MLB Advanced Media’s quietly purchased the domain name "Angels.com" for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Fans for years had to use the AngelsBaseball.com URL to reach the teams Internet home. Now fans can just type Angels.com and reach the Web home of the Halos.

Major League Baseball Advanced Media reportedly paid $200,000 for rights to the domain name.

From John Kilma's Basseball Beginnings . . .

Among the Latin infielders, Jean Segura most fits the Erick Aybar mold of a flashy and solid defender who has probably taken more ground balls on more bad fields than any of us will ever know.

LOTS MORE AT THE LINK ABOVE

DRAFT STRATEGY: The Angels love high school players, and so do I, but you have to take the risk to get the reward and be very patient. The Angels went for tools in the money rounds – power bat (Kaleb Cowart), power arm (Cam Bedrosian), middle infielder with offense (Taylor Lindsey) and speed-power combos (Chevez Clarke and Ryan Bolden) . . . .

An ownership group led by Padres CEO Jeff Moorad is close to signing a deal that calls for the team to move its affiliated Class AAA franchise to a 9,000-seat ballpark in Escondido, to be built by the city for $45 million. If the memorandum of understanding is finalized, Escondido would agree in principle to build the ballpark on city-owned property — mostly vacant land used partly as a public-works yard — just east of Interstate 15 and just south of state Route 78. It also would hand over to the Padres all money from concession sales and naming rights for the facility. The ballpark would be home to the team now called the Portland Beavers, which Moorad would buy and move from Oregon. In return, Escondido’s leaders hope the investment would act as the catalyst for redevelopment of the entire area southwest of the freeway interchange. They envision new condominiums, shops and restaurants in a zone currently characterized by older, often vacant buildings and a swap meet that city officials have been eager to replace for years. — San Diego Union-Tribune

After the Futures Game on Sunday, Angels prospect Mike Trout will move from the Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels to the High-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

UPDATE: The LA Times reports that Brandon Wood is back with the big club and that, instead of disabling Erick Aybar, the Angels sent Rafael Rodriguez down to Salt Lake.
•LA Angels Insider blog has Wood batting 9th and playing 3B tonight in their Right Sidebar lineup post.

There are good prospects, there are great prospects and then there are guys that are just downright exciting. Mike Trout falls into the latter of those three categories. If you're looking for a prospect who can really do it all, look no further than him . . . .

The most interesting comment, however, came when I asked him about the Angels’ tendency to watch their own players leave when they reach their free agent years rather than match or top offers from other teams. It’s a parade that Lackey watched for years — then joined last winter.

"It is different," Lackey said. "The way they preach the team game and the way you’re supposed to give it up for the team — that’s a little suspect.

"You’re supposed to give it up for the team. Then when it comes time, they might not give it up for you. … I totally knew what the situation was (when he reached free agency)."

TEMPE, Ariz.—When most of a team’s top prospects are ticketed for the lowest full-season level in the minors, it might be cause for concern.

Usually it signals a dearth of talent in the upper levels of the system. For the Angels, however, their youngest wave of talent has been the source of plenty of optimism at spring training . . . .

MLBN Video: Trout / Conger / Reckling

He's got Brian Wilson's fastball/slider combo plus A.J. Burnett's curve. Kevin Jepsen's stuff is that good.

I first noticed Jepsen when he topped my "Stuff" leaderboard back in September. He had only thrown 330 pitches on the year at that point, so I didn't make much of it, but the numbers ranked him right up there with Wilson.

He then burst upon my radar in the ALCS last year when his stuff blew away a couple Yankees as well as Carson Cistulli and myself. In 2002, Francisco Rodriguez was the Halo rookie who made waves in the playoffs. In 2008, Jose Arredondo captured some of that K-Rod magic. Now I'm not saying Jepsen will have the subsequent success of K-Rod or the sophomore slide of Arredondo. But I'm thinking he's closer to the former than the latter.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- One of the most impressive facets of any team this spring is the depth of the Angels' rotation. For the position of No. 5 starter, which for the vast majority of teams is manned by a journeyman, an unproven kid or worse, the Angels will choose between Scott Kazmir, a former ace with the Rays, and Joel Pineiro, maybe the second best free-agent starter signed this winter . . . .

