I truly can't wait to see Curt Schilling's next blog post, explaining just exactly what happened to the mighty Red Sox over the past few days.

Go over and check out what he had to say about the series just before it started. Schilling freely threw up all over the Angels roster, crumbing on John Lackey as a weak Game 1 starter, to the everyday lineup not being an effective playoff team, to the shortcomings of the bullpen. It was a comprehensive lambasting of our team.

After watching the Sox be completely outplayed and outnutted over the past 4 days, I just can't wait to see Schilling's explanation of why the mighty have fallen. Was it the umpires? The will of the gods? Or what?

Why hasn't Schilling posted anything since the series began? Hmmm, I wonder...

Ervin Santana has now started three times this spring in Arizona. He's now thrown 8/2/3 innings of work. I'm assuming he's had enough opportunities to loosen up the arm, work out the kinks, and show what he can do to impress the coaching staff.

So far he's simply not getting it done. He's not fooling anybody. It seems like everybody is smacking him around. After yesterday's struggle he's now given up 13 hits and 8 earned runs in those 8 2/3 innings. The only positive things you can say about his performance is that he's got 6 K's and he hasn't gotten injured yet.  

You know, with the injury to Kelvim and Big John's slow start this spring, Santana had the perfect opportunity to come in and show what he can do to help our club. It looks to me like he's been showcased, starting three times already. And what we've seen is somebody who isn't exactly gonna strike fear in the hearts of anyone. Once April rolls around the idea of this guy going out there against the Tigers, the Red Sox, the Indians, the Yankees, the Mariners, etc., it gets me a little sick just thinking about it.

Can this guy fix whatever ails him, or is this a case of "it is what it is"? The idea of Joe Saunders still having to compete against Ervin for a spot in the rotation seems like a complete joke to me.

Where do you think we're headed with Ervin? Is he part of our future?

I haven't heard any Halo discussion on the airwaves since we did the Hunter signing.

Does anyone know if the Halo flagship station has anything formally planned in the way of Angel talk in the near future?

I've really got a jones for listening to something, anything, by the folks who produce the broadcasts. An interview or two, maybe a little team gossip on the side, something to keep myself sated for the next six weeks until things get rolling in AZ.

I keep trying to wrap myself around this concept and it continues to not make sense to me.

Last year we sign Gary Mathews Jr. to a pretty big contract. Gary comes in and does a decent job all year, his average is pretty mediocre, but he does hit for a little power, and he doesn't complain one bit when he's asked to move all over the lineup instead of being planted in the lead off position, where it seems he fits best. Heck, we've already got a leadoff guy in Figgins, which only adds to the confusion in my book.

So, Gary does a decent job. And he's a natural center fielder, where he plays an overall solid game, not gold glove, but overall pretty good, spectacular at times, and mistake prone at others. And he's signed for FIVE YEARS, with a no trade for at least a couple years.

During the same year Reggie Willits opens some eyes with a very nice rookie campaign, primarily the result of Juan Rivera breaking his leg. Rivera showed plenty of power potential the year before, and he's an inexpensive power bat who has shown good potential when healthy.

Plus, we have Vlad the Impaler and GA, who had a kind of rebirth during the second half of 07.

So that's five outfielders right there already, there isn't enough room for everyone, even with one of the guys DHing.

And what do we do? We sign T. Hunter to a HUGE deal. And we don't move any of the other outfielders. There's no other deal consummated to free up playing time for the outfielders, or to improve the roster anywhere else, even though we continue to be sorely lacking a power hitting third baseman.

What was the reason behind signing both Mathews AND Hunter? Is it that old adage of going out and getting "the best athlete available", and slightly overpaying for a quality player, a strategy I don't have much of a problem with if we really NEEDED in this case a center fielder. Which we didn't.

Or was it part of a bigger plan to first sign Hunter and then make a move that ended up not happening? And if that's the case are we then screwed up in the roster department?

Please discuss what you think the strategy behind the Hunter signing means. I'm trying to see where we're going roster wise and it just isn't adding up for me.

What about Kendry? How is he ever going to get to DH now? He will get zero AB's in 08, there's no room for him, unless Kotch goes down again. Willits: will he even make the opening day roster? How can he, we can't carry that many outfielders can we?

Is GA gone after this year? Are we gonna make a trade (I don't see it)? Where is all this headed?

Thanks!

I'm looking around the web for the absolute best photos available of Edison Field. I'm talking about full, wide shots of various views of the ballpark, including a center front shot of the helmets, and various wide shots inside the stadium, preferably during the day.

Shots of the scoreboard, the fountains, views from various seat locations. I've gone to flickr, google images, etc. and I've found some pretty decent shots, but perhaps there's a site out there somewhere, or a fan has posted some outstanding photos of the stadium.

Could anyone point me in the direction of some nice photos of the ballpark?

Thanks!

I missed the game live last night, had to watch it on Tivo this morning, but it was for a pretty good reason.

We got to go to the White Stripes free performance at the old Tower Records on Sunset last night.

Awesome. Just awesome.

Jack White is incredible. Every time I see him my expectations get larger and still he never disappoints.

A couple of the new tracks rock OUT. It was very cool how they decorated the old Tower Records, and it was great to have Jack Black come out and introduce Jack White.

All in all a great show, the place is so small to see someone so HUGE.

Had a fun weekend in Vegas. Shouldn't have taken my laptop, but I had to get a little work done, and stay in touch on any Halo news. I had a chance to go to several sports books on the Strip, so I wrote down the current odds listed on the big board at these sports books:

Caesars
Mandalay Bay
Wynn
Bellagio
MGM Grand

Lined up all five of em and worked out the average line for each team to win the AL pennant, as well as the WS.

Here is the listing of the top six teams from the American League:

Team/AL Flag/WS

Yankees 5 to 2 and 4 to 1
Tigers  4 to 1 and 9 to 1
Chisox  5 to 1 and 10 to 1
Redsox  11 to 2 and 11 to 1
Angels  6 to 1 and 13 to 1
Twins   7 to 1 and 16 to 1
Oakland 7 to 1 and 19 to 1

NL is Mets, the Dodgers, then Cardinals.

I put 40 bucks on the Angels, pennant and WS, at Caesars, which was just slightly different than what is posted above.

You gotta believe.

Great move by the Dodgers. They now have one of the very best rotations in the NL. Their pitching is definitely a very strong suit for them now.

ESPNdeportes was reporting that a Manny Ramirez to the Dodgers deal was being discussed. I doubt that will happen, but seeing this Schmidt deal does give them the ability to include Penny in a deal to Boston....

After panicking over the signing of Gary Mathews Jr., I stepped away from any media for half a day, just to try to chill out a little and try to make a little sense out of things.

I came back this morning feeling a little better, because I still felt that the bottom line was that this signing is not the "major move" Mr. Moreno promised the fans this winter. So perhaps this signing was just a stepping stone to something bigger, better, something that would truly help take the club to the next level.

The first thing I saw this morning was this article, published in the LA Times today. Apparently all is indeed lost.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/baseball/mlb/angels/la-sp-angels23nov23,1,3183971.story?coll=la-headli nes-sports-mlb-angels

Basically the meat at the end of the article is this: Stoneman decided that trading Santana and/or Shields to get Andruw Jones or Vernon Wells wasn't worth it, and that a club with Andruw Jones/Vernon Wells and without Santana and Shields would not be as good as a club with Santan Shields and Gary Mathews Jr.

Stoneman said "Losing Santana and Shields would be tough".

And for the minority of us here that we're hoping for one of these deals to happen, Stoneman validates it won't, by "intimating that any trade won't be of the blockbuster variety, saying obviously our options our more limited than they were".

To quote a scene that pretty much fits my mood this morning.."And that's that".

I guess the couple things I'm thinking right now are:

1. I'm sure all the folks here will be very happy, because Santana isn't going to be moved no matter what.
2. Everybody here gets their wish, that we are going with MacPherson and Kotchman, to be the answers to our offensive troubles.

A few weeks ago I wrote on here, pleading with Stoneman to show he has what it takes to be the GM of this organization. To make the moves required to take the club to the title.

After seeing this signing, and reading his statements, it is definitely time for him to go.

Stoneman has no stones.

A few of the things I believed in recently still stand more than ever. Santana better become the number one starter, by the end of this season, and he better be in the Cy Young conversation within the next two seasons or so. If he's more valuable than a bona fide hall of famer like Andruw Jones, and only plays on the field once a week, he better by god show that he deserves this kind of reverence. I will be watching each and every start with an interest not previously seen.

We're most definitely NOT World Series contenders. It's a shame.

So here we are, a scant 6 days or so into the whole free agency thing, and already several options have been removed from the table:

1. We never had an opportunity for Aramis. This is the biggest disappointment by far this week.
2. We lost the bidding war for Matzusaka. The Red Sox left no doubt for anyone else regarding this subject.
3. Frank Thomas is a Blue Jay. I thought he would've been a very nice, affordable option. I wonder if Arte/Scoscia/Stoneman considered him?
4. JD Drew appears to be close to becoming a Red Sock. I didn't really want the guy to be honest, not for what he'd be asking.

So, the AL East is obviously not messing around. The Yankees have already made several deals in the past week. Mussina resigned. Sheff was traded for pitching prospects. They unloaded stinky Wright's contract.

Those teams are busting it to get the job done.

I envy their fans.

Meanwhile, the word out of Katella and State College is:  ???

Excuse me while i go have a nervous breakdown...

Speaking of dream scenarios, here's mine.

We sign Aramis Ramirez, hopefully by November 20th or so. We're going to suffer the slings and arrows of wild rumor mongering online for the next two weeks, but I don't get why Ramirez would decide NOT to re-sign with the Cubs by November 1, only to turn around and sign with them a couple days after, like several sites are reporting as possible. I prefer to think he wants to come to a winner, and we will offer him what it takes to come play an integral part of our championship future.

OK, now we've got Aramis. What do we do next?

Sign one of the big pitchers. Preferably Zito, because we don't have enough left handed talent on the staff.

Why do we do this? It makes it more palatable to trade one of the other starters. Which we'll have to do if we're going to be able to land Vernon Wells in a trade.

We trade with Toronto for Wells. We offer Figgins and Saunders, and a minor leaguer, or one of the young catchers, for Wells. If the Jays don't bite, we swallow hard and make the difficult decision to switch Santana for Saunders.

I hate to see Magic go as much as anyone, but you simply can't get a talent like Wells for nothing. And there are times when tough decisions have to be made. And for a guy like Vernon Wells, this is one of those times.

Having Zito lessens the pain of losing Ervin. Also, Bartolo's contract comes off the books at the end of next season, helping absorb the cost.

With Aramis in tow we can tell DMac the following: OK, we have our third baseman, and it's not you. But we still want you. You have to move over to first, and beat out Kotchman and Morales, but show us why we've stuck with you this long, make us proud, come in next spring healthy and raking, and you've still got a legit shot to be here.

My dream team:

1B: DMac/Kotchman/Kendry
2B: Howard Kendrick
3B: Aramis Ramirez
SS: Orlando Cabrera

LF: Garret Anderson/ Juan Rivera
CF: Vernon Wells
RF: Vladimir Guerrero

C: Mike Napoli/Jose Molina/

DH: Rivera/GA/Vlad

The Rotation

John Lackey
Jared Weaver
Barry Zito
Bartolo Colon
Kelvim Escobar
Joe Saunders (insurance)

KRod
Shields
FA Middle Relief
FA Middle Relief
Brendan Donnely

Reserve Players

Rob Quinlan
Mecir Izturis
2 of the potential firstbaseman
Erik Aybar player 26 minors?
Reggie Willits player 27 minors?

This would be asking a whole lot from Mr. Moreno, if Aramis is 5 years 70, same for Zito, same for Wells. That's 40 million dollars a year for 3 guys.

But it does make us absolutely fabulous.

Everybody can dream, why not me?

What's the skinny regarding the details of Aramis Ramirez's contract? What is the time table for him either re-signing or opting out, formalizing intent to become a free agent?

And can somebody please let us all know the timetable for free agent signings and such, what's the timetable in which we will start seeing movement. I know it's not until after the world series, and we're all waiting anxiously for things to get going.

Me, i'm already thinking about how to swing a trip next March out to AZ to see the club for a couple days.

I have to admit: I recently posted my misgivings about waiting around for Ramirez to announce that's he's gonna do the FA thing. However, if he decides promptly and flies, then we should procede post haste. He's a natural fit at third, and nobody has to be moved out of position to bring him in.

I still think it's unlikely, and the Cubs would have to be pretty lame to not bend over and get a new deal done with him. I guess stranger things have most definitely happened...

As this season appears to be winding down, I'm concerned that a few of the biggest questions we faced entering this season will remain unanswered going into the offseason.

Who are going to be our permanent position players at first, third and center field?

We made a strong run at Paul Konerko last off season. People felt he would block Kotchman or Morales if he was brought in. Konerko has had an extremely productive year this year, and first base for us has basically been a black hole. Kotchman had one of the worst starts I've ever seen, and has since simply disappeared off the face of the earth. I mean he's gone. I haven't seen anything printed about him online in at least two months now, it's like he never existed.

Kendry Morales was up for a stretch, started out hot, and then cooled appreciably, until it was decided he needed to go back down for more seasoning.

The bottom line: we have no better idea who our first baseman for the future is. Not good when you're going into the offseason in need of some serious power, yet part of you still remains unsure about these two kids with supposed potential. Surely the hope was that by the end of this season the first base question would've been answered, or at least enough of an idea would be provided. But no.

It's the same story at 3rd and CF.

Dallas MacPherson? At this point he provides far more questions than answers. And is Chone Figgins a third baseman, a center fielder, or just an average utility player with some tools that make you occasionally shake at some possibilities?

Again, unanswered questions that will plague the organization through another offseason. Not good.

The best news of the year is that both Howard Kendrick and Jared Weaver have shown they'll be big parts of the future. That's done at least. But we have a GM prone to not pulling the trigger, and he's going to be running a serious risk of failing to fill the big offensive holes yet again, because guys like DMac, Kotch, and Kendry reamin complete and utter question marks.

All three of these positions are crucial to our future success, as all are traditionally positions in which offensive productivity is a must. The longer we wait around with no power coming from our CF, 3B, and 1B, the longer we will wilt in the hot August sun.