Perhaps no division in baseball is as mediocre as the American League West. Despite having a 100-win team last year none of the division’s teams can expect to win over 90 games in 2009. The Angels, the marquee franchise of the division, has demonstrated an inability to consistently put a competitive offense on the field, its smartest team appears to be going all in with a rookie rotation this year, and its two bottom feeders are along varying paths of rebuilding.

Oakland Athletics (86-76 Division Champs)

With the addition of Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi and Orlando Cabrera the Athletics were able to significantly improve their offense which last year was built around a number of role players such as Travis Buck, Daric Barton and Jack Cust.  While Holliday’s fantasy statistics will dip from years past after leaving the freindly-confines of Colorado, he is still an elite hitter.  The question for the Athletics is with their extremely young pitching. The team looks to be starting the season with Dallas Braden, Sean Gallagher, Gio Gonzalez and Dana Eveland in the rotation, with Justin Duchscherer on the Disabled List and top prospects Brett Anderson and Tim Cahill waiting in the wings. While there is little room for upside with this group, the guess here is that their above average offense, league average starting pitching and strong bullpen will be enough to win the division.

Team MVP: Matt Holliday
Player to Watch: Brett Anderson

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (85-79)

The Angels were a true enigma last year when they outperformed their Pythagorean record by 12 wins. Conventional wisdom says that having a strong bullpen with K-Rod, Scott Shields and Jose Arredondo helped them to accomplish this feat. Despite having what will again look like a strong bullpen, the Angles will likely revert back closer to their expected win projections, particularly as their offense and starting rotation look to have taken a step back from a year ago given the loss of Mark Teixiera and elbow injury to Ervin Santana.

Team MVP: Vlad
Player to Watch: Brandon Wood

Seattle Mariners (76-86)

Seattle had such great designs for 2008 that they traded away their top prospect and future center fielder for Eric Bedard. Bedard failed to live up to his 2007 career year, and the offense floundered. As a result the Mariners will pick second overall this year. While the roster has some solid starting pitching and a good bullpen, not even the reintroduction of 1993 Ken Griffey Jr. will ignite this offense. Jose Vidro and Adrian Beltre are decent role players; however they are not middle of the order bats for a contending team.

Team MVP: Ichiro
Player to Watch: Felix Hernandez

Texas Rangers (73-89)

The Rangers are likely the team to watch in the division in the long term; however, they will again likely lack the necessary pitching to compete in a lackluster division. With Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Chris Davis the Rangers will have a great offense again. The team’s top prospects, including Neftali Feliz, Justin Smoak, Derek Holland and Max Ramirez, have the team built for 2010 and beyond.

Team MVP: Ian Kinsler
Player to Watch: Justin Smoak

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Today’s post is the first of a six part division-by-division baseball preview, starting with the National League West. The NL West was disparaged last year as being one of the worst, but due to the division’s young talent look to see a leap in its overall performance as these players continue to improve.  As a result  I see the division producing this years National League Wild Card winner.

Los Angeles Dodgers (92-60, Division Champs)

Last year the Dodgers were galvanized by the acquisition of Manny Ramirez into winning the division.  Despite a drawn out negotiating period, Manny’s return to the team will help it to improve on its 84 wins of a year ago.  While there are some question marks about the depth of the pitching staff, the lineup should be markedly improved with a full year of Manny, and development by Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, James Loney and Russ Martin.  The rotation is anchored by 24-year-old Chad Billingsley but after that has a number of question marks: can Jason Schmidt return from injury? Can Clayton Kershaw improve upon his rookie performance? Can Hiroki Kuroda replicate his form despite having only 5.6 strikeouts per nine innings last year?  Can young pitchers like James McDonald and Scott Elbert make a significant contribution?  Including Randy Wolf the guess here is that the Dodgers will have enough pitching to capitalize on having the clear cut best offense in the division.

Team MVP: Manny
Player to Watch: Clayton Kershaw

Arizona Diamondbacks (89-63, Wild Card Champs)

After getting off to a scorching 20-7 start last year, Arizona finished the season at a paltry 62-73 clip as the teams offense came off the tracks.  Despite all of this the team was almost able to hold off the Dodgers to win the division.   Expect to see youngsters like Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Justin Upton, Miguel Montero and Conor Jackson take large steps forward.  Being anchored by All Stars Brandon Webb and Dan Haren, the rotation has the potential be as strong as any in baseball.  There are some questions about the rotation’s depth including about Jon Garland’s continued viability as a starter after having a WHIP of 1.5 last year; however, he should have an easier go of it facing the offenses of the NL West rather than the AL.

