No Clear Team to Beat in AL - Angels

Angels:

Strengths - Speed, starting pitching, closer, contact hitting
Weaknesses - The lack of a power bat behind Vlad, lack of BB's
Neutral - Defense, middle relief and setup

Offense - The Angels have been a very good offensive club this year. They were in the top 10 in the AL in runs (822), batting average (.284), on base percent (.354), and stolen bases (139). However, they finished in the bottom half of the league in slugging (.417), walks (507). They are ripe with good contact hitters like Vlad, Figgins, Cabrera, Kendrick, Izturis, Kotchman. However, they have virtually no power threat after Vlad, the next closest player to Vlad's .547 slugging percent was Garrett Anderson's .492, but he still isn't the type of power threat they need and isn't the type of guy that scares pitchers to a great degree anymore, and no other regular posted a slugging percent higher than .467. The lack of power could definitely hurt them in a close game, but the batting average and speed partially make up for it, since you can turn a single into a double with a stolen base. Overall, I think the offense may be a weak spot for them in the playoffs since they will be drawing very, very good pitchers each time out and they don't have anyone besides Vlad that you can expect to tie or win a game with one swing of the bat.

Defense - The Angels didn't play their characteristically good defense this season, finishing 19th in the MLB in fielding percent, they still have very some good defensive players though, not the least of which are Casey Kotchman, Gary Matthews Jr., Orlando Cabrera, and Reggie Willits. Vlad isn't a great outfielder anymore, he had nine errors in the OF this year which I think is simply unacceptable from an outfielder, hes lost a step of his range, he doesn't have the arm he used to, though it is still quite good and better than most, and isn't really the overall fielder he once was, but I wouldn't expect him to hurt them much defensively since I think he will DH quite a bit this post season, with Rivera, Willits, Anderson, and Matthews all getting time in the OF. The defense may hurt them this postseason because a large amount of the errors came at two of the most important defensive positions on the field, shortstop and third base, but they have the pitching to make up for most of it I think, I wouldn't expect it to hurt them more than any other team, I wouldn't be surprised if it did though.

Pitching - This should definitely not hurt the Angels this postseason. They have two pitchers that have had Cy Young type years in Lackey and Escobar, you could even throw K-Rod in there if you wanted, along with a solid season from Weaver and a good season out of the bullpen from Justin Speier. However, they do have a few flaws, besides K-Rod and Speier the bullpen has not been as reliable this season, and the Santana and Colon both struggled this season starting which leaves them with a slight hole there. Sheilds should be able to pick it up in the post season though. How good the Angels do these playoffs will likely depend on how well they pitch, which should be very well.

Overall - The offense is the only thing I can see hurting the Angels a lot, due to the reasons I detailed before, and the pitching will carry them as far as they go. They do not have a good history against Boston in the playoffs and Boston has a much better offense and roughly equally as good pitching. I don't think they beat the Red Sox, but they will definitely give them a run for there money.

Yankees up next.