eastbaybaseball

The AL West looks to be more competitive than just a one-horse race last season as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim cruised to another divisional title. However, this season will be different. Every team besides the Angels have improved drastically.  Although the Angels have added Bobby Abreu and re-signed Juan Rivera to fill their voids in the outfield, they will still miss the big bats of first baseman Mark Teixeira and outfielder Garrett Anderson.  The loss of Jon Garland should also hurt their rotation and it will be up to a young guy like Dustin Moseley or Nick Adenhart to step up unless Kelvim Escobar returns to full strength and is healthy. And they filled their major hole with the loss of their closer K-Rod and brings in ex-Rockies closer Brian Fuentes to take the reign in the late innings.  Otherwise, the 2009 Angels doesn’t look any better than last year’s squad and the Rangers have improved their offense and bullpen, the Athletics have added some offensive punch and have a strong nucleus in their bullpen and the Mariners have added some pieces and one major one that should help their strong starting rotation get some wins, help team morale and bring some excitement to Seattle with the signing of Ken Griffey Jr. The 2009 Angels look as follows:

Projected Rotation:

SP1 John Lackey RHP

SP2 Joe Saunders LHP

SP3  Ervin Santana RHP

SP4 Jerrod Weaver RHP

SP5 Dustin Moseley RHP

-  Kelvim Escobar RHP

CL Brian Fuentes

Projected Lineup:

1 Chone Figgins 3B

2 Howie Kendrick 2B

3 Bobby Abreu RF

4 Vladimir Guerrero DH

5 Torrie Hunter CF

6 Juan Rivers LF

7 Kendry Morales 1B

8 Mike Napoli C

9 Maicer Izturis or Erick Aybar SS

Bench 

Erick Aybar or Maicer Izturis IF

Jeff Mathis C

Robb Quinlan 1B/3B

Reggie Willits OF

Gary Matthews Jr. OF

  The Patten University Lions (0-6) open up the tournament against perennial #1 ranked NAIA Lewis and Clark State University (0-1) on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. gametime at Harris Field (Lewiston, ID). 

   The LCSC Warriors are coming off a loss against Concordia University (Portland, OR) where they fell 5-4 in their first game of the 2009 campaign. So the Warriors will be hungry for a win against a winless Lions team also looking for their first victory.

   Taking the ball for the Patten Lions will be sophomore right-hander Larry Collins (0-2, 10.00 E.R.A) who will be making his third start of the season. Collins looks to set the tones for the Lions in this big first game of the tournament against a highly-caliber team.

   Projected Lineup:

1 Jeremy Wells 2B/SR.

2 Anthony Phillips CF/JR.

3 Max Burnett C/JR.

4 Ryan Davis RF/JR.

5 Brian Peat DH/JR.

6 Chris Brigham 1B/SR.

7 Deandre Walker 3B/SR.

8 Luke Heil LF/JR.

9 Brett Korporal SS/SR.

    Larry Collins P/SOPH.

The San Francisco Giants offseason overhaul is pretty much complete with the signing of Juan Uribe to their infield corps as they go into Spring Training. Juan Uribe will either man third base for the Giants or be the utility backup as he can play short, third or second base. You complement Uribe with the loser of the second base competition between Emmanuel Burriss and Kevin Frandsen and Eugenio Velez also in the mix.  But if the season started today, I would go with Juan Uribe at third base, Edgar Renteria at shortstop, and Kevin Frandsen at second base and Pablo Sandoval at first base. With this lineup the bench will feature Emmanuell Burriss who can play shortstop and second base, Travis Ishikawa, the lefty power hitting and slick glove at first base, outfielder Nate Schierholtz, outfielder Dave Roberts, who can play all three outfield spots, and the fifth spot on the bench will either be second baseman/outfielder Eugenio Velez, first baseman/catcher Josh Phelps, or first baseman/outfielder John Bowker. So there will be some heavy competition for a couple of the infield spots.  The outfield is set with Fred Lewis in left, Aaron Rowand in center, and Randy Winn in right field. The rotation is strong with six deep in Lincecum, Randy Johnson, Cain, Zito, Noah Lowry, and Jonathan Sanchez. Sanchez will most likely move to the bullpen either bumping Taschner or Hinshaw or Merkin Valdez if he doesnt return to full health. One thing though is the Giants will have depth in their bullpen, starting rotation and bench.

Projected Lineup:

1 Randy Winn RF

2 Edgar Renteria SS

3 Pablo Sandoval 1B

4 Bengie Molina C

5 Fred Lewis LF

6 Aaron Rowand CF

7 Juan Uribe 3B

8 Kevin Frandsen or Emmanuell Burriss 2B

Bench:

OF Nate Schierholtz

OF Dave Roberts

2B/OF Eugenio Velez

1B Travis Ishikawa

Rotation:

SP1 Tim Lincecum

SP2 Randy Johnson

SP3 Matt Cain

SP4 Barry Zito

SP5 Noah Lowry

MRP6 Jonathan Sanchez

MRP7 Jack Taschner or Justin Miller

MRP8 Alex Hinshaw  or Justin Miller

MRP9 Sergio Romo

SU10 Bob Howry

SU11 Jeremy Affeldt

CL12 Brian Wilson