With the start of Spring Training upon us, I’m going to rank the different aspects of each team in the A. L. West (pitching, lineup, overall) as they head into camp. Today I will start off by ranking the overall pitching staffs of each team.
1. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Pitching staff is the one area of the teams where The The Angels Angels of Anaheim (think about it: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles=The Angels=TTAAA) have a distinct advantage over the Rangers. TTAAA already had the best staff in the American League last season before stealing their biggest rivals’ “Ace”. I think you can safely say that the Angels have the best top-4 starters in baseball now that Oswalt left the Phillies. It all starts with Jared Weaver. Weaver had Cy Young-like numbers last year at 18-8, 2.41 ERA and 198 K’s. Weaver has developed into a true Ace (no quotes needed) as well as one top 3 pitchers in the A.L.
After Weaver TTAAA go Ervin Santana, Dan Haren and C.J. Wilson in some order. Any one of these three guys would be the top pitcher on about half of the staffs in the majors, yet one will be the number 4 in this rotation. While this may sound scary, the numbers make it even worse. When combined with Weaver, the four of these pitchers had an overall ERA of 2.97 last season over 926 innings. This was done over a combined 136 starts to average out to just under 7 innings pitched per start. So you’re looking at four guys who each average 7 innings and only 2 earned runs. Basically, TTAAA have the kind of superstar rotation that the Phillies tried to put together last season, except the back two are better.
The fifth starter is a completely different story. Mike Scioscia has said that it is a wide-open race for the fifth spot, but Jerome Williams seems to be the favorite. He came on strong at the end of the season, posing a 4-0 record in 6 starts with a 3.68 ERA. While this may seem like the rich getting richer, this has all the makings of an anomaly. It was the first time Williams finished a season with a winning record since his first season in the majors when he was 21 and he only finished 7-6 then. His last two seasons before last year he finished with an ERA over 7 and without winning a decision either year. Between then and last year he spent three seasons in the minors and independent leagues, so I’m not entirely convinced by him. With no other guys on the roster with more than 2 starts last year, it’s definitely Williams’ spot to lose, whether that’s a good or a bad thing for TTAAA.
TTAAA’s bullpen is not nearly as top-notch as their rotation, but it really doesn’t have to be four out of every five games. Jordan Walden had a breakout season as the team’s closer, with 32 saves, 2.98 ERA and over a strikeout per inning. Scott Downs and Fernando Rodney were solid, not spectacular in getting to Walden, but Rodney is gone so Downs will be relied on heavily. Without another sturdy option to go to in setting up Walden, TTAAA might rely too much on Downs and/or stretching their starters’ innings.
TTAAA easily has the best overall pitching staff in the A.L. West, possibly in all of the majors, mostly based on the strength of their top 4 starters. But TTAAA knew that it was needed with the lack of offense outside of the newly signed Albert Pujols and the plethora of their division for Rangers. Last year, they had three of the big four and still managed to finish ten games back of the Rangers. TTAAA did snipe the Rangers’ top pitcher, but they’ve reloaded, so does C. J. Wilson make up that 10 game difference? TTAAA will need the young Rangers’ pitchers to digress for that to happen.
2. Texas Rangers
The majority of the time that a team loses its “Ace” starting pitcher that led the team in wins, ERA, and strikeouts their starting pitching as a whole is in trouble. Yet, the Rangers have seemed to have a more promising rotation going into this season than last. Will C. J. Wilson be missed during the regular season? Yes, of course he will. He was one of the better 5 or 10 pitchers in baseball throughout the regular season last year as he went 16-7 in 223.1 innings with 206 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.94. But the regular season success is not what this team expects now: they need someone who doesn’t shy away from the moment in the playoffs. So Jon Daniels took another gamble (and the last 5 years, every gamble he has made has been like betting on the over in the NBA All-Star Game) this time with Japanese starting pitcher Yu Darvish. Darvish’s track record in Japan has made Dice-K’s look like child’s play. He went 18-6 with a 2.95 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 276 K’s while tossing 6 shutouts He also brings in a dominating presence at 6’5’’ and is a fast-ball pitcher as opposed to most of the junk-tossing guys that previously have come out of Japan. While he may not be an “Ace” this season as he transitions into the American style of play, he will be a solid second or third option.
The Rangers also return three other starters that won 14+ games last season led by Derek Holland. Many, including me, believe that the Dutch Oven took the next step last season in his masterful 8 1/3 shutout innings in game 4 of the World Series. In the regular season he went 16-5 with a 3.95 ERA and a 162 K’s, all career bests. Right behind Holland at 14 wins were both Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison. Lewis’ stats aren’t impressive, but he chews up innings (200.1) and gets deep into games, which is what this team is built around. Harrison also had a breakout season as he was a full-time starter for the first time in his career. He ended it with a 3.39 ERA over 185.2 innings. There is one question at starter and that is Alexi Ogando. Last year he busted out winning his first 9 decisions making the All-Star team. The club will now move its All-Star starting pitcher into the bullpen and bring its All-Star closer into the rotation, Neftali Feliz. Nefti has always been thought of as a starter, but the team wanted to ease his way into it. Since his breakout in the minors, he has been seen as a guy with stuff (100+ mph fast ball) to be a top of the rotation guy. With the way that Alexi dominated the 7th and 8th innings in the playoffs, this seems to be the right switch.
