Can I go on a little rant here about Steve Phillips of ESPN?  Two months ago he rips the Angels for not having an offense good enough to win, granted at that time he looked correct, and that the Angels needed more power to compete with Boston.  The Angels go out and get Teixeira, hoping to make Phillips happy I’m sure, and he still isn’t happy.  While the Angels were scoring and beating the Sox, he said Boston has more ways to score and beat you.

See I thought there are two ways to win a baseball game hit or pitch, it seemed to me that the Angels did both earlier this week.  Furthermore I didn’t see Boston scoring on a suicide squeeze after hitting two homeruns, all in the same inning! He is the same analyst who stated that when he was GM he always wanted to make a deal to energize his team and to show them they were in it to win.  Then he flip flops like a politician, he seems to think the normally tightfisted, prospect-wise; Angels have no clue who their first basemen will be next year.

Like someone said on here, come next year first grounder to first there will be no one there to field it.  At this point I want to jump through the television and scream in his face Kendry Morales, who’s on base percentage (just for the statheads) can’t be any worse than Kotch’s .320.  I love Kotch but Kendry cannot be that much of a downgrade, well may be defensively.

My only solace in this is that no one should/can take this guy seriously this is the same GM who jumped on Mo Vaughn like he was being Stoneman's wingman, traded Kazmir (and wow could the Mets use him now) for Victor Zambrano, yes Victor that is a misnomer, and had sexual harassment charges made against him while in office for an admitted affair.  Steve even if it’s consensual it can still be considered sexual harassment.

I’m starting to think his affair was with Theo since he seems to be in bed with the Sox.  Although they may breakup after the Manny trade, I guess he will have to endorse us for AL unless somehow he will pick the Yankees, “they have more ways to give up runs.” Sorry about the rant but I had to get this out because every time I vent about this to my girlfriend she looks at me like I’m crazy, which is probably true.

Living on the East Coast I don’t get to see my beloved Angels too often but these last couple of days afforded me to see them 4 times, all wins.  Of course winning makes everything look rosy but here are my thoughts, if you cared:

            1.  Admiral Aybar is fast becoming one of my favorite players between the homerun on Saturday, the heads up base running on Monday, and the play at short last night. 

            2.  I know it is still a small sample size but Casey can hit lefties.  No need to sit him against southpaws, he hit a screaming meemie against one of the best lefties in the game and is now hitting a robust .368 against them. 

            3.  The sweep in Philly was sweet.  I took my 3 year old nephew to his first baseball game on Sunday and of course I tried to convince him to be an Angel fan. The Angels did all the convincing for me, I think I got him when I asked how does it feels to be fan of the worst professional team in the history of professional sports.  He seemed awed by the Phillies 10,000+ losses.  Anyway the Angels are a good road team.  The AL best road record was set by Seattle couple years ago at 59 and 22.  Angels will probably not best that but at 26 and 12, which includes being swept by the Rays, they have shown they are road warriors.

            4.  The flaccid offense has gotten a lot of pub thus far this year but having Kendrick, Figgins and Aybar back along with Vlad crushing the ball it looks a lot better.  Wood and SRod held down the fort defensively but they couldn’t hit their way out of wet paper bag.  On one homer by Vlad, Pat Burrell didn’t even bother moving.

            5.  Is the Angels’ style built to win a lot of games in the regular season but not do well in the playoffs?  Don’t get me wrong I love to watch the Angels play because I like their style, it’s exciting.  But aggressive running and putting the pressure on the defense works against bad defensive teams and bad defensive teams usually don’t make the playoffs except for the Yankees who we usually beat.  Last night I thought I saw Dimitri Young mutter, “please don’t hit it to me.”

            6.  Juan Rivera’s jersey should say Juan “Not Ruben” Rivera. Last night the Nats announcer told the history of Juan and how he got to the Angels except he mixed in some history of Ruben Rivera.  “Juan had an embarrassing episode while with the Yankees when he stole some of Derek Jeter’s things and got traded to the Expos along with Nick Johnson for Javier Vazquez.”  You would think that since the Nats were formerly the Expos the announcers would know better.       

            7.  The Phillies and Nationals new parks are pretty nice but then again the same company who designed Angels Stadium, sans faux rock, designed them.  And when you put Philly phans in a nicer stadium they don’t behave like numskulls except I did see some Phillies on Phillies crime which is funny.

            8.  The Phillies have a good offense but I don’t think they have seen this kind of pitching.  Between Boston and the Angels the Phillies offense looked somewhat average.