Team MVP: Stephen Drew
Player to Watch: Chris Young

San Francisco Giants (80-82)

San Francisco’s projected improvement is based solely on its rotation as its offense will not likely show significant improvement over last year when it scored an anemic 640 runs, good for second last in all of baseball. Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez are as good a reason to be optimistic about San Francisco’s ability to improve this year as anything.  Lincecum was a right-handed version of Johan Santana last year on his way to winning the Cy Young.  Along with the siging of Randy Johnson, the Giant’s young threesome should be able to overcome the fact that Barry Zito will be starting every fifth day.  As stated, San Francisco’s Achilles heal is the offense, when Bengie Molina is a middle of the order bat, you know your team is going to have problems.  The Giants do have some exciting young talent coming up through their system such as Madison Bumgarner, Buster Posey, Angel Villalona and Conor Gillaspie, but until their offense markedly improves the Giants will be unable to seriously contend.

Team MVP: Tim Lincecum
Player to Watch: Pablo Sandoval

Colorado Rockies (73-89)

Despite making it to the World Series in 2007, the Colorado Rockies’ promising core of talent has essentially evaporated as players have seriously regressed or been traded away due to contract concerns.  While expectations were likely a little unrealistic for 2008 after the team won 21 of 22 games to make the playoffs and then the World Series, injuries to Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton, Jeff Francis and Franklin Morales derailed their ability to defend the NL championship before the season really got going.  The Rockies will need to see breakthrough years by Tulowitzki, Chris Iannetta, Ubaldo Jimenez, Ian Stewart and Carlos Gonzalez, as well as rebound years by Garrett Atkins, Brad Hawpe and Francis.  If everything goes right, the Rockies could contend, but there are likely too many questions on both sides of the ball.

Team MVP: Troy Tulowitzki
Player to Watch: Ubaldo Jimenez

San Diego Padres (63-99)

San Diego picks third in this years draft, but expect them to pick even higher in 2010 as the Padres have the potential to be the worst team in baseball.  Beyond Jake Peavy and Adrian Gonzalez the team appears to be lacking any type of impact position players or pitchers.  In addition, there is mass speculation that Peavy will not be finishing  the year  in Southern California.  The Padres do potentially have some more talent on their roster if Chris Young can regain his health or if Chase Headley and Kevin Kouzmanoff can live up to their potential; however, this still would not be enough to get  the Padres close to contention.

Team MVP: Adrian Gonzalez
Player to Watch: Jake Peavy

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What: United States vs. Mexico CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying, Final Round
When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.
Where: Columbus Crew Stadium, ESPN2, and a pub near you!

A short background: A crucial World Cup Qualifier between two rivals going in opposite directions, and easily the most anticipated match on U.S. soil in the last four years (tickets sold out in 90 minutes, and the 2,500 tickets going to Supporters Groups will create the largest U.S. organized SG section for a home National Team match). This is the first match of a ten-game round robin, at the end of which three CONCACAF teams will automatically qualify for the 2010 World Cup, while a fourth will go on to face a South American opponent.

Mexico is struggling. In the third round of qualifying they finished second to Honduras, and only advanced to the Hexagonal on goal differential. Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson is under a lot of pressure to fix things, and soon. Starting things off by playing a solid American side in the cold of Columbus, Ohio will not make their turnaround an easy task.

The U.S., meanwhile, cruised through their earlier qualifying rounds - their only loss coming in a meaningless game at fellow-CONCACAF finalists Trinidad and Tobago. Since 2000, the Yanks are 8-0-2 against Mexico at home.

These are, no doubt, the top two teams in CONCACAF. But since 1991, the U.S. has gradually overtaken Mexico as the favorites to top the qualification group. Winning this game is crucial to that end. The U.S. must defend their home advantage while Mexico is in dire need of a positive result and the confidence it would bring. Really, anything other than a win will be considered a huge dissapointment for the U.S.

Why you need to watch: Does the United States have any other significant sports rivalries? Football? No. Baseball? Not really, nor is there really a US National Baseball team. Basketball? I guess every four years it’s fun to watch NBA players compete against the world, but when they lose to Argentina I usually just wish I hadn’t watched. I’ll admit I like watching the USA hockey team in the Olympics every four years, especially when they play Canada or Russia, but it’s not a sustained competition. And on that note, I’m sure that it used to be fun to face the USSR in the Olympics every two years, but we rarely competed against them in a popular team sport competition.

This is Mexico - our neighbors. (Playing Canada usually just feels like facing slightly less-athletic versions of ourselves.) It’s an intense rivalry on the field that often translates to equal animosity among opposing supporters in the stands. And Mexicans HATE (not enough emphasis there) the fact that the U.S. national team has, in terms of results, surpassed their own. They’re making voodoo dolls, people.

