[thehatfield]

The American League West

Los Angeles Angels
History & Summary: The Los Angeles Angels have been the dominant franchise in the AL West for the last 15 years, winning 10 division titles during that time while posting a 1,331-1,099 record. Last year they won their third consecutive division crown, the second time in their history that they have pulled off a divisional three-peat (2008-10 being the other). But despite all of their regular season success and the fact that they are consistently among the top spenders in all of baseball the Angels have not had much luck in the playoffs, winning the American League twice in ten playoff appearances (2014 & 2019) and taking just one World Series crown in 2014. Nevertheless, they are the only team from the American League West to even make it to the World Series and they have come dangerously close to breaking the 4,000,000-person full season attendance barrier in each of the last two seasons.

The 2014 Angels understandably holds a special place in the minds of Angel fans. That team was famously led by 7-time All Star and Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero who had actually left the Angels after the 2009 season as a free agent to sign with the Boston Red Sox. Much to the dismay of Angels fans Guerrero hit .315 and blasted 37 homers to lead the Sox to their first World Series title in 2010. But two years later an often-injured Vlad was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a couple of minor leaguers and a 5th round draft pick. A strained cruciate ligament put him out of action for close to two months but he still hit .382 with 40 homers in just over 400 at-bats. After the 2012 season the Angels, who had been struggling to replace his productivity since losing him on the free agent market, sent three top prospects to Philadelphia for Guerrero. Guerrero stayed fairly healthy for most of the 2013 season and hit .342, with 125 RBI and another 40 home runs. The magical 2014 season saw then 37-year old Vlad collect his 3,000th hit and 600th career home run in the same month (July) and by the end of the season he had posted career highs in both home runs (47) and RBI (144). In 2015 Vlad had sharp drop-offs in his productivity before a fractured cheekbone ended his career in September, retiring 11 RBI shy of 2,000 for his career. Vlad’s 631 career home runs places him 6th on the all-time leaderboard behind Barry Bonds (728), Mark Texiera (699), Alex Rodriguez (681), Manny Ramirez (655), and Ken Griffey Jr. (654).

Speaking of 40-year old Mark Texiera, the current Angel comes into the 2021 season on the first year of a two year contract extension and is only 30 home runs away from surpassing Barry Bonds as the all-time home run leader. The Angels have some very good players coming back around surefire Hall of Famer Texiera, including last year’s American League Rookie of the Year Danilo Tabarez, 34-year old left fielder and 56-home run hitter last year Javier Mejines and 2-time All Star and former Gold Glove Award winner Kenneth Coeyman at second base. Our former minor leaguer and stop-gap shortstop Humphrey Ostendorff, 31, whom I traded to Florida for a draft pick in my first transaction as A’s General Manager had become a minor league free agent and signed on with the Angels and made the club in Spring Training after their All-Star caliber shortstop Reginald Lawry landed on the disabled list for two months with a torn thigh muscle.

The Angels have a good but aging pitching staff (average age 33-years old) anchored by 2016 Cy Young Award winner 38-year old Spike “Barbwire” Burkill (career: 206-131, 3.21 ERA 2,956 IP, 1.22 WHIP) and 28-year old former A’s property and New Jersey native Steve Collins, a 3-time All Star and 22-game winner last season. Their middle relievers are fairly non-descript but setup men Abram O’Cahan and Steele Slee are both pretty reliable and 32-year old veteran closer Tony Gaborde is coming off the best season of his career which saw him post a 4-2 record with 36 saves, a 1.87 ERA, and a WHIP nearly under 1.

The Angels come into this season with a payroll of just over $134 million, the third highest in baseball behind the Red Sox at $140 million and the White Sox at $138 million (more than double our payroll). While the media thinks they are the clear favorites to retain the division for the fourth straight year, their aging starting pitching is a huge question mark going into the 2021 season. This team is not going to have any trouble scoring runs but they’ll probably be involved in a lot of slugfests if one or two of their older starters hits the wall.


Texas Rangers
History & Summary: The Rangers have been the second best team in the Western Division since the rebirth of Major League Baseball 15 years ago with four division titles, eight second place finishes and a record of 1,252-1,178. Their playoff history, though, is just one horror show after another: eliminated in the divisional round in all four appearances, thrice losing 3 games to 2 and being swept 3-0 the other time. The sweep, in 2015 to Wild Card team and eventual league champion Tampa Bay, was the bitterest of all pills to swallow as the Rangers had posted a 99-63 record during the regular season, the best mark in their history. 2015 was a special year for the Rangers because they beat out the then-defending World Series champion Angels for the division riding the wave of the popular sarcastic t-shirt slogan: “Who’s second best?” but the Angels would go on to deliver a terrible blow of their own – signing superstar first baseman Mark Texiera as a free agent in the 2015 off-season.

