Calling All Angels, WE GOT ALBERT!!!!!!

Cheers Kid Cuddy! It really was a great thing to watch live. I was very nervous from about the 6th inning onwards and then very happy after the final out was recorded. For a long time the only runner that reached base was on a passed ball but he did walk batter in the 7th.

Congratulations to Jered Weaver on a great achievement.

We have bolstered our bullpen by trading for Ernesto Frieri of the Padres who receive minor leaguers Alexi Amarista and Donn Roach. He should be a good addition to the bullpen and we have him under control for the next 5 seasons which is important.

So Pujol's problems were all the fault of Mickey Hatcher!? Seems rather unfair to effectively blame him for the fact that the Halos are losing, whilst Aybar and Callaspo are also hitting below par the rest of the players are hitting pretty much as expected.

We have been shutout 8 times this season. Callaspo, Aybar, Bourjos and Pujols have all really struggled while others haven’t performed well. Our situational hitting has been the worst I can remember and we are swinging at a lot of bad pitches. I have watched the majority of Angels games and we don’t look like we are going to comeback when we are only 4 runs behind early in the games.

In saying that a lot of those things could be blamed on the players and maybe some fresh ideas will help them out. What doesn’t make sense is the timing of the move. It didn’t come after we were shutout or even lost and I’m surprised we did it after a good win. It’s one of these things that I feel like someone was going to get the blame for the struggles and the hitting coach was always the most likely person to get fired.

On to the Angels, in general, and the starting pitching has sorted itself out and even with Haren struggling we are 3rd in the AL in starters ERA and lead the league in innings pitched, 2nd in batting average against and lead the league in WHIP. Haren needs to sort himself out after a couple of bad starts and I do wonder if he is struggling from a stiff back which he was suffering from. Santana has been excellent recently while Wilson and Weaver have pitched well most of the season. Williams looks like he will be a solid enough 5th starter.

The bullpen seems to have sorted itself out with Downs and Frieri both pitching well and Walden looking like he has figured out what was wrong and has pitched well recently. Hawkins is still on the DL but pitched well before he went on the DL.

The hitting hasn’t been good but Mike Trout is looking amazing and Albert had 3 hits last night so hopefully he will start to get things going. Izturis, Trumbo and Morales have all performed well as well.

Torii is currently on the restricted list as he is away dealing with some family problems while Chris Iannetta has been on the DL after undergoing surgery on his right wrist and will be out between 6 and 8 weeks.

Jim Eppard has also been named as our new hitting coach.

We are 7 games back of the Rangers and 5 games below .500. Not the start to the season we wanted but there is still plenty of time to get things turned around.

Currently the Angels 'pen rank 26 out of 30, starters 11th, so the rotation on the whole isn't doing too bad, although take out CJ and Jered and the rest are looking rather pedestrian, Haren and Saunders need to get back to their usual form, Williams is probably playing above himself so far.

It is true that as a team the Angels hitting doesn't measure up, but that is mainly due to the three I mentioned, with the exception of Bourjps, the other regulars are doing as well as you could reasonably expect. So you have 6 guys hitting within 5 points of where you'd expect them to be and three well off where they should be. On that basis Hatcher was batting .667 so to speak, hardly failing.

Sadly when a team struggles it usually is the hitting coach who is the first to be shot, pour encourager les autres as Voltaire put it!

Ervin has pitched a lot better lately, a 2.10 ERA in his last 4 starts. As I said the bullpen is getting better. The overall numbers for the bullpen aren’t great but Walden appears to have sorted himself out while Downs, Frieri and Hawkins have all pitched well so far this season. It won’t be the best bullpen in baseball but we have 4 guys who can pitch late in games and has got better .

I do have suspicions that Haren is still pitching with stiffness in his back and his comments after being removed a couple of starts ago suggest that he was going to try and pitch through it.

I wasn’t demanding that Hatcher should be fired and, as I said earlier, I can’t remember our situational hitting ever being this bad and we have swung at more pitches out of the strikezone than any other team. It really hasn’t been good viewing.

I think your last bit is spot on and I often view the hitting coach as having less influence than the pitching coach does. All it takes is Albert to start swinging the bat and he can carry this team for long periods of time.

When you get starts like you got from Jerome last night, who needs a bull pen?