Where to watch: If you’re in the DC area, the official Shockey Brigade viewing party will be in the downstairs bar at Summer’s Restaurant in Arlington, unless the owner’s a douche and I feel like moving the party to the official AO party down the street at Kitty O’Shea’s. We’ll be there around 5 p.m. for some of the earlier European games as well as France-Argentina. Requests to relocate to Lucky Bar will be entertained.

If you’re in New York, your best options are Nevada Smith’s or the official NYC AO party at Jack Demsey’s.

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I am finishing up this 9.5 hour interview with A-Rod right now and I have too much to say on the issue, I had to start writing.  OK, so basically, Sir Pink Lips says this:  1. He felt pressure to be great when he got to Texas. 2. He was stupid. 3. People should be very upset with him. 4. But, really, people should still love him. 5. He was naive.  6. That bitch from Sports Illustrated is really pissing him off. 7. He’s “sorry”. 8. He was selfish. 9. He still thinks he should be in the Hall of Fame. 10. He was stupid.

OK, I think that pretty much sums it up from A-Rod’s side of things.  Now let me interpret a little… 

 Of course he felt, pressure to succeed when he was in Texas, the man was making 1/4 of a freakin’ billion dollars.  Let me tell you something though, you do not sign a contract like that and expect to fly under the radar.  It’s just not the way it works.  So, you’re not buying any sympathy on that one, bub. And yes, you say you’re sorry, and you were stupid, and selfish and etc. etc.  The fact of the matter is though, he is only sorry that he got caught.  As cliche as that is to say, in this case it is absolutely true.  Still, at the same time we cannot crucify him for not coming clean earlier.  Any one of us put in his situation would have done the exact same thing he did.  Not to say we would have taken the drugs to begin with… But had we taken drugs, and not been caught, we would not just go around telling the likes of Katie Couric and the rest of the American public about it.  A-Rod was and is one of the greatest baseball players of not only his time, but of all time.  Are any of us naive enough to think that had he not been caught, he would have just volunteered the information to tarnish his image and legacy irrevocably?  It is silly to think that he would or should have done something like that…

…Lots of things bother me about this interview.  The main thing is that this is just A-Rod being A-Rod.  And by that I mean, this is the same guy we always see trying desperately to be liked.  His contrition is forced, and his apologies are barely believed.  And on top of it all, all of it masks the real reason he decided to give this interview: to try to save his legacy.  He argues 3 or 4 times during the interview as to why he should still be considered a great player.  He sites 1996 and 2007, saying they are his best years, and he was clean during them.  While it is debatable that these are his best years, he also assumes that we can take him at his word that he was clean in his Seattle days.  Personally, I would tend to think in 1996 he was clean, but who the hell knows anymore.  

As for his legacy… I really still think the man is one of the greatest of all time.  You want to put an asterisk next to his numbers, I suppose that’s your prerogative.  But the bottom line is then, you need to put one next to about 15-20 years worth of numbers.  Because everyone, pitchers and hitters alike, was using the stuff.  Some were just unlucky enough to get caught.  I’d like to believe guys like Albert Pujols are clean, but in my heart I know where there’s doubt, there’s probably a reason.  As for A-Rod, his 3 best years in terms of OPS were 2007, 2005 (while testing was in place), and 1996 (presumably before he started using).  As he campaigned during his interview, he has been quite consistent over his career.  And it can be argued that his increase in power while he was in Texas is as much a product of the park he played in as it was the substances he ingested.  If the man stopped playing baseball today, he would have my vote for the Hall of Fame.

That’s pretty much all the rambling I have in me for now.  I won’t get started on the whole “I didn’t know what drugs I was taking” thing (give me a break.  America is dumb, but we’re not that dumb).  And I don’t really wanna get into “WHO’S TO BLAME FOR THIS DEBACLE!?!”.  Because personally… it’s the players, the trainers, the managers and owners that looked the other way, the reporters who never reported it (and were in the locker room all the time), and the fans who watched in awe as balls soared out of stadiums at record paces.  We looked the other way, and we continue to look the other way in other sports (namely football).  So how can you blame a guy like A-Rod when he can get $250 mil and we continue to pay to watch him play.  Not that I condone it, but I can understand it, and I can certainly move on from it.  It has been a shitty couple of days for baseball, but at the same time, it’s not the end of the world.  I really think we need to stop the steroid witch hunts, and just move on.  At this point, we get it, lots of good players did the shit.  Now, I’d prefer to not know any more.  I’ll just let my imagination do the rest.

On a lighter note… With Pettite, Clemens, A-Rod, Sheffield, Giambi, Knoblauch?, David Justice?, Jeter???  … were there any Yankees that weren’t juicing?  Is Torre on roids?  What about George?  Is that why he was so ornery all the time?

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