Thanks to the pending Mariner signing of Figgins, the Angels are in line to receive the #18 overall pick in the draft next year (thank you, Seattle!).  Should Seattle also sign Bay, this really screws us over, as Bay is ranked a higher Type A free agent according to Elias Rankings, which means that now the d***** Red Sox would get Seattle's #18 pick, and we'd only get Seattle's 2nd round pick.  By signing Bay, Seattle in effect would help Boston out while simultaneously screwing the Angels.

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Update:  I woke up to big car trouble this morning on the way to work, and it's going to be expensive.  So as much as it breaks my heart, I really can't afford to go or to organize this anymore. 

For anyone that still wants to go, I would highly recommend watching StubHub throughout the day today and even tomorrow morning, as I would expect after yesterday that prices will drop significantly.  So, use this FanPost to organize any fans that can go, I would love to hear about a meetup!  I'll be cheering all of you on from home!

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Who were Torii and Lackey quick to credit with the ALDS wins?

The FANS.

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Seems like a lot of stories recently have been questioning who the Angels MVP is this year, and whether we have multiple candidates for league MVP.  So, I thought I'd take a look at who it takes to be hot for the team to win.  Using www.baseball-reference.com, I'm comparing all of our starter's stats during wins and losses.  Here is what we see (sorted by OPS in wins):

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While I'm admittedly a huge Sean Rodriguez and Brandon Wood fan, every once in a while you have to acknowledge insane performances from unlikely candidates. 

And that is exactly what happened today when 29 year old AA Arkansas Traveler CF Coby Smith hit two home runs.  In one inning.

Coby Smith 2HR in 1st Inning of tonight's game

While the Angels were busy putting together another come from behind victory, our minor league teams were busy saying "Hey, don't forget about us.  With all the talk of how barren the Angel's farm system is now due to promotions, we still have what it takes."

Anyway, not groundbreaking news, just thought I'd give a shout out where it was deserved!

Our whole farm is entirely devoid of any kind of decent hitting prospects.  Oh no!  Whatever will we do!?!

Oh, except these guys today:

AAA SLC:
S-Rod 3-4 today with his 19th HR in 206 AB.  That projects to 55 in 600 AB (granted, this is the PCL, but that's still impressive).  That all with an avg/obp/slg line of .310/.412/.660.  After seeing his defensive skills earlier this year in the majors, is there not at least a shot we see him starting at SS for the Angels in 2009?

AA Arkansas:
So I went to look at Rancho, and noticed that 1B Mark Trumbo didn't play today, so I had this sneaky suspicion he'd been promoted.  Sure enough, he had!  Just today!  In his AA debut?  Try 5-5 for 2 HR and a double.  That puts his MILB season total at 28 in 412 AB.  Oh, and if that wasn't enough, Chris Pettit, who missed most of the beginning of the year hit 2 tonight as well.  Both were back to back with Trumbo. 

For all the talk of how our system has no good prospects left, I'm not sure I agree.  And this is without even discussing our elite prospects Conger, Walden and Adenhart, nor those starting to show solid growth despite being a little to old to be considered star prospects, aka Sandoval, Matt Brown and Jason Bulger, nor the slightly-starting-to-be-kinda-frustrating-but-supposedly-elite-prospect Brandon Wood.

Update: To put this in perspective, I'm including a chart of S-Rod's age 23 season in AAA and D-Mac's age 23 season split between AA and AAA. It should help explain why this is so exciting. Also, if you include D-Mac's age 28 MILB season, you see that while he is hitting more HR, it's not drastically faster rate, and S-Rod has a much better AVG and actually draws walks, too! The only disclaimer here is that D-Mac kept this performance up over a much larger sampling of AB. All stats include S-Rod's performance today. A little crazy, eh?

Much like the MLB teams, Angels AAA affiliate SLC took down the Mariner's own very best (worst) Tacoma to the tune of 20-7 last night.  Box Score Here.  Wow, Seattle really can't catch a break recently, huh?  Gotta love it.

Sean Rodriguez, not to be outdone by Chris Pettit's 7 RBI performance for AA Arkansas the day before, went 3-5 with a 3 run HR, a 2 run HR, a double, 4 runs scored and EIGHT RBI.  (Yes, I understand I'm venturing dangerously close into Acuda MILB-mancrush territory with S-Rod.  It's a slippery slope).

Also, Nick Adenhart picked up his 6th win of the season with the Bees.  Unfortunately, it was the offense that caused the win, not so much his pitching prowess.  He went 5 IP, allowing 10 hits and 7 ER with 3 HR to raise his ERA to a whopping 5.74 on the year.  Something tells me he might benefit from repeating AAA in 2009...

It's a bit early to call this, maybe, but we might have a new #1 prospect after this year.  Here are the numbers from 2008 so far, and what they project to based on 575 AB at SLC. 

Want to take a guess who that is?

No, it's not Brandon Wood.  It's our very own 23-year-old Sean Rodriguez.  Think it's kind of fluky?  Clearly he had a poor 2007, but go back and check out his 2006 MILB stats.  He may not have 40-50 HR power, but the 30 HR potential is there with a decent average.  He has also reduced his K rate from 26% of the time in 2007 to only 17% in 2008. 

Towards the end of his time in the majors before Figgy and Howie came back he started showing signs of coming to life.  While he's primarily played 2B this year in the majors and minors, in 2006 and 2007 he spent most of his time at SS.  While Aybar is working to become our everyday SS, if S-Rod keeps this up, he might force the organizations hand in 2009 or 2010! 

Thoughts?