AL West

By Dr. Jekyll

AL West

Texas Rangers: Behind Josh Hamilton and Michael Young, this team was always going to score runs. The offensive addition of Vlad Guerrero has been a surprise, as he’s absolutely lit it up in Arlington this year. But what no one expected was the pitching to help out. Cliff Lee makes this team an instant World Series contender, with much thanks to the Angels for selling away the core of their team this past year and making way for a new face to emerge from the west. Welcome to the foray, Rangers.

Los Angeles Angels: Speaking of those Angels, Jered Weaver has given this club a chance to remain competitive for a lot longer than some (me) expected them to be this season. Mike Napoli is a stud behind the plate and with him leading up future young pitchers this will be a club that can still make threats even when in a rebuilding year. The loss of core players has definitely made an impact on the season, but this is a gritty club that has a bright future. Just not this season.

Oakland Athletics: At the start of the season I wrote that a healthy Ben Sheets made this an average team. Well, at their current record, I’d like to toot my own horn and say this is one of the few predictions I got right. They have a top order pitching staff, not that anyone who knows Billy Beane would expect any different. The team is still well of being strong, and the constant revolving door of characters that seem to take over this lineup makes it hard to get a feel for the direction of the club. This lineup needs pop, but with a few bats in the lineup they could make noise and play the spoiler role in this division.

Seattle Mariners: I hoped in this bandwagon and jumped off almost immediately. The Ken Griffey show was an awkward farewell, and was probably the most memorable part of the season for Seattle as well. The Cliff Lee trade was meant for a club looking to break through. All the Mariners did was break down. They couldn’t get Lee the run support, let alone any of their other starters, and have one of the worst records in the league because of it. King Felix and Ichiro haven’t gotten much mention this season, and this isn’t a fault of their own. Ichiro is still the best pure hitter of our generation, and will break 200 hits yet again this season. The lone bright spot in what’s otherwise a wash of a season.

Rounding the bases

By Dr. Jekyll

A weekly feature on the good, the bad, and the ugly happening around the diamond

Single: Good for you Barry Zito. You get a single. Do you deserve this single after your past three years? No, you don’t “deserve it”. You were paid to do it, and for the first time in a long time you’re producing. But now that you are, it’s at an elite level again: 5-0, 1.49 ERA, curveball once again one of the strongest in the bigs. This is the Barry Zito we knew and loved. And while that $126 mill will forever be regretted by the Giants, you and Timmy have put together another set of absolutely vicious top of the order starters in the division.

Double: As in the ones coming off the bat of the middle of the Tigers order. If Verlander can get his act together and Dontrelle Willis or anyone else in that mess of a pitching staff get their act together, this is a potent lineup. Between Miguel Cabrerra, Austin Jackson, and Brandon Inge, this team has enough solid pieces to be able to give the Twins a run if they can get the help on top of the rotation. Until then, the middle of this tiger lineup will find itself clawing to stay in contention as the season wears on.

Triple: To the lead leader in the category, and a pleasantly not-awful team this season, Nyjer Morgan. The Nat’s have a winning record after the first month, a solid man in the leadoff order, and Stephen Strasburg is inching closer and closer to the rotation. With Livan Hernandez throwing like a 50 year old with a record of a man still in his prime, all’s unexpectedly well in the nation’s capital.

Home Run: On a team with Matt Kemp and Man-Ram patrolling the outfield, you’d think it would be easy to overlook Andre Ethier. But he’s making that quite difficult. In addition to leading the Dodgers in all three triple crown categories, he’s also either tied for the league lead or leading in the same for the entire National League. Ethier had a very respectable sluggers year last time around, but with 32 RBI’s through 31 games, the kid is playing out of his mind.

Strikin’ them out: With no offense to Will Ferrell, Francisco Liriano is on an absolute tear in the American League. An afterthought in the Twins organization after releasing Johan Santana, Liriano is having a bounce back year so far in an incredibly winnable division. As though the 4-1 record and 1.19 WHIP aren’t impressive enough on their own, Liriano also treated us to a dazzling 23 straight scoreless innings for a three week span to chop in with a sub 2.50 ERA. If Liriano keeps this pace up the Twins can be a real threat with him starting a series come playoff time. Johan who?

Popping Up: The Seattle Mariners went from being a trendy pick to take the division to the makings of another disappointing season. Cliff Lee is looking at a Zack Greinke scenario, all the stats but no W’s. King Felix and Lee are being absolutely robbed. As the Red Sox have demonstrated this season as well, the pitching and defense is swell, but not at the cost of no offensive production. There is no pop in that lineup, and in a year where the division looks to be one of the worst in baseball, there is no excuse for them not to turn this around soon.

Caught Looking: It was going to be the Rays, as they’ve absolutely torn through the first month of the season so far. But now they’re the ones looking, at a spot in the record books and at a whole bunch o’ pitches. Just a few months short of a year after being shown perfection by Mark Buehrle, they replicated the feat with a far less renown pitches, Dallas Braden of the Oakland A’s. His season split isn’t that fantastic, but you have to take a note of perfection when the opportunity arises. The A’s have plenty of pitchers capable in the future of putting together these sorts of records, and it’s always a nice reminder to watch Moneyball at its best. Congrats Braden.

Rounding the bases

By Dr. Jekyll

A look at the good, the bad, and the ugly to this point in the season.

Single: The Athletics are off to a good start in the most up-for-grabs division in baseball. If Ben Sheets keeps his arm the rest of the season they may be able to hang in there for a bit. But that’s asking a lot.

Double: The Minnesota Twins are proving that they don’t need Nathan. But when he does come back around, they’ll be looking to shop a closer. Jon Rauch is a rock in the back of that bullpen right now, and he’ll be worth a hefty price when they go shopping next year.

Triple: The Tampa Bay Rays looked to be third fiddle behind big boys in Boston and New York this year. Apparently, no one told Tampa. Matt Garza looks legit, and this team is flying through a tough early schedule.

Home Run: Jason Heyward is all that and a bag of chips. The slick hitting rookie came into Tuesday tied for the league lead in RBI’s batting in the middle of the order for a team stocked in its rotation. Bobby Cox has to be loving the possibility of another division crown awaiting his sendoff at the end of the season.

Strikin’ them out: All reports of the demise of Tim Lincecum are incredibly premature. The quirky delivery is posting an ERA under 1 thus far in the season, as well as tying for the league lead in wins and leading the strikeouts category. So much for an off year.

Popping up: The Red Sox spent the offseason trying to improve on defense and run prevention. All that’s great, but without a feared middle of the order, there’s not much that’s going to happen. Victor Martinez needs to get his stroke back, and upper management needs to make up their minds on Big Papi.

Caught Looking: The New York Mets are used to being fine on paper and miserable on the field. Well, this year they don’t even have the added bonus of looking good on paper. This team is going nowhere until its roster hops off of the DL. Jason Bay isn’t enjoying the big apple, and neither are the fans.