Angels and Mariners Battling For Second Place
Consider, though: Improbably enough, the Mariners trail the first-place Rangers by only one-and-a-half games and the Angels for all their faults, are only five games out of first.
Let's be honest about this, though ... If the Rangers are healthy, they're going to be tough to beat. Really, really, really tough to beat. With Josh Hamilton and Nelson Cruz in the lineup, the Rangers probably have two of the American League's dozen or so best hitters. Toss in Mitch Moreland, Adrian Beltre and Ian Kinsler, and you're looking at a lineup that will -- again, if healthy -- wind up among the league's most potent attacks, even accounting for the hitter-friendly Ranger Ballpark Between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas (But Closer to Fort Worth).
Still, Hamilton and Cruz have been hurt before, and there’s good reason to think they’ll be hurt again. If slightly hurt, not to worry. But seriously hurt, though? All bets are off and the American League West race is on.
The Oakland Athletics are exceptionally unlikely to take advantage. Not with the pitching rotation intent on re-enacting the hospital scene from It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. So in the unlikely event that the Rangers do stumble, it's likely that only the Angels or the Mariners will be in any sort of position to take advantage. Which makes their three-game series that starts Monday night in Seattle at least somewhat important, right?
Which got me to wondering which of them is, leaving aside this particular series, more likely to play well from this point through the end of the season, and perhaps take advantage if the Rangers should fall prey to injuries, bad luck, or the terrible ravages of hoof-in-mouth disease.
The M’s, as mentioned above, do have the better record. But they weren’t supposed to be better than the Angels, and the difference between their run differentials is meaningless. So now we must simply consider talent, and which team will put more of it on the field in the coming months.
Unfortunately for the sake of this analysis, there are so many variables involved that it's really hard to figure out which team's got more talent, let alone which will play better in the second half of the season. The Mariners do seem to have some up-side, though, with Justin Smoak and Adam Kennedy the club's only every-day players who have done anything notable (or notably good, anyway) this season. Are the Mariners better with Carlos Peguero in left field, instead of Milton Bradley? With Franklin Gutierrez in center field, instead of Michael Saunders? Will Jack Cust and Ichiro Suzuki both start hitting, eventually?
Yeah, probably. There's some downside, too, as Seattle's pitchers have probably been over their heads some, collectively. But for a team that was supposed to lose 85 or 90 games this season, the M's are looking pretty good. Especially if they figure out a way to get Chone Figgins out of the lineup.
Of course, the Angels are coping with their own terribly overpriced veteran, as Vernon Wells has been perhaps the biggest disappointment in the majors this season. Where's the other up-side, though? Three of the Angels' upper-level prospects are already in the majors, and even if the Angels were willing to promote 19-year-old super-prospect Mike Trout to the majors this summer, there's no obvious spot for him. Not with Peter Bourjos hitting decently and Wells making all that money.
Meanwhile, the Mariners have prospect Dustin Ackley in triple-A, ready to bolster the offense should management finally give up on Figgins (though that might be problematic, too, given Ackley's reported deficiencies as a second baseman).
It doesn’t really make a great deal of sense, considering these two franchises’ recent histories. But if you make me, I’ll pick the Mariners as my second-place team this summer, with possibilities.
And if you want a different answer, ask me again in three days if the Angels pull off the sweep.
For more about the Mariners and Angels, please visit Lookout Landing and Halos Heaven.
