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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It's the USA vs Japan in the WBC semi-finals, playing to determine who faces Korea in the Championship game, and who goes back to spring training.

The Team USA is hurting, and without a real first baseman. Tonight they send out Roy Oswalt to face a Japanese lineup led by Ichiro Suzuki. Daisuke Matsuzaka will take the mound for the Japanese.

Questions abound for this game. Who will play first base? Will the US get demolished like Venezuela? Have I reached 80 words yet? Will anyone else besides me post in this topic? We'll find out.

Previous Prospect Posts: Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, Cedar Rapids Kernals, Orem Owlz, AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Sixth in the series. The Arkansas Travelers were the only team to win their league championship, thanks in large part to an offensive boost by Hank Conger, who joined the team for its playoff run.

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Previous Prospect Posts: Cedar Rapids Kernals, Orem Owlz, AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Fifth in the series. The Quakes were the only team in our minor league system to miss the playoffs this year, due partly to injuries.

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Previous Prospect Posts: Orem Owlz, AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Fourth section in the series. The Midwest League Kernels had some interesting talent this season, and performed well despite flooding issues in their area of residence.

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Previous Prospect Posts: AZL Angels, DSL Angels

Third section in the series. The Pioneer League Orem Owlz are managed by Tom Kotchman, and are perennial winners in the league. This year's team was especially good.

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Previous Prospect Posts: DSL Angels

Second part of the series I'm doing on the Angels Minor League prospects. When I looked at the Arizona League Angels back in July, they hadn't been playing very long, and Manuarys Correa was the only standout I saw. Now Correa has moved up a level, but we've still got some really intersting young players here.

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This is the first in a series that I'll be doing about our minor league prospects; as each league finishes it's regular season, I'll make a post talking about the standouts at that level. I'm doing them piece-meal because when I did it all at once back in July, it ended up being gigantic, and I am planning on going more in depth this time especially when it comes to tracking people's history at later levels.

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It didn't really hit me untill this morning, I think. Casey Kotchman is no longer an Angel.

It's almost like my cat died. I don't think I've been this irrationally distraught over a player leaving since we let David Eckstein go.

One of the oddities about being a sports fan is the emotional investment you make in the team, the way "we" replaces "they" as the pronoun of choice when you talk about their achievements. The sense of ownership over the team and the camaraderie you feel with players are entirely illusory, but despite knowing that on an intellectual level, these feelings stubbornly remain.

In the case of some players the attachment is especially strong, for reasons that can only be called nebulous, though it tends to be more true for players who started out as young rookies on your team. These players, for whatever reason, are designated as your favorites. And when those players leave the team, it's a metaphysical blow, a sudden, drastic reshaping of your world-view. It doesn't matter how much sense it makes, either for the player or the team; somewhere deep inside a piece of you feels betrayed.

Sometimes you have time to anticipate it, the way many of us have been preparing ourselves for K-Rod and Garret Anderson's probable departures come November, or the way it became clear in 2006 that Tim Salmon just couldn't do it anymore. It's when you don't see it coming that it hits you the hardest. I've come to think it's the lack of closure, the way you are unable, mentally, to say goodbye.

This fanpost then is an attempt at that closure for Casey Kotchman, whom many of us liked and followed years before he was even a big-leaguer. Feel free to share a favorite Kotchman moment, a favorite interview, or even just wave a metaphorical goodbye.

For those who may not share these feelings, there is no need to come in and comment about how silly this is, or point out all the reasons it was a good move, or ridicule the fact that it's "like a funeral in here." We know all that, and we know it's irrational, but it's also very real and personal.

So, finally, here's to you, Casey. No matter where you go, or what else you achieve in what I hope is a long and successful career, you will always, in my mind, be wearing Halo red while you casually pick yet another horribly low throw out of the dirt at first. One last time, we at Halos Heaven sound the call:

"Wearing number thirty-five, and playing first base... CASEY KOTCHMAN!"

Well, it's the All-Star Break, and that means no major league baseball for the next week. But if you still need a fix, you can always head to the minor leagues and check them out.

A lot of us pay attention to our AAA Salt Lake Bees, but for those of you who don't have the time or inclination to keep track of our other Minor Leaguers, here's a quick trip through our minor league system, and the players whose names you may start hearing more of in the years to come. I'll start in AA, since as I noted, AAA guys get a lot of attention already.

Double-A Arkansas Travelers:

Despite somehow winning their division in the first half of the Texas League season, the Travs don't have a whole lot of talent, which one can tell from the fact that they are currently 5-14 to begin the second half of the season. However, in any rough patch there are still a few gems, whom I will list for you along with my thoughts.

