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The American League West may have lost one of the best pitchers in the Majors over the offseason, but there is plenty of talent left in the division.<\/p>\nThe American League West may have lost one of the best pitchers in the Majors over the offseason, but there is plenty of talent left in the division.<\/p>\n
2010 final standings<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Texas Rangers (90-72) The 2010\/11 Offseason<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite their best efforts, the Texas Rangers were unable to keep starting pitcher Cliff Lee in the AL West when he became a free agent.\u00c2\u00a0 Lee was traded by the Philadelphia Phillies to the Seattle Mariners during the 2009\/10 offseason, before the M\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s traded him on to their division rivals midway through the 2010 season.\u00c2\u00a0 Lee decided to complete the circle by heading back to Philadelphia over the offseason, so the Rangers took their money and spent it on another former Mariner: third baseman Adrian Beltre, who played for the Red Sox in 2010.<\/p>\n That was bad news for the Angels.\u00c2\u00a0 They lost their number one offseason target when Carl Crawford joined the Red Sox and Beltre was widely considered to be their back-up option before the Rangers swooped in and took him off the market.\u00c2\u00a0 The Angels reacted by trading for the Blue Jays\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 outfielder Vernon Wells, taking on all but $5m of the $86m due over the remaining four years on his contract.\u00c2\u00a0 They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve acquired a good player in Wells, but it was strange to see them miss out on their primary targets due to refusing to match rival offers, only to take on what was considered an almost unmovable contract.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n The Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also had to deal with the disappointment of missing out on a main target when they failed to come to terms on a contract with Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma.\u00c2\u00a0 However, they went back to work and spent the money in different ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Firstly they strengthened the offence by signing former Angel Hideki Matsui as a free agent and trading for outfielders David DeJesus and Josh Willingham.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they added to the bullpen by signing free agents Grant Balfour and another former Angel in Brian Fuentes.<\/p>\n In contrast to one year ago, it was a quiet offseason in Seattle.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no big trade for a leading pitcher, just a few minor pick-ups such as acquiring former A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bopper Jack Cust and catcher Miguel Olivo (who was signed as an amateur free agent by the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back in 1996).<\/p>\n Returning stars<\/strong><\/p>\n The Rangers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offence looks set to put plenty of runs on the board again this year.\u00c2\u00a0 Beltre will join reigning Most Valuable Player Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler in a group that should hit plenty of homers, while Michael Young will serve as an unconventional designated hitter and infield sub.\u00c2\u00a0 There was much discussion on whether the reigning AL Rookie of the Year Neftali Feliz would remain as the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closer or move into the starting rotation and it was confirmed on Thursday that he will continue as the closer for the time being.\u00c2\u00a0 The Rangers couldn’t lose either way with a talent like Feliz.<\/p>\n When it comes to pitching, the Angels can match-up well with most in the Majors.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to forget after a disappointing offseason that the Angels acquired a genuine ace in Dan Haren at the end of July last year.\u00c2\u00a0 He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll form part of an impressive rotation alongside Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana and Joel Pineiro, while they should get plenty of support in the outfield with Wells, Torii Hunter and young speedster Peter Bourjos covering plenty of ground.\u00c2\u00a0 However, the Angels did receive some bad news recently when they learned that first baseman Kendrys Morales will start the season on the Disabled List as he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet regained full fitness since breaking his leg while celebrating a walk-off home run on 29 May last year.<\/p>\n The division’s pitching depth continues in Oakland where starters Trevor Cahill, Gio Gonzalez, Brett Anderson and perfect-game-pitcher Dallas Braden form an exciting group of hurlers.\u00c2\u00a0 The question is whether the offence can provide enough run support to push the team on from their .500 finish in 2010.\u00c2\u00a0 Matsui and Willingham should add some power and a healthy Coco Crisp will give the team a sparkplug at the top of the lineup.<\/p>\n As for the Mariners, they are rightly proud to field reigning Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez and the great Ichiro Suzuki in right-field.\u00c2\u00a0 The rest of the roster are a mixed bag, but that could create some surprisingly positive stories as the season unfolds.\u00c2\u00a0 Chone Figgins had a poor first year in Seattle and will be determined to show\u00c2\u00a0that 2010\u00c2\u00a0was just an off-year, first baseman Justin Smoak will be out to show why he was the deal-breaker for the M\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when they traded Cliff Lee to the Rangers, and there is plenty of excitement surrounding 22 year old starting pitcher Michael Pineda.<\/p>\n Managers<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a relatively settled picture in the West.\u00c2\u00a0 Mike Scioscia is entering his twelfth year as manager of the Angels, while Bob Geren and Ron Washington both have four years of experience managing the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Rangers respectively.\u00c2\u00a0 The newcomer is Eric Wedge and he is not new to managing in the Majors.\u00c2\u00a0 He spent seven years as manager of the Cleveland Indians and after one year out of the game returns to the hot seat with the Mariners.<\/p>\n Contenders?<\/strong><\/p>\n Should be: Rangers<\/p>\n Could be: A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, Angels<\/p>\n Won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be: Mariners<\/p>\n The Rangers have the all-round talent to stay ahead of the pack, but both the A’s and Angels could push them all the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The American League West may have lost one of the best pitchers in the Majors over the offseason, but there is plenty of talent left in the division<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[404,125,553,128,127,126],"class_list":["post-10455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb-2","tag-2011-mlb-preview","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-mlb-2","tag-oakland-as","tag-seattle-mariners","tag-texas-rangers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10466,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10455\/revisions\/10466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. Oakland Athletics (81-81)
\n3. Los Angeles Angels (80-82)
\n4. Seattle Mariners (61-101)<\/p>\n