Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Truly sad news out of Major League Baseball this morning.

ESPN.com is reporting that rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart, who had just made his fourth big league start last night, was killed in a car crash early Thursday morning.

Terrible news out of California this morning as Angels No. 1 prospect Nick Adenhart was killed in a felony auto accident early this morning. TMZ is reporting and the link can be found here.

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Now it’s only my first year doing fantasy baseball, but three weeks in, and I’m already hooked. In fact, I see a lot of parallels between fantasy baseball, and ABC’s Lost.

Both are excruciatingly frustrating (I can’t seem to be able to trade Jermaine Dye no matter how hard I try!!), while still incredibly addicting and exciting.

3/26/2009 Nick Adenhart 6.0 IP 1 ER 3 K

"Make up" is a very important term when it comes to evaluating young pitchers.  Sometimes it is referred to as an intangible attribute, scouts may mention a pitcher that has the positive aspect of this trait as having great mound presence or they will say that he performs well under pressure.  Young arms like Adenhart sometimes never progress past the levels where they cannot rely on pure "stuff" alone.

Just two years removed from signing a 5 year/$50 million dollar deal with the Angels, Gary Matthews Jr. probably will start the season on the Angels' bench. Matthews has been a disappointment for the Angels, who are loaded with quality outfielders and suddenly have no room for the once prized acquisition.

Time to go West, my friends. I don’t think we are going to find the best baseball out here this year. Lately, for some reason, the East Coast is dominating things in sports. In the NCAA’s, it was something like two or three teams from out west were one of the top four seeds, 16 overall. The only recent World Series winners from out west were the Angels and Diamondbacks, the latter's championship dating back to their Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling years.

I don’t see the trend changing this year.

Note: All team projections were found using the FEINs projections. An explanation behind projected wins, losses, and other stats can be found here.

1. Los Angeles Angels

For the last preview in the American League West, I saved the favorites heading into 2009: the Los Angeles Angels. I say "favorite," but never has an incumbent—fresh off a 21-game coast to the division flag—worn the mantle while being supported by wobblier legs.

Consider the five player transactions from this winter that figure to make the biggest impact on the new Major League Baseball season:

1.  CC Sabathia inks with the New York Yankees.

2.  Mark Teixeira inks with the Yankees.

3.  The Oakland Athletics trade for Matt Holliday.