In their last five drafts, the Los Angeles Angels have failed to sign six different players they drafted in the first five rounds. For a scouting department that has admirably built up an organization with years of success, this is a damning statistic that suggests a failure in the team’s ability to judge the signability of their draftees . . . .

"I bring this up because it was a little surprising to me that the star of college baseball’s first weekend was an unsigned third-round draft pick by the Angels in 2008. Zach Cone was drafted by the Halos out of Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia, where he starred both in the outfield and on the mound . . . ."

"My short post on Friday seemed to create quite a stir in the comments section so I promised to deliver a follow-up piece that would expand upon my initial take on Baseball Prospectus' prediction whereby the Los Angeles Angels would go 76-86 and finish last in the AL West in 2010."

From Baseball America (subscription only):

"Grades are based solely on the quality of the draftees signed, and not on the number of picks added/lost through free-agent compensation, the amount of money spent, whom the players may have been traded for or unsigned players who became prominent."

Anyway, BA grades the Angel drafts as follows: 2005: C, 2006: C+, 2007: D, 2008: D, for a cumulative GPA of 1.63, second to last among major league teams. Only the Astros graded lower.

Steve Henson of Yahoo on the signing Milton Bradley . . .

The Seattle Mariners will regret this day. Just like the Indians regret July 31, 2001, the Dodgers regret April 3, 2004, the Athletics regret Dec. 13, 2005, the Padres regret June 29, 2007, and the Cubs deeply, deeply regret Jan. 9, 2009.

Milton Bradley(notes) does that to teams. Makes them lament their gullibility for believing he can change. Makes them furious at their tunnel vision, so certain it will be different in their organization, in their clubhouse, in their lineup. Makes them wonder why his ability to hit a baseball from both sides of the plate clouded their better judgment.

Top draft picks by Angels, Diamondbacks help stock list

"Mike Trout leads an Angels-heavy list"

Noted prospect guru and SB Nation blogger John Sickels scouts the Salt Lake Bees

Just two days before the deadline to get a deal done, Washington Huskies quarterback Jake Locker agreed to a contract Saturday with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Interesting analysis of Sean O'Sullivan over at the SB Nation Rays site . . .

Tonight we face Angels starter Sean O'Sullivan. He has thrown just 34.1 innings this year, but has shown to be a decent option for a team that has struggled to find consistent and/or healthy pitching all year. According to Fangraphs, he features a 90 MPH fastball about 60% of the time that, so far, has been really underwhelming (-1.87 wFB/C, think Bronson Arroyo). He'll go to a curveball about 22% and it isn't much better (-0.45 wCB/C, think Ross Ohlendorf). However, his change so far has been a true money pitch . . . .

CHICAGO

Vladimir Guerrero is in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox, his first since straining a muscle behind his left knee on July 7.

No word yet on who moves on the roster to make room for his activation from the DL.

For the last few years, the Angels offensive game plan has been to try to get a few fast guys on the bases in front of Vladimir Guerrero and then hope he hits a three run homer. They could afford some offensive weaknesses thanks to their starting rotation, and they built a winner out of run prevention with just enough offense to get by . . . .

I've linked to a preview of the Angels' upcoming draft posted by Andy Seiler at his draft blog.

The L.A. Times has a new blog devoted to the Angels -- Angels Unplugged . . .

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/angels_blog/

Angel blogger and creator of the Chone projection system, Sean Smith answers five questions about the Angels for Hardball Times . . .

"Once again, the Angels head into the season as favorites in the American League West Division. Last year they won the division by 21 games, but repeating looks like it may be a bit more of a challenge. The Angels didn’t become stronger in the offseason. Losing Mark Teixiera, Frankie Rodriguez, Jon Garland and Garret Anderson while adding Brian Fuentes and Bobby Abreu can best be described as damage control. Meanwhile, their rivals to the north have added Matt Holliday, Jason Giambi, Orlando Cabrera and Nomar Garciaparra . . . ."