PITCHING

Anthony Ortega - RHSP Born 8/24/85 (22) - Easily the best pitching prospect for this level, Ortega ranks 8th in ERA among Texas League starters at 3.78, 7th in WHIP at 1.29 and 4th in innings pitched at 109. He doesn't strike a lot of people out at 5.86 K/9, but he's young for the league. Basically he's another Nick Green, except without the organization's best change-up.

Rafael Rodriguez - RHRP Born 9/24/84 (23) - Converted to a reliever from a SP, much like Jose Arredondo, he's currently putting up a 2.36 ERA in 24.1 innings with 24Ks and only 5 walks. He is more hittable than Arredondo was last year, but seems better at not walking people. He spent some time up with the Bees earlier and got smoked, but he's also still pretty young.

BATTING

Chris Pettit - OF Born 8/15/84 (23) - Chris has been injured for most of the season, but I really liked him last year when he blistered his way through Cedar Rapids (1.008 OPS- note: this is really hard to do in Cedar Rapids) then moved up to Rancho Cucamonga and kept right on hitting (.896 OPS). He's only played 14 games in AA this season and didn't start really start hitting until a few days ago when he knocked in 7 RBI (you may have seen this mentioned in 101halo's post). He's got great strike-zone discipline and good defense, as well power, contact, and speed. This is a guy who could potentially be the total package. Look for him to have some better numbers by the end of August.

Also worth a look... The only other players worth mentioning are catcher Ben Johnson, who is really just too old for me to take seriously as a prospect (age 26 in AA), and Hainly Statia, SS, who is 22 and apparently a great defender but hasn't ever hit for beans at any level.

High-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes:

PITCHING

Amalio Diaz  - RHSP Born 9/10/86 (21) - Pretty much the same story as Ortega. Not a lot of Ks, but he keeps the walks down, and is young for the league.

Sean O'Sullivan - RHSP Born 9/01/87 (20) - Sean's had a tough year in Rancho but I'm leaving him in for a number of reasons- first he still K's a lot of guys at 6.5 K/9; second, he's showing that good-at-home, really bad-away tendency which suggests that his problem is something mental rather than physical; third, the rest of his career has been awesome, with sub-3 ERA's at Cedar Rapids and in Rookie League; fourth he's really young, and California League is tough on pitchers.

Also worth a look... Trevor Bell (Our #1 pick in 2005, 21 years old) has struggled as a starter, but got changed into a reliever and has started showing some promise. Tommy Mendoza (20 years old) would have more space devoted to him if his K's weren't so low.

BATTING

Peter Bourjos - OF Born 3/31/87 (21) - Rancho is a launch pad, but Bourjos is still putting up great numbers hitting .326 with an .822 OPS. He doesn't walk much but he's kept the Ks down this year. The most impressive thing about him though is his legs. Bourjos has 43 stolen bases in 71 games, and has only been caught 6 times. Bourjos was also rated by BaseballAmerica.com as the best defensive OF in the system. He hits a lot of doubles and triples which could translate into power later on.

Hank Conger - C Born 1/29/88 (20) - Hank, like Pettit, was injured for the first part of the season, and has struggled a bit since coming back. Right now the switch-hitter is batting .280 with a .754 OPS in 25 games. He's been injured for part of every season since we drafted him, and it remains to be seen whether he can stick around at Catcher.

Also worth a look... Mark Trumbo is having the kind of season you would expect a guy with a lot of power to have in Rancho, with 22 homers and 28 doubles. He's managed to cut down on his strike-outs over the years, but he still doesn't hit for a really high average (.293 at the moment) and he's 22. The biggest question may be his defense, as he's got 16 errors playing first base. Another interesting guy is Anthony Norman, who walks a LOT, and has decent power. He can also run, with 32 SB. Norman's biggest issue is that he's 23, which earns him the Matt Brown award AKA  "Why can't you be two years younger?" Another guy who would be on this list if he hadn't been hurt all year is Matt Sweeney.

Single-A Cedar Rapids Kernels:

This Cedar Rapids teams has gone through a lot this year, what with Iowa flooding and their home stadium being under water. Their host city has sustained an estimated $1 billion in damage, and the team has set up a donation charity that you can learn more about at the FutureAngels.com Blog if you're interested. This team features plenty of pitching, but not much hitting.

PITCHING

Jordan Walden - RHSP Born 11/16/87 (20) - Walden is having a great season in Single A at 2.26 ERA with a 1.05 WHIP. According to BaseballAmerica.com he's got the organization's best fastball, and currently he's considered the next best thing to Nick Adenhart in the Angels system.

Trevor Reckling - LHSP Born 5/22/89 (19) - Trevor is the unheralded member of Cedar Rapids All-Star pitching duo, but he is practically matching Walden in production with a 2.36 ERA, a 1.19 WHIP, and practically the same K-Rate. Reckling walks a few more guys than Walden, but surprisingly he also pitches more innings per start despite being a year and a half younger.

