To quote Ed Harris from Apollo 13: "On the contrary sir, I believe this will be our finest hour."

Too many people have posted on the bad of this season - so allow me a brief moment to wax on the GOOD things about the Angels 2011 season and why I believe they will make the playoffs whilst trailing Texas by 2.5 games with 21 games left:

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I didn't know this .. but according to this story on espn.com, Boston offered Holliday $85.5 mil, but he (most likely on the advice of Boras) turned it down.

So the Sox spent that cash on their #2 option ... John Lackey.

So here we are today with the Cards offering Holliday $100 mil, Lackey in Boston and the Halos playing the "5th Starter by Committee" game...

It's very interesting to see how the dominoes fall.

Despite every other major news outlet taking John Henry at his word, Kex Rosenthal over at FoxSports.com STILL believes that Boston is going to end up with Mark Teixeira.

With nothing more than simple conjecture, Rosenthal doesn't know who will sign Big Tex, but his "Best guess is that it'll be Boston"

- That's the "best guess" Rosenthal can take? WHY?

Why doesn't he and almost every OTHER baseball reporter across the country come out and say these three things:

1. I haven't been in the room, so I really don't know what's been said.

2. Since I haven't gone to the  "anonymous team source" card, I'm just venting my opinion because I'm just another lemming who thinks that Boston and New York are sexier places to play than Anaheim.

3. John Henry said 2 days ago that Boston wasn't going to give anyone else a 10-year deal and yesterday he said that the team is out of the running. But I'll have the courage to write that John Henry is liar.

Here's my simple conjecture and best guess because I left my "anonymous team source" card in my glove box: The Red Sox are out because Tex either wanted 10 years or more money than the Angels are offering.

Never have I seen a free-agent situation when people knew so little, but hoped for so much. Let me join that crowd, except I hope to hear "I Wanna Rock" and then "First Baseman Mark Teixeira!" 81-94 games at Angel Stadium for the next 8-10 years.

Yes, Virginia, there IS an Santa Claus and his name is Arte Moreno.

According to ESPN, it's almost a done deal. That's a little more than the 2 years, $24 mil that the Ninja offered.

If that's the best he can do, there must have been a LOT of animosity between Frankie and the Angels.

This is good because:

1) Our hearts won't have to deal with his circus-like ability to almost blow a save 80% of his apperances.

2) It saves the team more cash to pursue a guy who plays every day and is steady (hint, hint).

3) He's in the NL East, so the Angels will face him every 3-4 years - unless they meet in the Word Series (sorry, I'm trying not to laugh).

Good luck, Good bye and Good riddance...

Sports Illustrated has it here.

There's one step toward keeping the train rolling. Yet another stealth move by the Ninja that a lot of clubs would announce with major fanfare. Yet, Tony R. just slices and dices in the dark and keeps on going.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with GA and K-Rod. But for now, I'm a happy camper, as those "expected" moves just keeps the ship headed in the right direction.

Now, let's focus on getting the big fish - Tex.

I got so tired of the negativity from so-called fans that I haven't read, watched or listened to ANYTHING about the Angels until today.

There was nothing more disgusting than watching flocks of "fans" streaming to the exits when the Angels were down 2-1. Then to read "fans" post that the team was done (Not just here - but other web sites) just put me over the top.

As a long-time Angel fan of 30 years (I'm 35) - I remember going to see the Halos in a stadium with 14,000 of my closest friends.

But we came early, stayed the entire game - knew when to get up, go get food and return to our seats (NOT during play).

Most of all, we loved the Angels not because they were winners, but because win or lose (mostly lose), they were OUR team.

It's great that so many people claim to be Angels fans because their money helps pay for guys like Vlad, Lackey, Hunter and hopefully Tex -

But it's sad that so many of them lack the passion to stick with the team through the good AND the bad.

There's my rant . I hope everyone will join me - For the ENTIRE game - of  "Let's Go Angels!"

I have a tough life -

I work for the OC Register and tonight's assignment is to go report on Beach Pit BBQ, which the NY Times said was the best place to eat at Angel Stadium.

Anyway, I'm going to try it tonight and talk to people - But before I did that, I wanted to get some of my fellow HHer's opinions.

If you have any opinion, please shoot me a PM -

please include your full name and city you live in.

Thanks

ESPN is reporting that Arizona just traded three minor leaguers for Adam Dunn.

Click here.

