SB Nation User Blog: pendletonmike

After all the talk it is finally time.

pendletonmike — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:09:50 -0000

For years we have been hearing how the Angels didn’t want to trade Brandon Wood. Now it is time to see what he can do. It also looks like we will have a new arm in the starting lineup. I don’t have a problem with this one bit. We have 4 proven starters and although they didn’t live up to standards last year (Saunders, and Santana) I think they will have great seasons. Injuries hurt this team and we had plenty of guys step up and give the team a chance to win. What a time to be an Angels fan! We are seeing franchise players leave to make ground for the new. Figgins leaving for Seattle, which nobody seems to have a problem with, and I think that has to do with the fact that he was a likeable guy. Lackey going to the hated Bosox, which everyone is up in arms over, and I think that is because of 2 reasons. 1) it’s the Red Sox. 2) He was not a guy to like, he was always yelling at his team, showing up the manager in the Post Season, and throwing teammates under the bus.

I hope all former Angels do well, but for some reason when they leave this team they just don’t perform to the same level. I do think that John and Chone will though. As for Vlad, I love you man and all of the great times we got to see.

I think our lineup will still be solid this year. We have 4 above average starters, I wish they were better just like you, but they could have great years this year. Who knows what is going to happen. I feel that Weaver will become a solid Ace and Kaz will have a great year. As for our offense we only lost 1 guy who really performed all year for us. Here is how I see the offense playing out this year. Let me know what you think….

1) Aybar

2) Abreau

3) Hunter

4) DH Matsui?

5) Morales

6) Rivera

7) Napoli/Mathis

8) Kendrick

9) Wood…

Granted we don’t know who will all be on the team next year but this is what we have right now…. If we don’t get Matsui then I feel you make Napoli the DH and give him at bats everyday, and have Wilson your backup to Mathis…

East v. West who is the best?

pendletonmike — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:26:40 -0000

So I was at work today and of course I work with none other then Red Sox and Yankee fans. They were both talking about how the Angels are not that good and that they play in a weak division. So I decided to do a little homework to see if I could make them eat some crow. So I looked up the overall records of the teams against the other leagues. I was surprised to see how lopsided it really was. Here are the overall records as of this morning, September 22.

East v. West 72 – 91 .442%

East v. Central 102 – 71 .590%

Central v. East 71 – 102 .410%

Central v West 78 – 96 .448%

West v. East 91 – 72 .558%

West v. Central 96 – 78 .551%

So I knew the argument to this would be that the AL west only has 4 teams as that is the common argument with the strength of the division. So I disregarded the teams with the worst record in their division. Here are the overall records of each division.

With all teams overall

East 388 – 362 .517%

Central 352 – 397 .470%

West 321 – 278 .536%

With the top 4 teams in the division

East 328 – 272 .546%

Central 291 – 309 .485%

So now with all of this being said, we can see that the East is not the best as far as records are concerned. They are the second best, and they have a losing record against the West. I think we all knew that the Central has struggled the most this year but I was again surprised that the East had a .442 against the West, after showing this to the guys at work they quit with the argument.

I don’t know if this has much bearing on how the playoffs will go but I think the Red Sox and Angels are looking the best right now. They seem to be winning and it looks like the Yankees are starting to struggle. I think it will be a great playoff year and I can’t wait for it to start.

Poll

What matchup do you want the Angels to have in the ALDS?

Yankees

23 votes

Red Sox

38 votes

Tigers

20 votes

81 votes | Poll has closed

A Mormon Marines view on the Shooting

pendletonmike — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:39:28 -0000

When I found this web site I was excited to have landed in an area with die hard fans like myself. I am a humble person of religion and a hard Marine all at the same time. To see people say how these guys should have been killed sickens me. Were you there? How do you know what happened? Sometimes you need to wait until the truth comes out.

