April Didn't Exist for the AL West

It’s May 1, 2010.

Usually you can’t tell anything after one month in the baseball season… but in the AL West that is literally true.

All 4 teams are tied in the loss column.

All 4 teams have lost 12 games.

And nobody has a winning record.

Technically the A’s and Angels are tied for first because they have also WON 12 games while the Mariners and Rangers have only won 11.

If I were the general managers of each of those I would take a look at whatever their biggest weakness is and address it NOW. If the goal is to make the playoffs, then one month in… everyone has a shot.

I’m dead serious. If I ran an AL West team, I’d be chatting with the Astros about Roy Oswalt. If I had a phenom in AAA right now, I’d call him up.

If there’s a spot open in the rotation, I’d give Jarrod Washburn a flier.

(And why is Washburn still unemployed for that matter?


Sure the Angels are still the team to beat, but their pitching has been disappointing.

The A’s have pitched well but their lineup is truly mediocre.

The Rangers have had surprisingly effective pitching yet they haven’t been getting All Star contributions from the likes of Josh Hamilton and Michael Young. And keep in mind once the weather heats up, their effective pitching will wilt.

The Mariners have stuck in Cliff Lee to their rotation and tonight threw 7 shutout innings… but the M’s were shut out themselves.

Might be time to look for a new bat as the team has fewer homers than Paul Konerko at this point.

(I guess the Milton Bradley experiment hasn't been a smashing success... might be time to designate him for assignment.)

Seriously… patch the holes and play in October. There seems to be good seats available for each of these teams. Heck, in Oakland, there are entire decks of empty seats.

So make a run for it, AL West. By the looks of it, 83 wins might get you October revenue.