AL West

The Los Angeles Angels (6-14) released slumping veteran outfielder Bobby Abreu, opening up a spot in the lineup for 20-year-old prospect Mike Trout.

Regardless of how the highly-touted Trout turns out in only his second stint under the bright lights of the big leagues, cutting Abreu will still be the right move.

Albert Pujols has gone 65 at bats to begin the season and has yet to hit a home run. Can Pujols fill out the home run column in the series about to begin against the Tampa Bay Rays?

Unfortunately for Pujols, he will be facing some of the most dominant pitching in the American League. Here is a breakdown of the starting pitchers that he will face in the series.

Over at Baseball Prospectus today, the estimable Sam Miller has a (free) piece on Albert Pujols’ slow start and whether it’s due to an expanding personal strike zone. He concludes that it just might be:

The Oakland A's have not been in the playoffs since the 2006 season. This could have been the year to make it back had they not traded away Gio Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was the ace for the A's before the offseason trade to the Washington Nationals. Now he is the Nationals' second ace, behind Stephen Strasburg, and will pitch his fourth game for Washington on Tuesday night. 

After tonight's game against the Cleveland Indians, the Oakland Athletics will be 16 games into the season, putting Oakland only 34 games away from Manny Ramirez's return to Major League Baseball.

This weekend, the Oakland Athletics will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the organization’s 1972 World Series championship, as part of their three-game series hosting the Cleveland Indians.

One of the more interesting headlines of the Mariners offseason was the switch of Ichiro from the leadoff role to the No. 3 spot in the lineup.  It was a decision that broke 10 years of tradition.

With that move, Chone Figgins became the new leadoff man, and Dustin Ackley remained in the No. 2 spot.

But with all the experimenting going on in the Mariners lineup, would it make sense to try Ackley hitting third and Ichiro second?

Last year, a player that emerged from obscurity in the Oakland Athletics farm system was third base prospect Stephen Parker.  

In 2010 he hit .296, with 21 home runs and 98 RBI, yet coming into 2011 he was still largely overshadowed by fellow prospects Grant Green and Michael Choice.  Despite his breakout 2010 campaign, he solidified his position as the team's third baseman of the future with his consistent and solid play last season.

Major League Baseball definitely did not disappoint this year when it comes to buzz in the media. As fantasy owners, you may find yourselves in a familiar place; deciding what to make of these relatively over-hyped foreign prospects.

Most of the attention as been focused on Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers and Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland Athletics.

The past five seasons have been unkind to the Oakland Athletics. The team has been stuck in no man’s land as getting just 80 wins has proven to be a difficult task. Oakland has missed the playoffs for five straight years. Their best season in that stretch came in 2010 when the team finished at .500 with 81 wins.