American League West Preview

It won’t be long before sports betting turns to Major League Baseball. The baseball talk can start with an American League West preview and look at the sportsbook reviews of the way things should stack up in that division in 2010.

Last year the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim clobbered the division by finishing 10 games ahead of second place Texas. If you bet on sports then you know that baseball teams change constantly during the off-season, and what happened last year may not be the case this year.

The Angles lost Vlad Guerrero to division rival Texas, and with Guerrero went some of the Angels’ home run power. To make up for that hitting loss the Angels picked up Hideki Matsui. But one Matsui does not equal one Guerrero, so the Angles have lost some pop in their offense. On the mound the Angels lost Jose Arredondo and Darren Oliver. Oliver wound up with Texas as well, and while Oliver is not the most consistent reliever in the league he does throw strikes.

To make up for the changes on the mound the Angels brought in two right-handed pitchers in Fernando Rodney and Joel Pineiro. Now the Angels’ bullpen is down an experienced left-handed reliever, and that opens them up to late inning heroics from right-handed hitters.

The Texas Rangers, on the other hand, look poised to finally shake that aura of being a boring team that never finishes strong. Nolan Ryan is part of the Rangers ownership group, and the fans in Texas are getting excited at the prospects of 2010. So far in the off-season the Rangers have added Vlad Guerrero, Darren Oliver, and pitcher Colby Lewis. They lost Kevin Millwood, but they seem to have enough strength on the mound to make up for Millwood’s loss. The Rangers added power, the put right-handed pitching in the bullpen to compensate for the left-handed power in the American League and they have a new attitude.

The Seattle Mariners continue to grasp at straws as they bring in noted hot-head Milton Bradley. The Mariners addressed some of their pitching problems by bringing in Cliff Lee, but the holes in the Mariners’ starting rotation are big enough to drive a truck through and Lee will help but he is not enough to be the answer. Once again the best hitter in baseball, Ichiro, will be buried in a bad team in Seattle.

The Oakland Athletics finished 12 games under .500 last season, and they will have to rally to do that well in 2010.

The balance of power is shifting in the American League West. Followers of Major League Baseball could sense a change coming in Texas, especially when Nolan Ryan got involved. Now it is time to see if the new power, the new pitching and the new attitude will carry the Rangers to the playoffs. They have a weakened Angels team to get past, and they should be able to do that without much problem. The Angels are the favorite to win the division, but it ain’t gonna happen with the changes that have been made.

Pick: Texas Rangers