A's and Rangers

Hello again, so here here we go with the top two teams of the AL West last year, the Oakland Athletics and the Texas Rangers.  Talk about once again, a tale of two different teams with drastically different expectations last year, but with results that could be described as expected and unexpected for both.  The Oakland A's best known going into the year for the movie Moneyball, and a low payroll as always; and the Texas Rangers, perennial contenders who lost the division on the last day and lost in the wildcard game.

Oakland Athletics

2012 Record: 94-68

Manager: Bob Melvin

2013 Projected Starters: Brett Anderson, Bartolo Colon, Jarrod Parker, Tommy Milone, AJ Griffin

2013 Projected Fielders: C John Jaso, 1B Brandon Moss, 2B Adam Rosales, SS Hiroyuki Nakajima, 3B Josh Donaldson, LF Yoenis Cespedes, CF Coco Crisp, RF Josh Reddick, DH ??(Not currently listed on depth chart)

2012 Recap: As I said earlier, going into the season the only buzz about the team was about the movie Moneyball, but by the end of the year, everyone was talking about this team.  They dealt with a 50 game suspension for PEDs for Bartolo Colon, who is getting up there in years for sure, I honestly would've thought he'd be out of the game by now. By season's end they managed to chase down the Rangers for the AL West title and overtake them in the final 3 games of the season, leading them to a division series matchup with the Tigers.  Even though they lost in the division series to the Tigers, the fact is that compared to their expectations going into the year, it was a definite improvement. The question now becomes what happens this year?

2013 Outlook: I am not sure what to think of this team, they really didn't do much to improve their team in the offseason, but they never do. They have always had a very low payroll, hence the need to develop the "moneyball" system, to get more out of the players that they could afford. I like them to have a solid season, but I cannot see them making the playoffs with the Rangers and Angels in their division.

Projected 2013 Wins: 85

Texas Rangers

2012 Record: 93-69

Manager: Ron Washington

2013 Projected Starters: Matt Harrison, Yu Darvish, Derek Holland, Alexei Ogando, Martin Perez

2013 Projected Fielders: C AJ Pierzynski, 1B Mitch Moreland, 2B Ian Kinsler, SS Elvis Andrus(thank you very much), 3B Adrian Beltre, LF Dale Murphy, CF Chris Gentry, RF Nelson Cruz, DH Lance Berkman

2012 Recap: This team was coming off of two straight World Series losses, and most would've expected the same from this team, including myself. Don't get me wrong, every team would love to at least make it to the wildcard game, but when you couple this team's expectations with the loss of the division in the last few days, it was disappointing. This team dealt with injuries and mental problems in the form of Josh Hamilton after the death of a fan trying to get a ball he threw the fan after an inning. While I like Josh Hamilton, I think they may have dodged a bullet with his past problems in not resigning him this offseason, but thats another topic for another day.

2013 Outlook: This team will be able to compete but between them, the Angels and the Athletics, this will be an extremely tough division to win, and that could work against them. I like the move of adding Catcher AJ Pierzynski, because without a doubt he is one of the smartest players in MLB at any position. I look forward to seeing what this team can do this season with their lineup and their pitching, a reasonable expectation to me would be 90+ wins.

2013 Wins Projection: 93