Wanted: Trade Partner for Disgruntled Outfielder

Will accept:  Bags of baseballs, gift certificates to Red Lobster, Brandon Wood.

After failed attempts at a match with New York and Cleveland, we are just trying to find a good home for old Left Fielder, Bobby.  After we got some new players, we just didn't have the time to spend with him anymore, and he has done nothing but mope around the house for the last month.  If you think you have the space and can give him the attention he needs, we'd be more than happy to make a trade with you.  We will just take just about anything for him at this point, he just needs a home.

Contact: (714)555-4256

Angels Nation 2012 Season Preview

So, the 2012 Season kicked off last night in Japan, as the Mariners topped to the A's, 3-1 in extra innings.  While that game will likely have little impact on the rest of the season, it's incredibly significant in that it starts off the 2012 season.  A season which many Angels fans are hoping is our return to not only the postseason, but to the World Series and beyond.  I'll take a look at each of the other 5 divisions in baseball before turning it around to look at our Angels, and our division foes.  Also, picks for awards and postseason championships.

NL West
Projected Standings:

1st -San Francisco - 94-68
Colorado - 85-77
Arizona - 84-78
Los Angeles - 80-82
San Diego - 70-92

Divisional Recap:
San Francisco, while still not having much in the way of offense, is getting back their star catcher in Buster Posey, and that young rotation is only getting better. This is a very winnable division (as Arizona showed last year), and the Giants are primed to make it back to the postseason.  The Dodgers could improve now that they have been sold to the group headed by Magic Johnson, but it might take them some time to turn dollars into wins.  Colorado could compete for a playoff spot, but needs more pitching to have a chance.

NL Central
Projected Standings:

2nd - Milwaukee - 93-69
St. Louis - 84-78
Cincinnati - 82-80
Chicago - 81-81
Pittsburgh - 79-83
Houston - 59-103

Divisional Recap:
Houston will go days on days without wins, and the rest of the division is pretty close, but in the end, I think the Brewers have the pitching (both in the rotation and the bullpen) to pull away in September.  The Cardinals or Reds could make a push for that 2nd Wild Card spot, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

NL East
Projected Standings:

3rd - Philadelphia - 90-72
4th - Miami - 88-74
5th - Washington - 87-75
Atlanta - 79-83
New York - 65-97

Divisional Recap:
Miami and Washington went out and got a lot better in the offseason, while Philadelphia stood their ground, and while they still might have the best 1-2-3 punch in all of baseball in that rotation, they are going to lose Utley and Ryan Howard for big chunks of time due to injuries.  Can Jim Thome, Placido Polanco and Jimmy Rollins really carry that offense?  Atlanta takes a step back after their epic collapse at the end of the 2011 season, and the Mets continue to be the Mets.

AL Central
Projected Standings:

3rd - Detroit - 95-67
Cleveland - 83-79
Minnesota - 78-84
Kansas City - 75-87
Chicago - 70-92

Divisional Recap:
Detroit looks like the clear winner in this division, which might be the worst in baseball if Cleveland and Kansas City take a step back from their 2011 campaigns.  I still don't trust the lineup around Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera, nor the rotation after Justin Verlander.  If Morneau and Mauer bounce back in Minnesota, they have the supporting pieces to make a decent run, but that is a big "if".  Chicago is going to be bad.  They lost their manager and their ace to Miami, and everyone else just got a year older, on an already old team.

AL East
Projected Standings:

1st - New York - 101-61
4th - Tampa Bay - 95-67
5th - Toronto - 90-72
Boston - 81-81
Baltimore - 70-92

Divisional Recap:
I think after the collapse last year, coupled with Bobby Valentine's antics and a team that is just asking for that one injury to either Ellsbury or Gonzalez to completely cripple their season, Boston is not ready to make the jump back into the postseason.  The Yankees had the offense last year, but no one in that rotation wanted to step up behind CC Sabathia.  Now they have an improved offense, and a bolstered Roation, which includes sophomore studs Michael Pineda and Ivan Nova, as well as former Dodger Hiroki Kuroda.  They also have Raul Ibanez playing at DH, who is going to LOVE the short porch and jet stream out to right field.  Tampa Bay might have the best overall pitching staff in all of baseball behind the Angels, and if their hitting can keep things going (despite not really having any stars outside of Longoria), they should lock up the first wild card spot pretty easily, unless Longoria goes down, which opens up things for Boston or Texas.  The Blue Jays are much better this year, and if they can find a pitcher at the trade deadline to compliment Ricky Romero, they might be the scariest team in baseball come Mid-August.  The Orioles are going to be better, but under the weight of being in the best division in baseball, they will struggle all year long once again.

