Gal has hinted that we may make a permanent move here and as we don’t know when the other site will be up and running again I have decided to start the Angels thread on here.

Erick Aybar has agreed on a one-year deal for 2010 worth $2.05 million. We now only have Jeff Mathis who is arbitration eligible and he had his hearing on Thursday. He wants $1.3 million and we have offered $700,000.

Jeff Mathis has won his arbitration case with the Angels and will earn $1.3 million in 2010. I’m a bit surprised he won but at least this will hopefully keep him happy.

We have released Scott Kazmir. It’s not much of a surprise after his struggles this season. It’s amazing just how different a pitcher he was in 2010 and 2011 compared to the player who pitched at the end of the 2009 season. His velocity has been down and I do wonder if he will try and do what Colon did. I hope he manages to get back to a level so he can pitch in the big leagues again.

I will have a closer look at this tomorrow. A few things strike me as a bit odd. What has Wilson managed to do to get a higher rating than Mathis? Downs should be an A with his 0.88 WHIP and 1.65 ERA.

We have been on a good run of late and it all started on our 4 corners road trip. We manage to win every series as we went from Seattle to New York to Florida before heading to LA to face the Dodgers. We managed to win every series 2-1 although we should have swept the Dodgers if it wasn’t for a bit of awful umpiring. It was good to see us winning some series’ and having a chance to win just about every game. We have looked good on the road so far this season and it was good to keep that going.

We then headed home and managed to sweep the Nationals who had been playing well before winning 2 out of 3 against the Dodgers. We have struggled at home this season and hopefully this is the start of some improved home form.

Wells has really started to swing the bat well and Bourjos is hitting better after going through a bit of a slump. Russell Branyan also hit his first home run that proved to be the game winning hit in the final game against the Dodgers. I believe that is now 10 teams in MLB that he has hit a home run for and I heard that is one short of tying the record.

Torii has missed a few games through injury but he should be in the starting line-up tonight against the Tigers.

We are now finished with interleague play and we are tied with the Yankees for the best record at 13-5.

Congratulations to Howie Kendrick and Jered Weaver on making the All-Star team and they have both been excellent for us this season.

We are currently 44-41 and are tied with the Rangers for the lead in the AL West. We are about to face the Tigers for 3 games and then we face the Mariners for 4 games in our last series before the All-Star break.

The Mike Trout era will start tonight. :D :D :D :D :D

I can't wait! :D

The All-Star game came at the wrong time for us as we were on a good run before it. We managed to take 2 out of 3 from the Tigers and came close to a sweep but a big home run from Cabrera meant the Tigers won the final game of the series. The series also included a great pitching match-up between Haren and Verlander as Haren came out on top as we won 1-0.

We then managed to sweep a 4 game series against the Mariners. This time Haren had to face King Felix and again he came out on top winning the game 4-2.

We start the second half with 4 games on the road against the A’s which includes a scheduled double-header on the Saturday. We then head home for a big 3 game series against the Rangers.

Our rotation out of the break hasn’t been confirmed but it looks like Haren will pitch on the Friday and that Weaver will pitch one of the games on the Saturday which would mean that they would both pitch in the series against the Rangers.

We haven’t had the best start to the second half as we go 1-3 against the A’s. I said that the All-Star break came at the wrong time and I was proven correct. We looked extremely rusty and looked like we had lost a lot of the momentum that we had built up before the break. The Umpires didn’t have a good series but it made no difference. We need to get going as we have a pivotal series against the Rangers which starts tonight.

We have Chatwood pitching tonight and then we had our two aces pitching the final two games of the series. We need all 3 of them to be at their best as the Rangers are flying at the moment.

For a game and a half this was looking like it was going to be an awful series for us. We lost game 1 by a score of 7-0 and trailed 8-3 going into the bottom of the 6th in game 2. Everything seemed to be going the Rangers way as they seemed to punish any mistake while the Rangers defence seemed to be in the perfect position to make plays on balls that we had squared up well on. We then scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 6th and Downs, who has been excellent for us, and Walden managed to hold the Rangers scoreless through the final 3 innings to get us an important win.

