Hello, everyone. Welcome to the first attempt at a weekly recap of the American League West's writings across the internet with a sabermetric slant. The hope is this column will help you to keep up with the division if your team plays elsewhere, or point you towards some interesting writing you haven't already seen if your team is in the West.
This will almost certainly evolve and (hopefully) get better from here, but you have to start somewhere, so here we go...
The Division at Large
The Baseball Analysts: Which Pitcher is King
Rich Lederer takes a look at two AL West pitchers to make the case that one of them is very underrated. The meat of this link is in the conversation in the comments, though, and should absolutely be read.
Oakland Athletics (18-5)
FanGraphs: Perfection
Don't know if you caught it, but Dallas Braden pitched a pretty good game from His Mound the other day. Jack Moore looks at the performance. Couple stand-out points: only four line drives and odds of 1 in 15.2 million.
Joe Posnanski: Perfection
Two links with the same name! This is not a stat post, this is a Poz post. Meaning it's a fantastic read from a bright writer, so you should click on it, anyway.
Texas Rangers (18-5)
Baseball Time in Arlington: Regarding the Catching Situation
Not too long ago, the Rangers had three terrific catching prospects. Now, they're rocking a combined .241 wOBA at the position. Joey Matschulat takes a look at the problem and suggests some solutions.
Baseball Time in Arlington: wOBAr'd!
Josh Garoon looks at the wOBAr's of the Rangers line-up compared to their actual production and finds the line-up may be getting a little bit unlucky to this point in the season.
Biz of Baseball: MLB to Seize Control of the Texas Rangers this Week
The sale of the Rangers has not been pretty, with Tom Hicks's creditors putting a halt on the transition unless they get $30 million more than they've been offered out of the deal. Maury Brown reports that MLB is planning on taking control from Hicks in order to push the process through.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (15-20)
FanGraphs: Expensive Angels in Relief
Jack Moore looks at how Fernando Rodney and Brian Fuentes have performed, and how they're projected going forward. It seems the Angels are paying a lot of money for a bullpen that's just not very good.
ESPN: Brandon Wood Can't Figure it Out
Marc Normandin takes a brief look at the early struggles of Brandon Wood's career and presents the case that he just does not make adjustments.
Seattle Mariners (13-9)
FanGraphs: Guillen to Seattle Not Completely Insane
The Mariners have reportedly shown interest in trading for Jose Guillen. Matt Klaassen takes a look and argues, while questionable, the move would be quite as crazy as it seems at face value.
MyNorthwest.com: Sleeping on the Job?
Surely, by now, you're aware of Ken Griffey Jr's famous nap. Shannon Drayer offers a different angle and says it's no big deal. But Dave Cameron says the napping itself isn't the problem here.
Lookout Landing: On Jason Vargas' Success and Some Comparable Pitchers
Jason Vargas has already doubled his career (FanGraphs) WAR in this young season. Jeff Sullivan looks a little bit at how he's done it and creates a quick list of comparable pitchers. One just threw a perfect game, by the way.
Again, this is the first attempt at this, so I'd greatly appreciate feedback. What would you like to see? What do you like and dislike? Suggestions? Sites I may not have heard of that should be in this space in the future?