If the starter can give the Rangers a quality start (6 IP, 3 ER or less) than it will win the majority of its games with the loaded lineup it puts out there and shutdown bullpen it has developed. Last season, of the returning starters, had a combined 58 quality starts out of 94 for a percentage of just over 61%. If the starter gets to the 7th, then the bullpen has the depth and quality to shut it down the rest of the game. The reason that the club can move Neftali to the rotation is the signing of former All-Star closer Joe Nathan from the Minnesota Twins. Nathan’s presence gives a veteran closing mentality to the team that was one strike away from winning the World Series last year. Bringing Ogando back to the bullpen gives the Rangers the best combo of 7th-8th inning guys in the league with Mike Adams who was arguably the best reliever in the Majors last season. If Koji Uehara can regain the top form he had before being traded to the Rangers last year, his presence along with Scott Feldman as a long reliever/spot starter gives the bullpen solid depth.
Are there questions surrounding the Rangers’ pitching staff going into the season? Well of course there is: will Darvish live up to expectations, will the young pitchers keep progressing, will Feliz make the transition, will a left-handed reliever step up and will Nathan stay healthy. But this staff has more potential to not just succeed but be one of the best in the league than any previous Rangers’ teams going into the season. If the starters can stay healthy as they did last year, and Darvish/Feliz can even come close to their expectations, then pitching appears to be a true strength of the team.
3. Seattle Mariners
The Mariners also decided to flip a proven commodity into prospects for the future when they traded starting pitcher Michael Pineda to the Yankees for catcher Jesus Montero and other prospects. This broke up one of the better 1-2 punches at the top of the rotation of any team outside of Philadelphia. While it definitely will help the struggling lineup, it greatly thinned out an already thin pitching staff.
At the top of the rotation is still King Felix, the best pitcher in the bigs not named Verlander (and even some days I think I might take Felix over Verlander). He finished last season with a .500 record, but that was not due to his own fault. He had an ERA of 3.47 and 222 strikeouts while also tossing five complete games. After Hernandez there are a lot of questions though. Jason Vargas is the now the second guy in the rotation but not by merit. He finished last season at 10-13 with a 4.25 ERA and only 131 K’s. Blake Beaven had his first foray into the majors last season, less than a year after being traded from the Rangers in the Cliff Lee deal. He was unspectacular but not terrible with a 4.27 ERA going 5-6.
After Beaven are two completely unproven commodities, Hisashi Iwakuma and Hector Noesi. Iwakuma was 6-7 with a 2.42 ERA in Japan last season, which when compared to Darvish’s numbers shows he could possibly be a serviceable starter at some point, but that doesn’t seem to be now. Hector Noesi worked most out of the pen last season for the Yankees but then came over to the Mariners in the Pineda trade. He made a couple of starts in which he showed promise, but he probably isn’t ready for the major league level yet.
The bullpen is a little deeper than the rotation led by closer Brandon League. League didn’t get many chances to shut down teams but he did a good job with them saving 37 games last season. The club signed Hong-Chih Kuo away from the Athletics to be their setup man and also added Shawn Kelley to provide late innings. If Charlie Furbishc can transition into a long-innnings man then the bullpen could round out nicely.
Overall the Mariners staff is not as deep or talented as last season, although there is promise. I’d have to give them the slight edge of the Athletics because King Felix is just that good that no matter who is batting on his team, you’ll have a chance to win the game. Without Pineda though, the 29-game gap between the Mariners and first place last year could get even wider this season.
4. Oakland Athletics
The Oakland Athletics ended last season with probably the best pitching staff of any of the A. L. West teams. So what did they do? They completely overhauled it, trading away two of their best starters and best reliever, Trevor Cahill/Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey respectively. They picked up two top-notch prospects in return but I feel like the A’s are beginning to out-moneyball themselves. Gonzalez was phenomenal for the team last year winning 16 games with a 3.12 ERA, 197 K’s, and over 200 innings pitched. Cahill was slightly down last year, but it was just 2010 when he went 18-8 with a 2.97 ERA. While they got plenty of prospects in return, you can win with those two guys right now. The A’s always seem to just be playing for the future.
As it is, Oakland’s top of the rotation is still questionable as Dallas Braden only made three starts last year because of injuries. His lowest ERA for a season has been 3.50 and even that year he finished a measly 11-14 with only 113 strikeouts. I feel like he has been overvalued because of the perfect game he threw a couple of years ago. After him it was supposed to be a couple of Rangers’ castoffs, but with Rich Harden missing this season with an injury it will just be Brandon McCarthy. He did have a very solid season going 9-9 with a 3.32 ERA but compared to the other teams in the division, he would be last in terms of the second starters. To replace Harden, the A’s decided to sign journeyman Bartolo Colon who was barely serviceable at 8-10 with an ERA over 4 last year for the Yankees.
The last two spots will be filled by two of the prospects picked up in trades over the off-season, Jarrod Parker and Brad Peacock. Parker was picked up in the Cahill trade from Arizona and is a highly touted prospect; the problem is he pitched just one game at the end of last season and is coming off Tommy John surgery in 2010. That game was an unyielding outing going 5 strong with no runs, but he has yet to prove himself. Brad Peacock came over in the Gonzalez trade from the Nationals and it’s more of the same: good prospect yet to prove himself on the big league level.
The bullpen is going to sorely miss its closer Bailey, but Brian Fuentes filled in nicely last season when Bailey was hurt. Fuentes will be the set-up man to Grant Balfour, a very good option at closer. However, much like the Angels, the A’s will need some of the young arms in the pen to step up this season, namely Joey Devine and Fautino De Los Santos. They have a severe lack of depth and it could end up causing much strain on the young arms in their rotation.
The Athletics somehow managed to turn the best pitching staff in the division into possibly the worst. While it may have loads of potential, all it is right now is potential. They would need breakout years from multiple guys in both the rotation and the bullpen to even have a puncher’s chance at competing with the top two in the division.
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