SB Nation User Blog: Chzburger Jones

Luis Vizcaino

Chzburger Jones — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:43:51 -0000

He was just realeased from the Cubs. He had a crappy ERA last year but he did pitch in coors and he DID have an impressive 9.6 K/9 mark. He has been pretty solid throughout his career and our bullpen could use a shakeup. He has decent upside. Why not take a flier on him?

Damn this 75 word requirement blah blah blah blah blah blahb opwirpoweirpowieriurro8ty woieurtwoieutoiwrutowiur weituweoiturewoituoierutoi iuewroewiut blah blah blah

HGH Jr. leaves camp after meeting with the Soth

Chzburger Jones — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:51:18 -0000

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/03/angels-matthews.html

So, how do you think this went? Here's how I see it:

HGH: "Hey Soth can I play moar plz?"

Soth: "HGH you are my home dawg and whatnot but sry, u suxxorz LoL!"

HGH: " I wanna go home now. You hurt my feelings =( ."

Soth: "OK dawg, laterz."

Reporters: "Soz HGH howz it goin? So are they shipping your ass out?"

HGH: "LEAVE BRITTNEY....I MEAN ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111"

Alright, in all seriousness now, do you think there is any possibility that Matthews gets traded? If so, where? Do you think that maybe we can do something like the Dodgers did with Andruw Jones and restructure his contract, making him more tradeable? The White Sox and Yankees are the obvious fits. Maybe the Orioles could play him in left or put him in center and shift Adam Jones to left. They seem committed to Felix Pie but I have to believe they would want to upgrade LF if given the opportunity. Hell, maybe the Braves would be interested. He could reunite with his old BFF's GA and Kotch and right now their center fielder is Gregor Blanco, who has no power at all. HGH could play good defense and he has good speed and can hit 15 homers to 20 homers if healthy. I'm just spitballin' here.

Your thoughts?

Pedro Martinez

Chzburger Jones — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 03:57:25 -0000

Now that Minaya has basically said Pedro will not be back with the Mets, what do you guys think of him as a fit for the Halos 5th starter spot? We could sign him to a 1 year, incentive laden deal and make him earn the job in Spring Training. He can't be worse than Moseley or Adenhart, right? And if he is.....we can you know....replace him with Moseley or Adenhart.

And since I'm pretty much convinced that he will never last a full season again as a full-time starter, maybe instead of considering him as a starter, he could be a reliever/spot-starter. This should help get him through the season and it could potentially help out our bullpen (displacing Speier) and he could hold down the fort until Escobar comes back.

Re-thinking Burrell and Abreu

Chzburger Jones — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:19:05 -0000

I understand that Burrell and Abreu are 2nd tier hitters and that our outfield is overcrowded. I understand that they both play bad defense and I understand that Burrell is just another right handed bat and that our lineup is right handed. For these reasons, I have generally have said I would not want these guys on the Halos.

However, according to MLBtraderumors, Pat the Bat is close to signing with the Rays for just 2 years and 16 million. That is a bit of a shock to me that the Rays can land a guy like him for so cheap. That's less than what we gave Fuentes and what Cleveland gave Kerry Wood! I agree that Burrell is not the best fit for this team but at that price, wouldn't he be worth taking a look at? And if Burrell does sign for that amount, that means Abreu might have to settle for even less than that and he would be a better fit to our lineup since he is left handed and would give balance. If he is cheaper than 2 years and 16 million, I think it's worth reconsidering adding another outfield bat.

Your thoughts?

MLB fans/AT&T subscribers bitch here

Chzburger Jones — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:11:01 -0000

So with the coming of the new year, I was really looking forward to the launch of the MLB Network. Well, I found out the hard way that AT&T U-Verse will not be carrying it. Neither does DirecTV. And unfortunately, I can't do anything about it because I am not the one in my family paying for our cable service. We switched over from Time Warner not too long ago and I was really excited to find out we were ordering the U-Verse 400 package, which offers all the movie and sports channels. But now this sucks because Time Warner carries the MLB Network and AT&T doesn't so I feel some sort of dirty trick has been played on me. I called AT&T earlier today about it and the automated voice said the U-Verse office was closed and then proceeded to list the business hours and according to what they listed, it should have been OPEN! Ugh. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. But yeah, if there are any other U-Verse/DirecTV subscribers that are also pissed, feel free to vent here.

P.S. I randomly came across some Cardinals board (not Viva El Birdos) and one of the members there said he had been told that the MLB Network will be carried on U-Verse starting January 5th but I have not been able to find any information to back that up at all.

Scioscia asked Francona about Manny

Chzburger Jones — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:15:20 -0000

So it seems as though Manny being the Halos plan B could be more than just a rumor. According to reports, Mike Scioscia asked Boston Skipper Terry Francona about what it's like to have Manny in the clubhouse. This could actually hurt our chances at Manny if we lose out on Tex since I'm sure Terry doesn't have the greatest things to say about Manny. Also, he wouldn't be too thrilled in campaigning one of the greatest hitters in the history of baseball to the Angels, a rival American League power. But on the other hand, this can put some theories to rest which stated that Manny was in no way a "Mike Scioscia" type of player. Scioscia is clearly interested in Manny, otherwise he wouldn't be asking about him. Perhaps if he wants a full perspective on Manny, he should make a phone call to Joe Torre.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/8945572/Scioscia-could-see-Manny-in-Angels-uniform

SAITO: Interesting Idea?

