1. Texas Rangers
The Rangers bring back the most loaded lineup top-bottom in the major league. This is the area where the 2-time defending American League champions separate themselves from the pack, especially in their division. It all starts at the top with second baseman Ian Kinsler. While some like having Elvis before him to put more guys on for Kins, I feel that he is one of the best leadoff men in baseball IF he is not in a home run mood. Kinsler can make some of the best solid-line drive contact of anyone in the division, but tends to take some huge uppercuts as he tries to swing for the fences like last season (.255/.355/.477 with 32 bombs). Good numbers for a 5 hole, not a leadoff. If he can realize that four of the next five hitters are all legitimate threats to hit it out on every pitch, and just worry about getting on then this lineup is nearly unstoppable.
In the 2-hole was Elvis Andrus a lot last year, but I think it’s time to move Michael Young back. He had one of the better seasons of his career in his first go at being a primary DH. If he can come close to those numbers (.338/.380/.474), the second spot is prime for him to get on and allow Josh Hamilton to do this thing. If he’s there, or in the middle the club needs another strong season from him. Elvis had a decent season himself posting career highs .279/.347/.361 while stealing 37 bases. He even added some pop with almost doubling his home run total having 5. If he adds that line-drive power he is dangerous. Hambone has had a troubling past few weeks and has definitely rubbed me the wrong way with his comment that he “doesn’t owe the Rangers anything”. Now I’m not saying that he does owe them to give them a discount on his contract, I mean a guy has to make his money. But with the recent events surrounding his relapse, I’d like to see a little more humility. Either way, when the guy is in the lineup, he rakes and is protected by the best third baseman in baseball, Adrian Beltre. Beltre did not disappoint in his first year with the Rangers living up to every penny of his contract hitting .296/.331/.561 with 32 home runs and 105 RBI. He seems to love it in Texas, especially hitting behind Hamilton and in front of masher Nelson Cruz. Like Hamilton, Cruz just crushes the ball when he’s healthy, but that has always been the issue with either one of them. While he may be the only Ranger with triple-digit strikeouts, he did become the most clutch hitter when the game was on the line with a series of walkoff home runs.
This is where the lineup gets extremely dangers. In the six spot will mostly be Mike Napoli, and the seven spot will see a good deal of David Murphy. Ya know, the two guys who had the best August/Septembers at the plate in all of baseball, and they are hitting 6 and 7 (or 7 and 8 if Elvis is in the 2 spot). With Napoli, the Rangers have arguably the best hitting catcher in the game .320/.414/.631 (outrageous OPS of 1.046). At the back end of the lineup you will see a mixture of people depending on where Ron Washington has Michael Young and Mike Napoli (who’s DH’ing or catching that day). That mixture will include Mitch Moreland (.259/.320/.414), Craig Gentry (.271/.347/.346) and Yorvit Torrealba (.273/.306/.399) for the most part, and as you will soon see after reading about the rest of the West, all of which would hit in the middle or top of the lineup with any other team in the division.
Overall this lineup is as deep as they come in the majors. No other team can go 1-8 deep with as good of bats as the Rangers do. The great pitching of recent times in the west has somewhat overshadowed the lineup in general, but with the A’s and Mariners dealing four of the best pitchers in the division, look for the bats to really breakout even more than they have the past few years.
2. The The Angels Angels of Anahiem
TTAAA caught the biggest fish in free agency since A-Rod when they signed Albert Pujols away from the St. Louis Cardinals. It caught almost everyone by surprise as the deal all came together in about 48 hours, but in retrospect it needed to happen if they wanted to contend with the Rangers. Texas was just getting better and more experience and TTAAA were getting older and losing some of the stroke. Inserting Pujols in that lineup (really, him in any lineup) injects the best hitter of the past twelve years and causes everyone else to be somewhat overlooked at the plate.