Also worth a look... Eddie McKeirnon is a 19 year old reliever with nearly a strikeout per inning. Robert Fish is a 20 year old starter who also nearly gets a strikeout per inning. Mason Tobin is 20 year old starter who doesn't strike people out but keeps the ERA down anyway (also injured).

BATTING

There's really not much here so I'm just going to summarize it. Tyler Johnson (OF) has ok power and walks a little but K's too often and is 22. Jeremy Moore (LF) is a year younger but otherwise pretty much the same. Julio Perez (OF) at 22 makes lots of contact and hits for power, but doesn't walk or hit for average. Apparently he also has a cannon-arm. Clay Fuller (CF) is 21, and is fast with 27 steals. He walks plenty but his BA is still middling and he K's a ton. Fuller may be your best bet to become something interesting out of this group.

Rookie Orem Owlz:

Rookie ball! The obvious caveat with all these guys is that Rookie ball is Rookie ball, and that almost always means 4 years from the majors, at least. Also guys can occasionally come here out of college and totally dominate. Last thing is that we're only 25 games in, so small sample size applies, but there are still a number of interesting guys already.

The other cool thing about Orem is that they are coached by Tom Kotchman and they basically win every season no matter who happens to be on the team because of that. This year's team is especially good though, at 19-6 they are dominating the Pioneer League .

PITCHING

Jayson Miller - LHSP Born 11/24/85 (22) - This guy should probably move up a level. Maybe two. In 5 games he has totally dominated Rookie ball with a 0.34 ERA and a 0.76 WHIP in 26 innings, with 24 Ks and 3 BBs. Just like when you win 101-0 in Maddon, it's time to up the difficulty.

William Smith - LHSP Born 7/10/89 (19) - Besides having a potentially awesome name, Smith just turned 19 and has been very good, with a 2.70 ERA and 1.16 WHIP in 23 innings with 25 Ks and 3 BBs. Unlike Miller, Smith is dominating despite being at the young end of the league.

Also worth a look... No other real standouts, but there's a lot of potential on this club, they all strike out a ton of people. Young-Il Jung, our much bally-hooed Korean prospect, might appear here if not for being injured this season.

BATTING

Angel Castillo - OF Born 6/07/90 (19) - This guy has really good power for his age (tied for Pioneer league lead at 7), and though he strikes out quite a bit, he'll take a walk here and there as well. His average isn't bad either, at .302 on the season.

Darwin Perez - SS Born 07/27/90 (18) - He's hitting the cover off of the ball at .325, has good speed, decent power and walks a lot. His K-rate is a tad high though. He seems a lot like Kendrick when Kendrick was in Rookie ball, except he's a year younger than Howie was (to be fair, Howie hit .368 and didn't K near as much). Definitely a guy to keep your eye on.

Roberto Lopez - 1B Born 10/01/85 (22) - This is another guy playing Maddon who needs to be moved up. Through 25 games he's hitting .446, has 11 doubles, and 14 walks to 8 K's.

Also worth a look... Luis Jiminez is a 20 year old 3B who otherwise looks a lot like Castillo if he walked and struck out less. Really, though this whole team is hitting the tar out of the ball right now.

Rookie AZL Angels-

This is another team that seems to win year in and year out for despite yearly roster switches. They've only played 17 games and the way Rosters are managed in these leagues, emerging position players are tough to spot, though obviously the 18 and 19 year olds are the ones to watch. Pitchers are usually the same story though there's one guy I do want to mention-

Manuarys Correa - RHSP Born 1/05/89 (19) - Through 24 innings (in four games, impressive endurance at this level), he has a 1.50 ERA, a .79 WHIP, and 29 K's to 1 BB. Sweet Monkey Jesus!

So ends our tour. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I did making it. As a final note, this trip may have impressed upon you just HOW young Nick Adenhart (21), Nick Green (23), Brandon Wood (23), and Sean Rodriquez (23) are to be playing in AAA. Anyone who claims any of these guys is no longer a good prospect is kidding themselves.

UPDATE: DOMINICAN SUMMER LEAGUE

DSL Angels:

It was pointed earlier in the comments that I had left the DSL Angels off the list. This happened because I wasn't really familliar with the DSL, and organizationally it's ranked even lower than the Arizona League. However, I've decided to go ahead and list it now, because having looked over the players in the 2006 and 2007 seasons, seeing who moved on and who didn't, and what numbers they put up, I feel like I have a better idea of what to expect. Keep in mind that for this league, 20 is ancient, 19 is a veteran, 18 is league-average-ish, 17 is pretty young, and 16 is REALLY young. One year makes a MAJOR difference talent-wise. A 19-year old guy better be flat-out dominating people if he wants to move up, while a 16-year old who can hang around with sub-par numbers is probably very good. Puberty is funny that way.

