I would say the bullpen didn’t cut it. Especially in the NY series. The starters did relatively well.

or you’re a moron

idiotic statement of the month so far.

We have SOS and Palmer

The Red Sox would be second, because Dice-K is overrated and injury prone, Lackey and Beckett are aging and have had recent injury troubles, and I don’t know how Tim Wakefield is still pitching. Other than Lester or Bucholz, there’s not a sure thing or a ton of upside there. What they do have is quite good when it’s healthy.

Last year our pitching sucked and we still won the division. Not saying we can definitely cope, but our management has a history of doing the best with the resources available. Like Matt Palmer. Scioscia you bloody genius you.

In any case, what we have done is spread our risk well (i.e. 5 guys that could all lead our staff). If one wheel comes of we can still get to the garage on three or use the spare in the trunk.

Every AL West team have pitchers with recent injuries or mechanical problems:

The Rangers have Harden (whats the over on him reaching 140 innings?) and are relying on a pitcher who has been playing in Japan because he wasn’t good enough previously in Colby Lewis. Also 2nd year pitcher Holland (teams will have a better read on him, and he wasn’t too hot last year in any case) and Feldman, who has a similar past history to Joe Saunders (yet by all accounts, he is their number 1, whilst Joe is our number 4?).

Oakland have a guy 2 guys who didn’t pitch last year in Sheets and Duscherer. One is already injured (Duke) the other is having a historically bad spring (Sheets) even by his own reckoning. Braden has been having injury issues (can’t feel some of his toes) and is average, Brett Anderson is another sophmore pitcher that has some Verducci effect worries. Seriously the guy through a ton of pitches last year, and many of them sliders. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go down. And their 5th spot is in flux.

Seattle have Felix who is probably the safest bet in the West. But Lee struggled the first half last year with Cleveland, and i’m still not sold on his overall greatness. Of course he’s a pretty solid bet too. But after that: Bedard out for half the season at least with the same injury Escobar suffered. RRS is average to ok, but has never pitched significant innings. And their fluff 4/5 have been poor in previous years and so far this spring as well.

So everyone has issues. People pore over our deficiency for a ‘go-to-guy’ but there are some major concerns being swept under the rug for the other AL West teams. And I also would say that only Seattle have a real go to guy in the West in King Felix. Its a toss up for me between our SP and Seattle on who you prefer. Depends on the influence you place with a top 1-2. And how a drop of like Seattle’s 3/4/5 affect them.

However we have spread our pitching risk and have a better bullpen this year (everyone assumes 2009 was a trend and predicts our bullpen to be crap, conveniently forgetting that for the past decade our bullpen has been consistently one of our greatest assets and biggest strengths, I invoke the power of the outlier!).

Now how we perform in the postseason (yes, we will be there #pinkie to mouth#) against the juggernaught pitching of Boston and the Yankees… well, i’m just hoping this is the year that a couple of our pitchers (looking at you Lil’ Weave and Magic) turn into true leaders and bulldogs. Because we will need it against our postseason rivals.