AL West

Let's call the American League West for what it is, over. Pull out the white flag, hook it up, and raise it to the top of the flag pole and let it fly proudly.

That's the note that I would write to the front office of both the Oakland Athletics and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It's time for these two teams to call it a season, pack it in, and start planning their off season capabilities.

The Oakland A's played the biggest game of the season tonight against the Seattle Mariners. Now, some would say it's way too soon to talk about big game especially since it's only August 9, but with a young team like the A's, any time the team has a chance to make ground on the division-leading Texas Rangers, it's a big game. 

The New York Mets management could learn a lot from the Seattle Mariners. Yes, the Wilpons should be looking out West for a better model of how to run their organization. I am aware that the Mariners are 42-70 and are currently 22.5 games out of first place, but their organization is being run correctly.

Make no mistake, this Mariners season has been a disaster in every way, but making Don Wakamatsu the fall guy is the kind of shortsighted thinking left to the dregs of baseball, not a supposedly forward-thinking franchise like the M’s.

Apparently it only takes a year to go from genius to doofus if you believe the Seattle brass, who suddenly have no faith in Wakamatsu’s ability to lead the Mariners out of the morass—this despite doing that very same thing during the 2009 campaign.

All day yesterday, the attention of Texas Rangers fans was set on a courthouse in Fort Worth, Texas, where the auction of their team was about to take place.

On one hand, you had a group headed by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and sports attorney Chuck Greenberg going up against a group headed by Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Houston businessman Jim Crane.

There were fireworks inside and outside of the courtroom—even a very heated confrontation between attorneys for both sides.

This is the day a lot of people have been waiting for since the decision came down that the Texas Rangers would go up for auction. At this moment it's a two team race, so to speak, as to who will be the new owners of the Texas Rangers. The two teams are groups headed by Attorney Chuck Greenberg and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan up against Houston businessman Jim Crane and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban .

Intense. Driven. Competitor. Tough. Gritty. Clutch. Leader. Intelligent. World Champion.

These are all words that immediately come to mind when Angels fans think of Darin Erstad, but seem far removed from the vocabulary one would use to describe the current Angels club.

This young Angels team seems long on talent and short on competitive will.

Are the 2010 Angels less talented than the 2002 roster that won it all, or did Erstad and company simply want it more?

There were quite a few trades made at this year's non-waiver deadline, but not as many moves as I thought there would. With so many equally talented, but non-impact players available after the big guns—Cliff Lee, Dan Haren, Roy Oswalt—were gone, it became a buyer's market.

Some teams, like the Toronto Blue Jays, would not trade any of their valuable commodities (Scott Downs, Jose Bautista, Jason Frasor) unless they received top dollar and/or equal return back.

It’s amazing to me that a team that is supposedly in financial ruins continues to add players at the trade deadline.

If there is an early winner from the July 31 trade deadline it has to be the Texas Rangers. First they added Cliff Lee, then they added Jorge Cantu, and now they have added Cristian Guzman. Obviously, the latter two aren’t in the same category as Lee, but they are solid pieces that can be used to help solve the Rangers’ World Series puzzle.

With Texas Rangers’ pitcher Rich Harden impressing in his last rehab start on Monday (10 K’s over six innings) in Triple-A, it has been speculated that Harden will take the struggling Scott Feldman’s spot in the rotation. It’s quite possible that Harden could start as early as this weekend for the Rangers against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

I think the Rangers are making a mistake. I think the Rangers should use Harden out of the bullpen upon his return. Here are the reasons for my thinking.