To give you a baseline, allow me to present two players from the 2007 squad-

Manuarys Correa (AZL), and Luis Jiminez (ORM). At 19, Jiminez put up approximately the same line in the DSL that he is this year in ORM, except with more walks and less K's. Correa is even more interesting, as while he was dominant last year in the DSL at 18, it wasn't NEARLY to the same extent as the AZL this year (2.12 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 27 BBs to 68 Ks in 87.2 IP)

Based on these examples and others, it seems like AZL and DSL are close to even in terms of difficulty, with AZL being a little higher, and Orem being a step above both (though guys who rock the AZL will occasionally jump straight to A-ball the next season). Anyway, just keep that in mind as you look at these numbers. There appear to be no less than 5 guys to watch on this DSL team, and 4 of them are starting pitchers.

PITCHING

Orangel Arena - RHSP Born 3/31/1989 (19) - 0.88 ERA over 8 starts, 51.1 IP, 16 BB to 43 K, 0.82 WHIP. He's allowing approximately one hit every two innings, and... yeah. WOW.

Fabio Martinez Mesa - RHSP 10/29/1989 (18) - 1.42 ERA , 50.2 IP, 1.09 WHIP, 21 BB, 60 K's. Mesa is REALLY good for an 18 year old, that K-rate is nuts.

Ariel Pena - RHSP 5/20/1989 (19) - 2.14 ERA, 46.1 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 13 BBs, 51Ks. To tell you the truth, I was close to not putting Pena on here. He's old, and his ERA isn't really that special for this league. But his K/9 and K/BB rates are just too good to leave off.

Baudilio Lopez - RHSP 11/20/1990 (17) - 2.53 ERA, 46.1 IP, 1.12 WHIP, 11 BBs, 64 Ks. So... yeah. ERA? Eh, nothing special. WHIP? Meh. K/9 and K/BB... SWEET CHRISTMAS. He's HOW old? Seriously though, this guy looks really good. There's a head-scratcher present in that his unearned runs are spectacularly high, with 25 total runs vs 13 earned, which suggests one of two things to me: either he's getting spectacularly lucky with the scorers, and is giving up more hits than it says he is, OR, Lopez has some kind of freakishly nasty stuff that the local catchers can't handle, resulting in quite a few people who struck out that made it to first anyway. I'm inclined to suspect the second one, based on his total picture, in which case it is possible that he's even BETTER than his line suggests.

I should note here that while ERAs that hover above 2 seem to be normal in this league, the K-rates these guys possess are not normal. How not normal are they? The previous two seasons, there were 0 starting pitchers on the DSL Angels with a K/9 over 9.00. This year there are THREE.

BATTING

Bats can be harder to spot due to the overall pitching-dominated nature of the league, but one guy stands out to me.

Eduardo Soto - IF Born 4/25/1991 (17) - Leads the team in batting average (.303), OPS (.802), doubles, has good BB and K rates plus 15 SB to 3 CS. Congratulations kid, keep it up and you'll have hit your way off the island. See you in the AZL next year.

A few of you may remember this fanpost from last year where I created a parody transcript of the players' inner thoughts and private conversations from 9th inning of the ASG, loosely based on The Dugout in format. I wasn't necessarily planning on doing it again, but given how crazy this year turned out, I just couldn't help myself.

(Note: Warning- LONG. Also, you'll probably want to re-read the first one before hand, as several things will be funnier that way.)

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For the first time since he was released to free agency after 2004, David Eckstein will once again be standing on the Angel Stadium grass. He's picked up some hardware while he's been away- two All-Stars and a WS MVP -and his number has changed. But for me, he'll always be wearing Halo red, with 22 on his back, and his only association with Toronto will be that he hit grand slams off them in back-to-back ballgames during the 2002 run to the championship.

Welcome home, X-Factor. ^_^

"First-pitch strikes, get ahead in the count, and don't give credit to nobody."

The quote is from Santana in today's LA Times, talking about how he turned it around. I'm considering putting it in my signature, because it's an awesome line.

I know we already have a few nicknames for Ervin- "Black Magic" "Voodoo" and my own "Night Train," -but I've always been a fan of making up your own legends, and Ervin "No Credit" Santana has a nice ring to it, I think. ;-)

Link here.

Is anybody surprised? Anybody? No?

What do you suppose it is about guys like McPherson, Harden or Prior that they just can't ever seem to get healthy? It's just weird that some people are injury prone that way and some aren't.

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