Predicted order of finish
1. Oakland A's
2. Seattle Mariners
3. Texas Rangers
4. Anaheim Angels

With a starting three of Hudson/Zito/Mulder, the Oakland A's have a young pitching foundation which will keep them contending for a long time, barring injury. Giambi replacement Carlos Pena is very talented and will challenge for the rookie of the year. Newly acquired closer Billy Koch is an upgrade from the departed Jason Isringhausen.

After winning about 230 regular season games, look for the Seattle Mariners to come back to the pack a bit. Reliable starter Aaron sele left as a free agent, replaced by the ridiculously bad James Baldwin. Career .255 hitter Bret Boone hit .337 with 141 RBI. Look for him to settle somewhere between these two extremes. Still, there is a lot of talent on this team, from Ichiro Suzuki (242 hits last year), to Freddy Garcia (19 wins). They'll contend.

The Texas Rangers scored a lot of runs last year, but had no pitching. They didn't really add quality pitchers in the off-season (Except for Chan Ho Park), but they added many pitchers. They brought 26 pitchers to camp. These include faded phenom Bill Pulsipher, large Asian Hideki Irabu, faded phenom Todd Van Poppel, and fifty-something soft-tosser Dave Burba. Look for the same thing to happen this year. 1000 runs scored, 1100 given up.

Anaheim Angels. So many Disney jokes, so little time.