Game 3 was all about pitching as we beat the Rangers 1-0 to take the series. Weaver and Wilson both pitched well with the only run scoring on an error by Chavez on a ball that should have easily caught.

It was an important series win and it was important to put an end to the Rangers win streak. We now face the Orioles who caused us a lot of problems last season. Winning the series against the Rangers was important but it is even more important for us to continue to build momentum and to win this series against the Orioles.

Roster moves:
Peter Bourjos has been placed on the DL but should return soon. Alexi Amarista has taken his place on the active roster.

Michael Kohn has been sent to the Minor Leagues and his place on the active roster has been taken by Horacio Ramirez.

Hank Conger has also been sent to the Minors to make room for Tyler Chatwood who started game 1 against Texas.

What are your thoughts on this Tijani?

I don’t believe that we are in any real financial problems.

It’s no secret that the Angels have made a loss the last couple of seasons and that Arte has covered the difference. He has said that he doesn’t mind this as the Angels brand is growing and he is more focused on the long term. He has played about and saved money were he can in the past on everything except for the teams payroll.

In terms of payroll, we have our highest payroll ever at about $140 million. I don’t think it will get any higher than that any time soon. We did make big offers to Crawford and Beltre and while both players have a few good years left in them, they both got more money and years than they should have. We made a mistake by trading for Wells but that was a lot of money for us to take on. People keep on saying that we should have made a move but I’m not sure what move people think we could have made that would have made a major difference.

The season ticket news doesn’t surprise me as I know we lost 6,000 season ticket holders and it makes sense to get the numbers of season ticket holders confirmed as early as possible.

I suppose there could be something to it but I doubt it.

It is being rumoured that we have agreed to a five-year, $85 million extension with Jered Weaver. This is excellent news as he would have been a free agent after next season and it’s good to have him signed long term. The deal should be confirmed on Tuesday and Weaver will have a full no-trade clause.

I thought the needs were pretty obvious, an outfielder, a rental for 1st base and a starting pitcher, and maybe some bull pen help. Part of the problem could have been that the obvious source for all of those would have been the A's (Willingham, Harden/Moscoso and Ziegler for example) but our asking price would have been high, and it would be inside the division, always a tough deal to make.

This might quieten down the rumours of the Angels having financial problems. Good move in my opinion, and for less dollars than I was expecting.

Apologies, I was talking more about players that had been traded or could have been traded rather than what the team needed. Mike Trout has been called up and looks like he is going to be playing regularly so that takes away the need for another outfielder. Were there actually any good first basemen available? Lee went to the Pirates but he wouldn’t have been an upgrade and I can’t think of anybody else who was available.

A starter would have been nice but again there weren’t many available and it would have been more difficult for us to get a Bedard or a Harden because of both teams being reluctant to trade a player within the same division. Not a lot of relievers were traded and bar Koji Uehara, who was basically stolen from the Orioles, the prices on relievers were very high. I’m struggling to see many deals that were made that I think we should have been making.

A lot of teams had needs going into the deadline and a lot teams didn’t get what they needed. Reagins has shown in the past that he is ready to make a deal and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt that there wasn’t a deal that could have been completed.

As I said earlier, the Weaver deal is a great bit of business and I’m delighted that we have him signed up long term.

Some quotes taken from here

Ultimately, Weaver said it came down to a simple fact: "You weigh the options, and I couldn't see myself anywhere else but here."

Weaver admitted that his agent, Scott Boras, would have preferred that he test the open market, but ultimately, it was his decision.

"Scott has his reputation, but the client has the final decision," Weaver said.

"And while he would have liked to have seen me go into free agency, I told him that I wanted to see something get done."

Weaver said as soon as he decided, Boras went about trying to make it happen.

"As soon as I told him I wanted to stay here, he worked with me and the Angels to get something done," Weaver said.

The bottom line for Weaver is that he was a Southern California boy, having been born in Northridge and attended college in Long Beach.

"How much more could you possibly need?" he asked. "I never played this game for money purposes, I played it for love and for championships."