I had no idea that one of these guys is a Marine. While I was reading the posts on the first thread on this tragedy I was infuriated about some of the things that were said. I really want to be impartial being that I am a Marine that has gone to war for another country because I knew if I was in that situation I would want someone to help me because I could not help myself. So here are some things on my mind and I want some of you to think about…

1) As a Marine I feel that you should eliminate the threat, and if the Officer felt his family was in danger, then a head shot makes sense. If there are two assailants then you need to get one of them out of the picture. So I feel that I may have done the same thing if I were put in that situation.

2) As a Latter Day Saint (Mormon), I don’t feel that you should kill unless you really feel someone has put a major threat on your life. Would the assault have continued if he would not have ended it this way? If he didn’t have the gun how would it have ended for him? We don’t know these things and never will… so let’s not speculate on things we will never know about.

3) It makes me sick to know that one of my brothers (fellow Marine), was placed within an inch of his life. It’s enough to join the worlds most elite fighting force what kind of person you are. Some feel they are Superman, but we all bleed.

4) If you can sit back and say "I wish these scumbags would have been killed." …….. What if the guy shot was your son/brother/father? How would you feel then?

Many people are hypocritical when it comes to things like this. For example, and this is something that has happened to me but I will not share names.

A Marine in Iraq was killed during a humanitarian mission. I was with this man, and he loved what we were doing. He always spoke highly on the people of the country. During this mission he was killed by a man wearing an I.A (Iraq Army) uniform. His family was back at home talking about all of the good he was doing out there, and then after he was killed they wanted all of the troops brought home. We were making the lives of the people in that town better, we knew that. I wrote a letter to his parents to express how sad he would be to hear his parents speak that way, and that the man that shot him was from Syria. They felt horrible about the way they bad mouthed us. It took them 4 months to find out what really happened, and they have to live with the way they acted. They now help any way they can to support our warfighters.

Let’s not jump up and bad mouth anyone until we know what happened. There is a family in the hospital hoping that one of there sons will live through the night. Have you ever had to do that? I hope not. At the same time there is an officer of the law who just had a very traumatic experience. It’s not in human nature to want to kill someone, which is why I think he really had feared for his life. Lets not bad mouth any of the people involved until we find out what really happened. If you just read this and think I am full of crap and couldn’t be more wrong, then you need to look in the mirror and re-evaluate your life, and the way you treat people. HH lets not show our asses on this one. We are a family friendly site, and I would like to stay that way.

Hard Nosed Torii Hunter

pendletonmike — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:56:45 -0000

So I have been a baseball fan ever since I can remember. Although that has only been about 18 years, I love the game. I was driving home today thinking about baseball listening to Post Game Angel Talk. I started thinking about all of the hard nosed baseball players I could remember. There is only a few players I could think of that played the game harder then most. One that I feel stands out is Pete Rose, I think everyone would agree with that one. From books I have read I guess Honus Wagoner was a hard nosed old school guy. As far as in the game now I don’t think anybody comes close to Torii Hunter, the guy ran into the wall with an eight run lead and nobody on base. If you could ask him why he did it in that situation I think he would say, "a fly ball is a fly ball, and I am going to catch it." Or something humble and along that line.

I heard an interview with Torii on AM 830, the morning after that game, while I was on my way to work. One of the reporters asked him how he felt and he went on about how he will be sore but then said, "I love the meds though…. I think I’m high."

I wanted to get some other thoughts about this. Who do you think is the hardest player of all time? Who is the hardest now? Finally what do you think of the comment "I think I’m high."

Personally I loved the comment….

Perfect Trades

pendletonmike — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:11:29 -0000

So although none of this will happen, well maybe some of it, as far as names goes. I was just watching Ken Rosenthal on fox videos. He said that our Angels are open to trade Erick Aybar (boy I sure hope it is soon), to open up space for Brandon Wood. He later said that our Angels are in a good position to trade for Jake Peavy.

