American League West
With 28 games remaining, it's looking like St Louis has this division in control. The division hasn't taken a wild card spot since they took both of them way back in season 1. It doesn't look like that will be changing this season.
St Louis sure looks like they will make it 3 straight division titles in the West. They haven't been dominant this season and look like they will finish with a worse record than last season, but the division hasn't been very good. Offensively they are one of the worst teams in the AL with a .248 team average and .317 OBP. MVP candidate, Lou Jefferies is having a pretty good season with 21 homers, 90 runs, 84 RBI, 31 steals, .295 average, and .364 OBP. It's been a breakout year for him, but the rest of the team isn't pitching in much. Neil Roberts has 29 homers and 97 RBI, with a respectable .271 average, but the next biggest hitter is Everth Carreras who has 34 homers and 96 RBI, but a lowly .215 batting average. The offense will limit this teams ability to make a post season run. The pitching rotation is strong at the top, but quickly falls off after the top 2 of William Jung(10-8, 3.73), and Jim Kelly(12-8, 3.01). The bullpen is pretty solid and closer Omar Sanchez has 34 saves in 38 tries, but his 5.21 ERA is an area of concern. Lonny Sojo with 97.1 innings and a 3.51 ERA, and Zeus Parnell with 95.2 innings and 3.57 ERA, have given this team a lot of good innings out of the bullpen. The pitching is solid but not great. Of all the playoff teams this is the team that will have to have things go right for them to make a deep post season run. They've been less impressive than the others, but all it takes in the post season is a little luck and things to start falling right for them.
Anaheim put up a fight this season, but they look like they'll fall short again this season. The team has a .506 expected win percentage, but have only played .455 ball. Things haven't gone their way. They've got some good seasons offensively from Miguel Flores, Alex Romero and Zeke Decker, but the offense has let them down for the most part this season. The pitching staff has been solid and reliever Bert Jordan has saved 31 of 35 games with a 2.84 ERA. I doubt they have what it takes to get back in the race this late in the season.
Salem is headed for a third straight 3rd place finish in the division. Offensively the team squeezed one more good season out of Rob Lee as he's hit 29 homers, 81 RBI, had a .313 average and .371 OBP. Really, they've had the best offense in the division. The pitching was this teams undoing and I can't find one player that had a season worth mentioning.
Vancouver has been eliminated for quite some time and have had a terrible season altogether. A big bright spot for the team though is MVP candidate Henry Siddall with 25 homers, 88 RBI, 75 runs, a .328 average, .433 OBP, and .588 Slg. The offense really hasn't been too bad this season. The pitching in Vancouver has been awful. Here's hoping that the team can find some help in the form of arms next season.
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