All-decade teams: Picking the ultimate roster for each AL West franchise

Over the next week, theScore's MLB editors will roll out a series that assembles the best roster for every franchise during the 2010s.

These rosters include nine position players, five starters, two relievers, and a closer. All WAR statistics in tables are only for the player with that franchise since the 2010 campaign, and only performances since that year were considered when building rosters. Players must have spent a minimum of one full season with their club.

We continue with the American League West:

AL EAST I AL CENTRAL I AL WEST
NL EAST I NL CENTRAL I NL WEST

Houston Astros

This will go down as the decade during which the Astros blew it all up and went from being the worst team in baseball to the best in only a few years. Houston hit big on in-house talents such as Altuve, Bregman, Correa, Springer, and Keuchel before surrounding them with reinforcements via well-timed trades. However, this offseason's sign-stealing scandal has somewhat clouded their 2017 World Series victory. Regardless, the talent is obviously there, including Yordan Alvarez, who may have made the all-decade cohort had he debuted sooner - he clubbed 27 homers in 87 games during his rookie season while being worth 3.8 WAR.

Los Angeles Angels

Trout is the ultimate outlier and a sign of what could have been. The Angels would be perennial contenders if they managed to field even a consistently functional team around him. He's committed his career to the franchise but can't shoulder the burden much longer, and with the Anthony Rendon signing, he may not have to. The fact that Trout - who was easily the player of the decade, during which he became the Angels' all-time leader in WAR - is still without a single playoff victory is a shame. The Angels' biggest weakness was the pitching staff, and it remains so for the time being, especially after the team missed out on Gerrit Cole.

Oakland Athletics

Creating this lineup was a tricky task and required a bit of a cheat. Slotting Donaldson in at DH is a bit questionable as he was an excellent defender during his time with Oakland, but Chapman is the best defensive third baseman in the AL. That choice forced us to then make a decision between would-be DH representative Davis and Yoenis Cespedes. Cespedes posted a superior WAR (8.5) but Davis hit more home runs than any other Athletics player did this decade. So, Cespedes, rightly or wrongly, is the odd man out.

The A's unexpectedly came up short with their pitching. From 2000 to 2009, Oakland had six starters (Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, Rich Harden, Joe Blanton, and Dan Haren) who were worth at least 12 WAR. Oakland had a ton of turnover in the starting rotation after that period, which contributed to the lack of sustained success for any individual hurler.

Seattle Mariners

The Mariners had a prime "King Felix" to kick off the decade - he won his lone Cy Young in 2010 - but rarely felt like a cohesive unit during the last 10 seasons. They put together three winning campaigns and finished better than third in the AL West only once. While Seager, Cano, and Cruz offered sporadic boosts to the offense, the production from every other position has been negligible. Haniger being Seattle's best outfielder despite playing in just 316 games shows why this club has continued to flounder.

Texas Rangers

It's not surprising that the majority of the Rangers' big-ticket producers on offense were part of one or both of the club's back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2010 and '11. If it wasn't for Cardinals magic in 2011, the core of Kinsler, Beltre, Andrus, and Hamilton would have hoisted the trophy. The early part of the decade also marked the end of longtime beloved infielder Michael Young's career. Darvish came later and has actually been worth more WAR than any other pitcher in Texas dating back to 2000. Maybe the Rangers have a championship in the trophy case if Darvish joined the rotation at the start of the decade.