Improved AL West rivals will challenge favored Angels

The newest owner in the American League West declared Wednesday that he's joining "the most interesting division in baseball."

And if you don't believe Chuck Greenberg, who has an agreement to take over the Rangers, then think for a minute about this: Three teams in the AL West got better this winter, one team didn’t, and the one team that didn't is the one that has won the division three consecutive years and is still the favorite to win it again.

Slugger Vladimir Guerrero joins the Rangers after playing for the Angels the past six seasons. (US Presswire)

"The teams in the division have improved," Angels general manager Tony Reagins said. "But they still have to play against us."

The popular pick in the AL West this spring will be the Mariners, the stars of the baseball winter, whose 1-2 punch atop the rotation (Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee) and 1-2 punch atop the lineup (Ichiro Suzuki and Chone Figgins) look championship-caliber.

An interesting pick would be Greenberg's Rangers, who finished second to the Angels last year, made some low-key (and low-cost) but nice moves this winter and have a young team that just looks like it's getting better.

But when Rangers general manager Jon Daniels was asked about the division at the team's FanFest last weekend, he said: "We like our chances, but the Angels still have to be considered the team to beat."

No argument here, even after a winter where the Angels lost one key player to the rival Mariners (Figgins), lost two others to the rival Rangers (Vladimir Guerrero and Darren Oliver), lost their best starting pitcher (John Lackey) and missed out again on their top offseason target (Roy Halladay).

Let's remember that the rest of the pack began the winter a long way behind. The Angels won the division by 10 games last year, and that was in a season they began with much of their rotation injured, and a season where they had to deal with the death of Nick Adenhart.

In reality, they were more than 10 games better than the Rangers last year, and more than 12 games better than the Mariners.

Even though they don't have Lackey, they still have a better five-man rotation than anyone in the division (and perhaps better than anyone in baseball). Even if they can't match up with Hernandez and Lee, they more than match up with the M's the next three days.

"We don't have the quote, unquote ace, but at the same time we have some quality guys," said Reagins, who traded for Scott Kazmir last year (at least in part in the expectation of losing Lackey) and signed Joel Pineiro this winter. "I don't think there's many other people that can put five guys out there who have a chance to get 15-20 wins.

"On any given night, we don't just have the chance to win, we have the expectation of winning."

Speaking of expectations, Greenberg echoed what his partner Nolan Ryan said last month about the Rangers.

"If we don't win the division this season, I will be extremely disappointed," Ryan told reporters in Texas. "I think we should win the division."

"I feel the same way," Greenberg said.

With Greenberg's promise to spend money ("finances will not hold us back"), and with a farm system that continues to rank as one of the best in the game, the Rangers could be even more of a threat to the Angels' dominance than the Mariners are.

"If they pitch the way they did last year, there's no reason for them not to be able to hang in there," said one scout who follows the AL West. "But I don't know if they can get that."

Because Greenberg is still awaiting approval by the other big league owners, and because outgoing owner Tom Hicks was so cash-poor that the commissioner's office was basically running the team, the Rangers had to trade Kevin Millwood in order to free up the money to do anything else this winter.

They took a chance on oft-injured Rich Harden, and also on Colby Lewis, who is coming back from Japan. Neftali Feliz, so exciting out of the bullpen in 2009, will get a chance to start, as will C.J. Wilson.

But the Rangers look more like a team still on the way up than like a team that's already set to win.

And the Angels, with the best manager in the division (and in baseball?) in Mike Scioscia, still look like the West's best.

The way Reagins sees it, they've added to the depth in their rotation with Pineiro (to go along with Kazmir, Jered Weaver, Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana), added to the lineup with Hideki Matsui (to go along with Torii Hunter and Bobby Abreu) and added to the bullpen with Fernando Rodney (to go along with Brian Fuentes).

"We've always felt that our division was strong," Reagins said. "Texas has a great young ballclub, Seattle is improved and Oakland always gives us a tough time. We just feel if the Angels take care of business, then we're tough to beat."

Tough to beat, but looking at least a little more beatable. And that makes the AL West a lot more interesting than it has been.

It makes the AL West, very possibly, the most interesting division in baseball.