Twitter Feed Has Been Hijacked ...

... by a Trojans, Ravens, and Red Devils fan. All those people following @TheLSF for the Angels or Domers must have been wondering what the heck was going on this weekend.

In other news, I thought of a great fantasy football team name: Adam Vinatieri Henry.

Something of a sports coma.

Just wanted to give a head's up so you weren't left wondering. Since the move up to the Bay Area, my job has been much busier than back in Orange County and thus, the blogging has dropped off. Also, I've recently been feeling a pull to going back to just being a normal fan, casually enjoying my teams, rather than analyzing every aspect of their play for the purposes of the LSF.

That being said, I'm making my drop off in blogging official. I'll probably come back by when I just can't keep my feelings in for some reason, but it will be few and far between. Same goes for the Twitter feed. So, check back every once in a while, but don't expect too much.

Talk to you soon...

A Great Weekend For Tony Reagins.

It was an amazing weeknd for the Angels. They swept the Baltimore Orioles at home, they saw Piñeiro pitch well enough to set up a walk off victory on Saturday, they saw Jerome Williams come out of nowhere to dominate the O's on Sunday for his first win since 2005, and they signed a huge five year extension with rotation ace Jered Weaver along with a full no trade clause. It was an impressive three days, and it has completely turned around the feelings of a Halo Nation that had all but jumped off a cliff after our series with the Rangers.

As you would expect, the real media is all over how awesome we've done over the weekend. Everyone is giving props to the surprising efforts by Borujos, Williams, Piñeiro, and Abreu. Everyone is talking up the superb coaching of Mike "Lorri" Scioscia. That's all well and good, but there is one guy who everyone is ignoring, and this guy deserves most of the credit for what happened this weekend, outside of the actual players, of couse.

That man is Tony Reagins. Tony pretty much gets nothing but crap from Halo fans, despite pulling off some big deals in his time as GM (Big Teix and Haren jump quickly to mind), but it may be the quiet moves that make more of an impact. Who would have thought picking up Jerome Williams last month would have done anything to help the big squad? He had been disgarded and long forgotten, and yet, Tony saw something, and Williams was a complete stud in his first start with the Angels. Now we're hoping for (maybe expecting?) more from this so-called nobody.

And how about the Weaver deal? Not a single soul in Halo Nation expected Weaver to extend his time with the Angels. An impressive young ace who often gets zero run support? I think all of us assumed that he'd be headed to the Bronx when it was all said and done. And then, out of nowhere, he signs a five year deal for just $85 million, and he was given a complete no-trade clause. Weaver's contract speaks loud and clear about his desire to remain in red, and that means a lot to us fans. This may be Tony's greatest move yet.

So let's give Mr. Reagins a little love. He, like his Angels, had a stellar weekend.

At 69-59, the Angels are now just 4 back of Texas in the chase for the division. Tomorrow, the White Sox throw Mark Buehrle (10-6, 3.14) against Ervin Santana (9-9, 3.12). Can Erv keep up his hot streak? It sure would be nice.

Go Angels Go.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Get Creative Or Die.

"So, who would you have hitting leadoff?"

The Halos have run out all kinds of different lineups this year. Erick Aybar and Maicer Izturis have shuffled in the leadoff hole, Torii Hunter has been a failed experiment hitting second, Alberto Callaspo has been moved all over the place, and Mark Trumbo has gone from crushing as the six man to slumping as the five guy. It seems like Scioscia just can't win. But, when your best hitter is producing at an underwhelming .288 level (HK and AC/DV are tied), you have to try some different looks.

After losing big to Texas last night, the Halos are now 5 games back in the division chase with 40 games to go (9 against Texas). Garrett Richards going down early with a groin injury was the big story (welcome back, Joel Piñeiro?), but that's only because we are so used to the sputtering offense that it isn't even a story to us any more.

However, with the Angels realistically staring death in the face this week if they don't come up with some wins against Texas between now and Thursday, it's time to get creative and figure things out so that we can push a couple more runs across the dish and stay relevant.