Here's my opinion of trading for "big bats" this season:

Dodgers: (A+) - They get a motivated Manny for 2+months, give up very little and don't have to pay for his services.

Angels: (A) - They upgrade at 1st base, give their lineup the punch Arte has been promising since Sosh had to lay the smack down on Jose Guillen - and only have to give up Kotchman (and a scrub).

D-Backs: (B+) - Adam Dunn definitely will help in the power dept, but his OBP and his batting average leave something to be desired.

Yankees: (B-) - Xavier Nady has give the Yanks a lift while they wait Matsui to return. Too bad their pitching isn't helping

White Sox: (C+) - Getting Ken Griffey Jr. at this stage of his career is almost just a PR move. Is 10 HRs really going to help?

Tigers: (C-) - How much is T. Reagins sighing with relief that he didn't give up half the farm for M. Cab,?

You can vote on ESPN. com by clicking here.

They are going team-by-team alphabetically - too bad they list the Angels in the L.A. spot.

The Angels choices are:

            Garrett Anderson (1994-present)

            Brian Downing (1978-1990)        

            Darin Erstad (1996-2006):

            Chuck Finley (1986-1999):

            Troy Glaus (1998-2004):

            Bobby Grich (1977-1986):

            Troy Percival (1995-2004):

            Nolan Ryan (1972-1979):

            Tim Salmon (1992-2006):

            Frank Tanana (1973-1980)

I think Baylor and possibly Carew could have been on this list.

The Angels results will be revealed on Aug. 17

Read about it @ ESPN here

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3513383

IMO - this opens the door for the ANGELS to win the AL title uncontested.

Who's left that could challenge the Angels? Tampa Bay looks like its running out of gas.

Even though the White Sox just got Griffey, he's a shell of himself and the Angels' pitching will take care of their hot/cold running bats.

Then we've got also-rans Boston, New York and maybe Minnesota/Detroit.

We just took care of Boston WITH Manny; New York - well even if the Yankees make the playoffs, I like our chances against them; Minnesota can hang in long enough to challenge and Detroit still hasn't put it together.

Let's raise a toast to Manny for changing the balance of power in the AL

One of my buddies is HUGE Boston fan -

Last night in the 6th inning, I sent him a text message that read:

"I know it's only the 6th inning, but the Angels have drunk the Sox' milkshake this series"

His response was a four-letter word.

ahh well - on to New York!

A buddy of mine (who's a Yankees fan) always bet lunch on the season series. It looks like I might be getting free lunch for the 4th year in a row - Heck, I don't remember how many years it's been. I just know that I've never bought!

Perhaps Mike S. should just use the end of July and start of August to rest the regulars and then crank it up again around Aug. 10 or so.

Last year's idea of using the end of the season to rest the regulars didn't work out too well vs. Call me crazy and I know there's A LONG way to go, but why not give it a shot?

You play GMJ, Willits and Rivera 3 days a week in the OF, let Budde catch 2 days a week and go with an INF of Kotchman, Isturus, Aybar and Figgins.

Let the starters miss 1 start to freshen up and let Shields close a game or two and Jose A. do some set-up duty to get them ready for next season.

Thoughts?

via farm4.static.flickr.com

Ok, so I work about 1 mile from Angel Stadium and I frequently make the 1/2 mile walk to the Subway on the corner of State College and Katella.

Toady, I walked down with a buddy and we decided to eat on the patio. There was a guy with a toy-poodle waiting for food and some guy walks up and (rather politely) asks if his girl could talk a pic with the dog.

I look up and it's Escobar. I didn't mention his name, but I said hey and asked how he was feeling and he said he was doing good.

I then asked if I could take a quick pic with him and he said yes, so my buddy snapped one on my Sidekick 3.

He was a really cool, low-key guy. I was really excited to meet him

I just got back from a 2-week trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee (my wife is from there)

I had a great time, except trying to get used to Eastern Standard Time to get updates on the Angels.

Anyway, I managed to sneak in a trip to Turner Field to see the Braves v. Mets and here are some impressions:

Ticket prices were good. We got seat 6 rows up from the RF wall for $22 a ticket. - Upon entering and finding our seats, approximately 45 min before the game started, the usher comes by and checks our tix. - (Here's where it gets strange)

We had tix for seats 105-107. I was in possession of 106, but actually sat in seat 107 so my wife could sit next to her friend. The usher couldn't understand why I was sitting in the wrong seat and was going to make us move until I physically switched tix with my wife.