As I watched this I was thinking to myself, "How in the world could we pull that off?" I personally feel that we could "get rid" of some guys that we don’t plan on keeping around. Now don’t get me wrong I am not calling to get rid of these guys, as they have been with us for a long time. But what have you done for me lately. There are only a few guys that were around for the ’02 season. However I don’t feel that Big John will be around next year. This is ok with me, so I was thinking; why not trade him for Jake Peavy. I don’t think there would honestly be a single Angels fan who would not want that. Obviously we would have to give them more, but that would open up a spot on the rotation. As far as Aybar goes the Pads can have him too. I don’t care where he goes but I am sure we will get a pitcher for the pen. So here is how my perfect trade would go.

Big John, a young arm from the farm system and a young catcher, for Peavy.

Aybar to the Cards, (why not the NL Angels of the East), for young arm out of the pen…. maybe Kyle McClellan.

Now in my opinion these trades would be ideal, and probably not happen. But what the heck why not? I think they make sense. The Pads could get young players and someone that can help them win now. Not that they seem to be trying to but we can pay that salary, we win, and we are close to Peavy’s home. I am curious to see what you all think.

Vote Manny All-Star

pendletonmike — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:14:38 -0000

I was driving and thinking about the radio show I was listening to this morning, (the sports lodge). I started to think…. Hmmm…. Maybe we should all go and VOTE FOR Manny.

Wait! Before you juge that thought, think about it this way, maybe if he gets voted in by the fans, Butt Sealick might actually wake up to the fact that it totally sucks balls!!!!! I mean seriously look at the guys voted in AGAIN this year. Some people are just stupid. Just let the coaches and players vote, then you will get the real All-Stars. We just see our players everyday. How can we vote for the whole league?

What do you guys think? I know we all hate the way this thing is done. Just curious.

Poll

What player is the furthest from "All-Star" this year?

Griffey Jr.

33 votes

Manny

28 votes

Johnny Damon

1 votes

Nick Swisher

8 votes

Jason Varitek

9 votes

79 votes | Poll has closed

Patience is a Virtue

pendletonmike — Sat, 23 May 2009 05:14:32 -0000

Words once spoken to me, “patience is a virtue.” It is a motto I have lived by since my wee young days. The big league season is a whopping 162 games. So I thought I would ask the wonderful readers of HH to see what they think. I know it’s a long season and we are a quarter of the way through it. So I want to know, when does Wood come up to start playing? Do you wait until the all star break? 3 weeks before the playoffs? For Aybar to start playing like he is supposed to so you can trade him?

I don’t know anymore. I trust the team because they have put a good team together for me to cheer for. It always seems to work out, but I am questioning this one. How many failed bunts, 3 – 0 popups, and just non-clutch AB’s from Aybar do we need so we can bring Wood up?

The only place I can see Wood playing this year is SS. With Howie coming around and really starting to swing the bat well I don’t think you can send him away. I really want to see how Howie plays for a whole season. So come on front office, lets do something here. One bad week is ok. Two is a slump. Over a month and you need to start making some adjustments. For how good the teams in So Cal are they really don’t make adjustments well. I don’t think I am the only one who thinks this way. So lets hear it HH what do you think?

Poll

When do the Angels bring Wood up to play SS?

End of May

48 votes

End of July

49 votes

After the Trade Deadline

40 votes

2 weeks before the playoffs

23 votes

Next season

47 votes

207 votes | Poll has closed

Sportscenter really pisses me off!

pendletonmike — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:37:59 -0000

Ok so I am watching the Lakers play like they have lost their minds in the first half. The Lakers play is not why I am so mad right now. Evrin Santana pitched for the first time this year, Torii Hunter went 3-5 with 3 RBI’s and a Gold Glove play in the 10th, Jeff Mathis has a walk off single in the bottom of the 12th. So what does SC point out? How many friggen runners Big Crappy LOB…. What the crap? Who cares that he left 12 runners on base and has 0 HR in 150 AB. I sure don’t. SC moves to the west coast and still spends all of their time pointing out useless crap about the Blow Sox and the Spankies. The Spankies played a good game today with one good play. Their center fielder made a good throw to home. They showed it 3 times from different angles. But when it came to the Angels they didn’t say how Bulger (who I hated on earlier and would like to take back now that he humped up today) got the big outs late in the game. Or show any of Hunters RBI’s. Its no wonder none of these guys get the votes for the All-Star game. Oh well we still have better weather.