Texiera has been booed relentlessly over the last five years by the Rangers faithful in every return trip to Arlington and despite the fact that then-breaking-down 39-year old Roy Halladay and 38-year old Aaron Harang led the Rangers to their last division title four years ago in 2017 attendance has been on the decline ever since Texiera’s departure. Manning first base these days is 31-year old three-time All Star Jose Caride who is a mess mentally and a shell of his former self physically after missing the 2019 season with a fractured cheekbone. It wouldn’t be surprising to see 27-year old Felix Galacia step up to take over first base this season after hitting .313 with 36 homers as the designated hitter in 2020. 27-year old catcher Danny McCreery, 27-year old shortstop Rhet Libby and 27-year old left fielder Bemabe Flechas all seem to be solid players with bright futures. While the Rangers don’t have many big power bats in their lineup they do have a collection of promising professional hitters and should end up getting a lot of men on base.

When taking a look at the pitching staff it’s clear that after 30-year old #1 starter Abelando Gonzalez the rest of the starting rotation is pretty thin. 27-year old rookie Johnathon Littles has a chance to develop into a quality starter but is probably going to take a lot of lumps this year, even if he’s being protected a bit by pitching in the #5 slot in the rotation. The bullpen is also a huge question mark going into next year. 35-year old closer Danny Snyder has probably already seen his best days while the rest of the relievers with the possible exception of hard-throwing lefty Adam Clay don’t even warrant mention here.

The Rangers’ $71 million payroll ranks them 16th overall and we’re roughly in the same spending ballpark as them ($66 million and 19th). I think we’ve got a much better bullpen than them but they probably have a more solid overall lineup. It would be interesting if we were able to clip the Rangers this season and finish second. The more we thought about it the more we decided to make second place our pie-in-the-sky goal for 2021. Getting out of the basement was our main concern this year and finishing second would be a real boost to the team and hopefully help us win some fans back.


Seattle Mariners
History & Summary: On those rare occasions when the A’s didn’t feel like finishing last every single season the Mariners were happy to step in and fill the role, finishing fourth five times and finishing third seven times including last season. The Mariners are the only team in the division not to have at least one division championship (Oakland won their only division crown in 2007) in their trophy case but they do have a better overall record than Oakland (1,113-1,318 to 1,039-1,391) and their fans and announcers are usually very quick to mention that point in some newspaper or television commentary. Despite averaging about 1,000,000 fans per season in attendance for the entire teen-year decade the Mariners experienced a big bounce to 2,000,000 on the strength of their second-place finish in 2019. Despite finishing third last year they still drew over 2,000,000 while winning 80 games. The team spent about $54.4 million last year on payroll and has cut back this season to $46.8 million, 26th overall on the payroll list.

In 2021 the Mariners will be led on the hitting side by 27-year old second baseman Hermon James, the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year, 25-year old third baseman Innes Gray, a young left-handed bat with a little pop, and 36-year old future Hall of Fame left fielder and DH Miguel Cabrera, he of the 595 career home runs. Our former catcher Colby Sunday made the Mariners out of Spring Training after being traded straight up for reliever Gregg Basnett over the winter. 31-year old center fielder Dave MacRobie should be a solid contributor for the M’s this coming season. Two players to keep an eye on would be 37-year old first baseman Werner “Burger” Baker to see what he’s got left in the tank and on the flip side to see what 26-year old shortstop and California native Montenegro Mesa has to offer for the future.

The pitching staff is led by 25-year old Allen Swain, a four-year veteran and the 2019 Cy Young Award winner despite his tender age. Swain’s Cy Young year was a true masterpiece – he posted a franchise record 25 wins against four losses with more single-season team records for a 1.27 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 379 strikeouts (broke Randy Johnson’s old team record of 331) in 269.1 innings pitched. Now a full year removed from his Cy Young form all eyes will be on the career 66-38 starter as he enters the second year of a three year deal that sees him collect a seemingly inexpensive $2.62 million per season. He may well be used by Seattle as irresistible trade bait to bring back some multiple top prospects from a contending team at the trade deadline or he may simply be kept due to his relatively cheap contract. 32-year old Jake Thomas anchors the bullpen as the closer. Thomas, a former 12th round pick of the Red Sox back in 2007, made a name for himself as a durable reliever for four years in Houston before being signed by Seattle as a free agent and converted into a closer for the first time in his career last season. He hasn’t exactly been a shut-down closer with 29 saves, a 3.28 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 56 hits allowed with 28 walks in 60.1 innings last year. Seattle is hoping that with a year under his belt in the high-pressure position he’ll be ready to step it up. Seattle otherwise doesn’t have a great bullpen but they should have solid enough starting pitching that the coming season won’t be a complete disaster. I’m thoroughly confident that we’re a better club than Seattle coming out of Spring Training.

So that’s what the division looks like. The Angels are still the favorites and even though our owner thinks we barley have enough talent to creep over the .500 mark in 2021 we’ll be shooting for a second place finish and hopefully the nice attendance bump that Seattle saw when they finished second a couple of years ago. Texas will be fighting tooth and nail for the second spot but I like our bullpen better and think we’ll able to do more with the flexibility we have within the team. Financially, some things and maybe even some players within the organization might have to change if we realize we have more needs to fill (like the back end of our starting rotation) during the season but we’re not at that point yet.

Now, the slate was wiped clean for another exciting spring, summer and fall of baseball!