Lee gives Mariners plenty of hope
Posted on | January 18, 2010 | No Comments
Believe it or not, pitchers and catchers will be starting to report inside the next month so who’s been looking good and not so good during what has been a fairly busy baseball off-season so far?
Among the usual big players, one team to have made a decent impact this winter has been the Seattle Mariners, who go into the season looking like they could be one of the bigger improvers with some MLB Predictions suggesting they could even challenge for the American League’s tough West division.
The Mariners were far from the worst team in the AL last season, and now finally boast a workhorse staff ace to go to war with after a massive trade with Philadelphia and Toronto brought them Cliff Lee.
With the spectacular, if a little inconsistent, Felix Hernandez joining Lee, their 1-2 punch is better than anything else out West, and if Ian Snell ever returns to his best form they should certainly improve on their 85-77 record.
Although the offense is nothing special, the addition of Chone Figgins, firebrand Milton Bradley and former Angel Casey Kotchman will certainly help produce a few more runs for the staff to play with.
General manager Jack Zduriencik has done a really good job for the Mariners so far, and with neither the Angels or Rangers looking to have improved a lot, the race for the division looks to be wide open.
The Rangers probably made the biggest splash in getting hold of Angels legend Vlad Guerrero, but he is on the downgrade now, and his knees could mean less and less time in the outfield.
Baseball betting says that Texas will score runs by the bucket-load as ever, but even with Rich Harden around (as long as he stays fit) their staff doesn’t look good enough and their bullpen is below average.
As for the Angels, well nothing has gone right, with Guerrero, Figgins and John Lackey all gone and very little added – they could well find themselves battling Oakland for last unless they make some moves…and soon.
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