During the winter, baseball fans sit around the TV watching the MLB channel hoping to hear that this off season their team pulled in that big name player that is going to shower them with World Series rings for years to come. Now things normally don’t work that easily but that doesn’t mean that the moves during the off season don’t have a lasting impact on the league.
For today we are going to focus our attention on the AL West, which may of had the most dramatic changes out of all of the different divisions in baseball.
Most people look at the biggest moves of the off season to determine the impact those will have, which I will also do, but I also want to look at some minor moves that I think will make an impact this season.
BIG MOVES
Albert Pujols to the Angels- A lot of people are talking about five or six years down the road when this deal might turn bad for the Angels. That is a very likely scenario but in those first four or five years the Angels may just be one of the scariest teams in the American League. A top pitching staff, which now includes CJ Wilson (I’ll touch on this more in a minute), matched up with a now very solid offensive lineup makes this team a force to be reckon with for at least the next three or four years. Am I putting them as my favorite to win the American League and go to the World Series, no, but that doesn’t mean it would surprise me to see them do it.
CJ Wilson to the Angels- This is an interesting move for both the Rangers and Angels. The Angels get another strong starter to add to their already solid pitching staff and the Rangers remove their top starter who could be great one game and then give up a ton of runs the first inning of the next game. Wilson’s stats as a starter may have been a bit inflated because of the high powered offense that the Rangers had to cover up his all to often hiccups.
Yu Darvish to the Rangers- If Yu puts up a good season all this really will do is wash out what was lost when CJ Wilson went to the Angels. However, the Rangers didn’t really need to do a ton this off season to improve after making the World Series two years in a row. Although Darvish may turn out to be a solid starter, I think this was just too big of a risk for a team trying to get over that final speed bump to the promised land.
Jesus Montero traded to the Mariners- A lot of people who didn’t know who Montero was were mad at the idea of trading away Michael Pineda, but I strongly believe that this trade was not only a good move for the M’s, but just possibly was a great move. Yes Pineda was amazing and I loved watching him play, but I hated watching the M’s lose because they couldn’t score even a single run. Montero could be the start of a building process where scoring runs wont be a problem in Seattle. This move will have some impact this year but even more in two to three years.
A’s trade away everything and get lots of great prospects. The A’s wont be fighting for a playoff spot this year but that doesn’t mean they will be horrible. The talent they got this off season was young and unproven, but could just be the building blocks to a strong team in a couple of years.
BELOW THE RADAR MOVES
Figgins moves to lead off. I don’t think people realize just how hard it is to change positions in the field and in the batting order. Figgins was forced to do both in the same season and yes I think that messed him up. If he can recover his lost ability, this just might be the off season move of the year for the M’s. If it doesn’t work out then it just nails the coffin shut on the worst signing in Z’s short time as GM.
Rangers choose not to sign Fielder. I really think this helps the Rangers. That ball club is a very united and supportive group and bringing in big name outsiders can throw that off at times. The Rangers have not had problems scoring runs, so throwing out 200 million dollars would of been more of a hindrance then anything for them.
Mark Trumbo moving from 1st to 3rd. Last season Trumbo played 149 games at 1st base and 0 at 3rd base. After hitting 29 home runs last season you just have to wonder if the young player doesn’t get thrown off his game a bit with this change. However, having Pujols in the lineup to protect you probably helps that transition at the plate a little bit.
My projections are very simple for this year. I still think the Rangers are the team to beat and although I don’t think they make it to the World Series three years in a row I think they do win the AL West in a very tight race to the end. As for the Angels I actually think they could be the team that steals the Wild Card away from the AL East. The M’s and A’s will get their chance to fight it out at the bottom of the division with neither team really threatening this year for the play offs. Next year might be a different story though.