American League West Pretty Even So Far

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

After the first nine games of the 2014 season, there really is no clear-cut leader in the American League West. Some of that is due to the teams beating up on each other, and some of that is due to the large amount of injuries or plain ineffectiveness that have befallen the American League West so far. Let’s review:

Texas Rangers:

Matt Harrison, Jurickson Profar, Geovany Soto, Neftali Feliz, Adrian Beltre, and Colby Lewis, who is supposed to return to the Texas Rangers rotation on either Monday or Tuesday according to sources.

Colby Lewis has an out in his minors contract today, but has agreed to not exercise it and has been assured he'll be in #Rangers' rotation.
— Jeff Wilson (@JeffWilsonTXR) April 10, 2014

Oakland Athletics:

Craig Gentry, Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin, Eric O’Flaherty, Jim Johnson (who is just ineffective as a closer so far and has been removed).

LA Angels of Anaheim:

Sean Burnett, Dane De La Rosa, Brian Moran, Josh Hamilton who had a very Josh Hamilton type injury sliding into first.

Seattle Mariners:

Hisashi Iwakuma, James Paxton, Stephen Pryor and Taijuan Walker, all pitchers for the M’s. Ouch.

Houston Astros:

Jesse Crain and Alex White. Also Matt Albers is missing for paternity leave, but he is not injured.

So what does all this mean? It means, as a reader so succinctly put, that the American League West gods want the Astros to win the division. The Astros are the least hard hit team in the division when it comes to injuries right now. Even with the injuries and the ineffectiveness of their closer, I still think the A’s are the team to beat. Here is where it all stands right now:

A’s: 6-3

M’s: 5-3

LA: 4-5

TX: 4-5

HOU: 4-6

We are not very far into a long season, but injuries have played their part in this division so far. The Josh Hamilton injury is a huge deal for the Angels, and the waiting game for Beltre is a huge deal for Texas Rangers fans. Seattle lost one of their best pitchers, and the A’s don’t have a closer. The American League West is banged up, so it should be fun to see how the division starts to sort itself out over the next few weeks. I hope the Texas Rangers start moving up the ranks.

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