The Halo Has Risen: How the American League West Will Be Won

Post date: May 31, 2012 12:54:57 AM

Eight in a row; which includes wins against the A's, a sweep of the Mariners and a potential sweep against the Yankees depending on what happens tonight. I am not naïve enough to say that it's because of the firing of Mickey Hatcher, this is what we expected from the Halos from the beginning. The Angels' offense has been on fire especially Mark Trumbo, "The Prince Fish" Mike Trout, Albert Pujols. The bullpen has been fortified since the acquisition of Ernesto "Ernasty" Ferrari who has been on fire. The Angels are only 5 1/2 games back of the Texas Rangers who have been rumored to have signed Roy Oswalt.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks between the Angels and Rangers which are scheduled to meet Friday for a three-game series at Angel Stadium. Will bloggers and sportswriters point to this they series to explain how the American League West was won?

The Angels are hot with one glaring shortcoming, they have lost Jared Weaver for at least the next few weeks, he was put on the 15 day Disabled List with back issues. I think the individual come down to which team can stay healthy for the most part, however I also think that the Angels need to find a way to slow down Josh Hamilton not necessarily by pitching to his weaknesses rather make him uncomfortable, keeping them off balance, and make him adapt to the Angels style of pitching. That's easier said than done; but I think it's going to come down to who takes the psychological control of this battle.

It'll be interesting to see how Oswalt will fit into the Rangers' rotation will he fortify it or disrupt it? Either way, I believe this is the first piece of the puzzle that will determine how the American League West was won. It will be a combination of a lack of injuries, offensive firepower, defensive prowess, and pitching precision and alternately domination of the psychological game that is baseball.

-ICE