MLB 2012 Preview: Who'll Win the American League West?

The one division within Major League Baseball that made the biggest splashes this offseason has to be the American League West. Each team has been involved with some of the most significant players personnel changes involving big-name free agents. And though the division winner has either been the Texas Rangers or the Los Angeles Angels over the past five seasons, the Oakland Athletics and the Seattle Mariners look to at least make things interesting with their revamped and younger lineups.

This the final season in which the AL West will be composed of four teams, with the Houston Astros set to join the division in 2013. Thus, 2012 will be the final year that each team will only have three opponents to contend for the division title. It’s like sitting at a dining table and having a fifth brother to contend with for food. Better grab that AL West drumstick now while you can.

Though the division might be projected as a two-horse race between the defending division champion Rangers and the Angels, the slate is wiped clean heading into spring training. Nobody is for certain what will happen and which team will come out on top.

Here, we will assess each team within the AL West, analyze their lineups and predict their final record and where they’ll place in the division.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made the cannonball of all splashes this past offseason, landing the greatest free-agent prize in baseball history—Albert Pujols. The first baseman was coming off his second World Series title with the St. Louis Cardinals, and he was expected to garner some interest from some noteworthy teams. But not many assumed that the Angels were even on Pujols’ radar.

Surprise, surprise.

By landing one of the most feared sluggers in the game, in his prime (32 years of age), at a reasonable bargain of $240 million for 10 years, the Angels were truly in heaven, stamping their ticket to postseason contention for several seasons to come.

And yet, the Angels were not content with simply signing the nine-time All-Star and three-time MVP. Instead, Los Angeles went out and nabbed the most coveted starting pitcher on the market in C.J. Wilson. Nice.

On paper, these two moves alone make the Angels contenders for not only the division title, but also the AL pennant. Inserting Pujols into the middle of a lineup that features young talent in Howie Kendrick, Peter Bourjos and Mark Trumbo will do wonders to offset the veteran leadership but waning performance from Torii Hunter, Vernon Wells and Bobby Abreu.

Despite moving over to the AL, Pujols can hit in any league, against any pitcher, in a ballpark, at any time of day. And manager Mike Scioscia has his team play the type of style that Pujols will embrace in order to generate runs.

With seven players hitting over 20 doubles last year and Kendrys Morales returning to the team at some point in the season, Los Angeles will have a pretty darn powerful 1-9 lineup.

As for the starting pitching, the addition of Wilson is truly remarkable. The Angels already have two bona-fide No. 1 starters in Dan Haren and Jered Weaver. Including the lefty Wilson makes the Angels’ Big Three the most feared in the league. Imagine facing each of them in a three-game series. Good luck.

Overall, the Angels will obviously vie for the AL West title, and ultimately win it. The infusion of the greatest right-handed hitter of this generation will win a lot of games for Los Angeles. Oh, and Wilson will, too.

Projected finish in 2012: 99-63, first place

Oakland Athletics

Surprisingly, the most active team in the division this winter—in all of baseball, practically—was the Oakland Athletics. Yes, the underachieving, shoestring-budget, woe-is-me, find-me-a-home Oakland A’s.

Within a couple of weeks, the Oakland unloaded nearly all of its roster, trading away two All-Star starting pitchers (Trevor Cahill and Gio Gonzalez), two back-end starters (Josh Outman and Guillermo Moscoso), one lefty reliever (Craig Breslow), one All-Star closer (Andrew Bailey) and an outfielder (Ryan Sweeney).

In addition, the team’s two best power hitters from last season (Hideki Matsui and Josh Willingham) and their starting right fielder (David DeJesus) are all no longer with the team.

Whew!

Athletics fans must have thought that the team was rolling over and going to play dead for 162 games. Surely, management’s reactions toward the inertia surrounding the team’s relocation dreams led many to believe that the A’s were actually giving up on being competitive.

But the last few weeks of the offseason have slightly contradicted the first half of winter. The A’s landed free-agent Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, a powerful young center fielder who many predicted would not wind up anywhere but Oakland.

Additionally, to help make the team a wee bit more relevant, at least from a public relations standpoint, the A’s went out and signed the formerly retired slugger Manny Ramirez. The slugger is certainly still a big attraction, and it’ll be interesting to see if makes the ballclub coming out of spring. Even if he doesn’t, the A’s have generated some energy and interest into a franchise that has lost over 10 players from last year’s roster.

There is no reason to believe, however, that this band of leftovers and has-beens will congeal to form a respectable team, one that can legitimately contend for the division. Key players received in their myriad of trades include Josh Reddick, Seth Smith, Jarrod Parker and Brad Peacock.

Exactly.

At best, the A’s may provide some excitement on the field in spurts. With last season’s spark plug, Jemile Weeks, leading the way, the A’s can hopefully generate more runs than they did last year, when they scored a pedestrian 3.98 runs per game. If Ramirez and Cespedes perform anywhere above their medium expectation levels, then Oakland can at least be fun to watch. It can't get much worse: The A's finished 12th in the league in scoring.

