AL West

The Texas Rangers are jumping out of the gate quickly in this early 2011 MLB season. But the question is, will they be in the running down the stretch?

It's only six games into the season, but the Texas Rangers look like repeaters for at least the American League pennant. Part of the reason is that they are 6-0 over those games. The other reason is who they won the games against.

The Rangers started with a sweep of the Boston Red Sox, early favorites to win the American League East. A strong offense just blew apart the Red Sox rotation, with Ranger scores of 12, nine and five runs in three games.

One week down, plenty of panic buttons pushed.

It's been an upside down week for Major League Baseball. The Red Sox look like a slumbering bear just awoken from hibernation. The Twins actually won in the Bronx. And the Reds are quietly keeping busy—not that any of us have noticed...or have we?

After a failed attempt at a career as a professional baseball player, Billy Beane decided to try his hand in the front office. In 1998, he became the General Manager of the Oakland Athletics. Over the past 13 years, Billy has broken the hearts of the Oakland faithful numerous times by trading away some of the A's best talent for players who are relatively unknown. More times than not, the players traded away become unheard of and the new players become stars.

In Monday’s Closer’s Corner, I singled out the Angels bullpen and suggested Fernando Rodney’s struggles could soon lead to a change.

On Tuesday, Mike Scioscia stripped Rodney of his ninth inning duties until “he gets back in touch with some things.”

Four games into the Angels' season, there is a clamoring among fans for Fernando Rodney to be taken out of the closer role. Rodney struggled to record the save during Thursday's opener after allowing one hit, one walk and two strikeouts on 26 pitches in the ninth inning.

Monday night at the Ballpark in Arlington, the Rangers handed the Mariners a 6-4 loss to remain undefeated in this young 2011 MLB season.

A decent outing for Derek Holland, as he pitched six innings en route to his first win of the season. He allowed three runs and seven hits with five strikeouts and one walk.

The Mariners have the second overall pick in the draft. This means they can get almost any player they want.

The Pirates, on the hand, can literally get any player they want. While third baseman Anthony Rendon appears to be the consensus overall pick, the Pirates might find pitching a bigger need and go after Gerrit Cole.

We'll see what the Pirates do, but the Mariners are sure to know who their second pick would be should their first fall off the board.

Since his debut in 2006 at the age of 23, Jered Weaver has emerged as one of the games elite starters.

Last season, Weaver earned his first All Star selection and finished fifth in Cy Young voting while leading the majors with 233 strikeouts.

Somehow, Weaver has managed to stay under the radar outside of Anaheim. His success and talents are no secret to Angels fans however.

This afternoon, to our dismay, we saw the Mariners revert back to last year's style of play: low run production, a shaky bullpen and carelessness at the plate.

We should probably admit to ourselves that this is the way the season will progress, but it's easier just to make legitimate excuses that could possibly explain the woes of the Mariners.

We can attribute today's loss to a couple of things. One, an unfavorable pitching matchup. Two, an improvement in the A's' play.