Over the last two seasons the American League West has become one of the most competitive divisions in baseball. The Texas Rangers and Oakland Athletics took all 162 games to decide the division winner two seasons ago, and last year the Rangers forced a game 163 for the final wild card before getting eliminated. Right behind them has been the Los Angeles Angels who have the most exciting player in the game, Mike Trout, and have spent the most money in the division until this year’s Seattle Mariners. With the M’s spending that money this division becomes even tighter, and that creates a lot of storylines for the upcoming season.
5. How Much Will the Houston Astros Improve?
The Astros are entering their second year as members of the AL West. After a year where they predictably finished dead last they still aren’t ready to make much noise. They are, though, ready to spoil things for some teams as they are getting better, but how much better are they?
They added solid pieces to the bullpen in the form of Jesse Crain and Chad Qualls and added two veterans to the starting rotation with Scott Feldman and Jerome Williams. While these kind of moves won’t put them into contention it will improve the team by about 10-20 wins making them a little more respectable, but most importantly, it will give the young arms they have stored in the minors a chance to improve. That, in the long run, could be more important than the improvement they make this season.
4. Can the Angels Get Out of the Gate Quickly?
It is no big secret that the key to why the Angels have finished in third behind the A’s and the Rangers the last two seasons has been because of their slow starts. In 2012 it was believed that the team would have gotten out of the gates better if Trout had started the year with the team because of the spark he brought after he was called up.
Well, 2013 proved that was an incorrect assumption as the team again failed to start quickly. This offseason they added pitching depth in both the bullpen and the starting rotation to improve the team, but if this team is going to finally knock the A’s or the Rangers off of the top spot they are going to have to get the offense going, and fast.
Trout now has two seasons under his belt, Josh Hamilton appeared to have found his groove at the end of 2013, and Albert Pujols will enter the season fully healthy, so there is no excuse for them not to start hot out of the gates.
3. Who Will Be the Closer for the Rangers?
The Rangers have watched their closer with over 300 saves under his belt walk away via free agency, Joe Nathan, and now they have a decision to make on who replaces him. The decision won’t be tough because they don’t have someone capable of filling the role, but because of the plethora of arms they have with experience at the position.
Neftali Feliz won the AL Rookie of the Year award in 2010 as the closer and Joakim Soria has 160 career saves and two all-star appearances as a closer for the Kansas City Royals, and their not alone as the only options as the teams closer.
The breakout star of the bullpen in 2013 was set-up man Tanner Scheppers, and after posting a 1.88 ERA in 76 and two-thirds innings he may very well be the favorite for the job even with only two career saves. The pen meshed great last season with one clear closer and these three who could clearly close standing by, but it was pretty clear that Nathan was the man for the job. The Rangers will have to find out in spring training who the new man for the job is, and if they pick the wrong guy it could cost them.
2. Is the Athletics Bullpen As Good As it Appears?
On paper the A’s have quite possibly the best bullpen in the league. They already had one of the best set-up duos in the form of Ryan Cook and Sean Doolittle and replaced free agent closer Grant Balfour with Jim Johnson, but other additions bring them to the next level, at least on paper.
On top of those three at the back end of the bullpen they also added veteran set-up man Luke Gregerson and will have a full season of last season’s surprise star Dan Otero. Realistically, if the starter goes five shutout innings he should be able to leave with the lead and expect to get credit for the win, but in recent years teams that have seemed to have a sure thing have fallen right on their face.
Two examples are the offense of the Miami Marlins in 2012 and the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013. There is no telling if a guy like Gregerson will be able to accept a role in the sixth inning or if a guy like Cook, who struggled towards the end of 2013, would be willing to let Gregerson step into his role. Roles are important to this team, and if they can’t get these new additions into the right roles in the pen it could be trouble.
1. Will the Mariners Offense Mesh?
It is no secret that the M’s are all in this season. They went out and dropped a lot of money on Robinson Cano, and then made moves to surround him with the power of Corey Hart and Logan Morrison to build an offense that can keep up with the other teams in the AL West.
If that wasn’t enough, they appear ready to make a move to sign another big name free agent on offense, Nelson Cruz. Even if they don’t get Cruz in the lineup, this offense looks scary. As I mentioned with the A’s, though, recent superteams like this have fallen right on their faces.
Both the Marlins and the Jays failed with nearly the same offenses, but the team the M’s should be more worried about trying to match is the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers seemed to fail at meshing a super team, at least at first, but once they got that one piece they needed, in their case Yasiel Puig, the team meshed and took off. The M’s need to find that one piece that can bring this team together and make this offense mesh, and if they can do that the rest of the AL West will be in serious trouble.