MLB 2nd Half - AL West

Anaheim Angels
First things first, I refuse to acknowledge the ridiculous name change. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way let me tell you why I hate this pick. They can’t win the division with this rotation. They need another starter to compliment John Lackey (11-5, 2.91) and Kelvim Escobar (10-3, 3.19) and I’m not sure Jered Weaver is ready to step up and be that guy. After all, he is a Weaver. They also need another bopper in the lineup. Picking against the Oakland A’s in the 2nd half is like picking against the Cubs in April.

Ok, now let me show you why I’m an idiot for even questioning this pick. Weaver doesn’t have to step up – he’s almost there with his 3.67 era. If he can just stay remotely healthy, they’ll be ok. And the Angels have this year’s Francisco Liriano in Joe Saunders, minus that whole ligament thing. In fact, why not just pitch Ervin Santana at home and Saunders on the road? This could work. Also, they can get away with a so-so rotation because any lead is safe after 7 innings.Why add a big home run hitter like Adam Dunn and mess up a team batting average of .284, good for 2nd in the bigs? The only thing that would screw up this lineup would be if Bartolo Colon ate Reggie Willits.

The Angels run away with the division.


Seattle Mariners
The biggest surprise west of the Mississippi. At 13 games over .500 they have positioned themselves nicely in the Central without really doing anything great. Aside from the third-best league BA, they are pretty much average in just about every batting statistic. So how the hell is their record so good? I don’t know either. What I do know is they have the pieces in place to hold off the A’s. Even if those pieces are limited to Ichiro, JJ Putz, and King Felix. Wait, Ichiro running their manager out of town has to be considered a positive, right? This is the same guy who has a career .503 winning percentage, and that’s counting his five 1st place finishes with Cleveland. Now I’m just rambling and I haven’t even made a compelling argument for them to finish ahead of Oakland. Yeah, well neither can you!


Oakland Athletics
It’s no secret Oakland is a great 2nd half team but this is the year they fall short….way short. They have gone from being injury-plagued to injury-prone and the money ball approach has finally caught up with them. Check out these team batting leaders.
BA – Shannon Stewart .309
HR – Jack Cust 15
RBI – Nick Swisher 46
R and SB – Shannon Stewart 47 and 8
They’re 23rd in runs and batting average with Stewart as the only regular player batting over .300. You simply can’t win with these stats and a middle of the road OPS. The only reason this team is even sniffing .500 is because of overachieving starting pitching. Dan Haren is a bona fide stud, an all-star starter, and was stolen in what could go down as one of the worst trades in history (much like that Twins trade we talked about in the Central post). They’ve got a guy in Joe Blanton who regressed last year but has rebounded nicely this year and that’s about it. Write this down…Chad Gaudin is about to plummet back to earth in a really bad, bad way (if you have him in a fantasy league sell now!). They are the San Francisco Giants of the American League without the steroid problem. Wait, I forgot they signed Mike Piazza. They are exactly like the Giants.


Texas Rangers
Good division…terrible team…one winning record this decade….pitching sucks. Sammy Sosa’s hat size just grew a half an inch.



My Pick: Division Winner - Anaheim in a landslide, Wild Card - N/A

Rich's Pick: Division Winner - Anaheim in a close one, Wild Card - N/A



Next up...NL East.

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