I know most of you guys probably felt like I did after hearing about Nick. I spent the whole day at work in tears and struggling to get work done, all the time fielding questions from friends as to why I really cared so much. After getting my patches in the mail a few days ago, I started thinking about what I really want to do to remember Nick.

I've donated money to his organization, I've bought the patches, and I've edited logos on my blog and here at HH. But I really want something a little more tactile, more physically substantial than the 34 sewn onto my hat. I tried buying an Adenhart shirt but was, obviously, declined by the MLB shop.

So I've been thinking...what do y'all think of buying the myriad Adenhart jerseys available on eBay? One of the guys selling them is the same guy I've purchased by Erstad and Lackey jerseys from, and while I was planning on a Hunter home white, maybe Nick's the best choice. My concern is giving money to people who are clearly going to be profiting from the tragedy of his death. Would it be better to hire an embroidery shop to do it?

What do you guys think?

From our fellow SBNation site Beyond the Box Score comes this little gem:

Who's Hacking, Who's Not

The biggest hacker on the list is, duh, Vlad Guerrero. Also up on the list are Brandon Wood (duh again) and Erick Aybar (broken record). You'll also see all-time Angel Darin Erstad on the list.

On the "Who's not swinging at crap" list, you'll find current A's Jack Cust, Frank Thomas, and Daric Barton. Also included is current Jay and former Athletic Marco Scutaro, whose last name is fun to say if you extend out the u to "oooooo."

We are, admittedly, in first place, but I'd like to see at least one of our players learn to stop hacking at crap. The first step is Vlad learning that his bat speed doesn't allow him to hit literally everything anymore, and he's helping out the team if he walks instead of striking out.

It is what it is, I s'pose. Interesting to look at, though.

It's now far enough in the season for me to start worrying about our traditional AL West Rivals, the Oakland A's. As everyone knows, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, with Haren pitching for Arizona, Swisher with Orlando Cabrera in Chicago, and Barry Bonds unsigned. That said, their starting pitching has been stellar, proving again that Billy Beane is a freak, or at least lucky.

Anyone have any predictions as to the future performance of the Athletics? I have a hard time believing that their pitching's gonna stay this strong once the league has seen it more than once, but then again, Oakland never really seems to drop off the map either. Their lineup scares nobody, but when some guy named Dana has an ERA right near 3, you start to wonder.

The poll is unrelated to Oakland but still relevant.

With a single through the hole in the bottom of the eleventh to give our favorite AL East team, the Rays, a 5-4 win. Looks like the Sox have been having some trouble with the Angels, current and former, lately. He got mobbed after getting around from first and as I've previously mentioned, Timlin sucks, and is the losing pitcher.

Northeastern alum Carlos Pena had a pinch hit in the game, but was replaced with a pinch runner and the inning later ended.

I miss Haynes, I liked him, and he kept Figgy in line. Fun to watch. :-)

As I'm sure you all know, I live in Boston with Fenway Park blasting its video scoreboard directly at my bed. I also have the "privilege" of watching 80 or so Sox games a year. As such, I'm probably more intimately familiar with the team than anyone else here, and I feel I have something to contribute when it comes to analyzing our biggest non-divisional rivals.

Tonight's game was a textbook example of a game we could have won with proper bullpen usage. Wtih that said, here's the way to beat the Red Sox on any given night.

1.) Red Sox games are obscenely long, on average. While we get used to games that end in two and a half hours, the Sox tend to extend games well over three and a half hours on a regular basis. Why? They take lots of pitches and their pitchers slow down the game when they have a lead. The key here, however, is that they take picthes. You will be infintiely more successful with the Sox if you don't walk them. Ever. They have a lineup which thrives only when crap hitters like Julio Lugo and Kevin Cash make it on base for the power hitters. People like Kevin Youkilis walk more in a game than Garett Anderson does in a season. You need to throw strikes at all times. On an 0-2 count, they'll often wait for the waste pitch. Don't fall for it. Throw a strike on 0-2 and you'll do what Weaver did to the inning that had Pedrioa-Ortiz-Manny. He struck out the side without working up a sweat. Throw strikes. You don't get a real break in this lineup (Jacoby Ellsbury isn't actually good, for the record), so you can't afford to put people on base without making them earn it.