Weekend Play and Team Camaraderie

pendletonmike — Mon, 11 May 2009 03:47:04 -0000

A few things I have noticed over the outstanding weekend the Angels just had is this team can fight. Early on in the season the games were high scoring and the Halos were coming up on the bad end of that stick. This week was a different story. The Halos were scheduled to have 13 games without a break. With 3 of your starters, 2 bullpen pitchers, and the biggest long ball threat out due to injury, many teams would be hurting to win games. It seems that every baseball analyst or sports reporter is just waiting for the Halos to go down in a ball of flame. All but Peter Gammons, after Big Daddy Vladdy went down with the pectoral injury everybody was saying Oakland would be taking the division. Again all but Peter Gammons. Gammons said that he felt the Angels would do the same thing they do every year and weather the storm, and that we would end up 10 games up by the All-Star break. Our Halos went 9-3 against a newly revamped Yankees team, the picked to win the west A’s, and two first place teams in the Blue Jays and Royals.

I was very impressed with the way the team came together in today’s 4-3 victory against KC. It was the fact that they came back from behind. They got the key hits late in the game. They were able to execute in the most important time of the game. The bottom of the lineup has been coming thru when they need to. The team is finding a new person to carry them every night. Some of the Halos that started hot early have cooled a little bit and the slow starters have picked them up. I have to agree with Gammons and I see this team 10 games up by the break. I can’t wait for the hype to end and this team at 100%.

The last thing I loved seeing was, after all of the huge plays the defense made, the team is getting fired up. Early in the season the team was flat and it seemed they were having a tough time having fun. I think a huge part was the tragic loss of Nick. It almost seems like they have gotten back to the Angels of old. Torii got this team fired up in the bottom of the 9th today and I can’t wait to see how these guys come out Tuesday against Boston.

Good luck Halos!

Who is going and Who is staying?

pendletonmike — Sun, 10 May 2009 03:34:39 -0000

It’s a question that needs to be brought up. When all the big arms come back who goes down. With Santana and Lackey coming back there are 2 arms that have to go. The scenario I see going down is that Palmer stays. He has been tough on the road as well as at home. Pitching against top teams and doing it well. Loux would be a great addition to the bullpen. I think they could send Bulger down and Loux to the pen. They are the only 2 arms that came up that would be worth keeping around.

Also a lot of fans want Wood back. They are still playing in Salt Lake; Wood has hit his 5th HR in AAA this year. On top of that he has only played half the season there. While up with the team he has hit well in the opportunities given to him. His average may not be the best but the outs he made were hit hard. I don’t think you can get rid of Figgins, he is an above average fielder and he is one of the best leadoff hitters around in the AL right now. I would like to see Wood come up and play Short; move Izzy to second on Kendrick’s nights off and let Aybar back Wood up. Plus Wood can play Third as well, so you can let Figgins have a day off and still be covered on the defense. I don’t know how likely this will be but I see our offence getting better everyday. We just faced the best pitcher in baseball right now and every player hit the ball hard at least once. If we can do that to him we can hit anybody. This team has not been an offensive team for a long time and I think we could still get better. I am happy with the team Soch is putting out their everyday, but I am a fan and I will always want more.

Poll

Who will be the number 5 when Lackey and Santana come back.

Palmer

111 votes

Loux

24 votes

That other guy who got hammered by the Blue Jays

4 votes

139 votes | Poll has closed