Is the West as weak as everyone seems to think?

If you’ve been looking at preseason power rankings, you’ve probably noticed a pretty consistent trend: Virtually everyone agrees that the Eastern Conference is likely to be stronger.

A quick rundown:

• MLSsoccer.com has five of the top 6 teams from the East.
• The East takes up 8 of the 10 teams in Matt Doyle's top two tiers.
• All four of Tom Bogert's "Apex Contenders" are from the East.
• Ryan Rosenblatt was a bit more balanced with 4 of his top 10 from the West, but he also has 3 of 4 "title contenders" from the East.
• On the betting market, seven of the nine best odds are on teams in the East.

I'm sure I could dig up more, but you get the idea. The West is considered relatively weak.

The upshot, though, is virtually everyone has the Sounders listed as the top team in the West. At MLSsoccer.com, 12 of 17 pundits picked the Sounders to win the West, and no one had them lower than third. Backheeled also picked the Sounders to win the West, along with Broadway Sports Media. Again, it's a very obvious trend.

I suspect that's mostly due to the Sounders returning all their playoff starters, while also adding Young Designated Player Pedro de la Vega, centerback Nathan and forward Danny Musovski. It can certainly be argued that the Sounders' ceiling hasn't been raised very much, but their foundation at least seems quite a bit more stable. For the first time in a long time, the Sounders should have some real competition for several starting spots. Combined with their history of success, the Sounders certainly feel like a safe bet.

Conversely, the other teams in the West have undergone the kind of change that makes them a bit more unpredictable. Here's a rundown of what the rest of the Western Conference teams have done (in alphabetical order):