More to the point, it was a chance to stay home.

"I'm a Southern California guy and I'm happy to stay here and have my friends and family close.

"Loyalty is very important to me. The Angels drafted me and I wanted to stay here and win a championship or two or three."

Some great comment from Weaver and you could hear the emotion in his press conference. He could have got a lot more money as a free agent but he seems to have his priorities straight.

What a difference a week can make in baseball. At about 5:50 am I was watching as we were going into the bottom of the 9th inning trailing 1-0 and facing being 8 games back and effectively out of the AL West race. Torii singled off Adams and then Trumbo launched a 2-run walkoff home run and at 6:00 am we still had a chance of getting back in the race.

Since then we have swept the Orioles and White Sox while the Rangers have lost series’ against the White Sox and Red Sox and we are now only 2 games back, 1 in the loss column, and we now have a massive series against the Rangers this weekend that just over a week ago looked like it would be almost meaningless. Dan Haren is going to start game 1 of the series and after that it’s a mystery as to who will be starting the next 2 games. The suspicion is that Santana and Weaver will start on 3 days rest but this hasn’t been confirmed yet. I’m not sure how I feel about starting them on short rest but I trust Mike to make the right decision. If he decides against it then Ervin will start on Sunday and either Williams or Pineiro will start on Saturday. My best guess is that Ervin and Weaver will both go on 3 days rest.

We have called up 4 players with the rosters now being able to be expanded. Pitcher Horacio Ramirez, infielder Andrew Romine, first baseman Efren Navarro and outfielder Jeremy Moore have all been called up. Ramirez and Romine have both been in the Majors before but it is the first time that Moore or Navarro will experience the big leagues.

Tony Reagins has stepped down as the Angels General Manager.

Taken fromHere:

I'm not surprised that he has stepped down as he has made some questionable decisions over the last couple of seasons and we haven't made the playoffs. It will be interesting see what direction we go in with regards to finding a replacement.

Our search for new GM is still ongoing. After the initial rumours going about suggesting people like Beane, Epstein, Bud Black and Joe Maddon as being possible candidates it now appears that some more realistic options are becoming apparent.

We have been given permission by the Yankees to speak to executives Damon Oppenheimer and Billy Eppler as well as the Diamondbacks assistant GM Jerry Dipoto. We will also be interviewing Kim Ng and are rumoured to have interest in the Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine.

The latest rumour is that we have spoken to Andrew Friedman of the Rays about becoming our GM.

Words to bring a smile to my lips, and probably the lips of all A's, Rangerss and Mariners fans lips:

Baseball Prospectus followed that gem up with the following article:


http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article....articleid=15345

I read that earlier but I don’t think that we would be that stupid. There is a link as Stoneman is helping with the GM search and they worked together but I just can’t see it happening.

I think that Freidman is the guy that we want and it’s just a case of if he wants the job. I’m guessing that he will at least be considering the offer as I doubt he would waste our time if he had no interest. It’s a very appealing job and in many ways more appealing than the other GM jobs on other teams that have a high payroll.

We normally don’t leak much information about this sort of stuff so I’m not taking anything that seriously until it’s officially announced. I hope we make an announcement soon but I have a feeling it won’t be until after the World Series.

It looks like Jerry DiPoto is going to be our next GM. DiPoto has been senior vice president of scouting and player development for the Arizona Diamondbacks. I don’t know much about him but I have read some good things so hopefully he will do well for us. We will be holding a press conference tomorrow at 8 PM UK time to make the announcement.

Angels 2011 Review.

Record: 86-76, 2nd in AL West, 10 games back.

It’s hard to say if this season was a success or a failure and it probably falls someway in between the two. At the start of the season I thought we had a good chance to make the playoffs but a lot of that was down to the expected return of Kendrys Morales. When it was announced that he was going to be out for the season then it looked like it was going to be a lot more difficult than I first anticipated. As the season went on we managed to stay in the race and we weren’t officially eliminated until we lost our 3rd last game of the season.