He did dodge a lot of bullets, but the key was not walking anyone.

As for Hatcher, it was more the timing than the actual firing, I've not had a good opinion of Hatcher for years, in fact I've often referred to him as Mickey Hacker for several seasons.

Year after year the Angels team OBP has been poor to downright awful, yet you don't strike out that badly. The problem as I've seen it is the over aggressiveness has lead to poor contact and rally killing weak grounders and pop ups.

The big question is, has that been down purely to Hatcher's approach, or was he just implementing Mike Sciosia's wishes? I guess we may find out now, but I do feel as if it's been a case of firing the messenger.

Things had been going so well until Weaver pulled up injured in the 1st inning last night. He is going to be on the 15-day DL but should return soon after he is eligible to return. The consensus seems to be that we wouldn't have placed him on the DL if it had been a bit later in the season but we aren't taking any chances with his health which I have to agree with. Garrett Richards has been called up to take his place in the rotation.

The latest injury news for the Angels is that Jered Weaver is set to throw a bullpen session today and if that goes well then he will throw a simulated game a few days later. All being well and he will return to the rotation either this weekend or at the start of next week.

Chris Iannetta felt stiffness in his right forearm while warming up before what was supposed to be his first rehab start. It isn’t viewed as being a big problem and he should start his rehab assignment at some point this week.

Bobby Wilson has been cleared to resume full baseball activities after suffering a concussion and he should be ready to be activated from the DL at some point this weekend.

In other news Torii Hunter and Mike Trout were named AL Co-Players of the Week for last week. Trout hit .520 (13-for-25) with four RBIs, 10 runs scored and four stolen bases in six games last week while Torii batted .500 (11-for-22) with four home runs, 10 RBIs and 10 runs scored in five games last week. Congratulations to both players.

Trout has been excellent so far and is currently batting .354 with a .412 OBP, 35 runs scored, 15 stolen bases, 6 home runs, 3 triples, 10 doubles and 26 RBIs. He also plays Gold Glove defence and has been just amazing to watch this season.

Jered Weaver is set to return to our rotation against the Giants on Wednesday. It makes sense slotting him in to the rotation here as it will given Dan Haren an extra couple of days rest after struggling in his last couple of starts. Who is taken out the rotation is up in the air at the moment. Wilson, Haren, Weaver and Santana will take 4 of the spots. There was some talk of Ervin possibly losing his spot but the 1-hitter against the D’backs has ended that rumour.

Williams was going to be the 5th starter but he was taken to hospital yesterday after having breathing difficulties. It is unknown if he will need to go on the DL and that means there could still be a spot for Richards who has pitched well in the place of Weaver.

Bobby Wilson has returned from the 7-day DL and Hank Conger has been sent back to Triple A to make room for him on the roster.

We have finally admitted that Dan Haren has been pitching with a back injury all season. I have wondered for a while if he was pitching with an injury and he has been. He suffered the injury during his last Spring Training start and has been pitching with it all season. He has been placed on the DL for the first time in his career. I’m glad we have finally decided to take some action and hopefully he doesn’t return until he is 100%.

After a couple of good starts, Ervin has started to struggle again. I didn’t see much of his start against the Indians but in his start before that he was cruising until a couple of things went against him and he then imploded in one really bad inning. I’m a bit worried about him but it isn’t an obvious physical injury like it was with Haren. I think most of his problems are mental and he just needs confidence.

On a better note I would like to congratulate C.J Wilson, Jered Weaver, Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout on making the AL All-Star team. All four have been excellent this season and deserve to be selected as All-Stars.

Our season is slowly falling apart and it is all coming down to what we thought was going to be our biggest strength, the starting rotation.

I’m going to excuse Jered Weaver from criticism even though he had a poor last start.

Wilson was so good in the first half but has been disappointing since the All-Star break. In his last start he looked much better through first 4 innings but then completely lost his release point and couldn’t get out of the 5th inning after giving up 7 runs.

Dan Haren has been suffering with a back injury all year long and just can’t seem to find the consistency that he has had over his career. We are giving him some more rest before his next start so he can try and get his mechanics sorted out.

Greinke has been extremely disappointing since we traded for him.

Santana has probably been our 2nd best starter over the last couple of weeks but he only looked really good in his last start. He seemed to have better control of his slider and looked much better. The question is if it is just one good start or is he ready to put a string of good starts together.