2.) The Red Sox have lots of guys who are good hitters. If you get a sizable lead, you don't start walking guys and pitching like you have a sizable lead. If you're up 4 runs, start micromanaging. Put in a reliver with effective numbers and make it stick. Darren Oliver should have been out of the 'pen the second Manny Ramirez hit a home run which Vlad managed to rob. Pitcher wins/losses are a bullshit stat, and until managers decide that winning games is more important than giving pitchers a chance at a decision, they'll keep losing games.

3.) The Red Sox bullpen is much, much worse than it looks. Hideki Okajima is a hilarious excuse for a relief pitcher. He literally CANNOT throw strikes in any count. His head is facing his shoes during his delivery. He does not have an accurate, 98 mph fastball. He is a slop-throwing lefty who relies so heavily on impatient batters that when he does throw a strike, he looks legitimately surprised. You have an easier time walking to first base on 4 straight crap-balls into the dirt than you do hitting said crap-ball. Mike Timlin sucks and there's no reason to give him early-count outs. Julian Tavarez throws strikes, but you should never swing at anything he throws that isn't a fastball. Once you get to Papelbon, you've already screwed up. Hope to get an off-speed pitch and put it into right. The fastball is not gonna be hittable, by and large, and he gets an expanded strike zone.

4.) Don't ignore, and don't place too much emphasis on, early performance in a game. Dustin Pedroia is a scrappy hitter (I suspect his BABIP is ridiculous, but I'm not gonna bother looking it up unless someone tells me I'm obsecenely wrong). Play him to pole. Every time. He will also hit for power and gets amped up late in a game by sucking on a cheekful of chew. Just because Manny Ramirez has looked like shit his last two AB's doens't mean you let him get into a hitter's count. And just because Garret Anderson has two hits in the game, that doesn't mean he (and his miserable bat speed) should be in the box in the bottom of the ninth.

5.) Terry Francona is old and extremely uncomfortable in his baseball gear. Make him walk up and down the dugout steps.

6.) Don't forget who you are. The Angels are not a team which can be expected to hit 6 home runs a game. They should, however, have a #2 hitter who can put the ball in the outfield. Re-learn small ball against a crappy bullpen and you will win often.

I guess a lot of that is obvious, but the Angels did none of that today. And that pisses me off. Because I could get on base vs. Okajima on 4 pitches.

I BUMPED THIS TO THE FRONT PAGE - If you have bugs to report or SOLUTIONS to some of the obvious problems here on HH2.0, please use this thread. Needless bitching about new things, though, is, well, not needed... (Rev out)

- - - -

This new format SUCKS. Seriously. I've given it some time, and I usually adjust to major changes like this, but this is TERRIBLE. Here's the thing: SBNation was one of the few remaining sites that actually loaded in milliseconds on a standard broadband connection. This meant that a.) I could read Halos Heaven on my Blackjack at work and b.) actually going to and from the page was not a multimedia nightmare.

This is, as far as a concern, a stupid way to fix something that wasn't broke. No, the blogs as a whole were not particularly professional looking, and the format was clearly outdated, but does this look any better to you? Millions of interstitial ads (mention your ad-blocker and I will discount every opinion you ever have from now on) combined with ridiculous avatars and a posting scheme which, somehow, managed to be worse than the original.

Oh, and Firefox hates this place.

If I give someone like $20 or something can I have my old HH back?

Let me put this as simply as I can: I spend about a quarter as much time here as I did before the redesign. I spend much of that extra time at as-of-yet unchanged format sites. This change is not attracting more users, because the type of people interested in this blog aren't going to come here for avatars and "recs" on "fan posts." They're gonna come here for Angels news. And now I'm trying to find a less garish place to find that.

-Marcus

Sorry, but I figured someone was gonna say it sooner or later,so it might as well be me. I mean, he did show flashes of competence amidst a sea of 88 mph fastballs last season. And hey, he won game 7 of the World Series, right? How's he pitch against the Red Sox?

Note: This is a joke. I do not want the Angels to sign Jeff Weaver. If they do, I'm going to require some sort of reconstructive facial surgery after smashing my head into my desk until I lose consciousness.

With due deference to Rob at 6-4-2 and ihearhowie, here's an article about Torri Hunter and his rise from an extremely difficult childhood to a very large contract.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-hunter17feb17,1,6233963.story?page=1

This is the kind of thing that makes you forget about stupid contracts, or at least alter your viewpoint.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3147956

"Guerrero says he's almost fully recovered from irritated right triceps'

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Vladimir Guerrero said he has almost fully recovered from an irritated right triceps that prevented him from playing right field for the Los Angeles Angels at the end of the season.