Chzburger Jones — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:56:39 -0000

I know that everybody is all caught up in the Teixeira sweepstakes, and for good reason, but as I was looking through the list of players who were non-tendered by their teams, one name in particular caught my attention. Takashi Saito. That's right. The all-star closer in 2007 for the Dodgers was non-tendered. He struggled this past year due to injuries and he's really old and I guess the Dodgers felt it was time to hand the ball over to Broxton, literally and figuratively.

It has been well documented that we need a big bat, but our bullpen has issues that need to be addressed as well. Last year our bullpen was good, but overrated in my opinion. The back of the bullpen with Arredondo, Shields, and K-Rod was great and Oliver was solid as well but we did have some problems in middle relief. Losing K-Rod certainly doesn't help the situation either.

Do you guys think we should take a flyer on Saito? Given the circumstances, we could get him for really cheap and who knows, if he's healthy, he can be a guy with 2.00 ERA, 40 save stuff. I'm not saying that he would be the closer but he certainly gives us another option. And he'd be one more guy to take innings away from Speier.

I'm not sold on Sabathia

Chzburger Jones — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:32:28 -0000

It has been long reported that free agent pitcher Carsten Charles Sabathia will be the focus of the Angels if they fail to land Mark Teixeira. I don't know about you guys but I think this is a bad idea. Let CC go to the Yankees or Dodgers. Here's why:

1) We need OFFENSE. Our starting pitching was exceptional last year and we didn't have a true big name pitcher. Sure, John Lackey is pretty well known but he is never mentioned in the same breath as the Sabathia's, Santana's (of the Johan variety), Beckett's, and Halladay's of the world. With Jon Garland expected to depart via free agency, the Angels rotation will be perfectly fine as long as they sign a decent, cheap back-end starter. Somebody like Randy Johnson.

2) This team is already choc full of players who flame out in the post-season. WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER ONE. Take a look at Sabathia's career post-season statistics:

5 starts, 2-3 record, 7.92 ERA, 25 IP (that's only 5 innings per start for you mathematically challenged individuals), 33 hits allowed, 24 K, 22 BB (again, a K/BB ratio of nearly 1)

And most of these atrocious numbers have come just in the past 2 seasons. He had 5.40 ERA in the 2007 ALDS, a 10.45 ERA in the 2007 ALCS, and a 12.27 ERA in the 2008 NLDS. So he single-handedly got the Brewers to the playoffs but he also had a big say in their early exit as well. The Angels don't need help getting to the playoffs. We have been able to do that consistently and plus we play in a pathetic division. We need help WINNING in the playoffs. Sabathia has shown he can't really do that.

This off-season is truly Tex or bust if you ask me.

Angels to hold off on Tex...for now

Chzburger Jones — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:25:26 -0000

According to MLBtraderumors, the Angels will NOT make a formal offer to free agent 1st baseman Mark Teixeira during their exclusive negotiating period. This goes against their usual philosophy of getting things done quickly but they know it's useless since Scott Boras wants his clients to test the market no matter what. By not making a formal offer, Boras will not be able to take it to other clubs and drive up the price.

What do you guys think? I honestly never thought about it that way but now that it's been brought to my attention, I think it's a good move. That way when the media showcases the Tex war between Boston and New York, Ninja Reagins can chill at Del Taco and sign Tex while chowing down on a burrito or something.

Tex: "Wha???? 10 years for only 20 million??? Are you kidding me?"

Ninja: "Oops, sorry. I spilled some sauce over that second zero."

Tex: "OOOOOOOH. 10 years, 200 mill. Now THAT'S more like it!"

*Signs contract*

*ESPN cries like an emo kid when they find out Tex is staying out west*

*Halos win 2009 World Series*

Garrett Atkins?

Chzburger Jones — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:06:00 -0000

It's been long rumored that the Angels are interested in dealing for Rockies 3rd baseman Garrett Atkins. And once again, the rumors are flying. What do you guys think about this? Personally, I think it's a bad idea. He would be a massive power upgrade at third but he'd be a huge defensive downgrade at third. If we did acquire him, maybe instead of moving Figgins to left, we could keep him at 3rd and maybe experiment with Atkins in left, much like the Brewers did with Ryan Braun. That worked out well for them. But Atkins' numbers away from Coors are rather disturbing. In 2008 he batted .342/.380/.523 at Coors Field but just a dismal .233/.278/.383 on the road. The only encouraging sign is that 12 of his 21 home runs did come away from Coors. So the power is legit but the hitting isn't. I'm afraid that his line might resemble the road split of 2008 more so than the home split if he played in Anaheim for the Halos. Also on one last note, his walks have gone from 79 to 67 to 40 in 2006, 2007, and 2008 respectively. He had 602, 605, and 611 ABs respectively in those 3 years so the reduced walks is not a circumstance of fewer ABs.

So to sum it up, I don't think Atkins is the big bat to get us over the hump, whether we keep Tex or not.