2009 AL West naked prediction

Trying to select the winner of the AL West without the help of statistics, magic potions or drugs.


Has the AL West quietly become one of the easiest divisions in Major League Baseball? Outside of the Angels, what's to fear?

The Angels can pretty much start preparing for the 2009 playoffs round about, well, now. Losing Texiera was a blow, however it will have more of an effect in the inevitable playoffs than in the regular season. The Angels get to play pretty horrible baseball teams all summer long. Think about it, they have 19 games each against an anemic Oakland, a pitching challenged Texas and a brutal Seattle club.

That's 57 games against teams that will struggle to break .500 in 2009.

It will be disappointing to the Angels and their fans if they don't go at least 37-20 over that stretch, boosting their overall season record dramatically.

Not long before the Angels will be repeating scenes like these..

The AL West in 2009, it won't be a race as much as a precession. The Angels should be expected to wrap things up by late July. Oakland, who are quasi aggressively re-tooling with spare and used parts, should be slightly superior to pitching challenged Texas in the 'race' for the runners up spot, while Seattle's 2009 is basically a prolonged farewell to Ken Griffey Jnr.

Predicted finish:
  1. Angels (by a country mile)
  2. Oakland
  3. Texas
  4. Seattle



Somewhat related music;
LA - Elliot Smith

Comments

tom said…
Nothing to do with the Angels but something for the mailbag.

How are you feeling about Sox 09? It's early days yet but the young players are really giving me a lot of optimism for the future. Tazawa and Lowrie are looking like they're "ready" for the big stage and others such as Green showing we've got more in the pipeline.

I really like the look of our pitching too. I'm hoping between Smoltz, Penny and Bucholz we'll always have one healthy quality 5th starter available. The depth is really impressive all the way to the relief with Saito, Masterson, Paps, Ramirez and Oki.

My only concern is hitting. We've too many players with questions marks as to whether if they will be as good as they can be. Varitek, Ortiz, Lowell and even to a lesser extent Ellsbury. And unlike last year we don't have another Lowrie, Cora or Coco to fill in if theres a problem. I think Roco Baldelli could be the solution for the outfield but I'd like to see some backup in the infield