Well, all good things must come to an end, that's what they say right? In case you've just tuned in, we've been on an epic journey that originally started as a simple three part series (Part I, Part II, Part III), which has since expanded to give additional coverage to each division in baseball (AL East, NL East, AL Central, NL Central, AL West). Our last stop is a division full of lineups that we are likely going to be trotting a lot of Spot * On Starters onto the mound against. However, this division is also home to more Spot * On candidates than any other, and due to how many times these teams will all play each other, may get more rub than any other division. You'll see...

The American League West is special in that it has one less team (4) than the 'norm' in Major League Baseball. It's also special in that it contains a team that has become known as a place that churns out starting pitchers with reckless abandon (Oakland), as well as a place where starters go to die (Texas). Surprisingly, the latter provides more entries to our list than the former, even if they aren't likely to be as useful; they will be more available. On top of all that, one of the four teams doesn't even send us a single representative. Let's take a gander at what the AL West has to offer our fantasy teams in 2009...

Okay, so about a week ago I finally broke the seal and began participation in my first, of what will turn out to be countless, mock draft over at Couchmanagers.com. We left off after the first four rounds had been completed, at which point I had drafted the following players:

1.6 Miguel Cabrera (only 1B eligible)
2.19 Johan Santana
3.30 Aramis Ramirez
4.43 Ichiro Suzuki
* Players all linked in Part I

When you're an A List athlete in the Big Apple, you fall under more scrutiny than other athletes. You're a big fish in the biggest pond of all. It should come as no surprise that in his tenure in New York, Alex Rodriguez has graced Page 6 of the New York Post probably more than any other athlete in history. There's only one problem - most of the time his spreads look like this...

After a brief stop in the American League, we're flip-flopping yet again, John Kerry style. The NL Central is a very interesting division. It's inexplicably got one more team than the standard 5 (the AL West has only 4), and it's chock full of parity, not to mention one of the most historical teams in Major League history, the Chicago Cubs. Speaking of the Cubbies, will any of them make the cut here? Let's take a look...

The innovator of the Top 10, David Letterman, has come up his latest and one of his best incarnations - The Top 10 Messages Left on Alex Rodriguez's Answering Machine:

#10. "Hey, it's Mark McGwire. Want to get together this week and not talk about the past?"

#9. "Joe Torre here -- thanks for helping book sales."

#8. "Could you find a steroid that keeps you from choking in the playoffs?"

Today, like in the Oregon Trail, we begin our journey West (hopefully we don't die of dysentery along the way). If you can remember all the way back to Part III of this series, we mentioned Anthony Reyes and Luke Hochevar as arms to keep an eye on in this division; today we'll look at several more. And away we go...

Here are the results of a Couchmanagers 8 Hour Slow Mock Draft I participated in with 11 other very accomplished fantasy baseball players, including Rotodatabase's own Artful Dodger and Old_Style.

Okay, so a buddy of mine approached me about participating in a mock draft over at Couchmanagers. Typical snake style with 12 teams and the following positions:

Somewhat atypical, what with there being no Utility spot and no distinction between Starting and Relief Pitchers. But I digress - by the time I entered the draft, the only available draft spots were 6th and 11th, and I absolutely loathe being near the turn on either end of the draft, so I was quite content to grab the 6th spot, where I've always been very comfortable drafting. A minute later, the room was full and the draft was underway...

Sticking around on the coast with the most, we'll cross leagues and take a gander at some players in the National League East who will likely be called upon to help your ratios or to get you those crucial Strikeouts or that tie-breaking Win in your H2H league on one day or another this season. When you're coming down the stretch, and you've got to maximize your innings, or ensure you use them all in your Roto League, these are the names you may be looking to to determine whether you finish in 1st or 3rd. These are the decisions and champions must make.

Remember that we already touched upon a couple of pitchers in this division back in Part I  of this series...

Alright, so we've gone across the league, both leagues in fact, coast to coast and looked at a dozen pitchers who have a great chance of having their names make 'The List' this season. There may be one day the entire season where they could be of value to you, but that's our goal here - to identify that day. But certainly there's more than a dozen under analyzed, under appreciated arms out there, so let's take a division by division approach and try and find some more diamonds in the rough that we may have missed our first time through...

