Welcome to the third installment of “By the Numbers” – the American League West! If you missed the previous two articles, you can find the AL East here and the AL Central here. Take it from me, they’re awesome. So teams are already getting feisty and we’re not even three full weeks into the season. Zack Greinke hit Carlos Quentin (again), and Carlos Quentin proceeded to demolish Greinke’s collarbone (no thanks to Greinke getting in the way of the Mack truck that is Carlos Quentin running full speed right at you). And then Matt Kemp said “We’ll see, bitch!”
God, I would love to see Carlos Quentin and Matt Kemp go at it MMA style. Kemp definitely has him in reach, but Quentin seems like he’s a bit quicker and I think he could get under Kemp’s punches and get him to the ground.
Quentin by arm-bar in the 2nd. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!
OAKLAND ATHLETICS – 15/16
A fraction? What the fuck? No, it’s not actually a fraction – it’s actually the number of pitchers the Oakland A’s had throw at least 35 innings with an ERA below 4.00 last season (Tyson Ross, BTW, is the pitcher who failed to accomplish said feat. He has since been banished to the San Diego Padres rotation). Now, the A’s have the most under appreciated pitching friendly stadium in the entire majors – the field is so wide you could probably land an airplane in it – but still, having 15 of 16 pitchers put up an ERA under 4 while all logging that many innings is absurd and stupid and ridiculous and that pitching staff is really, honestly, actually that damn good.
WHO TO WATCH FOR: Yoenis Cespedes! So this is what it’s like to finally have a Cuban hitter come into the league and tear shit up. One of the most exciting players in the game, I’m not sure anybody can hit it further or harder. I remember him hitting a blast off of a Hector Santiago screwball last year – that sucked.
TEXAS RANGERS – .694
This is not the winning percentage in games in which the Rangers hit 2 home runs at home in the afternoon (though that would be a pretty off-the-wall and generally meaningless statistic). No, this is Elvis Andrus’s career OPS, and that’s relevant because he recently signed an 8-year, $118 million extension. He’s still incredibly young (he’s 24 and entering his 5th full season), he’s still awesome defensively, and he can handle the bat, though he (obviously) hasn’t been very good with it. Fear not, Rangers fans! The most comparable player on a year to year basis to Elvis Andrus is the great Hall of Fame snub Alan Trammell.
WHO TO WATCH FOR: Anybody touching Adrian Beltre’s head. I still find that video absolutely hilarious. Adrian Beltre does not like to be touched in the head:
LOS ANGELES ANGELS – 94
This offseason, the Angels lost Torii Hunter to free agency - and replaced him with former druggie and occasional binge drinker Josh Hamilton for $125 mill. Nevermind that they just spent $317.5 million on Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson the year before, they just throw money around like it’s worth nothing. The worst part is that their offense was just fine already thanks to some dude named Mike Trout (whom I love unconditionally). Perhaps they should have ponied up and spent money on Greinke to prevent his collarbone from exploding because that aforementioned number of 94 was their ERA+ last year. Now they’ve rid themselves of Dan Haren (who looks like garbage anyways), Ervin Santana, and Greinke while Jared Weaver is on the DL. For the next 6 weeks, they’ll be running out CJ Wilson, Joe Blanton, Jason Vargas, Tommy Hanson, and Garrett Richards. Yikes.
WHO TO WATCH FOR: Mike.Trout. How have you not figured this out yet?
SEATTLE MARINERS – 4
All of the moves this team has done to try and improve their offense – trade for Jesus Montero, sign Chone Figgins, even bringing in the immortal Jack Cust – and yet, for four straight seasons, the Mariners have finished dead last in runs scored. They moved the fences in this year to try and help their hitters, but that is an absolutely boring, boring lineup (aside from, apparently, Michael Morse, he of phantom grand slam fame). The fences thing might help – and there’s one last team to cover in the AL that’s pretty awful too – but this team is still not talented enough to finish better than 4th in the division, even with a weakened Angels team.
Mike Morse is cold.
WHO TO WATCH FOR: Mike Zunino, the 3rd overall pick from last year’s draft. The young catcher has done nothing but hit since coming onto the scene and will likely get a call at some point this year, at which point he will try to do his best Buster Posey impersonation. Currently, through 10 games, he’s sporting a nifty .986 OPS. Homie can hit.
HOUSTON ASTROS – 10
The Houston Astros lost 106 games two years ago. They lost 107 last year. They’re probably going to do something similar again this year. They’re bad. But they get a 10 out of 10 for the uniform update because I have a mega boner for teams who do modern renditions of throwback uniforms… and the Astros nailed it. Also, they’re going about their rebuild the right way, taking on low-cost pitchers who have shown success in the past while throwing a slew of young hitters up to bat, with the two horrifying exceptions being Erik Bedard and Rick Ankiel.
WHO TO WATCH FOR: Chris Carter. First and foremost, in a Rob Deer or Mark Reynolds mold, he could strike out 240 times and still be a valuable asset to his team because his power is that damn good. Secondly, and more importantly to this author, I interviewed him about 6 years ago when he was still a wee little pup in the White Sox farm system, though the link to the original interview piece is now dead. Hooray for talking to professional athletes!
Stay tuned for future editions as I discuss the rest of the divisions in Major League Baseball. If you missed them, check out Part 1 – The American League East by the Numbers and Part 2 – The American League Central by the Numbers.
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