AL West 
Projected Standings

2nd - Angels - 100-62
Texas - 88-74
Seattle - 70-92
Oakland - 58-104

Oakland - Yes, this is the worst team in baseball.  After watching them over the last month in spring training, and seeing their game against another terrible team last night, this is just a bad baseball club.  They have little to no offense to speak of (outside of Jemile Weeks and Cuban import Cespedes), and there isn't much going on in the rotation after Brendan McCarthy (especially with Dallas Braden out with an injury until at least May).  This should be an easy victory every time out for the Halos, and I'll have to rename my favorite segment "I Wish We Could Play Oakland All Year Long".  If this club can find something to rally behind (like McCarthy or Cespedes), a best case scenario would be 3rd place ahead of Seattle, but Seattle has better young hitters and maybe the best pitcher in baseball.  The Athletics have Coco Crisp and Bartolo Colon.

Seattle - This is a team on the rise, granted, there wont be anywhere for them to go with Anaheim and Texas leaps and bounds ahead of them in the division, but they will be fun to watch all season long.  Once they begin to weed out some of the crap (Figgins, Brendan Ryan, etc) and plug in young, exciting players, they could be the Angels biggest competition for the next decade of Pujols.  Until then, they still have King Felix, who is probably the best pitcher in baseball, and Ichiro, who with four hits last night, looks like he back to the same old Ichiro.  They are a little shaky in the rotation behind Felix, but they are good enough to finish within 10 games of .500.

Texas - Lets see, they lost their Ace to their biggest rival, and their rotation of constantly injured sluggers are all a year older and a few years slower (thanks to those injuries).  But they are still apparently the toast of the AL West, according to many "experts".  To me, this team is relying on too many "maybes" and "ifs".  Yu Darvish will probably start out well, but he is set up for failure.  Getting used to that Mid-Summer Texas heat is going to be brutal after a lifetime in temperate Japan.  Neftali Feliz, their former closer, is being moved into the rotation.  This didn't work for someone like Joba Chamerblain (who just went out for the season in a freak trampoline accident), and historically hasn't worked well for anyone.  Speaking of which, the oft-injured Joe Nathan is taking over for Feliz in the closer role.  Can he stay healthy for a full season?  Next "if": can the lineup stay together?  Odds are not good.  Cruz, Kinsler, Hamilton and Andrus are all injury prone, and what happens if they all go down around the same time?  Then its Mid-Summer and Darvish has fallen off the deep end, and Feliz can't keep his stamina up, forcing Ron Washington to go to the bullpen earlier than he'd like to?  Also, lets face it, the rotation behind Feliz and Darvish just isn't very good.  It's a serviceable Major League Rotation, but this "AL Powerhouse" club isn't going to win 100 games with Colby Lewis as the 3rd starter.

Angels - The Angels got better EVERYWHERE in the offseason, even where they didn't need it.  The pitching staff, which had the best ERA in the AL last year, added C.J. Wilson, Jason Isringhausen and LaTroy Hawkins.  Three former all-stars.  Isringhausen and Hawkins are going to bring depth and experience to an already solid bullpen featuring Walden, Downs, Takahashi and Jepsen.  They will help groom the youngsters into better big league bullpen arms, as well as suck up innings if Wilson, Santana or Haren have an off night.  The Angels starting rotation was solid in 2011, even if Chatwood was inconsistent, and Jerome Williams didn't come on till late.  Swap out Chatwood with Rangers ace C.J. Wilson and give Jerome Williams a full season, and they Angels will be tough to score runs on in ANY game.