Up first, the American League East, which was originally touched upon in Part I of this series...

Well, the lines for the World Baseball Classic have been out for some time now, so let's see how the fine readers of Rotodatabase fare when they're given $100 fictional to wager on the international tournament.

The Rules:

• You've got $100 fictional to wager.
• You must wager it all.
• There is no minimum or maximum to # of bets you can place.
• There is no minimum to what you can wager on a bet.

After selling out of its very first product last week, the Free Barry T-Shirt, the East Coast Bias Store is launching its first Spring Line, called The A-Rod Collection.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard that New York Yankees 3rd Basemen Álex Rodríguez reportedly tested positive for two different anabolic steroids back in 2003, a season in which he won both the American League Home Run Crown and MVP Award. The previous year, '02, A-Rod smashed 57 HR, the most he's ever sent flying, before going on to capture three Most Valuable Player Awards.

Welcome to the story that will carry you through the entire 2009 season.

The past two days we have taken trips to the two coasts in Part I and Part II, taking looks at pitchers on either side of the United States who may make their way onto your fantasy rosters for at least a day or two this season; possibly longer. Unlike The Godfather, however, we intend to make Part III well worth the price of admission. Today we stop in the dead center of the U.S., tackling both the AL and NL Central Divisions, and this crop of arms could be the deadliest yet...

Don't think Ben Sheets is as injury prone as you've been told? East Coast Bias would like to present, Exhibit A:

Yesterday we spent some time on the East Coast, where big time baseball is played, at four pitchers who should either be undrafted, or sent to the Waiver Wire pretty early in the season who could end up playing a major role in your winning your fantasy baseball league this season. Today, we will head all the way across the U.S. and examine four players who make their living out on the West side.

Remember, you may only own these guys for one day the entire season, but each have the potential to pull things together and be owned for several week stretches, or even become mainstays in many league formats. Without further adieu...

Because we're still just under two months from MLB Opening Day 2009, I want to take a look ahead at some potential Spot * On candidates -- pitchers who are fighting to make five man rotations; some may, some may not, but these guys are one tweaked elbow, or a few poor outings away from getting their shot, and potentially impacting your '09 fantasy season.

So, let's go to the video tape...

Okay, so I was participating in a ranking discussion about Outfielders, which started out as follows...

1. Grady Sizemore
2. Ryan Braun
3. Josh Hamilton
4. Matt Holliday
5. Carlos Beltrán
6. Alfonso Soriano
7. Carlos Lee
8. Manny Ramirez
9. B.J. Upton

Whether or not I agree with those as the Top 9 (I'll give you a hint, I don't) is inconsequential; but I digress. When it came to ranking the 10th OF, I immediately narrowed it down to Carlos Quentin and Nick Markakis. Having been a Markakis fanboy for the past two seasons, and Quentin falling victim to the dreaded wrist injury of doom at the end of 2008, I settled on Markakis and didn't think about it much further... until...

I was leafing through the fliers that came in the mail today, and I came across a very interesting offer...

• Greg Maddux | 8/27 | @WSH | 5.3 IP | 2 ER | 8 H | 1 BB | 0 K | L
• Jason Marquis | 8/27 | @PIT | 7.0 IP | 0 ER | 5 H | 0 BB | 3 K | W
•  Edwin Jackson | 8/28 | TOR | 7.0 IP | 1 ER | 6 H | 2 BB | 2 K | W
• Brandon Backe | 8/28 | CIN | 6.6 IP | 2 ER | 6 H | 1 BB | 6 K | W
• Zach Miner | 8/29 | KC | 6.0 IP | 1 ER | 6 H | 1 BB | 2 K | W
• Anthony Reyes | 8/30 | SEA | 7.0 IP | 1 ER | 7 H | 1 BB | 3 K | ND
• Kenny Rogers | 8/30 | KC | 6.0 IP | 6 ER | 8 H | 2 BB | 4 K | L

• TOTAL | 45.0 IP | 13 ER | 46 H | 29 BB | 20 K | 4 - 2 Record

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