AL West

We all love a comeback story.

Weeks back I wrote a story about Mark Prior, the former first-round pick forced to suck up his pride and start from scratch.

Prior was the next big thing. 

Before Stephen Strasburg, before Aroldis Chapman and his 200 mph fastball, there was Mark Prior.

The former No. 4 prospect in baseball Jeremy Hermida signed a Minor League deal with the Oakland Athletics on Friday.

Hermida, 26, has been inconsistent in his major league career so far, as his best season was back in 2007 with the Florida Marlins, where he hit 18 home runs and drove in 63 runs while hitting .296 for the year.

After that season, he hit .259 in 2008 and .249 in 2007: clearly becoming worse as each new season started.

The Texas Rangers have signed yet another hard throwing arm for their pitching staff. Well, at least when he was first called up he had great start to his career with that arm before it fell apart. Mark Prior has reportedly signed a minor league deal with the Texas Rangers, according to Fort Worth Star Telegram's Jeff Wilson. 

He states that the deal will not just run through 2010, but could be intact for the long-term on his Twitter page. 

The last time Mark Prior took the mound in a major league game, it was August 10th, 2006 against the Milwaukee Brewers. He lasted just three innings that day as he gave up four hits, five walks, and four earned runs.

Josh Hamilton left Friday's game versus the Twins with back stiffness.

The injury doesn't appear to be too serious after hearing Hamilton's comments, but the Rangers were already worried about his achy knee that has flared up again. If you looked at the Texas slugger's performance lately, you couldn't tell he's been banged up.

Los Angeles Angels 3B Brandon Wood, who has been unable to show any consistency at the Major League level, will play for the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League (AFL).

Along with Wood, five other Angels minor league prospects will be joining him at Mesa: pitchers Ryan Brasier, Robert Fish, Stephen Geltz and Eddie McKiernan and infielder Andrew Romine.

When the Texas Rangers slipped in and made the deal for left-hander Cliff Lee, stealing him right out from under the New York Yankees, Ranger fans and players couldn't have been more excited.

They were getting a guy that was a proven winner not only during the season, but also in the playoffs.

However, that's not what they've gotten. Through 11 starts, Lee is 2-5 with a 4.69 ERA and has been nothing short of awful over his last five starts, giving up a combined 25 runs in those starts.

Mired in a hole of one poor transaction after another, the Seattle Mariners are nine years removed from their last playoff berth.

They have struggled with upper level management, found it difficult to find perennial stars in the lineup, and haven't been able to solidify their rotation.

Much of these struggles can be amplified by a series of questionable moves that the franchise has made in recent memory, because there are quite a few of them.

In a much publicized battle of the aces, Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Dan Haren matched Seattle Mariners ace Felix Hernandez pitch for pitch. Neither backed down.

After the two aces hit the showers, Seattle capitalized, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to defeat the Angels, 3-1.

Now that the Los Angeles Angels have snapped a three-game losing streak at the hands of the Seattle Mariners last night, they'll look to capture their first series win since mid-August tonight at Safeco Fiel