We need everyone to pitch better and if they don’t then we aren’t catching the A’s nevermind making the playoffs. I don’t know who or what is to blame for the rotations struggles but it needs to be sorted quickly. We are scoring runs at the moment but that isn’t going to be enough to make the playoffs.

We now head to Boston which isn’t the place you want to be going as a struggling pitcher.

Tijani I can't help but agree with your opinion. Unfortunately in the last number of weeks especially your pitching rotation has fallen downhill quickly. Like you say, you can forgive Weaver. He can't be expected to carry the load everytime, everyone is going to have an off day at some stage.
Im good friends with Timebomb, a fellow member of the forum & Angels fan and I can't help but see alot of similarities in your opinions on the boys from Anahiem.
The current trip to Boston is going well at least. It is at the stage of the season, I know myself as a Dodger fan where each result is extra important and those of your division and wild card rivals are so crucial too.
It's not going to be easy to make the wild card but I do think you's still have a good chance if the rotation finds its feet again.

Angels 2012 Review

Record 89-73, 3rd in AL West, 5.0 Games back

It started off as a season with such high expectations but ended disappointingly. We added C.J Wilson to boost what looked like being a formidable rotation and added Albert Pujols to a line-up that had struggled to score runs in 2011. When you add in that Trout was waiting to emerge as a star and we had replaced Mathis with Iannetta and we looked in a good position heading into the 2012 season.

It has been well documented but we started the season 6-14 and on the 28th of April called Mike Trout up to the big leagues. From that point we had the best record in baseball from then until the end of the season. It has wrongfully been suggested that Trout should have been called up earlier but this wasn’t really an option as he missed most of Spring Training and had to start the season in the Minors as a DH as he wasn’t able to play the field. If the same thing happens next seasons then he would probably start the season on the DL. We have all seen teams start the season poorly and go on and make the playoffs so while this was a bad start we still had a good chance to recover from it.

Fastforward to August the 1st and going in to the game against the Rangers we had managed to close the gap down to 3 games back. We led 7-1 through 4 innings and looked set to go within 2 games of the Rangers but we managed to blow the lead giving up runs in the 8th and the 9th to send the game to extra innings. It wasn’t looking good but Iannetta hit a solo home run and then Albert came through with what looked like what would be a decisive two-run home run to give us a 10-7 lead heading into the bottom of the 10th. The Rangers managed to get a run back on a solo home run and then a massive error from Romine allowed Young to reach and the Rangers went on to score 3 more runs and win the game. For me this was the game that changed our season. We went from being on the verge of being 2 games back to being 4 games back and eventually split a 4 game series in Texas rather than having a shot at the sweep. This was the start of a 5-13 run which included being swept at home in a 4 game series against the Rays. Our rotation had collapsed completely and the bullpen couldn’t hold a lead. We still managed to score some runs but it wasn’t enough.

In to September and we had a lot of ground to make up in both the Wild Card and AL West races. We played well with the rotation settling down and the bullpen doing a better job but unfortunately it wasn’t going to be enough as we played well but the A’s and Orioles both continued to play well and the Rangers had managed to build a big enough lead to be able hold us off. We went 18-9 in September but it was a couple of massive losses against the A’s when we had lots of chances to score including having men on the corners with nobody out in the 9th as we trailed by a single run and yet we couldn’t find a way to tie the game. The other was even more heartbreaking as we gave up back-to-back home runs in the 9th inning against the Royals to lose a game that we badly needed to win. Losing the final game of a series in Texas all but ended our season and that was confirmed the following night when the A’s beat the Rangers to eliminate us.

I always say that as long we are in with a chance of making the playoffs going into the last few weeks of the season then it has been good to watch and I would agree with that in this instance. We had a lot of expectations but just fell short of making the playoffs. We had some exciting wins and heartbreaking losses but there is nothing more fun than being in the race for the playoffs in September and we managed to stay in the race until the final series of the season.

My highlight of the season has to be Mike Trout. I don’t think I have ever seen a season like he had and it was a joy to watch him pay everyday. He should comfortably win the AL MVP award and it will be a disgrace if he doesn’t.

