By Dan Celauro, After the Buzzer Sports
I’m happy to have Dan Celauro from After the Buzzer Sports share his thoughts and predictions on how the American League West is going to shake out this season. If you’d like to write a guest post for Chin Music Baseball, please contact me.
Oakland Athletics
Going into 2015, the Oakland A’s were coming off three straight postseason appearances. However, they also inexplicably sold off their team’s most notable player, trading All-Star third baseman Josh Donaldson to the Toronto Blue Jays. Donaldson went on to win the 2015 American League MVP award while the A’s finished in last place.
Oakland has made some nice moves this past winter, though. In the bullpen, they acquired former closers in Ryan Madson and John Axford, along with sluggers Khris Davis and Yonder Alonso for the offense. However, the biggest problem is their starting rotation.
They have a great young ace in Sonny Gray, but there aren’t much certainties beyond him. Rich Hill comes in on a one-year, $6 million contract, but hasn’t proven himself outside of his late-season surge with the Boston Red Sox last year.
The other three names in the rotation consist of Jesse Hahn, Kendall Graveman and Henderson Alvarez (once he’s deemed healthy). While there could be some potential upside to these young starters, none of them are proven besides Gray. With a lack of depth and experience in the starting rotation, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear the Athletics are expected to finish in the same spot they finished in 2015: last place.
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Los Angeles Angels
Let me ask you a hypothetical question. If your team has the best player in baseball and you miss the playoffs by one game, wouldn’t you go all in that following winter?
Well, this is the exact spot the Angels were in following the 2015 season. They missed the second AL Wild Card spot by one game and have Mike Trout on their payroll, who’s the best player in the world. However, their moves this offseason didn’t reflect a big market team ready to win right now.
Their biggest move was trading two top pitching prospects in Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis to the Atlanta Braves for shortstop Andrelton Simmons. Why? Well, I can’t really tell you. Don’t get me wrong — Simmons is the game’s best defensive shortstop, but he doesn’t really do anything that well on the offensive side. Plus, the Angels already had an average shortstop in Erick Aybar.
It was already a questionable move, but also giving up two top prospects made it even worse. Trading for Simmons wasn’t the worst move of the Angels’ offseason, though. It was the one they didn’t make. LA’s biggest need was getting a left fielder. With big names like Yoenis Cespedes, Justin Upton and Alex Gordon all testing free agency, it was assumed one would likely end up with the Halos.
However, team owner Arte Moreno apparently didn’t want to go over the luxury tax threshold. He’s stated this has nothing to do with the organization’s offseason plan, but multiple reports surfaced saying otherwise. Not spending money on an impact bat this winter shows us the Angels are content having an anemic offense once again and wasting another year of Trout’s stellar career.
Seattle Mariners
After a surprising 2014 campaign, 2015 was a complete failure for Seattle. There were a popular pick to win the AL West and make a playoff run, but they instead finished in fourth place with a losing record.
Outfielder Nelson Cruz enjoyed a great first season with the Mariners by hitting 44 home runs, but not a whole lot else went right in the Emerald City, with perennial ace Felix Hernandez having one of his worst seasons (3.53 ERA) and Robinson Cano struggling mightily in the first half.
The Mariners aren’t considered favorites to win the division in 2016, but they could be a sleeper team to watch if their All-Stars perform up to expectations. There’s a solid core at the plate with Cano, Cruz and Kyle Seager, along with King Felix and Hisashi Iwakuma leading the rotation. The X-factor for the M’s could be their new closer, Steve Cishek. Before getting sent down to Triple-A and eventually dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals last year, Cishek did enjoy a 39-save campaign in 2014. If he can find that form again and other things fall into place, Seattle could make some noise.
Texas Rangers
To put it plainly, the Rangers shocked the baseball world last season. Expectations were very low heading into 2015, and they only got lower once Yu Darvish had to undergo Tommy John surgery. Despite these two things working against them, they stayed within striking distance of the Houston Astros and solidified their rotation by acquiring Cole Hamels at the trade deadline.
Texas continued playing catch-up over the season’s final two months before overtaking Houston and clinching the AL West in the final week. Some are considering them favorites this year because they have most of their roster returning and Darvish will also be back from his rehab soon, giving them a great one-two punch at the top of the rotation.
While I believe the Rangers have the talent to repeat as division champs, I am giving the division crown to the next team, primarily because of their youth.
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Houston Astros
From 2010-14, there wasn’t anyone worse than the Astros, as they compiled a 308-502 record. That’s right – they were nearly 200 games under .500 in a five-year span.
They were expected to be much better in 2015 and possibly produce a winning record, but being a legitimate playoff contender wasn’t in the conversation. Like the Rangers, they outperformed expectations considerably and led the division most of the season until being overtaken by Texas.
I believe the Astros will win the division for the first time since moving over to the American League in 2013, mainly because of the tremendous amount of youth and talent on this roster. Middle infielders Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve are leading the way in that respect.
While he’s only 21 and hasn’t spent a full year in the big leagues yet, some consider Correa to be baseball’s best shortstop. The reigning AL Rookie of the Year put up gaudy numbers for a first-year player, hitting .279 with 22 homers in just 99 games played. Altuve is older (25), but has enjoyed two straight seasons of 200-plus hits and owns a career .305 batting average.
These two young studs will lead Houston at the plate, with the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner in Dallas Keuchel leading the way on the mound. He established himself as one of the game’s best hurlers by winning 20 games and posting a 2.48 ERA with 216 strikeouts last year.
If the Astros are going to win this division, these three studs must repeat 2015’s success, and they should have no problem doing that.
Like what Dan has to say? Then check out the rest of his MLB Picks at After the Buzzer Sports. You can also get all of their updates on Facebook, along with memes, gifs and polls on Twitter: @After_theBuzzer.
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