Guerrero:

"I am doing some exercises and the doctors have told me that I will not have problems," the 2004 AL MVP said. "It will not be necessary to operate either."

Sounds good to me. Surgery sucks.

No-emotion Khalil. That's who we need to get. Sure, his OBP sucks, but this is the Angels we're talking about. Scioscia wants SLG, not OBP, and that's fine with me. I'd rather see two strikeouts and a homer than a walk and a single.

Getting a new shortstop means Aybar will hopefully see less playing time, and it means we'll actually have someone who can, you know, hit home runs.

Plus, him and Jered can both cut their hair for charity and spare us the flowing locks for a couple months.

It's well-documented that he's getting screwed in Petco, so he seems like a nice fit.

For the record, I'm still pissed we didn't get A-Rod. But now that Florida and Detroit have both screwed us, and we're not going to be able to get a reasonably good third baseman, we might as well look at the other options for infielders. If the Red Sox get Santana, then we need to start figuring out how to avoid them in the playoffs, since we're obviously not going to get the offensive production we need to deal with Josh "stupid facial hair" Beckett and Santana.

And why the hell isn't Matt Brown being considered as an option at third? The guy can hit, his OPS was .867 at Salt Lake, and he's 24. Screw Wood, I like this guy...Wood needs another year the auto club anyway.

Either way, barring any catastrophe, we're winning AL West for probably at least two years with minimal challenges. And honestly, had we faced the Indians in the ALDS, we would've won. I'm mad we don't have a third baseman, but I do like Hunter, and I'm pretty sure we'll contend for the next couple years even with the nightmare of organizational logjams we have.

For those of you in the New England area, Curtis Pride is coming to Northeastern University to talk for a couple hours on his life, namely his deafness in the major leagues.

At the very least, I'll be there. If you guys have anything in particular you'd like to know, I'll try and ask him a couple questions. Either way, I'm getting my cap signed.

If you can actually make it, for some reason, the details are below.

Thursday, December 6, 2007
6:30-9:00 PM
Northeastern University
Curry Student Center West Addition

So there I am, watching Northeastern's crappy football team piss away another game, when I see this guy wearing one of those Majestic Authentic (code for expensive) fleece sweatshirts. This is standard fare in Boston, but the guy has an A on the thing, not a B. Figuring I've found another Halo fan, I stop him and ask why he's wearing the sweatshirt.

"I play for them," he says.

I look puzzled, because I'm sure I've never seen the guy in Anaheim before, so I ask him what his name is. "Pellegrine," he says, and now I realize he's the pitcher draft pick out of Northeastern from last year. He's recovering from shoulder surgery, and says he feels 100% but the team won't let him play winter ball because they don't want him to stress the shoulder quite yet. He'll be starting up again during spring training and we'll probably see him in Low-A Ceder Rapids again once the time rolls around.

That's as close to inside Angels information as you're going to get from a kid in Boston, but it's better than nothing, I suppose.

For the record, the rioting last night kept me up until 2:00.

http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071024&content_id=2280471&vkey=news_ ana&fext=.jsp&c_id=ana

Did anyone else even know he was hurt enough to need surgery?

Apparently he had some work done on his right ulna(r?) nerve, and should be ready for spring training.

Note: I am not calling the season over. My beard is still on, and until we fail to have any games remaining on the schedule, it will stay annoyingly itchy and ugly.

Also, this is long as hell. Just a warning. The more important, serious ones are at the beginning, when I was writing this with a sense of purpose. As you get further down the list, you move from philosophical comments and thought-provoking analysis to "the Cubs suck."

_______________
This was the first season I truly watched, from end to end, as a real baseball fan. Here's a couple of observations I made on the Halos, along with some other notes related to other teams.

1.) The Angels are really good. Overall, they're among the top 4 teams in the American League and probably closers to top 2 than anything else. They have an excellent combination of young talent and solid pitching that should put a stranglehold on the AL, particularly the western division, for the forseeable future.

2.) The Angels are fractionally worse than other teams on any given day, but better overall. I really think that the halos are the best team in baseball overall, although their performance tends to fluctuate around a mean of mediocrity for much of the season. Their problem is maintaining a consistent winning formula. They tend not to lose a bunch of games in a row, but have similar problems putting together 5+ game winning streaks. A lot of people call the Angels streaky, but to me they're really not streaky at all. They consistently play slightly under their potential, usually around .580 when they really could be over .600 with slight adjustments.

