The Dodgers and Angels were crowned champions on the West Coast in 2008. Have any competing teams improved enough to prevent the same from happening again?

It's impossible to predict what's going to happen over the course of a six-month season. Injuries, call-ups and disappointing players will have an impact on every race in baseball, so what follows is the most likely outcome based on how the 10 teams in the AL West and NL West look today.

AL West

1. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
2. Texas Rangers
3. Oakland Athletics
4. Seattle Mariners

The Angels didn't improve themselves after last season's playoff letdown, but that doesn't mean Mike Sciosia's squad isn't still the best in this division. There are some injury concerns in the pitching rotation, but I expect those to not be as big of an issue as some think they'll be. The every day lineup should still be able to produce enough runs, while L.A. can also trot out the division's best bullpen.

Texas is going to put up runs. A lot of them, as a matter of fact. Maybe even a historic amount. That alone will be enough to get Josh Hamilton and company into second place in a subpar division.

Oakland is a hot sleeper choice this season, but I'm definitely not on that bandwagon. The team has only one experienced starter and the offense won't be close to as good as some are projecting. I'm expecting the A's to be out of the race by July and Matt Holliday to be playing elsewhere down the stretch.

Seattle was horrible last year, and the return of Erik Bedard makes the Mariners a better team than a season ago. However, it still won't be enough to mount any kind of serious run like two seasons ago.

NL West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers
2. Arizona Diamondbacks
3. San Francisco Giants
4. Colorado Rockies
5. San Diego Padres

This division all comes down to offense. The Dodgers have it, and the other teams don't. Manny Ramirez will have another big campaign, and Russell Martin and Matt Kemp should join him in that category. The bullpen will also be solid and help Joe Torre win a lot of ball games.

The Diamondbacks were a huge disappointment last season because of an offense that struck out so much. That shouldn't be as big of an issue this year as those young players mature, but the pitching staff is a notch below what it was last season and that's going to be problematic.

The Giants and Rockies look dead even on paper, with Colorado fielding the better everyday lineup and San Francisco bringing a better starting rotation. In that situation I'll have to go with the arms to push the Giants into third.

The Padres will likely have a tough go of it. The offense won't be great, Jake Peavy doesn't look like the Peavy that used to be capable of dominating opponents, and the bullpen has a lot of holes.