If you look back through the history of this blog, I'm sure you'll find numerous posts suggesting what lineup the various LSF baseball squads should roll out there. I've even taken the time to read baseball strategy books in an attempt to learn how to best pick a lineup from any particular roster of players. And, with all that in mind, I present my idea for the Halos lineup from here on out.

1. Howie Kendrick
2. Bobby Abreu
3. Alberto Callaspo
4. Mark Trumbo
5. Torii Hunter
6. Vernon Wells
7. Bobby Wilson
8. Peter Bourjos
9. Erick Aybar

Let the debate begin.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Let The Season Defining Begin.

After an expected difficult weekend at the Roger (isn't it always), the Halos are entering a season defining part of the schedule. Sure, I say that a couple of times throughout every campaign, but this time I really mean it.

Tonight, the Angels start a four game series at home against the Rangers. After coughing up the series in Toronto, we currently trail those very same Rangers by exactly four games. These are the first four of ten remaining games with these guys, and the games in Anaheim are extremely important. The Rangers have lost 11 of their last 15 at The Big A, and we need to exploit whatever it is that's been making that happen. It's a big, big series. 

The series also starts a stretch where the Angels play 18 of their next 24 games at home. With a 17-5 record over thr last 22 games at The Stadium, hopes are high that the squad will be able to put a major push together over this next month.

And speaking of defining a season. Double-A callup Garrett Richards is stepping up on the hill at home against Texas tonight for his second big league start, and his debut in front of the home fans. After getting bashed around a little bit in the Bronx (a game where he said his personal favorite moment was "striking out Derek Jeter"), Richards gets a shot at the high powered offense of the division leaders from Arlington. If he has a great game, he'll be remembered for this one, and the memories of his performance at Yankee Stadium will quickly fade away. It's a big deal for the kid.

We're 65-56, and while it may be exciting to have a palindrome for a W-L record, it's time to get this train back on the tracks and headed in the direction of a 2011 division title.

Best of luck, boys.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

A Deeper Look At Garrett Richards' Debut.

"Yesterday, our prayers were finally answered when Poochie the Dog made his howlingly unfunny debut."

I don't know why, but Garrett Richards debut yesterday afternoon reminded me of that quote from The Simpsons. If you read the headlines this morning, you probably see that Halo Nation is disappointed with the way the double-A callup performed in New York last night. 5 innings, 6 earned runs, 6 hits, 2 walks, 2 strikeouts, 2 jacks allowed. After one outing, the Riverside, CA native is 0-1 with an inflated 10.80 ERA. Joel Piñeiro then came in an went 3 innings of 3 run ball, showing that maybe Garrett wasn't all that bad.

If we look a little closer, though, maybe the debut of Garrett Richards was better than we thought. First off, let's point out what this 23 year old was faced with. Richards went from pitching in the Texas League for the Arkansas Travelers, to standing on the mound at Yankee Stadium, throwing the rock against guys like Jeter, Granderson, Teixeira, Cano, Chavez, et al. This was an epic task to ask such a youngster, who hasn't even tried throwing against AAA level talent. When you take that into consideration, it helps put the numbers into perspective.

The nerves were obvious, as the usually steady Richards threw two wild pitches in the start. However, he was throwing strikes, and I think that needs to be appreciated. Over 91 pitches, GR nailed down 59 strikes. That's 65% of his pitches being in the zone, and while that may have gotten him into a little bit of trouble, it is also nice to see, because there is nothing worse than a young pitcher handing out free passes all day. His ground ball to fly ball ratio was also impressive, getting 8 outs on the ground and only 1 in the air. While that might be because everything that went in the air went over the fence, the 8-1 ratio also shows that Garrett was keeping the ball down in the zone more often than not, and that's a great quality. 

Finally, I'd like to point out how his debut only looks bad because of two mistake pitches. They both came to Curtis Granderson, and they both resulted in jacks. Granderson hit a three run bomb in the first, and launched a solo in the fifth. If you take those two away, and Richards gets the homerun hitter out in those situations, you're talking about a whole different story. How would we consider his debut if he would have gone 5+ innings of 2 run ball? Much different story, right? Plus, that first homer by Granderson, the one that put a three spot on the board in Richards' first career inning? That's a hard one to bounce back from as a rookie. You never want to give up runs early, and once that happened, it became that much more difficult to get things back on track.

