Anyway, glad Brian was here to present the A’s fan point of view. What he said. And, in addition, the A’s will also have a little crowd bump this year. Last year the crowds at the Mausoleum were swelling noticeably at the end of the year, and despite the unpleasant economy for the lower 90% of us on the plutocrat pecking order, people will come and see this team play. The synergy between the crowd and the team last year (Bernie) may not be duplicated entirely, but the hope is there that the young starters arms won’t fall off, that the outfield will catch everything and contribute even more on offense than last year (Reddick, Cespedes) and that the middle infield will be improved offensively with Lowrie and Sizemore. We’ll see.

But for the first time in 5 years I have a lot of positive thoughts about the A’s going into the year.

Texas sputtered this winter. They lose Hamilton and Napoli (and Young!) and replace that with Pierzynski (who had a career year at 35) and a couple of rookies, one of whom (Profar) doesn’t have a position. They do have a very good 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation, and a very solid bullpen. However, they also lost Uehara and could move another key reliever into the rotation, further diluting a strength. I’m not sure how the Rangers leapfrogged the A’s.

Meanwhile, Anaheim did not improve their starting pitching (Blanton, Vargas, and Hanson vs. Haren, Santana, Greinke/J. Williams) or their bullpen that struggled last season. The one big move they made was getting Hamilton, whose 139 OPS+ isn’t much better than the departing Hunter’s 132. I don’t see what the Angels did to jump ahead either.

I think part of the unpredictability of the AL West is also because it was a tight race. It came down to the last day! The A’s success will probably hinge on the young pitching staff. I predict another close race, this time the A’s and Angles fighting for 1st spot until the last day, with the Rangers pulling up a close 3rd. (Seattle and Houston get destroyed in the process.)