When all of the t’s are crossed and the i’s dotted, Albert Pujols is going to be kicking it in the 90210 with a brand new, 10 year, $254 million contract with the Los Angeles Angels.

In deals that came out of nowhere on day four of the MLB Winter Meetings in Dallas, the Angels quickly stole the show, signing Pujols to the above deal and Texas ace C.J. Wilson to a 5 year, $77.5 million deal.

Signing two all-stars to their roster, the Angels are quickly becoming a favorite in the division. They now have an enormous amount of flexibility with the young players left on their roster, including Kendrys Morales and Mark Trumbo. One can assume that the Angels will likely employ Morales at DH and find a trade for Abreu.

The Houston Astros will move to the AL West in 2013, but in reality, the move doesn’t make a whole lot of difference for baseball or the division.

Let’s be honest, adding the Astros to the division doesn’t add any competition or more challenge to the “worst division in baseball”. Here’s what the new division will look like:

Texas Rangers  (96-66)
Los Angeles Angels (86-76)
Oakland Athletics (74-88)
Seattle Mariners (67-95)
Houston Astros (56-106) 

The Astros really haven’t helped themselves in the winning aspect, as they have been trading away their best players for cheap as of late. In the past two seasons, here are the players the Astros have traded away in the past two seasons: 

2010: Roy Oswalt (traded to Philadelphia)
2011: Michael Bourn (traded to Atlanta)
2011: Hunter Pence (traded to Philadelphia)
2011: Jeff Keppinger (traded to San Francisco)

The Astros stood a fighting chance of doing pretty well in the AL West if they kept all of these guys from leaving. Now, in such a place as Houston was in, no one wanted to stay. They traded away most of their better players, and because of it have been suffered some miserable seasons since.  Being in the AL West isn’t going to help their cause when it comes to signing free agents, because it doesn’t change how much money they can put fourth for transactions.

There is no way this move makes the AL West any better. The Astros haven’t been a .500+ club since 2008, where they finished third in the AL Central with an 86-75 record. They aren’t going to compete with the likes of the Rangers and Angels, who are getting better every year as their young players grow into their roles.  Even the Mariners are looking up- with players like Michael Piñeda, Dustin Ackley, and Justin Smoak all progressing nicely, the Mariners should be able to at least contend for the title.

The Astros-Rangers rivalry and trophy series will now take a back-seat to the chase for the AL West Pennant, ending what has meant sold-out games every matchup between the two during their rivalry in interleague play. The sad part is, now that that matchup will happen more often, it will lose a lot of its luster, and the Rangers will continue to dominate the Astros in the matchup.

It also doesn’t make sense to add a second team from Texas. If the MLB was looking to shake things up during realignment, it would have made a lot more sense to move a team like the Diamondbacks to the AL West and move the Astros to the NL West. A swap like this expands the viewing region for each division, giving it better rating throughout the season, and teams would get to travel to more diverse places, rather than just boring ole Texas.

Whatever the pros and cons of the move are, it is going to happen, and we’ll be ready for it when it comes in spring of 2013.

(@jimmymichaels1)

We'll miss your smile. It's an absolute tragedy.

Photo Source: Brian Cassella/St. Petersburg Times

Wednesday was a sad day. The 2011 Mariners' season came to a close with a pathetic shutout loss to the anemic Oakland Athletics. But when I came back to my dorm room at around 6:30 pm CT Wednesday evening, I wasn’t focused on the impending offseason of doom for the Mariners. I prepared myself for some postseason baseball two days early.

What follows is a reflection on the craziest night in baseball I have ever witnessed. By about 8:00 CT, the Yankees were well in control of the Rays, the Cardinals were already destroying the Astros, and the Red Sox and Braves both were deadlocked in tight battles.

The Mariners have been awful this year. Despite this, as Larry Stone so correctly asserted in awhile back in the Seattle Times, there is hope on the horizon for the lowly M’s. It may take another year, another two years, maybe even another five, but if they stay the course, the Mariners will be contenders. Eventually.

Take a look at a forecast of the 2012 Marinerss position by position after the jump.

Several fans have been hammering Ichiro for almost as long as he's been in town for one reason or another.

Up until recently though, the common argument used against the Ichiro "haters" was that he's the best hitter on the team. While you may not like him, and there may be aspects of his game you're not fond of, it doesn't make sense to get rid of the team's top performer.

(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Now, I have to give credit for this nickname to two people. First, to Kevin Calabro, for originating the phrase I used as the title for this column. Second, to a random clever fan in the King’s Court, for shouting this brilliant handle out in the second inning of last Saturday night’s game.

The Magic CARPet Ride has been good to Mariners fans for the last month or so, and Mike Carp is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.

Carp came up in early June after destroying the minor leagues for a solid two months. Demand for a leftfielder was high and Carp had been playing in Tacoma for longer than he should have been. Unfortunately for Carp, it became apparent that he had no business in the majors. He was sent back to Tacoma after three weeks of hitting .200 without a home run or RBI in the big leagues. 

It’s not very often that someone with less than 40 innings of Major League pitching experience gets to start Game 1 of a League Championship Series.

Former Seattle Mariners pitcher Bob Wolcott is one of the few who can say he knows what it’s like.

One Ninety-Four. It’s the number of minutes the film Titanic is in length. It’s the number of career wins for both David Cone and Doc Gooden. It’s the population of Tokeland, Washington. It’s the exact number of episodes in the CBS runs of both I Love Lucy and Will and Grace. It’s also the batting average of the best defensive center fielder in all of baseball, Franklin Gutierrez.

Since coming over from Cleveland in 2009, Guti has wowed management and fans alike with his astounding defensive ability; so much so, that he quickly secured a starting position and has yet to relinquish it.  To this point however, Guti has campaigned virtually unopposed. When you’re competing with Michael Saunders, Ryan Langerhans, and Greg Halman, playing time in center isn’t exactly hard to come by. 

Even so, Guti established himself as a given in center,  an unmovable, critical fixture in the M’s soft lineup.  But with a quick glance at his numbers, the casual baseball fan would quickly ask why.

Free at last, free at last, I thank God the Mariners are free at last! All inappropriate butchering of an MLK quote aside, the Mariners won a game the other day for the first time since July 5th, when they gave me a birthday present of being .500 in July. Over the course of these torturous 22 winless days, the face of the franchise has changed.

Since July 5th, the Mariners have gone from imaginary contenders to one of the five worst teams in baseball.  They went from on the fence buyers to being so ad they have nothing to sell.  But sell they must.  What follows is an evaluation of the trade-ability of every member of the 25 man roster (plus Bedard) divided into tiers.