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AL West Preview

© Bryan Walker

Welcome to the AL West. The Four-team division has the same strengths and weaknesses as last year. In spite of losing two future Hall-of-Famers in Ken Griffey, Jr. and Juan Gonzalez, the offenses will headline in the West. But the overshadowing weakness is the pitching. To be more specific, its the starting pitching. Every staff has a mixture of mediocre veterans and talented youngsters, which means that they have no proven quality starting pitching.

To validate the point even further, here are articles from each of the local papers outlining the pitching woes:

Oakland A's http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg... The A's have some good offensive players who will produce runs and they even have a good closer. But the rotation is suspect.

Anahiem Angels http://sports.latimes.com/news/20000327/... Mo Vaughn and crew will do some damage to opponents.

Seattle Mariners http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/marin... They still have Alex Rodriguez and Jay Buhner.

Texas Rangers http://baseball.dallasnews.com/rangers_s... Pudge Rodriguez and Rusty Greer lead this cast of hitters.

So how do you pick from four teams who look alike on paper? As I see it, two factors will decide who wins the division. One is the development of young pitchers and two is the ability to pull of a trade for pitching at the deadline. Here are the young pitchers for each team who need to step up:

*Angels - Ramon Ortiz. (And an unlikely repeat year by Bottenfield would help.

*A's - Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder

*Rangers - Justin Thompson

*Mariners - Freddy Garcia and John Halama

For their teams to win, these guys have to mature now. In this arms race, the Mariners have a head start with Garcia's numbers last year. But Halama isn't far behind.

As far as the ability to pull of a trade, the A's have what it takes. GM Billy Beane is shrewd and fearless.

Watch for that young pitching before you place your bets because 90 wins will get you first place in the AL West. So here's the order of finish: 1. Seattle Mariners (91 wins) 2. Oakland A's (89 wins) 3. Texas Rangers (83 wins) 4. Anaheim Angels (65 wins)

Take a look at this AL West Preview for some basic info: http://www.nydailynews.com/2000-03-28/Me...