Angels MVP: Mike Trout
Angels CY Young: Jered Weaver
Angels ROTY: Mike Trout

Pitchers and catchers have reported to Spring Training so it is probably a good idea to look at the Angels offseason and what the team will look like on Opening day.

Major Arrivals:
Josh Hamilton, Ryan Madson, Tommy Hanson, Jason Vargas, Joe Blanton and Sean Burnett

Major Departures:
Torii Hunter, Zack Greinke, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, Kendrys Morales, Jordan Walden, LaTroy Hawkins and Maicer Izturis

Likely Opening Day Roster:

Line-up
LF Mike Trout
3B Alberto Callaspo
1B Albert Pujols
RF Josh Hamilton
DH Mark Trumbo
2B Howie Kendrick
SS Erick Aybar
C Chris Iannetta
CF Peter Bourjos

Bench
C Hank Conger/ Luke Carlin/John Hester
IF Tommy Field/Bill Hall/Brendan Harris/Luis Rodriguez/Andrew Romine
OF Vernon Wells
IF OR OF Kole Calhoun/Scott Cousins/Trent Oeltjen/J.B. Shuck/Matt Young + whoever doesn’t get the back-up infielder position

I expect Conger to win the back-up catcher role but the other two positions seem to be up for grabs.

Starting Rotation:
RHP Jered Weaver
LHP C.J. Wilson
RHP Tommy Hanson
LHP Jason Vargas
RHP Joe Blanton

Bullpen
CL Ryan Madson
RHP Ernesto Frieri
LHP Scott Downs
LHP Sean Burnett
RHP Kevin Jepsen
PITCHER ???
RHP: Jerome Williams

Final bullpen spot
RHP Fernando Cabrera, RHP David Carpenter, RHP Bobby Cassevah, RHP Robert Coello, RHP Steve Geltz, RHP Kevin Johnson, RHP Hiroyuki Kobayashi, RHP Michael Kohn, LHP Nick Maronde, RHP Tony Pena, RHP Garrett Richards,LHP Brandon Sisk and LHP Mitch Stetter

It is unclear if Madson will be ready to start the season so there might be two spots available. I’m not sure who will take them but I think Maronde and Richards will be starting in the Minors.

Offence
We have lost Torii and Kendrys from last year’s line-up and have replaced them with Hamilton and Bourjos. Hamilton will be a good addition and will provide some much need power from the left handed side of the plate. Bourjos is interesting as he had a very good 2011 but never really got going last season. I’m hopefully he will produce closer to his 2011 level of performance. Pujols hopefully won’t go in a slump for the first month of the season and Trout should be healthy enough to start the season with the Angels. We should end up with one of, if not the best, line-ups in baseball which will be fun to watch.

Defence
We will probably have one of the best defences in baseball this season. In the outfield we have Trout playing left field when he would be the starting center fielder on any other team in baseball the reason he is playing left is because we have Bourjos who is even better defensively in center. Hamilton will be in right field and should be good there. The infield are all solid enough defensively.

Starting rotation
The rotation has changed a lot this offseason and there is a lot of debate about how it compares to last season. On paper we still have an ace, and I mean a genuine ace, in Jered Weaver and then we have a good number 2 starter in C.J Wilson who was excellent in the first half of last season before having problems with bone spurs in the second half of the season. After those two we have 3 new starters. On paper last season’s trio of Haren, Santana and Richards would be better than Hanson, Vargas and Blanton but in reality Haren and Santana both performed poorly last season and Richards wasn’t great either. I don’t think it is out of the question for Vargas/Hanson/Blanton to outperform the three from last season. I like what we have done with the rotation. Vargas should give us some good innings and I think he will put some really good numbers this year in terms of ERA and innings pitched. Blanton should eat innings but will probably end up with a high ERA. Hanson is the wild card if he has built up his arm strength and has managed to find those couple of MPH on the fastball that he seemed to have lost then he could be a steal. If he doesn’t then who knows what we will get from him.

Bullpen
The ‘pen should be a lot better than last season. Madson should bounce back well from surgery and Burnett is another good addition. When you add in Frieri and Downs then we have four good options at the end of the game. Williams will be the long man and spot starter when it is needed. Jepsen has had a lot of ups and downs so it is hard to know if he will be good or not.

I’m happy enough with the team we have assembled. In an ideal world I would like another good starter for the rotation but you can’t have everything.