Throughout the second half of the season several pundits wrote us off but yet we kept on managing to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot until the last series of the season. I think we will have some regrets about some of the losses we took towards the end of the season. I remember us having opportunities to win the game late on against the Blue Jays in two games we eventually lost. Bourjos made the biggest mistake that I have seen him make when dropped an easy fly-ball that cost us against the Yankees and the meltdown in the 4th last game of the season against the A’s basically sealed our fate and made the final series of the season virtually meaningless. It was an exciting end to the season and it was good to at least to have been in the race for the playoffs up to the final series of the season. You just can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Morales had been able to play and if we had Conger behind the plate.

Memorable games from 2011
There were lots of memorable games throughout the course of the season the games that will probably stick with me are:

Wednesday July 20 2011 – Angels 9 Rangers 8. The Rangers had won 12 straight games and we trailed by 5 runs going into the 6th inning but scored 6 runs in the 6th to take the lead. The game was exciting all the way to the end as the Rangers got the tying run to 3rd with less than 2 outs in the 9th.

Wednesday July 27th 2011 - Angels 3 Indians 1. Ervin Santana tossed his first no-hitter and the 9th in the history of the Angels. Ever since Ervin was called up to the Angels he was one of my favourite players. He always had no-hit stuff and it was great for him to put it all together and to throw a no-hitter.

Sunday July 31st 2011 – Angels 2 Tigers 3. It’s a bit weird to put an Angels loss in to this but this game was very memorable. It was Weaver v Verlander and it was just incredible. It all started when the classless Carlos Guillen went to ridiculous lengths to show up Weaver after he managed to hit a home run. Weaver then was ejected for throwing at the next batter, at the time I think the Umpires should have waited until after that had happened before issuing the warnings. In the bottom of the inning Aybar bunted for a hit but it was called an error the official scorer. Izturis finally broke up the no-hit bid with a clean single later in the inning. I don’t think I have been so happy to see the Angels break up a no-hitter as I was in this game. I don’t think we have heard the last about this and I think our first game against the Tigers next season will be very interesting.

Thursday August 18th 2011 – Angels 2 Rangers 1. It looked like our season was going to be over only for Mark Trumbo to hit a walkoff home run in the 9th inning off of Mike Adams.

Pitching
Our pitching staff was excellent last season but maybe lacked the depth it has had in previous seasons but it still managed to lead the AL with a 3.57 ERA and . Weaver-Haren-Santana were all excellent but we lacked depth with Pineiro struggling for large parts of the season, Kazmir not being very good and the young pitchers like Chatwood and Richards not being consistent. Williams pitched very well for us when he was called up and he has a good shot to be our 5th starter next season. Downs was excellent out of the bullpen. Walden did well but did have few too many blown saves but the experience will make him a better pitcher next season. Cassevah showed some promise and the rest of the bullpen had a lot of ups and downs over the course of the season.

Defence
Our team defence was excellent. It was always a lot of fun Bourjos playing centre field. Torii was excellent in right field. Wells and Trout both looked good in left. The infield defence was also good with Aybar and Kendrick up the middle. Trumbo improved at first as the season went on. At third Izturis always looks good and Callaspo will be solid enough but is prone to making some really bad mistakes. Mathis was very good behind the plate.

Offence
Our offence wasn’t very good with several of our veterans having poor years. On a positive note, Bourjos had a surprisingly good season. Trumbo provided us with some much need power but he has learn to get a few more walks. I can’t really complain about the seasons Aybar, Kendrick and Callaspo had. I think we have been a lot better with a healthy Morales and a catcher that could hit. A good offensive team can get away with a catcher that can’t hit but we aren’t close to being good enough offensively.

Overall it was a fun season to watch but a little disappointing that we didn’t make the playoffs. Now, on to 2012 and the Angels winning the World Series.

We have traded Tyler Chatwood to the Rockies for catcher Chris Iannetta. At least we now know who is going to be Jeff Mathis’ back-up.

Seriously, I’m happy enough with this move but I hope doesn’t stop the development of Hank Conger. It probably also means that Jeff Mathis won’t be with us next season.

