AL West

Ready for one of those overused "What if I told you..." lead-ins?

Very well. Here it is: What if I told you before the start of the 2012 season that Albert Pujols would not be the best hitter in the Los Angeles Angels' lineup by the time we got to mid-June?

Major League Baseball has reached a point where seeing a no-hitter is as special as seeing a team score a run. 

Watching six Seattle Mariners pitchers combine to hold the Los Angeles Dodgers to no hits and three walks on Friday night, I was reminded of the late 1990s, when we would see hitters make the most impossible things look elementary. 

After Bryce Harper feasted on the Boston Red Sox Friday at Fenway Park, LA Angels rookie outfielder Mike Trout went to work against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.

Watching your favorite team get no-hit in person on the road is one of the weirdest feelings in the world.

At some point do you start rooting for a no-hitter? Are you required to remain loyal even in the face of history?

Regardless of what was going through my mind and heart, however, nothing would change what was going on at Safeco Field on Friday night.

Tonight, the A's scored plenty of runs. They just did not get the last out in time. Using a six-run second inning off Arizona starter Daniel Hudson, the A's were able to take a 6-0 lead and lead the Diamondbacks 8-6 going into the bottom of the ninth.

The Seattle Mariners made history Friday night as six pitchers combined on a 1-0 no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It was just the 10th combined no-hit game in Major League Baseball history and was the fourth no-hitter already of this still young 2012 season.

After a miserable April in which he batted .217/.265/.304 with no home runs and four RBI, Albert Pujols rebounded in May, looking more like the hitter we've been accustomed to seeing in his previous 11 major league seasons.

Manny will soon be Manny again.

Any day now. Maybe. Possibly.

OK fine, nobody except Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane has any real clue when Manny Ramirez might be ready to join the big club, thus ending a lengthy absence from Major League Baseball made up of a sudden retirement in 2011 and a 50-game PED suspension this season. Beane will know when Manny is ready when his scouts say Manny is ready.

Sell, sell, sell!  The Oakland A's are  24-31 and have lost ten of their last 12 games and the club is tied for last place in the American League West.  The A's have no chance to make a season out of things, right?

In the words of Lee Corso, "Not so fast, my friend."

Selling off big contracts at the trade deadline shouldn't be the answer, even as the A's are mired in a terrible slump.

The Texas Rangers have been known for quite some time as a team that usually wins with their bats. They are third in Major League Baseball since 2000 in runs scored and this is a team that has only been to the postseason twice since the turn of the millennium.