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00:00The AL West, which is certainly factored into the Major League Baseball landscape over the past decade with multiple championships here, doing with the Astros and the Rangers.
00:09The Mariners always trying to fight over the hump with a good pitching staff, but just can't quite find that knack for getting enough timely hitting here.
00:15The Angels, who are basically just Mike Trout and nobody else at this point. And then the Athletics, who we can't even call them Oakland.
00:21They are just the Athletics right now. If we look at the price points here, at the Fandu Sportsbook to win this division, it is the Astros at a plus 170 price.
00:29The Texas Rangers plus 185. The Mariners 210. The Angels 20 to 1. And then the Athletics at 27 to 1.
00:35So we'll start at the top here for the Houston Astros. A lot of changes throughout this organization for the past couple of years and a lot of superstars have left town.
00:42Trying to replace that with Isak Paredes coming to town now through trade.
00:46Also, you take a look at Christian Walker as a free agent and Cam Smith coming over also in the trade from the Chicago Cubs.
00:52Taking a look at this team here, starting with the Astros. Is it your mindset that they are the best team of the division?
00:58Or is another team have your eye here fighting back for the AL West?
01:02I think Houston, the era is gone. No more Bregman. No more Tucker. Bye-bye. It is time to go.
01:16But listen, not everything stays forever, right? So, I mean, I know Altuve and what, Yordan Alvarez are still hanging around.
01:25But I just don't see Houston in this division doing anything more than maybe 80, 85 win team at most.
01:34And I do think that the bounce back season here and don't forget Houston, I don't think won a game against Detroit.
01:41I think they got bounced out there in the wildcard round last year. How they even won 88 games was a little interesting.
01:48But I think it's the Texas Rangers who are due for a bounce back here, not the Houston Astros.
01:54I think they're going to go through a couple of years of maybe a bit of a rebuild here in order to try to get back to the top of that division.
02:03Yeah, one of the best organizations in baseball, whether they cheat or not, has been the Houston Astros at that point.
02:08So we'll see how it plays out this year. But that core getting a little bit older, no longer the Kyle Tucker's there.
02:12You know, Breitman's on the move. So that is going to be a different look Astros team.
02:16But sometimes some change is good, but I'm not necessarily thinking that year to year to year.
02:21We always thought the Houston Astros were just pencil men as the AOS champions.
02:25Maybe that's not going to be the case at this point, because why?
02:27Maybe it is their in-state rival, the Texas Rangers, that can sort of take that mantle.
02:31Because to me, just looking at the one through nine starting on a day-to-day, one of the best in baseball here,
02:36and it's a lot of fun, Simeon Seager, Lankford, Peterson, Garcia, Jung, Carter, Berger, and Heim.
02:41That's a great one through nine with a decent starting staff that's going to be able to back them up behind.
02:46Injuries, Simeon's a great leadoff hitter. We get that. Seager has had some issues, but one of the best batters in baseball.
02:52I love the addition of Jock Peterson coming over to that left-handed bat with some pop in the middle of the lineup between Lankford and Adolis Garcia.
02:59I have a lot of fun with this team. If I had to pick one champion in this division, it would be the Rangers for me also.
03:05You look at the Rangers' price point to make the playoffs at a minus-138 price, I think they can certainly do that as well.
03:10But that price point of plus-185 to win it, it's one of these teams that on a day-to-day basis, if I'm not betting the side,
03:16boy, there's a lot of RBI props in that lineup that I'm going to love for you, Joe, with the Rangers.
03:21Oh, they really, I mean, my goodness here. That lineup, again, had to go through some injuries and some ups and downs last year.
03:31But yeah, give me the Rangers' home run props, like you mentioned, RBI props here.
03:38It was kind of a down year, but I think Corey Seager still had a great year last year.
03:45His WRC Plus was still through the roof. They've got guys up and down this lineup, young guys too, that they can drop double-digit runs a game on any pitching staff here.
03:56So like everything else with the Rangers, it's going to be like, do they have enough in the bullpen?
04:01Do they have enough to overcome some of those nights maybe where the ball isn't flying out of the park?
04:07I think they will. I think they're ready to go with Bochy. I think they're ready to have a huge bounce-back season in the West.