Jeff Mathis has been traded to the Blue Jays for left-handed pitcher Brad Mills. Defensively Mathis was excellent for us but he just couldn’t hit enough to deserve to be the everyday catcher. If the Blue Jays use him as an occasional starter and defensive replacement for late in games then he should do well for them. He received a lot of criticism because of his inability to hit but he didn’t get enough credit for the way he handled the catching position defensively.

That’s a couple of trades been made by us and we will probably make a few more moves this offseason. A lot of talk about C.J Wilson and it sounds like we have made him an offer. We have also been linked with Madson and Ramirez. I hope we don’t sign Ramirez and it sounds like we have yet to make him any sort of offer going by what DiPoto has said.

Jerry DiPoto came in and said that his priorities were:

- to add another right-handed arm to the bullpen
- to add a starting pitcher
- catcher
- improving the OBP of the line-up

I think he has covered them all so far and we are rumoured to still be looking for another arm for the bullpen. Iannetta will be an improvement at catcher while Hawkins will give us another option out of the bullpen. C.J Wilson gives us one of the best rotations in baseball and adding Albert to any team will improve the offence a lot. It’s amazing how much more media attention there is around the Angels and AL West since Pujols signed. It looks like it’s going to be a very fun season.

At the moment our opening day roster will look something like this.

Additions:
Chris Iannetta
LaTroy Hawkins
Albert Pujols
C.J Wilson

Starting Rotation
Jered Weaver
Dan Haren
Ervin Santana
C.J Wilson
Jerome Williams/Garrett Richards

Bullpen
Jordan Walden
Scott Downs
LaTroy Hawkins
Hisanori Takahashi
Bobby Cassevah
Rich Thompson
Trevor Bell/Brad Mills

Line-up

C Chris Iannetta
1B Albert Pujols
2B Howie Kendrick
3B Maicer Izturis/Alberto Callaspo
SS Erick Aybar
RF Torii Hunter
LF Vernon Wells
CF Peter Bourjos
DH Kendrys Morales/Bobby Abreu/Mark Trumbo

Bench
2 of Kendrys Morales/Bobby Abreu/Mark Trumbo
1 of Maicer Izturis/Alberto Callaspo
Bobby Wilson/Hank Conger
Mike Trout

Once again our season will come down to if Kendrys Morales is healthy and can still hit. If he can then Pujols will have protection so that he can’t just be pitched around and we could well have the best 3-4 hitter combination in baseball. Our biggest problem could be finding enough AB’s for everyone and that will become even more of a problem when Trout is ready to play everyday in the big leagues. Ideally we would have another reliable arm in the bullpen but there is still time for that to be solved.

Got to say Tijani, that looks like one hell of a team on paper. Bench looks like it can do a job but how is the starting pitching depth. Only takes a couple of key injuries to absolutely ravage a team and it's post season chances. Obviously Wells still puts up some power but if his average drops any lower than .200 you might be forced into changing it up. Any young Angel players we should pay attention to this year?

In terms of pitching depth we have Garrett Richards who should be battling with Williams for the 5th starter spot but I expect Richards to start the season in the Minors. We also have Trevor Bell and we acquired Brad Mills in a trade with the Blue Jays who both have a chance to be in the bullpen but both have been starters in the Minors and at least one of them will be starting in Triple-A this season. We should have enough depth to cover any starter missing a few starts but a couple of long term injuries to the rotation could cause a lot of problems. I’m actually a bit worried about the bullpen but Scioscia tends to do a good job managing the bullpen.

Mike Trout is the obvious player to keep an eye on. He has a chance to be on the roster for Opening Day but our GM has said that he will be playing everyday either at Triple-A or in the Majors. If Wells struggles early on then there is a good chance that Trout gets called up and we will suddenly have a very expensive bench player. I don’t see many of our other young players getting a chance unless a couple of players getting injured with the exception being Hank Conger but like Trout we will want him to be playing everyday.

We have agreed to 4-year contract with Howie Kendrick that buys out his final year of arbitration as well as his first 3 seasons of free agency. The deal is reported to be worth $33.5 million. This is excellent news and by the sounds of things we are also looking to get Aybar signed up long term as well.