Otherwise, everything will rest on the shoulders of the pitching staff—again. Unfortunately, this year’s rotation is less experienced than the stellar sets from years past. So it’d be nice to have some offense to keep the team balanced. The names Brandon McCarthy, Tyson Ross and Brett Anderson don't exactly scare teams. But they are formidable so long as the offense helps out a bit.

Good luck with that.

At least Oakland will be interesting, if only for a little while.

Projected 2012 finish: 75-87, third place

Seattle Mariners

The team that made the least noise from the AL West has to be the Seattle Mariners. They did not land the biggest bat in baseball (Angels), or the hot Japanese export starting pitcher (Texas) or the class clown, Sideshow Manny (Oakland.) Instead, Seattle traded away one of its brightest young pitchers, Michael Pineda, to the Evil Empire New York Yankees. Good job.

The M’s did, however, receive top catching prospect Jesus Montero from the Yanks, an effort, obviously, to liven up the worst offense in all of baseball. Like the old saying goes, when you’re at the bottom, there’s nowhere to go but up.

That bodes will for Seattle.

Again, the Mariners will have to rely heavily on its starting pitching behind the lead-off ace, Felix Hernandez. The bullpen is bolstered with the additions of lefty relievers Hong-Chih Kuo and George Sherrill. Hopefully, the rest of the starting rotation, which includes Jason Vargas and Doug Fister, will remain healthy and provide enough quality starts to keep the team in ball games.

Offensively—well, that’s a different story. The Mariners will look to improve in every facet of hitting. The lineup is quite inexperienced overall, but youngsters Justin Smoak, Dustin Ackley and Mike Carp look to provide enough energy and productivity to the offense, especially since they will be able to play a full season together.

Mariners fans are hoping that superstar Ichiro Suzuki can regain his form after a dismal 2011 season in which he batted just .272. M’s manager Eric Wedge has already hinted that he’ll shake up the lineup in order to score more runs. Ichiro will be moved to the three hole, with Chone Figgins leading off. Hopefully, Ichiro’s presence in a run-producing spot in the order will ignite the offense a bit.

Unfortunately, the team is tremendously young, which will translate to more losses than wins. Seattle just does not have the ability to hang with the powerhouses from Los Angeles and Texas. The team can only wish not to reach the 100-loss mark for the season, which will be difficult to avoid given how inexperienced the roster is. Should anyone suffer a serious injury, the Mariners lack the depth, which will unfortunately prevent them from withstanding significant losing streaks.

Sadly, the Mariners will scrape the bottom of the AL West for the seventh time in the past nine seasons.

Projected 2012 finish: 70-96, fourth place

Texas Rangers

As the two-time defending American League Champions, the Texas Rangers have only one goal in mind: a World Series title. That’s all there is left to do.

With all of their successes over the past two seasons, the team actually experienced a bit of turmoil this past offseason. The Rangers lost ace starting pitcher C.J. Wilson—to the archrival Los Angeles Angels—and were shaken by the admission that their former MVP outfielder, Josh Hamilton, had an alcohol relapse this past winter.

Sounds like a storyline for the upcoming revival of the soap opera Dallas.

However, through it all, the Rangers have somehow managed to remain on an even keel. They replaced Wilson with Japanese free agent right-hander Yu Darvish, who is expected to perform at tremendously lofty levels, particularly because he is right smack dab in the middle of his prime.

History is somewhat on his side. Japanese pitchers have shown some incredible resolve in their first season, as American hitters tend to have difficulty adjusting to the prototypical- Japanese delivery. Hideo Nomo and Daisuke Matsuzaka both experienced a decent amount of success in their rookie seasons.

But Darvish has some big shoes to fill. Wilson was the team’s ace, and it will be hard to replace both his on-field performance and clubhouse camaraderie. Will Darvish excel in his stead?

The starting rotation is still strong, with Colby Lewis, Derek Holland and Neftali Feliz in tow. The real question mark will be whether new closer Joe Nathan can perform at the level he once did when he was a perennial All-Star. If he is able to be serviceable, then the Rangers pitching will continue to dominate the rest of the league, even the Los Angeles Angels.

Offensively, Texas still remains strong. Incoming first baseman Brad Hawpe is coming off two injury-plagued seasons, so he’ll look to rebound in 2012. The Rangers brought in Brandon Snyder to compete for the spot should Hawpe not suffice.

Aside from that position, the Rangers are as solid as can be. The team led the American League in batting average last season, so do not expect to much of a drop considering that most of the lineup is returning. Remember, Hamilton missed several weeks last season after breaking his arm in April.

In the end, the Rangers will duke it out with the Angels for supremacy in the AL West. It will be an enjoyable toe-to-toe battle, with storylines aplenty, considering the traitorous signing of Wilson. The Rangers will unfortunately come up short in the AL West. Not necessarily for lack of trying, lack of talent or lack of winning. Los Angeles will simply sneak by them, as this division marathon will come down to the very last weekend.

Projected 2012 finish:  97-65, second place; AL Wild Card

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