Not a terrible amount has changed in the AL West in the last week. Seattle is still surprisingly at the top, and the Angels are still stuck in the bottom. This week I will highlight one player from each team who I feel is the most important to his team’s chances of contending for the AL West crown.

Ichiro, Seattle Mariners: The Mariners are a team without much offensive fire power. While Ichiro was out with injury, this team had to rely on Endy Chavez and his flukey-BABIP to help generate runs. Now that Ichiro’s back, he takes his rightful spot at the top of the Mariners lineup. Ichiro relies on pounding the ball into the ground, his speed, and rarely striking out. There are certainly questions if he can keep that up (especially the speed part) now that he’s 34 years old. If he can play like he has in the past, the Mariners have a chance to stay in the race until the very end. Aside: Ichiro has 200 hits in eight consecutive seasons. Having missed the first 7 games of the year, he now has his work cut out for him to hit that number this year.

Eric Chavez, Oakland A’s: 160, 137, 90, 23. Those are the games played for Chavez in the preceding four seasons. At his peak, Chavez was one of the three or four best third basemen in baseball. He combined above average offense with arguably the best defense in the league (with all apologies to Adrian Beltre). Now at 31 years of age, Chavez has the deserved reputation of a guy who just can’t stay healthy. A lot of things will need to go right for the Athletics to win the AL West this year. Keeping Chavez healthy for 140 games is, in my opinion, number one. With Orlando Cabrera and Mark Ellis already in tow, Chavez could give Oakland the best defensive infield in baseball. And adding Chavez’s bat to Oakland’s offense would help tremendously, because after Holliday-Giambi-Cust, there’s a lot of potential but (so far) not much production. Aside: Billy Beane gained the reputation of developing young talent, trading it away, and starting over. He traded or let go of Giambi, Tejada, Hudson, Zito, Mulder, Haren, and Damon. Chavez is the only guy he signed to a big extension. Certainly injuries are unlucky and can’t be predicted, but how would the Athletics future have changed if Beane had locked up one of the other guys instead?

Elvis Andrus, Texas Rangers: An uber shortstop prospect, Andrus is the reason Michael Young was forced to slide to third base. According to scouts, his defense is top-notch. His hitting, however, leads a lot to be desired. Andrus’s career minor league OPS is only .704, which is sub-par even by shortstop standards. At the major league level, he’s gotten off to a hot start, posting a .973 OPS in the first 32 MLB plate appearances of his MLB career. Nothing in Elvis’s past would indicate that he’ll continue to rake at that pace, but if he can offer more offense than the experts were expecting, the Rangers could surprise some people. Keep an eye on this guy.

Mike Napoli, Los Angeles Angels: This guy is one of the most underrated sluggers in the game today. Seriously. Considering he’s a guy that gets absolutely no publicity, His HR/AB numbers are mind boggling. In his career, he’s averaging a home run every 15.4 at-bats. For comparison, last year’s home run champ Ryan Howard averaged a home run ever 14.6 at-bats. However, because of Mike Scioscia’s odd devotion to Jeff Mathis, Mike Napoli has yet to play 80 games in a season. If the Angels are going to fight their way back into the AL West race, Scioscia needs to find a way to get Napoli’s bat in the lineup as often as possible. On the days he doesn’t catch, he should be DHing. Especially considering the news that Vlad will be out for at least 1 month, the Angels offense will need all of the help it can get. Scioscia needs to make this happen.

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