The latest news with Kendrys Morales is that he underwent some tests last week in Colorado and these came back with good results which has cleared him to begin running on his own power and ramping up his baseball activities. There has been no date set for his return but this is a good sign.

The latest player that we are rumoured to be interested in is Brad Lidge.

We have avoided arbitration with Kendrys Morales as we have agreed on a one-year, $2.975 million contract which includes a $50,000 bonus if he reaches 550 plate appearances.

That leaves Alberto Callaspo and Erick Aybar as our only arbitration eligible players. We are still trying to negotiate an extension with Aybar.

Tuesday looks like it is going to be the day that all Angels fans have been waiting for for over a year and a half. Kendrys Morales will face Major League pitching after successfully playing in two minor league games and managed to run the bases pain free to score a run on a triple. He will play in one more Minor League game on Monday before facing the Royals on Tuesday.

Looking forward to seeing hi return to the Majors after such a prolonged layoff. Still can't come to terms with the severity of the injury he suffered. He was a really good player back when he was fully healthy. It just remains to be seen whether he can return to those levels again. What du think?

Sorry Kid Cuddy I have only just noticed this. Going by Spring Training then Morales looks like he could be back to his best. Only time will tell but he is hitting well from both sides of the plate at the moment.

All the potential battles that could have materialised this Spring Training have sorted themselves out mainly due to injury. Trout missed a lot of time because of a virus which meant he never really got into a battle to be on the Opening Day roster. The bullpen sorted itself out with Cassevah and Kohn both starting the season on the DL. We won’t need a 5th starter until the 15th of April so that battle continues in the Minors between Williams and Richards.

The only real battle has been for the final spot on the bench which is really between Amarista and Cantu. Amarista has more versatility and speed but Cantu has did well this Spring and I’m not sure who will make the team for the first part of the season.

Line-up
SS Erick Aybar
2B Howie Kendrick
1B Albert Pujols
DH Kendrys Morales
RF Torii Hunter
LF Vernon Wells
3B Mark Trumbo/Alberto Callaspo
C Chris Iannetta
CF Peter Bourjos

Bench
C Bobby Wilson
IF Maicer Izturis
OF Bobby Abreu
IF/OF Mark Trumbo/Alberto Callaspo
IF Jorge Cantu or IF/OF Alexei Amarista

Rotation
SP Jered Weaver
SP Dan Haren
SP Ervin Santana
SP C.J Wilson

Bullpen
CL Jordan Walden
LHP Scott Downs
RHP LaTroy Hawkins
RHP Jason Isringhausen
LHP Hisanori Takahashi
RHP Kevin Jepsen
RHP Rich Thompson

I can’t wait until our season starts on Friday night.

It'll certainly be interesting if you really do go with a four man rotation, or are you just praying you'll get someone else in before you need a 5th starter?

We will be going with the 4 man rotation until April 15th when we will need a 5th starter. It will be interesting to see how often we skip the 5th starter spot this season. I think we will try and make a trade but I'm not that worried about Williams/Richards being given a shot to prove themselves at the start of the season. Teams have done very well without a good 5th starter and we do have one of the best front 4 in baseball.

The problem is our payroll is basically as high as we will let it go and it will be a case of balancing salaries with any trade like the Abreu for Burnett deal that almost happened.

Looking forward to the opening series Tijani!

Thanks to your big off season signings it looks like all three games will be on ESPN so i'll be able to watch my beloved Royals on my new 42" TV instead of the PC so thanks to your GM for that!

Happy Easter though i hope you dont get off to a winning start! ;)

Hey,

Just thought I'd introduce myself here too as I only joined today and am a big Angels fan from Ireland.

My first ever baseball game was Game 6 of the 2002 World Series and I've loved the Angels ever since. Didn't follow the seasons all that much when they made the play-offs a few years back but really started getting back into MLB last year and am delighted this season's now under way - really looking forward to it!!

Anyway, look forward to the banter on here.

Welcome to the forum. It’s good to have another Angels fan onboard. How are you feeling about this season? Did you like the moves we made during the offseason?