Well after taking another long sabbatical due to work and other reasons, I'm back on the blog, hopefully I'll be around for awhile. However, most of my sports-opinions are on my Twitter feed at twitter.com/mikegradzki so check my thoughts out as well.
Anyway the football season is officially over, congrats to the Green Bay Packers for winning Super Bowl XLV. Now I get to look forward to lots of hoops and NASCAR which starts February 20th. But in about 6 weeks time, we'll have the start of baseball season, and this time period goes fast. Looking back at my predictions last year, I did awful, now I'm hoping to rebound this year.
For the next 6 weeks, I'll preview each division and offer my thoughts and predictions, this week I'll start with the AL West.
1) LOS ANGELES ANGELS- The Angels had a terrible 2010 season and focused their efforts on the offseason to acquire players like Adrian Beltre, Carl Crawford, Jayson Werth and Rafael Soriano. They didn't get any of these players. Really, the only acquisition they grabbed was Vernon Wells, who brings along declining numbers and a heavy contract Toronto didn't want to pay. Their pitching rotation of Dan Haren, Scott Kazmir, Ervin Santana, Joel Pineiro and Jered Weaver have got to be better. The position players including Wells, Torii Hunter, Erick Aybar and Kendry Morales (who missed most of 2010 due to head injury) need to improve if they want to return to postseason play.
2) OAKLAND ATHLETICS- Manager Bob Geren's A's are a team that make a lot of moves in the offseason to improve their chances at a playoff bid in 2011. They did well for majority of the season, finishing 9 games behind Texas with an 81-81 record. However, they made plenty of moves, acquiring outfielders Josh Willingham and David DeJesus, pitchers Grant Balfour and Brian Fuentes who will be the closer. The pitching rotation is still young with Dallas Braden, Brett Anderson and Gio Gonzalez but get help w/ Rich Harden. The Athletics also signed DH Hideki Matsui and this lineup can improve if they do all the work to be better.
3) SEATTLE MARINERS- I had the Mariners win the AL West in 2010, but that faltered, winding up 29 games behind Texas at the end of the season. Seattle hired Eric Wedge to manage this club who had struggled all last years and players like Chone Figgins, Franklin Gutierrez and Erik Bedard need to step up in 2011. The only positive thing this team had in 2010 was King Felix winning the Cy Young Award and he will continue to be consistent. The other issue is that the rest of the rotation including Doug Fister, Garrett Olson and Bedard need to improve during Spring Training. At this point, I don't see this team being much better.
4) TEXAS RANGERS- The surprise team of 2010 happens to be Texas, losing to SF in the World Series, but they had a great lineup and pitching. However, in the offseason, their big target was signing Cliff Lee to a long-term deal, but he decided to sign with Philly. They still have a solid pitching rotation in C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis, Derek Holland and Tommy Hunter and now they signed Brandon Webb, who hasn't pitched since 2009 Opening Day. Their biggest offseason signing was Adrian Beltre, who signed a 6-year, $96M deal to play 3rd base. Michael Young was stated he will play DH, but right now is demanding a trade. The Rangers still have a good lineup in MVP-winner Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Elvis Andrus, Ian Kinsler and Mitch Moreland, and catcher Mike Napoli looks to split time w/ Yorvit Torrealba.
My AL West Pick: Texas. I don't see the Rangers declining anytime soon. This team will be tough to beat and they just keep getting better, even losing the World Series in 2010.
Next week: NL West
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