The 2006 AL WEST

The AL West is a fun division. It is filthy but it has personality. It better have a lot of personality, a lot more than that pig from Green Acres. Seattle is trying to rebuild with guys with tats on their necks and players from Japan, Anaheim is tough and willing to spend money, Texas is trying to get pitching.

How about the Oakland A's? If you know me you know where I am going with a post about the A's. If you are a fan of the A's, get ready to bring on the dancing girls and put the Champaign on ice, cause we're gonna win it all this year. This is it, this is the big one, finally the best franchise is baseball is going to show everyone. Of course I have been telling everyone I know the same thing every spring for the last 5 years, but really THIS IS THE YEAR. That young young team got a year older and one year closer to the World Series.

Know why they are going to win it all? Let's start at the finish. Huston Street. The name conjurs up visions of Paul Bunyan, Superman, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, name your favorite superhero, real or fictional, that is who Huston Street is. In his first major league inning, he struck out Sammy Sosa, and the outs just keep coming. He was 18 for 18 in saves after the Allstar break. Do I think he will save them all this year? Maybe not, but he is a pretty good bet for 95%. The guy's stuff is electric, and he knows no fear. Before he had his first major league save he made this statement, "You are in the batters box thinking about the score, the count, the game, the pressure, and I have only one thing on my mind, to get you out." And another one, "Every fan has a dream that his favorite player is going to hit a homer late in a game and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat, and I am here to smash that dream." The dude is 22 years old and I see nothing but smashed dreams for fans of teams the A's are playing for the next few decades. I gotta get to work, more AL west stuff coming soon.