them are going to help out much.  The only safe bet on this lineup is rookie Daric Barton, who hit .347 with four homeruns in a tiny chunk of the season last year, he should be able to hit close to 30 this year.  That would be a first this year for the A's.

??? - Decrease Dan Harden's workload.  Harden gets injured too much as I have repeated many times before asnd something needs to be done.  Either pitching him four or five innings a start or pitching him once every week could help but teams would be seeing more of Oakland's mediocre pitching.  At least Harden won't get injured this way though . . .