3.) Third base is a conundrum. What Anaheim really needs is David Wright, and that's not going to happen. I think we're better off getting Mike Lowell (A-Rod's not gonna happen) and trying to find power at other positions. If Wood pans out, let him play short.

4.) Ervin Santana is a ridiculously good pitcher. If we trade him, despite my earlier suggestions we should do so, we are a bunch of idiots and might as well start wearing blue and playing at Chavez Ravine.

5.) Bill Stoneman is not getting it done. Yes, he is better than someone who does too much, but there's something to be said for trying to win it all one year. The farm system is more than one player. We can afford to trade young prospects for proven talent because we have young prospects. I would rather see the Angels win a World Series in 2008 than Nick Adenhart throwing 200 innings with a 4.35 ERA. I am willing to sacrifice a little to win, a lot to win everything, but not everything. I'm not suggesting we trade the farm for a player, but if the opportunity arises to significantly improve an already incredible team, there's a time and a place to do so.

6.) Garrett Anderson is old. So is Vlad. Vlad, obviously has a couple years of solid production in front of him, but he gets older every year and his knees are rotting. GA is likely done. I know, I know, he produced, but Juan Rivera seems equally capable to put up GA's numbers, and he's substantially younger. We need to get Vlad a ring.

7.) The Red Sox are an organization which lacks morals. They chose Clay Bucholz when others passed over him because he stole laptops from his high school and sold them. They have Kevin Youkilis on their team and tolerate him. Manny being Manny. J.D. Drew. The Fenway Faithful. Steven Vinik. Ticket prices at Fenway. They claim to revile the Evil Empire of the Yankees, but emulate them better than any other team in baseball.

8.) The Angel organization is a class act run by a generally capable front office and an owner who is second to none in baseball. He just needs to move to Anaheim.

9.) Baseball is a long, long game, especially when playing the Red Sox. It is too long to reliably watch 125 games without seriously irritating your girlfriend. It is great for ignoring other problems in your life, but will create its own set of issues, particularly in the postseason.

10.) Gary Matthews Junior is bad, and his contract is robbery, but I like the guy, and even if he sucks, at least he's nice, which is more than you can say for anyone on the Red Sox, save Mike Lowell, and maybe Jason Varitek.

11.) Joe Saunders is the eipitome of calm, and if he can learn to pitch once he gets tired, will be an extremely valuable asset to the organization for several years.

12.) Jered Weaver needs to avoid turning into his brother.

13.) Mike Napoli and Jeff Mathis are not what they could or should be. They are, however, two of my favorite players and will be around for a while. And, according to my female friends, Mathis would be quite the catch.

14.) Angel fans need to show up at opposing ballparks. I'm tired of being the only Angel fan at Fenway, and it's terrible to see guys in Yankees jerseys behind home plate at the Big A.

15.) Move the Big A back into the ballpark.

16.) Youkilis needs to shave. Apparently, as well, some of my friends met him in a bar in Boston, and tried to talk to him. He then asked them if he should take them both home, since "two 5's are just like one 10, right?" How this guy has people wearing his shirts astonishes me.

17.) The A's and Mariners are fun teams to play. Their fans are generally knowledgable. I'm glad they're in our division and not anywhere else, because the games we have with them are thoroughly entertaining, if not downright maddening at times.

18.) The Cubs suck. They always will. Period. Phillies too.

19.) Justin Speier's name has led to innummerable puns on my part which have led to me eventually getting hit by my girlfriend, who has heard these jokes well over 100 times by now. He was a great acquisition, especially with Shieldsy getting old.

20.) The game of baseball will never be more pure than when it replaces home plate and foul-line umpires with computers which deliver accurate, verifiable strike zones and aren't intimidated and/or confused by idiotic managers, players, or flies.

That's probably it.

I'm rushing to class, but before I go out, I did want to say this.

My outlook before game 1 and my outlook now are two completely different things. I couldn't eat the entire day yesterday (until the 7th inning, at least), I wasn't paying any attention in class, and every time some Sox fan said something like "sweep!" I'd fire back "yeah, that's gonna suck for you, isn't it?" Being that on edge sucks.