15 min before the game starts, I decided to check out the food. I found out first hand why the Big A is rated the best family experience in the MLB. $5 hot dogs, and $6 burgers, not to mention $8 beer. Althought for $8.50 you can buy a plastic bottle from the beer vendor walking around.

We sat through an hour-and-a-half rain delay, which flooded the seats on the wall. Braves fans are BRUTAL. The fans around us were drunk before the game, drank during the delay and drank during the game. And they heckled Ryan Church with the same chant for 8 innings "Ryan!! Ryan!!! Ryan!!! - You suck!" and they would do that at least twice an inning.

My mother called me after CS Fullerton alum Mark Kotsay hit a homer to tell me that I was on ESPN. Since I don't care about either team, it was really interesting to watch a game that I had no vested interest in other than seeing a guy I have on my fantasy team got 3-for-3. It was a fun time, but I'm grateful to a park with reasonable prices, fans that come up with better heckles.

I actually HAVE photos, but I can't import them. If I figure it out, I'll post them.

Go Halos

According to the Register's Larry Welborn, Garrett Anderson is a Cadillac even in the court room:

http://crime.freedomblogging.com/

You have to scroll down to the second blog - All Star in the Court Room.

One would hope that even if he got selected that it wasn't anything that would keep him out of spring training.

Here's the Angels' actions and my reactions:

ACTION: They traded an All-Star calibur Gold Glove SS coming off a career year for a .500 starting pitcher.
REACTION: They already had a glut at SP and a bunch of unproven players at SS, none of whom have started an entire season at SS.

ACTION: The reasoning behind the trade for Garland was to make Saunders and/or Santana expendable to trade for that mythical "Big Bat to Protect Vlad" - assumable in M. Cabrera.
REACTION: For whatever reason that deal fell through, so the Angels are left with 7 starters, a weakened infield defense and arguably a weakened batting order because I won't believe the combo of Izturis/Aybar is better than O. Cabrera until they prove it at the plate.

ACTION: Oddly in the midst of negotiations with Florida, the Angels sign Torii Hunter for $90 mil. Odd because they just signed Matthews for $50 mil and odd because they still need to negotiate with Vlad, K-Rod and M. Cabrera (if they traded for him).
REACTION: There's no one else out there with the talent of M.Cabrera to sign or trade for at 3B/SS. If the Angels sign or trade for anyone else, it'll be scraps and everyone knows it. WHY did they sign Hunter? Possibly because the Angels leadership saw talks with Florida stalling and knew they had to do SOMETHING.

PREDICTION: The Angels don't make any more major moves in the offseason.
REACTION: Maybe the leadership counted their chickens before they were hatched? Whatever happened to allow the Tigers to swoop in and grab "our guy" has left the Angels in the position of having too many pitchers, too many outfielders and still without that mythical bat.

Garland is No. 20:

I wonder what he had to give Johnny Rivers to give up the number?

I think that's kind of strange. Sheesh, why didn't the Angels give him No. 8?

Hunter is No. 48. I'm trying to remember who the last No. 48 was.

Anyone?

Nice to see Torii finally making up with the Rally Monkey

According to ESPN.com - http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3128178 -
the Angels players who received a full playoff share got $31,594.

Incidentally, that's the highest playoff share by a team that didn't get out of the first round.

Another ding to the Red Sox - Their shares were lower than last year because their crappy stadium holds less people.

I'm so sick and tired of reading about how someone's "trade value will never be higher" - so let's trade him!

Perhaps said player is coming into their own or is enjoying their peak year(s) as a player. I know this offseason has been used a dream-cast for fans salivating for "That Big Bat" or "That Player Who's Going To Make a Difference" - but guess what?

In baseball, that player really doesn't exist anymore. As much as people talk about Big Papi, he still had several players around him that led the Sox to the title. Heck, Mike Lowell was the Series MVP.

What happens if we trade Kendrick, Santana and Player X to get Cabrera? We have to fill a hole @ 2B with a player that isn't as good as the one we traded.

How can I say that? Because whoever that guy would be, he wasn't the regular 2B for the last 2 seasons.

Even if we get A-Rod, is he the "missing piece"? The Yankees, Rangers and Mariners would say "No" -

It's so easy to sit back, castigate each other for these pipe dream trades and Fantasy League "blockbuster" free agent pickups.

As for me, yeah I've got my opinions too. I just happen to think sitting back and waiting to see what's really gonna happen is more exciting than what could or what I want to happen.

Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3087824

Schilling is a guy who I've always respected and as much as he talks, he's backed it up on the field. He is involved in numerous philanthropic activites, so he really IS a good guy and players seem to want to play behind him.

With that said, as well as he pitched in the postseason, how much is he gonna want?

I can see the Angels spending $5-7 million on him for a 1-year deal. Would that be enough?

I'm tired of reading ESPN with the "so-called" experts picking the Red Sux to beat the Angels because of:

A) Vlad not being able to throw (Hello, he hit a HR the day after his break in Texas

B) Lackey not pitching well in Boston and Beckett having postseason experience (Hello, this is the guy who won GAME - freaking - 7 of the WORLD - freaking - SERIES as a - freaking - ROOKIE!)

C) Boston playing incredibly well at home (Hmm let's think on this one: The Angels own the best home record in baseball AND the last time the Angels played in Boston, didn't they take 2 of 4??)

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According to the L.A. Times (the enemy), Stoneman has not made up his mind about whether he wants to return as GM next season or start a three-year stint as a team consultant.

As maligned as he is re: not making trades, I hope he stays because he provides something this club never had - stability.

With that said, the article also mentioned several youngsters: "Howie Kendrick, Casey Kotchman, Jeff Mathis, Joe Saunders, Erick Aybar --(that) have made significant contributions to the Angels' division-winning team."

AYBAR??? C'mon - I could go for Mathis... but Erick (I'm a base-running specialist who gets picked off and thrown out thrying to steal) Aybar is really a reach.

It was funny because all of a sudden, Cowherd said that he had bought his Angels 2nd round tix right before Soch's segment.

He asked like 3 questions about the Angels and then spent the next five minutes talking about A-Rod.

Just another sampling of East Coast bias. Nothing like throwing a crumb to the west coast. I mean sheesh, if you're gonna have the manager on the radio on game day - at least have something if value to talk to him about.

This from ESPN's 100 Most Hated List:

70. A.J. Pierzynski, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox:  The best story comes courtesy of GQ: Three years ago in spring training, Pierzynski took a pitch to the groin. Trainer Stan Conte rushed out and asked how he felt. "Like this!" Pierzynski said, right before he kneed Conte in the family jewels.

On an earlier diary, I posted that it was NEVER OK to cheer for Oakland (among a few others).

And the urine-on-grass uniformed team takes the field vs. Gates-ville, I will cheer for a sweep as each Mariners loss pulls the Angels that much closer to the division title.

So "For 3 Days Only" - Go A's

(Bleech)

It's amazing how the Anderson-haters have gone back in the closet.

Sheesh, all the guy has to do is drive in more runs than some teams score in a week, throw some guys out and all of a sudden, everyone LOVES the guy.

For my two-cents, I say "Thanks for stepping up in the 4-hole G.A. - We missed you!"

OK - I'm on my way home after church (and lunch) Sunday and I turn on the game, just in time to hear Frankie shut it down.

Good news: I love hearing "Just Another Halo Victory"

Bad news: I went to and flipped on ESPN to get highlights. The ticker displays every score w/highlights BUT the Angels, which is the last game displayed. - As I'm watching the ticker, they talking heads are discussing the pennant races, starting with - the Yankees and Boston. They finally get to the Angels-Seattle and it's a 30-scond lip-service - "Lackey will win the first game and then the Angels are in trouble."

Frustrated, I flip to ESPN News - where they show EVERY highlight and give in depth ticker - They start the highlights - with the YANKEES - so I watch the ticker and FINALLY the Angels highlights .... (Toronto starter) xIP; 3R, 6K ... that's ALL

So I have to go to the website to READ about what happened. I mean I guess I could understand if the Angels were sub.500 or NOT the 2nd BEST team in BASEBALL.

I gotta say the WORST fan to sit next to is the Band-wagon Halo fan... UGH...After going to last night's game, it reminded me WHY I'd rather stay home - A quick rundown:

1. People who don't know that they shouldn't stand up while the game is going on.
   
2. People who don't know that they should wait until the half-inning is over before getting up to go get beer, dogs, etc. - and wait until the half-inning is over before coming back to their seat.
   
3. People who don't know the team: The WORST was sitting in front of a group of people who were ragging on GA for only having 4 homers (Hello - the guy's been on the DL); and then saying how old he was because he's the "only guy left from the 2002 team". As well as saying that Escobar is a poor pitcher because he gave up runs in the 1st two innings.