AL West

For starters, I despise using the word "epic"—it's way too trendy for me.

But as I rolled through my inner thesaurus, epic fit. It fit so much that it outweighed the negative overtones that come with using such an overdone word.

Since the word has been so blurred and demeaned and been used to describe nouns from breakfast burritos to ankle socks, I feel it necessary to define the word of the day.

Epic is heroic; majestic; impressively great or of unusually great size or extent.

Jered Weaver pitched 6.1 strong innings, Torii Hunter and Jeff Mathis provided solo home runs, and the Los Angeles Angels won their seventh Opening Day game in the last eight seasons, defeating the Kansas City Royals, 4-2.

When Weaver left the game with one out in the seventh, he had a 4-0 lead. However Hisanori Takahashi, pitching in his first game for the Angels, gave up a home run to Jeff Francoeur, ruining the shutout bid.

As the New York Yankees kick off the 2011 baseball season in the Bronx with a win over the Detroit Tigers, the Seattle Mariners prep for their own inaugural game in Oakland on Friday.

The bleak and dreary days are over. The cheery holiday well-wishers, festive New Year celebrations, and visions of frozen landscapes are behind us now. At least, out west.

They've given way to overflowing stadiums of roaring fans, thunderous ovations for late-game heroics, and fields of lush green grass.

Spring Training, too, has come and gone. Like the blustery winter before it, the exhibition season has melted away to reveal an exciting new year in our nation's oldest pastime. 

Baseball is here, in all its glory. 

Following the Bay Bridge series finale and end of spring training, the A's made their final roster cuts and set their 25-man opening day roster.

The only remaining battles left after the A's announced over the weekend that Brandon McCarthy would be the team's fifth starter, were for the bullpen, backup infielder and backup catcher positions.

Before the start of last postseason, the Rangers had never won a playoff series.  In three playoff appearances, they were knocked out in the first round each time by the New York Yankees.

After dispatching the Tampa Bay Rays in five games in the ALDS, the Rangers defeated the Yankees in six games to win the pennant.

Josh Hamilton won the AL MVP, Neftali Feliz won the AL Rookie of the Year and Cliff Lee was a postseason hero. 

But now Lee is gone, so we'll see if the Rangers can get enough from their pitching staff to once again take the AL West crown.

There's not much to cheer about in Seattle, but they do have two of the most exciting players in baseball in Cy Young Award winner Felix Hernandez and Ichiro.

Just a year ago, the Mariners were a popular pick to win the AL West.  They acquired Cliff Lee during the offseason in a trade with Philadelphia, and acquired Chone Figgins as a free-agent.

Seattle started off slow and Cliff Lee didn't pitch the first month of the season.  Lee was then traded for four prospects and the Mariners fluttered to 101 losses.

TEXAS RANGERS

Last Year: 90-72, 1st in AL West  

Manager: Ron Washington 

PROJECTED LINEUP 

C- Yorvit Torrealba (R) 

1B- Mitch Moreland (L)

2B- Ian Kinsler (R)

3B- Adrian Beltre (R) 

SS- Elvis Andrus (R)

LF- Josh Hamilton (L)

CF- Julio Borbon (L)

RF- Nelson Cruz (R)

DH- Michael Young (R)

The A's seem to be everyone's "sleeper" team this upcoming season, and rightfully so.

The foursome of Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Dallas Braden is the most underrated in baseball.  To go along with a strong bullpen, the pitching aspect is set.

The big story is the offense.  Will they be able to score enough runs to win games?

This is an insane column, folks. Why would the Seattle Mariners trade Felix Hernandez before the trade deadline? Why would they trade him ever?

To butcher a line from my good friend (never met the man) Allen Iverson, “Felix? We talkin’ ‘bout King Felix?”

I went to Arizona last year for spring training with a friend who was “in” with the Seattle brass. We were hooked up with game tickets, as well as being able to meet and mingle with the players, etc.