Leading off for TTAAA will be Erick Aybar who wasn’t that great of a leadoff man with a .322 OB and 30 steals last year. Hitting second will probably be whoever is DH’ing that game (most likely by the other team’s starting pitcher as Morales hits right, and Abreu left), either Bobby Abreu’s ghost or Kendry Morales. Morales missed the past season and a half after injuring himself in a walkoff celebration, so I can’t see much out of him even if he’s healthy. Abreu has been on a free fall since his Home Run Derby win of 2005, although he did have the highest OB of any regular last season at .353 (which still isn’t that great). These two spots will be key to set the table for when Pujols comes up so that he just doesn’t get a free pass.
After Pujols it will probably be some combination of Torii Hunter, Mark Trumbo and Howie Kendrick. I think TTAAA will stick with Trumbo at third base, or if neither of the previous DH’s are hitting well out of spring have Trumbo go there. Last year’s rookie of the year runner-up led all rookies with 29 bombs and 87 RBI’s so I think Scioscia will put him after Hunter in hopes of keeping guys on for him. Howie Kendrick is a solid 6-hole as he was second on the team with a .285 average and tied for first in total bases at 249.
The next spot is the most interesting for TTAAA, as the question of whether Vernon Wells can rebound could be the x-factor for this team. If Wells can play like he did pre-contract with the Blue Jays, then the lineup can at least hit in the same ballpark as the Rangers, but if it’s more of the .218/.248/.412 of last season then he will be the gaping hole again. After him is the weakest spot in their lineup, catcher Chris Iannetta. He comes over from the Rockies and while his numbers don’t look that bad, when you factor in that he was .262/.377.492 at Coors Field and .208/.338/.369 everywhere else, you can see how much the home park helped him. Rounding out the lineup will be Peter Bourjos, a serviceable nine-spot. He has good speed with 22 SB and a little bit of pop as well (12 HR).
You can easily see that outside of Pujols the Rangers have the edge in every other spot in the lineup. What will be interesting is how it all shakes out. I think that Abreu will struggle and Morales will stay hurt, meaning Trumbo will move to DH and Alberto Callaspo (their leading hitter by average last season) will come in at third base. To me, it seems better that way, but Ranger fans should like it better with him or Trumbo on the pine. Either way, the lineup outside of Pujols will have to take advantage of the better pitches they will see if they want to keep up with Texas
3. Seattle Mariners
The drop-off between the top two lineups in the division to the third is as drastic as it gets in the majors. The Mariners at least have made some upgrades to their lineup (although it may have destroyed their pitching depth). While they may not have any big names past Ichiro, this lineup has somewhat of a bright future. The problem is giving the young guys experience, as last year only Ichiro and Olivio had enough at bats to qualify for average.
The Mariners might have to leadoff with veteran Chone Figgins. Figgins was supposed to be battling for the third base spot but with Franklin Gutierrez tearing his pectoral muscle and being out for the time being, Figgins will have to take over the center field and leadoff holes vacated. He had the worst season of his career last year with a .188/.241/.243 split and only 11 steals. However, he is a lifetime .280/.352/.368 guy who if he can get back to form could be a solid leadoff. The second spot will probably be top prospect Dustin Ackley. The second baseman played the second half of last season quite well, putting up a split of .273/.348/.417 while drawing 40 walks. He played outfield in college so he might get some time in center as well.
Ichiro looked like he was finally starting to tail off last season, but with a .272/.310/.335 he still is a 200-hit threat. Mike Carp will likely hit cleanup, basically out of the lack of power on the team. No one hit 20 homers last season, and Carp at least was on pace to if he played the whole season. His batting average was also highest (.276) among regulars. Jesus Montero will either be fifth or switch with carp in cleanup. The gem of the Michael Pineda trade, Montero has plus power. The problem is the cavernous ravine that is Safeco Field, so it could cause the 22-year old some growing pains. Nonetheless, in his brief career he has hit a bomb once every 4 games and hit .328/.406/.590. After Montero will be the Rangers’ castoff Justin Smoak. In his first full year as a starter, Smoak struggled with a .234/.323..396. For a guy who is supposed to have some pop, the slugging and home run total (15 HR, 55 RBI) have to trend upward.