Then I remembered. This is a game I didn't even like two years ago. I don't support the Angels because they're the good guys fighting crime and saving the world, I support them because they're from LA, easy to like, and generally fun to watch. There are 162 games in a year, I watch 150 of them, and I really can't get bent out of shape over a single game, as important as it might be. There's a short fence separating fandom from insanity, and I've been well over the fence for a couple weeks now. I'm taking this time to step back, try and forget everything I know about OBP, 2-0 counts, "gyroballs," and LHP/RHP splits. I'm going to try and watch this the way I watched the 2002 postseason: slightly bemused and entertained, rather than stressed out and borderline insane.

It's baseball. Not life.

<<-stepping away from the edge

Hey guys, so here's the view out my 9th floor window towards Fenway Park.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/7359/img2058ws6.jpg

And here's the enormous Angels flag which occupies half my window, along with Fenway Park.

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/2686/img2104aq4.jpg

For the record, downtown Boston is just to the right:

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5085/img2059ze6.jpg

And here's the URL to a webcam which will be pointed at Fenway during the games, although you won't be able to see anything but lights.

http://www.coe.neu.edu/~mmoche

This is really just proof of how deep in clam chowda I am over here, and the likelihood of getting beaten up by other drunk NU kids gets higher by the minute.

Let's go halos. I hate the Red Sox.

Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of bench-clearing brawls, or a firm believer in team chemistry, or any of those other intangible aspects that supposedly push good teams over the top.

That said, lsat night, when Vlad walked those three steps to the mound and had the entire franchise run and get between him and the Mariners to protect him, that was seriously a big deal. I often feel like the Angels don't have the team chemistry of other teams...you don't see the elaborate handshakes (Mets, Red Sox) or the clubhouse antics (Phils, etc.). But when you have an entire team step up to acknowledge their biggest star, and when that star says half the reason he got so mad was because they threw at "his catcher," that shows an immense amount of pride in the team and in the team's future.

That was a win last night, but I honestly think the entire situation did more to bond the Angels and cement their aspirations in October than anything else. Lackey, Speier, Cabrera, all these people are turning into team leaders behind the usually silent Vlad, and that's exactly what the team needs.

Maybe it's just me, but watching the whole team get out there so fast was a defining moment of the season for me. These guys care.

Long story short, I'm sure you all know that this entire "baseball" thing is still new to me. That said, I've got a couple questions on the way the game is played that I'd like to reconcile:

1.) In tonights game, for example, the Angels moved their CF into the 2nd base hole to potentially knock down any runs at home when any fly ball to the outfield wins the game. Why, then, don't they bring in all the outfielders? There is virtually no scenario I can imagine that would result in an out an stop the runners from advancing with any ball hit into the outfield. Why don't they use a 7-man infield?

2.) Stealing home. How the hell does it happen?

3.) When players get extra base hits, they rarely motor out of the box as fast as they do when they're gunning for an infield single. I feel like running all-out for the first 90 feet, instead of just the second, might increase the number of triples in the game. Not only that, but speed punches holes in the defense and creates errors. Is the slower run to first just a protective mechanism to ensure they make their extra bases?

4.) Bunting for a base hit looks a lot easier for fast guys than getting an actual swinging hit. Why isn't it tried more often?

There's a lot of people who don't like certain players because they either have or lack some particular quality. Bonds is a rude scapegoat for steroid use in baseball. Hillenbrand called out Boston fans and referred to team management as a bunch of "faggots." Alex Rodriguez makes an obscene amount of money for what amounts to a 162 day/year playground game. Schilling is a know-it-all loudmouth with an annoying legion of fans.

But why the hell does anyone hate Vlad? Aside from his standard pitcher-wrecking, he's soft-spoken, shy, and generally an ambassador to the sport. He doesn't charge the mound when he gets thrown high and inside, he doesn't whine about playing time or the lack of protection around him in the lineup, he doesn't claim that his team is a "sinking ship." Hell, the guy doesn't even pump his fist if he hits a walk-off home run.

What reasons are there to hate him? Over at Lookout Landing, there were a couple people who were actually rooting for him to get hurt in the Derby. Over at Lone Star Ball, the most-chosen reason to hate the Angels is "One word: Vlad." What kind of a person does it take to hate Guerrero? And how does one justify such a misplaced hatred? The guy is constantly smiling...you don't get mad at a guy who smiles that much.

I feel like Vlad could be an Oakland Athletic and I'd still like the guy. I don't get it at all.

And people who want other players to get injured are dicks who need to go back to watching football.