It won't get any easier for Garrett, as his next start will be against the Rangers, if he's still up with the big boys in 5 days. But, at least he'll have the home crowd behind him.

At 64-53, the Halos are 1.5 games back of Texas in the AL West title chase. The Thursday morning special (it actually starts at 10:05 am our time) against the Yankees today should be a fun one. Rookie Tyler Chatwood (6-8, 4.10) goes against former Halo and current fatty, Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.33). I think this will be a fun one for us Halo fans. 

Go Angels Go!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

The Worst Players In Halo History.

As AA callup Garrett Richards takes the mound against the Yankees tonight, hoping to eventually become one of the greatest Angels in history, I figured it'd be a fun time to build a short qucik and dirty list of the worst players in Halo lore. They were doing this with the Celtics on a Boston basketball blog this morning, and it seemed like a cool idea to steal.

My 5 submissions, after quickly checking my memories and the stats, are as follows:

1. Brandon Wood: No, I'm not kidding. Ausrin, TX native Brandon Wood has the lowest OBP and OPS of any player with 450+ ABs in all of Angel history. He hit .168 with a .197 OBP over his 173 games in a Halo uni. I'd say we gave him enough of a chance before we just gave up on him. Look, I was a big supporter of the guy, always begging the Angels to give him a fair shot, but when they finally did, he proved me wrong.

2. Jeff Mathis: We should count ourselves lucky to be able to see such historical type players in such a recent span of time. The Florida native was a two sport star in high school, and with every at bat he shows us that he should have picked football as his career path. Mathis' suckitude has been well documented across Halo Nation. Over nearly 400 games, Math hits .197 with a .259 OBP. Not as bad as Wood, but we never started Wood full time and quickly got rid of him. What's our excuse with Mathis?

3. Tom Egan: Might as well go out and grab an obscure one from the early days of the club. It seemed like it would be so good with Egan, being that he was a native of good ol' LA, but it didn't work out that way. Egan sucked. 238 games, 656 PAs, and a .186 batting average with a tiny .251 OBP. The highlight of this El Rancho High grad's career was catching Nolan Ryan's third career no-hitter. He probably went 0 for 4 with 4 Ks in that game. Boy, I wonder what his CERA was? He was a mistake to have around, and yet we kept him for 10 years. Doesn't inspire much hope for the second player on our list getting cut any time soon (he's already on year six).

4. Buck Rogers: Buck wasn't nearly as cool as his name would suggest. Another guy from the beginning of time, Buck played 8 seasons with the Angels, getting a chance in over 3,300 PAs and finished his Angel career with a pathetic .232 average. You're not going to believe this, but Buck was considered a top defensive catcher during his time, and was started despite having nothing going with the bat. Man, this is just turning into giant list of Jeff Mathis clones. Buck ended up having a much more successful managerial career, as you probably know.

5. Shea Hillenbrand: Easily a forgettable Angel, Shea brought us 200 ABs of misery during the 2007 season. He hit .254 and was well known as the rally killer for the Red Hats as he proved over and over again what a horrible acquisition he was. And it's weird, because he was alright overall in his career, but it just never happened in the OC. He also is one of many on the list of people who have played (and sucked) for both the Halos and the Trolley Dodgers. What a douche.

Honorable mentions: Steve Finley, Mo Vaughn, David Eckstein, and anyone you suggest.

What do you think? I know it's early, and he's still young, but I'm pretty sure that Jeff Mathis is going to win the crown when it's all said and done. Sorry, buddy.

Speaking of Jeff Mathis, he's catching our boy Garrett Richards (even though he isn't worthy to carry the kid's cleats) against the Yanks right now, and we're losing 0-3 in the 2nd after a big Curtis Granderson bomb. Keep focused and get this game back, boys.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē