MIke Mussina is  hanging it up and the talk will start soon (if it hasn't already) about his hall of fame worthiness.  10 seasons is Baltimore and 8 in New York.  Would this even be a discussion if he never wore pinstripes?  Article here.

A Few of His Career Numbers:

270-153/3.68 ERA/2813 K's/785 BB/57 CG

His K's rank him 19th all-time.  If I had a vote, I would probably give it to him.

Peter Gammons wrote a great article validating the expense of Torii's contract and the significance of his leadership abilities both on and off the field.  

Arte expressed the sincerity of his confidence in Hunter, saying, "He represents what we want the Angels to be."

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Here is the story:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3133290

The (multi) million-dollar question: Does this mean Arte knows something about a particular outfielder of ours with the potential to be on this list?  If so, his preemptive signing of Hunter will look all the more genius.

An interesting quote from the article:

"The names of players will come out that people will be mad about."

I suppose we can only wait and see which players and how mad...

Is it wrong of me to hope that Gary is on the list so we could dump his contract?  He is a great guy, but from a business perspective that would be a godsend.

I came across this on milb.com and thought it was great.

Sure, the Angels don't have the same kind of storied past as the teams with a deep AL/NL history, but the PCL was as good as it gets out west and the Angels, for decades, fielded some of the best teams in the league's history. If you are a new fan or just don't have much knowledge on what they Angels were before Anaheim, I highly recommend reading this article. It might be a new source of pride for those of you who thought Angel history began in 1961.
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For even more information on the PCL Angels, take a glance at their Wikipedia site, where some dedicated fans/historians have assembled a great batch of information:
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ESPN's Jayson Stark hands out his post season awards and give's Scioscia a well deserved Manager of the Year award.

I think there is no doubt  he does more actual managing  than anyone else in the game, certainly the league.  

Stark had this to say:

"Meanwhile, this year reminded us again that no manager makes a greater imprint on the on-field and off-field personality of his team than Scioscia. This team doesn't hit homers, doesn't walk, doesn't make the big trade, doesn't conform to all the trendy sabermetric trends of our time. Yet it's a team no one wants to deal with in October. That, too, is called managing."

Full article here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3041066

Baseball America recently released the results of a survey they took of AL managers' ratings for a variety of player's "tools."  

What got me excited was that Kotch was rated the third best defensive first basemen.  He finished behind Tex, who is no longer in the league, and Carlos Pena, who just this year finanlly established himself a consistent starting spot; Casey would seem certain to supplant him eventually.  It's nice see him get respect from the same guys who must cringe every time he stabs a scorcher down the line.

Several other Angels finished in the top three of various categories, and Scioscia was rated the second best manager (though I have never heard of a manager as having "tools," Sosh does have a unique blend of player experience, relative youth, and a bilingual speaking ability.)  Frankie was listed as having the third best curveball, though I often see the pitch listed as a slider, but I guess either way it's filthy.

See what you think about these rankings, I would say they are pretty darn accurate, or at least that there aren't any glaring anomalies.

Link:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/features/264575.html

On a side note, Kotchman signed autgraphs on Thursday at a Dairy Queen in Mission Viejo.  My dad went down and got me a signed ball, which was a nice surprise.  But what really strapped me tighter onto the Casey train was that on his off day, he signed for free to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network.  I think every day that goes by is another day we can all be happier that he is in an Angel uniform.

Earlier in the inning Nick Swisher had actually considered charging the mound after a Big John beanball, even for just a moment, and it was enough to really fire up some of the fans at the Big A.  When the meager Marco Scutaro was 1-2 with two outs against Lackey, the camerman panned over to a crowd of pumped up guys in Angels attire.  I think the guy on the right spoke for all of us when he symbolically thrust a single finger upward to the sky.  I am guessing everybody at FSN didn't notice or pretended not to.  I am wondering if they will be getting a bunch of phone calls from overprotetive mothers tonight...  Anyways, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_PRjqrSdME

I am hesitant to post this as it seems like somebody would have been all over it the moment it was discovered.  But in this week's SI issue, dated 3/26/07, SI picks:

 the ANGELS over the DODGERS in the WORLD FRICKIN SERIES!!!

This is amazing considering the overwhelming east coast bias in these types of preseason predictions and the picture on the full page spread is a great shot of Figgy climbing over Furcal.  

Has anybody else seen this yet?   I will post a scan of the page as soon as I can.

NOT TO MENTION there is a section devoted to voting for the best Angels blog/fan site. Everybody needs to get there ass on this link and vote for HH!

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Vote Early and Often

Let's show our Rev and all of our respected online companions some love.

This isn't very surprising news but it does descibe how Scios has him on the typical rehab timetable and gives hope that he will not be rushed back in any way for another 1-5, 5+ ERA "season."  I would much rather have His Lardness take his time and return as close to 100% as possible than rush and complicate things any further.  After all, we still easily have a top 5 rotation without his eventual return and should appreciate such a luxury.  

As weird as it might sound I am kind of used to him not being in the rotation, which might make an effective return that much sweeter.  Let's hope.

Here's the link:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2007/news/story?id=2780004

Does anyone know much about his guy?  He was posted and is available for bidding until the 27th.  He looks like a Japanese Weaver with that hair.  If he pitches half as decently he could be a great LEFT-HANDED addition to our rotation at much less than Zito money.  He's only 27 too.

The article from mlb.com