As if that wasn't enough, they went ahead and added the best hitter in baseball (possibly ever), got a catcher who can actually get on base and keep rallies alive, oh and are getting back an all-star caliber DH in Kendrys Morales.  Pujols brings consistency to an inconsistent lineup, and there isn't anything else I can say about his talent that I or someone else hasn't already said 100 times.  He will make everyone around him better.  Kendrick, Morales and Hunter are going to see better pitches to hit, and will likely have more guys on when they get to back.  Chris Ianetta will bring some consistency to the plate from the catchers position.  While he is no Mike Napoli (I still think that move single-handedly got Tony Reagins fired), he will be a huge improvement over Jeff Mathis and Bobby Wilson.  Throw in Vernon Wells, who can only get better this season (and will now have much less stress with Pujols and Morales in that lineup) hitting 6th or 7th, and this is, top to bottom, one of the most complete lineups in all of baseball.  Only the Yankees and Red Sox might be more talented 1 through 9.  Coming off the bench, we have Bobby Abreu (although I doubt that will last long), either Alberto Callaspo or Mark Trumbo, Hank Conger/Bobby Wilson and Macier Izturis.  That is a bench that any manager would love to have.

Playoff Predictions

Wild Card Round:
Washington Nationals over Miami Marlins
Tampa Bay Rays over Toronto Blue Jays

League Division Series:
San Francisco Giants over Washington Nationals
Milwaukee Brewers over Philadelphia Phillies
Los Angeles Angels over Tampa Bay Rays
New York Yankees over Detroit Tigers

League Championship Series:
San Francisco Giants over Milwaukee Brewers, 4-2
Los Angeles Angels over New York Yankees, 4-1

World Series:
Los Angeles Angels over San Francisco Giants, 4-3 (AL Wins All-Star Game)

Award Predictions


MVP:
NL - Ryan Zimmerman
AL - Robinson Cano

Cy Young:
NL - Tim Lincecum
AL - Jered Weaver

Rookie of the Year:
NL - Tyler Skaggs
AL - Matt Moore

Manager of the Year:
NL - Ron Roenicke
AL - Joe Maddon

Misc. Angels Awards:
Silver Slugger:
1B - Albert Pujols
DH - Kendrys Morales

Golden Glove:
1B - Albert Pujols
SS - Erick Aybar
OF - Peter Bourjos

Twitter Helps Heat Up AL West Rivalry

For about 4 years now, Twitter has been a popular place for athletes (both current and retired) to connect with their fans.  From the incredibly popular (like Chad Ochocino and Shaq) to the relatively obscure (Logan Morrison), many athletes can now quickly establish a huge fan base by simply being interesting or funny on twitter.

Well, last night, C.J. Wilson may have crossed a line.  As a prank, he tweeted the phone number of former teammate and current Texas Rangers catcher/first baseman (and former Angel) Mike Napoli.  Now, for many Angels fans (myself included), Napoli was always a favorite.  Even as a Ranger, we rooted for him to do well.  For the most part, we have no ill will towards the former backstop (many of us even think he unjustly lost playing time to the offensively inept Jeff Mathis), but he seems to have quite a bit of ill will towards his former teammates.

Things always seemed tense last year when Nap played against the Angels, especially when Jered Weaver was on the mound.  It makes you wonder if there was more going on behind the scenes than Angels fans knew about.  Could tension between Weaver and Nap led to his being traded for a terrible contract?  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but regardless, things are about to get even more tense between the clubs.

As reported by Drew Davison, of Foul Territory:

"I don't even know why he did it," Napoli said. "You don't do that. I am not taking it as a prank.


"You know, I haven't even talked to him since the end of last season. We don't have that type of relationship."


Wilson tweeted this later: "Okay I think we've all had a good time, I'm even with mike for saying he can't wait to hit homers off me."


Napoli doesn't remember saying he wanted to hit home runs off Wilson specifically, and was confused why Wilson took it that way.


"I don't even remember saying I want to take him deep," Napoli said. "But as every power hitter, you're always trying to take pitchers deep. So I'll say it now, I'm going to try and take him deep."


So, its pretty clear that outside their working relationship as a pitcher and catcher, Wilson and Napoli didn't really get along in Texas.  Things aren't going to get any smoother with the recent "prank".

I'm quite conflicted as an Angel fan right now.  I want to side with Wilson, as he is now "my guy", but what he did was a little messed up, even if its an easy fix for Napoli (get a new number).  But, at the same time, I want to chastise Napoli for coming off as a bit of a jerk in the media surrounding the incident this morning, but the dude did just get his phone number sent out to 100,000 people, and has likely been fielding prank calls and texts for the better part of 12 hours.


