With only 1 day of games left before the all-star break, the AL West is tighter than ever now. Only 3.5 games seperate the division leading Oaklans A's and the cellar dwelling Seattle Mariners. The Rangers are 1 game back and the Angels, after consecutive wins over the A's, are only 3 game back.

Most people would probably still pick the A's to win the division because of Zito, Haren, Harden, and Blanton in the rotation. While those guys are all having good years, except Blaton who has an ERA near 5, the rest of the division is making a strong case to be division winners as well.

Los Angeles Angels
The Angels actually have a better rotation than the Athletics with John Lackey, Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana, Kelvin Escobar, and Bartolo Colon. In his last outing, Lackey pitched almost as good as anyone can giving up a leadoff single then retiring 27 straight batters. Weaver is also 6-0 with a microscopic 1.12 ERA in 6 starts this year. Colon has struggled but Escobar and Santana are both having solid seasons. I would give the Angels the edge offensively as well. The A's have only 1 everday starter batting over .270 (Jay Payton at .283) while the Angels have 4 (Guerrero, Cabrera, Rivera, Napoli) with 2 others on the cusp of .270. While the A's have hit more homeruns and have a higher OBP as a team than the Angels, the Angels have more runs scored, a higher SLG and a higher OPS.

Overall Angel Evaluation: The Angels have a better pitching staff and slightly better offense. Right now I would pick them to win over the A's.


Seattle Mariners
The A's clearly have the advantage over the Mariners in terms of the pitching rotation with only Moyer and Meche really getting the job done, and Washburn turning out to be a disappointment. The back-end of the Mariner pen, Soriano and Putz, are also much better than the A's closing tandem, but it can be argued that it's due to Macha's mis-management of his bullpen. The Oakland ERA is also 28 points lower than the Mariners ERA with OAVG being about the same. The Mariners have a clear advantage on offense with Ichiro playing like the beast he is, and Ibanez doing better than a lot of Oakland A's combined. The Seattle offense has scored about 45 more runs than Oakland, homeruns are almost the same as are the OBP, but Seattle lead in slugging and OPS.

Overall Mariner Evaluation: I would probably go with the A's over the Mariners. Despite the Mariners offensive advantage, it's pitching that wins games and Oakland has the better pitching staff.

Texas Rangers
How can you talk about pitching without including the Rangers. lol
Their pitching rotation has been much better than in previous years but everyone else's in the division is still better. The Rangers have 4 guys with ERA's below 5, which being the Rangers is impressive in itself. The Rangers have a 4.66 team ERA compared to the A's 4.20 team ERA. The Oakland staff has also allowed 35 less runs than the Rangers with a 14 point differential in the OAVG. The Rangers always have the offensive edge. Their .282 team BA is almost 40 points higher than the A's team BA. Their OBP is more than 20 points higher, and the slugging is over 60 points higher. Texas has also scored almost 70 more runs than Oakland. Despite this, it is the Oakland pitching staff that has kept them ahead of Texas this year. Oddly enough, the A's have actually outhomered the Rangers this year by 1. This has become known as the year of the double for Texas as they already have 3 guys with 30 or more doubles and one other who should be there soon.

Overall Rangers Evaluation: I would pick the A's over the Rangers by a very narrow margin. The A's have the better pitching staff but the Rangers nearly blow out the A's on offense. I would not be surprised to see the Rangers overtake the A's though with their dangerous offense.

Predicted Standings
1st-Los Angeles Angels
2nd-Oakland Athletics
2nd-Texas Rangers
4th-Seattle Mariners

Standings notes: The Angels rotation is the best in the division and too good to ignore. It can also not be ignored the fact that the Angels took 2 out of 3 in their recent series against the A's, and will be looking to make it 3 out of 4 in the finale today. Also not to be ignored is the fact that the Angels have won 7 of their last 8 games.