Love Connection: Angels First Basemen Edition!

Angels won, 7-1, last night. But local "experts" keep thinking that we need this huge bat to replace Kendry Morales untill he returns in September (I still have my doubts that he will be back before next spring).

I dont understand why. Napoli has proven that he is more than capable of being a decent defensive first basemen. Mathis will be coming off the DL soon, and he can catch while Napoli plays first, and if one or both need a day off, Michael Ryan and Robb Quinlan are more than suitable replacements at first for a game or two.

But then you are going to say, "Oh, but Josh, what about the offensive output they are going to miss from Morales being in the lineup?" The Angels have plenty of offense, so much so, that Hunter, Rivera and Matsui (Finally) have started to pick up the slack, even in just the 6 games since Morales has been out. Not to mention Kendrick, Izturis and Ryan have all been solid offensive contributors, and Mathis will soon return from the DL, and that should be one more productive bat in the lineup.

But, lets humor the local "experts", most of whom watch about 3 Angels games a year, while spending most of their baseball time wasted on our "special" cousins to the north, The Dodgers.

I've heard rumors floating around for Paul Konerko, Lance Berkman, Adam LaRoche, and, most recently, Derrek Lee. Lets take a look at each of of them.

Paul Konerko leads the American League in home runs, and has always been successful in Anaheim, but he recently got added to my fantasy team, and unless I drop him, his production will be way down.

Lance Berkman has spent his entire career in Houston. He has always put up pretty solid power numbers, but that was in the National League, where the pitching isn't as good. Not to mention he would probably be just as average as Mike Napoli as a defensive replacement.

Adam LaRoche. Terrible Hitter, Terrible Defender, Terrible Clubhouse guy. He gets lucky about 25 times a year and hits the ball out of the ballpark. Thats the only way I could figure that this guy keeps getting work. Whoever thought this would be a good idea should be fired.

Derrek Lee has been a Chicago Cub for the better part of a decade now. That much fail alone should be enough reason for the Angels to not want to trade for him.

Also, we arent just going to get given a first basemen by a crappy team out of charity. We would probably have to give up a substantial amount of minor league talent, especially for the only two guys worth a damn, Berkman and Konerko. I would expect Trevor Bell, F-Rod, Hank Conger, Mark Trumbo, Peter Bourjos and Rich Thompson to be the names thrown around in exchange for one of these sluggers. I wouldnt mind losing a guy like Trevor Bell, but F-Rod is the closer of the future. I'm still upset we traded S-Rod for Scott Kazmir last season.

Trust me, doing something is not always better than doing nothing. While Bill Stoneman seemingly refused to make ANY moves, while Tony Reagins seems to be the polar opposite.. making moves for the sake of making moves. Neither way is perfect, and thats probably why we haven't gotten back to the series since 2002.

I wouldn't hate Berkman or Konerko as an Angel, but I have a strong feeling that they would be more Steve Finley or Shea Hillenbrand than Mark Teixeira or Bobby Abreu.