Continuing my Major League Baseball season preview by division, here are the AL West teams listed in order of predicted finish. Seattle Mariners. Despite being the Arizona Diamondbacks of the American League in 2007 (having given up more runs than...
National League West, which looked like this at the end of last season:
* Arizona | 90 | 72 |
* Colorado | 90 | 73 |
* San Diego | 89 | 74 |
* LA Dodgers | 82 | 80 |
* San Francisco | 71 | 91 |
Tight, tight, tight TIGHT race. We all remember the insane [...]
Continuing my Major League Baseball season preview by division, here are the NL West teams listed in order of predicted finish. Arizona Diamondbacks. As usual, the NL West looks to be a very tight race, with any of four teams...
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (92-70): For the past several years, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim have been one of the powerhouses of the American League and perennial division contenders. Stocked with plenty of pitching, young talent and offense, the Angels should once again compete toe to toe with the Athletics in the American League West. As the Angels share a portion of Southern California that compromises L.A. and Anaheim, Arte Moreno has taken steps to re-invest in the team and battle the Dodgers for area supremacy.The Angels had incredible pitching, especially from Jered Weaver and flashes of brilliance from the other members of the starting rotation. However, the offense struggled and that in turn hurt the team.Although the team came up short in the AL West in’06, Moreno has once again taken steps to improve the team. Gone from the team are Darin Erstad who signed with the White Sox, Adam Kennedy who joined the St. Louis Cardinals, J.C. Romero and Brendan Donnelly and Kevi
Los Angeles Dodgers (91-71): The team has had quite a few new additions, including longtime San Francisco pitcher Jason Schmidt, veterans Luis Gonzalez, Mike Leiberthal, Randy Wolf and the speedy Juan Pierre. However, during the winter, the team lost several players including Jose Cruz Jr., J.D. Drew, Eric Gagne, Toby Hall, Kenny Lofton, Julio Lugo, Jayson Werth and the ageless Greg Maddux.In light of losing Greg Maddux, the Dodgers have once again put the focus on the upgrading their pitching, as they acquired Jason Schmidt from the rival Giants. With workhouse Derek Lowe, imposing Brad Penny, Randy Wolf, who’ll on be on the comeback trail, and as well, possibly youngster Chad Bilingsley, the Dodgers have a an impressive starting corps. The bullpen has a mix of young and veteran arms, and will look to help the starting pitching out of jams and close out games this upcoming season with Takashi Saito and fireballer, Jonathan Broxton. The weakness with the Dodgers is the offense
