This Week in the AL West

Round two of our AL West recap of writings.

Before getting to the links, I have a request of you, dear readers. As you'll probably see below, some teams' links offer a little more depth than others. Finding interesting blogs and websites, particularly those with a sabermetric slant, that publish interesting information and opinions every week can be kind of tough. I want you to help me with this. If you know a website that covers any of the AL West teams that should probably be given a chunk of this space in the future, please point me their direction.

Thank you, and without further ado, your week in the American League West:

Texas Rangers (22-18)

ESPN: Holland Set to Rule the World

Derek Holland made his return to the Majors Wednesday after starting the season in AAA. Carson Cistulli gave a brief look at how much better his rookie year was than his ERA would suggest.

Baseball Time in Arlington: The Julio Borbon Dilemma

Joey Matschulat finds that Julio Borbon's OPS+ would be the worst ever for a CF (min. 400 PA) in Major League history. He then digs deeper and finds the peripherals offer little hope and the roster has few options.

Bloomberg Sports: Colby Lewis, New Pitcher

Colby Lewis has put up a 3.66 FIP this season on his return from Japan. Eno Sarris takes a (PITCHf/x aided!) look at Lewis's transformation in the Far East; in particular, his new found reliance on his excellent slider.

Oakland Athletics (20-20)

The Hardball Times: Dallas Braden and the Screwball

Ah, the ever-elusive screwball. When I was in little league, every kid claimed to throw one. Dallas Braden says that's what he threw to Gabe Kapler at the end of his perfect game. Mike Fast goes to PITCHf/x to check it out.

Athletics Nation: How Patient are Oakland's Hitters?

With the A's reeling (five losses in a row to Texas and the Angels, though still in second), AN takes a look at the plate discipline of the Oakland lineup. Daric Barton is one patient dude. Kevin Kouzmanoff not so much.

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (18-23)

CourierPostOnline: Trout Well on Road to Bigs

The Angels best prospect, Mike Trout is absolutely killing baseballs (and basepaths) right now. To the tune of a .451 wOBA, in fact (.380 wOBAr). Rally's excited.

Seattle Mariners (14-25)

Lookout Landing: Ranking Mariners SS Using WAR

A FanPost, but a cool one. Edgar for Pres uses Sean Smith's historical WAR database to rank the Mariners' shortstops all-time. The winner is no surprise. He's also done C, 1B and 2B, with links in the post.

ESPN: Mariners Cry Mayday!

Mark Simon uses WPA to tell the story of the Mariners awful, heart-breaking month of May.

Lookout Landing: Offensive Curse Deepens

Matthew Carruth revisits the Mariners' team wOBAr and finds they've gone from unlucky to more unlucky in the last couple weeks. Their run production has been more than a run a game worse than should be expected to this point.

U.S.S. Mariner: Process and Results

Cameron brings the logic by reminding us all to separate results from process and outlines several poor results for the Mariners to date due to both good and bad process.