I think I'm going to have to wait and make up my mind during the season, and watch how the whole thing plays out.  For the next week, its going to be sensationalized by the Dallas Media, and laughed off by the Los Angeles media.  Then, it will probably be forgotten about until the teams meet up for the first time this season on May 11th in Texas, where C.J. Wilson will be hit with a wall of boos.

In the end, it will likely just be another chapter in the Angels/Rangers rivalry, which is shaping up to be one of the best in baseball in 2012.

In Which I Obsess About Uniforms, Part 3

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and sorry about the delay between posts, but Spring Training is boring to write about (even if its delightfully charming to watch).  Thankfully for me (and all of you!), there were quite a few uniform changes in baseball during the off-season, and I'm thrilled to spout off my wonderful opinion about all of them.

But first thing's first... can we please put an end to holiday uniforms?

The atrocity that reminded me to even do this article in the first place were the Phillies hideous green alternates that they wore for their spring game today against Toronto (more on the Jays later).  Here is Scott Podsednik walking to first base in one of these atrocities:

He looks like Christmas... not a good look for Mid-March.  I get it if you are Boston, a city steeped in Irish heritage (and their special uniforms in Basketball and Hockey are quite alright), but everyone else should just back off.

While we are on the subject, lets just do away with those awful flag hats for Memorial Day, July 4th, etc... 

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Ok, now that I'm done with the festive nonsense invading baseball, lets move on to a more pressing matter, the hideous quality of the new-look Miami Marlins.  Their new logo looks like it belongs to a fast food chain that serves seafood.  While the regular white and grey default jersey's don't look too bad (and the Black alternate is almost kind of sharp), the home ORANGE alternate is one of the worst things I've ever seen...

But you know what?  They are so awful, they almost become awesomely bad, in the sense that the 1980's Rainbow Astros jerseys were awesomely bad, and I kinda want one... 

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The only other team that really underwent a severe Jersey makeover in the off-season (New logo, new colors, everything) was the Toronto Blue Jays, and oh my god, this is how you re-invent yourself.

Seriously you guys... Even Jeff Mathis can't look bad in these stunners.  Going back to the look and feel of the jerseys they first came into the league with, but properly avoiding light blue, while still having the freshness of a new jersey.  While they aren't the best jerseys in the league (Cardinals, Dodgers and Yankees all tie for first), they are certainly the best revamp job since the Angels switched to Red in 2002.  Not only does Toronto have maybe the best farm system, top to bottom, in all of baseball, but they are going to look good too.  The next decade of success couldn't have happened to a better group of fans.  Now we just need to fix everything about the Royals.

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One last thing I need to touch on.  While the Orioles didn't go all out in revamping their jerseys, they did bring back an old friend to all their caps and logos this year, The Bird!

I have a personal admiration of The Bird, and have always been a fan of the black cap with the white front and orange brim.  This causes problems at my home, because my wife hates The Bird.  She says he looks like a Saturday morning breakfast cereal mascot.  I don't understand why that is a problem.  He is awesome, and the caps look great.

It's going to be another rough season in Baltimore (only because the other four clubs in that division are so much better), but things are going to be looking up in the future, and they are going to continue to have some of the best caps in the league.

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Oh hey, I almost forgot to mention that the picture I led with, of the Texas Rangers throwbacks, is what the Rangers are going to be using to commemorate their 40th season.  That's right, they are ripping off our idea from last year, for a less important anniversary season.  I don't understand why they would want to look back so fondly at those hideous jerseys (the second from the left, from the late 80's/early 90's isn't so bad, the rest are awful)... they didn't make the playoffs in Texas until 1996, and didn't have a World Series appearance until 2010.  Some history.

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In actual Angels news:

- Garret Richards looked GREAT yesterday in his spring start against the Indians, I really hope he wins the 5th starter spot.  He is going to have a good season, no matter where he plays.

- Kendrys Morales is making quite a few starts for the minor league teams in spring training now.  He might actually be ready for April 6th!

- Chris Iannetta, who left the game in the 2nd inning yesterday with tenderness in his wrist, is day-to-day.

In Angels Nation news:

- A regular season preview post should pop up sometime next week full of terrible predictions that will never come true (I picked the Phillies over the Sox last year, haha).

- Angels Nation will be making its pilgrimage to Arizona for spring training next weekend, very excited.