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Pat Sullivan/Associated Press

W L Houston Astros 90 72 Texas Rangers 86 76 Seattle Mariners 81 81 Los Angeles Angels 78 84 Oakland Athletics 74 88

The Houston Astros are scary.

Last season, the squad smashed the second-most homers in baseball, and the young core—including the likes of Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and George Springer—is only getting older, more experienced and better.

As ESPN.com's Dave Schoenfield sees it, Correa has the potential to become one of the giants of the sport: "If there's one player who can challenge Mike Trout and Bryce Harper for best-player-in-the-game honors, it's Correa."

As Schoenfield noted, Correa posted an adjusted OPS of 132 in 2015. Only Trout, Harper, Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. put up a higher adjusted OPS at age 20.

But it's not just the corps of bats that gives the Astros the nod over clubs like the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners. It's also the arms—especially new closer Ken Giles, who has a 1.56 ERA in 113 games.

The Rangers are a difficult club to peg because they have so many X-factors in play. Co-ace Yu Darvish is still on the mend from Tommy John surgery, Yovani Gallardo remains unsigned and Josh Hamilton's left knee continues to cause him problems, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

After a frenetic offseason, the Mariners should be better than a season ago, when they went 76-86. The M's limiting factor will likely be their offense.

New general manager Jerry Dipoto made a bevy of moves, but with Adam Lind standing out as the biggest addition, it will be a challenge to keep up with the Astros and Rangers, who finished sixth and third, respectively, in runs a season ago.

Offense also looks like the problem spot for the Los Angeles Angels. In the second half, the Halos were 14th in the AL in runs. That offensive ineptitude could re-emerge in 2016, as Albert Pujols is far from a lock to be in the lineup on Opening Day, per Jon Morosi of Fox Sports.

For the Oakland Athletics, who we project to land in the cellar once again, their fundamental problem in 2015 was their dismal pen. The brass has brought in Ryan Madson, John Axford, Liam Hendriks and Marc Rzepczynski as part of a drastic makeover.

Madson (2.13 ERA in 2015) is the star of that group, but it's worth wondering just how big of a difference the new relief crew can actually make. After all, Oakland ran up 94 losses during the season that was.