Saw this survey on mlb.com, and thought it would be cool if people posted their picks/reasons/arguments in this thread.

C- Molina 2005. While the other guys may have had better offensive seasons, Molina gets my vote because he was so strong behind the dish.

1B- Joyner 1987. It surprised me how close I came to picking Morales though.

2B- Grich 1979. This one isn't even close.

SS- Fregosi 1970. Eckstein 2002 will always hold a special place in my heart, but Fregosi gets the nod here.

3B- Glaus 2000. This one also wasn't even close.

DH- Chili Davis 1994. If Davis gets a full season, he puts up better numbers than Downing and Robinson. I know Downing is the sentimental favorite though.

OF- Erstad 2000.

OF- Guerrero 2004.

OF- Salmon 1995.

OF was HARD. I ended up having to leave Baylor 79 off the list. Erstad 2000 seemed necessary because we needed a CF and someone who can hit leadoff. And Vlad 2004 was amazing. I suppose given my druthers I might have gone Salmon 98 at DH, Baylor 79 in the OF, but that wasn't an option.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. How about the rest of you?

Well I had a ton of fun in KC. Got myself on TV, watched the Angels win a pair of exciting games followed by a nice leisurely finale on Sunday.

To review the ol' birthday wishes, looks like I only went 1-for-4, but batting .250 on events largely out of my control isn't too horrible. The Angels won all three games, extending my consecutive winning streak for games I've attended to 10-0 going back to 2004.

Not much else really... Oh, what's that you say? Pics, or it didn't happen? Can do. (After the jump)

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So, today's my birthday. As luck would have it, the Angels are playing at a stadium roughly 3 hours driving time from where I live over my birthday weekend. This being the case, I did what any self-respecting Angels fan would do--weaseled my family into a weekend trip to KC, including tickets to three of the games.

As it IS my birthday, I figured that beyond bringing you guys after game reports with thoughts on what happened during the game plus (hopefully) pictures, I'd do a few other things that I've always wanted to try, but haven't had a good enough reason to actually pursue. My birthday wish-list is as follows, in order of likely-hood:

-Get in the broadcast during a crowd shot with the BAM-BAM poster my family made up. For those not in the know, Rex Hudler sent out a challenge to have Angels fans make BAM-BAM posters for Kendry Morales earlier in the week. It's not an HH certified nickname, but I have decided to screw it and unleash my inner camera whore.

Chance of success: 75%. It's KC, for crying out loud. Most likely not a lot of people there, much less with Angels signs. I'll be the guy in the white Tim Salmon jersey, orange sunglasses. I may have my cap on backwards as well. If you see me, screenshot it and post it in this thread for posterity. TheOptimist will let you know if it's me or not.

-Try to get Rex to give a shout-out to HalosHeaven.com on-air.

Chance of success: 50%. I've met Rex before, and I have the feeling he'd do it. Plus, they do it all the time for Angelswin, so why not?

-Take pictures with as many of the Angels players/staff as possible.

Chance of success: ??%. Depends on who's out there and how many autograph seekers/etc. there are.

-See if I can get into the broadcast booth.

Chance of success: 0%. But I'm going to ask anyway.

Note that except for the first one, none of this will happen Friday night. I'm going early Saturday and Sunday though, so we'll see. Right now it's looking like Friday might be rained out, resulting in a Saturday double-header. There may also be a surprise guest appearance on Sunday. We'll see if that happens.

The luckiest team in baseball. That's what they call us, "they" being Sabermetricians in general, and especially our immediate rivals here in the AL West. Every year the specifics change, but the refrain remains the same. Last year we were "lucky" because Joe Saunders played over his head and our record was better than the numbers said it should be. This year we're lucky because our whole offense is having a "career year." Our team BABIP is too high, etc.

So are "they" right? Just how lucky have we been? Let's explore those questions a little.

On one level, they are absolutely correct. We are fantastically lucky to have Arte Moreno as an owner. He spends money, his main goal is winning and putting butts in the seats. He keeps his nose out of day to day operations, but isn't too busy to interact with the fans. Of the thirty owners in baseball right now, he just might be the best, and we lucked into him, pure and simple.

If that's what they meant, then most of us Angels fans probably wouldn't have a problem with it. But that's not what they mean. Their thinking runs more toward our players' performance on the field. Posts like this are common:

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((The following is a parody based loosely on The Dugout in format. Some themes have been carried over from parodies of previous ... seasons All-Star games.))

Top of the 6th

GetFiggyWitit: Brian, you there?

Fuentesaurus: Sup, muchacho?

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If at the beginning of the season, you had told me that by the time we reached the All-Star Break, Howie Kendrick and Vladimir Guerrero would be our biggest offensive liabilities, John Lackey and Ervin Santana would have stratospheric ERAs, our bullpen would be the worst in baseball, and despite ALL OF THAT, we would still be 12 games over .500 and on top of our division... well, first, I'd have laughed in your face. A lot. Like, for HOURS.

But after I finished laughing, I would probably have said something like, "Man, who stepped up?" As it turns out, the answer is pretty much everyone else.

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