AL West

With the start of the baseball season less than one week away (yes, a week , with Red Sox vs. Yankees on Sunday Night Baseball), it means only thing: It is time to dust off the magic eight-balls, look into the future, and predict where the 30 teams will end up at the end of the season.

The American League West may have the fewest competitors of any MLB division, but the shortage of teams does not equate to a shortage of talent.

The Angels are a well-run, perennial playoff team, the Rangers are developing their pitching in addition to a notoriously dangerous lineup, the A's are an intriguing low-budget club, and the Mariners have pocket aces at the top of their rotation.

So how will this foursome fare in 2010?

4. Oakland Athletics

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s Scott Kazmir was scratched from his start on Thursday against the Texas Rangers because of a stiff throwing shoulder.

In other words, Kazmir is hurt.

Here are some other things are that are guaranteed to happen:

The A's had a formidable bullpen in 2009, and the A's are looking to continue that trend. They their AL Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey, Breakout reliever Michael Wuertz, solid arms Brad Ziegler and Craig Breslow and Joey Devine coming back from a lost 2009 season with Tommy John surgery.

Who else will start the year in the A's bullpen? Here's what the remaining candidates in A's camp have done so far:

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Like the American League East, I expect the West to be much of a three-horse race.

You've got three clubs that could all win the division and would all be decent playoff teams if they did so, because everything would have come together.

Unlike the East though, the West may only have one representative in the playoffs, which makes this division race all the more interesting. Los Angeles, Seattle, and Texas all had great seasons, winning 85 games or more.

One of the biggest misconceptions in baseball is when people refer to teams such as the Seattle Mariners as small or mid market teams. A casual fan exclaims "The Mariners are going all pitching and defense given their lack of funds." The Mariners may have a fairly unique winning strategy, but that is in spite of their market size, not because of it.

I grew up and fell in love with a Rangers team that was much different from this one. Back then the outfield was the offensive strength of the team, much like it was for most teams.

I remember watching Juan Gonzalez, Ruben Sierra, and the fan-favorite Rusty Greer. Jose Canseco was also out there for a little while, but we’ll just forget about him.

In recent years, the outfield has been somewhat of a revolving door.

Once a proud franchise that spent much of the early part of the last decade as contenders in the American League West, once a franchise that was hailed all across the world of baseball as a club that practiced the once revolutionary method of "Moneyball" under the direction of general manager Billy Beane, once a franchise that fans could count on to challenge the New York Yankees for American League supremacy, the Oakland Athletics are now one of baseball's failing franchises—a downward spiral that has taken place over a mere three seaso

The Mariners traded for Cliff Lee and signed Felix Hernandez to solidify the top of their rotation, but the back end of the rotation was still a glaring weakness that has many questioning how good the M’s could be.

After a couple weeks of spring training, not only have the questions not been answered, but more questions are piling up.

Kanekoa Texeira is a hard-throwing right handed pitcher who the Yankees got as part of the trade with the White Sox for Nick Swisher.

Pitching in double-A Trenton last season, he went 9-6 with a 2.84 ERA in 41 games and 101.1 innings. Good, but not great, numbers.

Unfortunately for Texeira and the Yankees, he didn’t have the outstanding talent to warrant protection on the 40-man roster, and he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the Rule 5 draft.