The bottom of the lineup starts with veteran catcher Miguel Olivio. He had an above average home run year with 19, but only hit .224/.253/.388 with 140 K’s to only 20 walks. He needs to cut that strikeout total in half to really help this lineup. Kelly Seager looks to get the third base spot. In his first stint in the bigs last year, he was serviceable at .258/.312/.379. The year before last he led the minors in hits with 192 so he could have a breakout year. Rounding out the lineup is shortstop Brendan Ryan. He is a defensive minded fielder that gets hot about a month out of every year, the Mariners could really use a consistent year from him.
The Mariners have a few guys who could breakout with their first full year in the majors (Ackley, Montero,Carp) but still are mostly considered prospects. They will need Ichiro and Figgins to get back to their career norms couple with these guys breakout out if they even want a chance at competing in the West.
4. Oakland Athletics
Jemile Weeks, Cliff Pennington, Coco Crisp, Seth Smith, Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Kurt Suzuki, Daric Barton and Josh Donaldson. Unless you are a baseball nut or fantasy dork (like myself) then odds are you haven’t heard of any of them except Coco Crisp because his name is sweet. This list of prospects are pieces of either what the A’s had traded their stud pitchers for, recently drafted prospects, or bargain “moneyball” guys as Billy Beane still tries to outsmart everyone else.
Weeks led the team in batting, although it was only 97 games worth, but he still put up a solid .303 average. However his on base was slacking at just .340, not good enough for a leadoff. Cliff Pennington has the second spot in the lineup and has the second best returning average: .264. He also struck out 104 times and only boasted an on-base of .319, which I’m going to guess would end up being the worst for any 2-hole in the league. Crisp at leads has a plus talent in his speed as he stole 49 bags last year only getting caught 9 times. His on-base and slugging (.264/.314) last year were extremely low for a guy hitting third, especially in this division.
Most likely hitting cleanup will be one of the A’s additions, Seth Smith. Smith was with the Rockies last season and just like Ianettea for the Angels, his statistics were Coors-inflated. Smith hit 302/367/568 at Coors Field and just .248/.326/.410 away from it. Now there’s usually a drop in road numbers, but when it’s going from an All-Star to a guy clinging to the 40-man, then they should be noticed. The most interesting player in this lineup is Cespedes. He is a 5-tool outfielder supposedly born in 1985 who defected from Cuba this past off season. Last season in Cuba, he hit .333/.424/.667 with 33 home runs and 99 batted in with just 90 games to play in. While those numbers seem ridiculously good, you have to remember that the depth of the Cuban league is about equivocal to High-A in the U.S. He still has much to prove.
Josh Reddick came over in the Andrew Bailey trade from the Red Sox. While he came on strong at the end of last season, Reddick is still a career .248/.290/.416 hitter in the bigs and only hit .243/.300.449 in the minors. His slugging is decent for a guy who really doesn’t hit many home runs (7 in 87 games last year) but those other numbers seem to be the norm for him, much different than what the Moneyball A’s need. After Reddick will probably be Kurt Suzuki who peaked in 08 but led the league in games caught back to back years and has tailored off to the paltry .237/.301/.385 last year with only 14 home runs and 44 batted in. I think Daric Barton will emerge over Brandon Allen at first base, but either way you’re looking at a guy who teetered around .200 at the plate last year. Josh Donaldson will be forced into the third baseman role since Scott Sizemore is already done for the year. Donaldson, a catcher at the minor league level, only has 32 big-league at bats to his name with a pitiful .156/.206/.281 and 12 K’s.
There may be some intriguing players in this lineup like Reddick or Cespedes, the depth and top quality is lacking. When facing the pitching staffs of TTAAA or Rangers there’s no way that this lineup will be able to score with them. They will rely on their young pitchers to get them in even competitive games. You would be hard-pressed to find a worse lineup in the league.
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