The highs and lows of the Halo offense.

Joe Saunders tried to follow up his first great start of the season with another one last night. It certainly didn't work out that way. 2.67 innings of 5 run ball, 8 W/H, and 0 Ks was the way it went, and it certainly looked as bad as it sounded. Ordoñez and Guillen had RBI hits in the first, Everett sac flied a run home in the second, and Cabrera and Guillen drove home teammates in the third, all amounting to a narrow 5-4 Detroit win at The Stadium last night. While the Halo bullpen of Palmer (4.3), Stokes (1.3), and Bulger (0.67) shut the Tigers out the rest of the way, the offense just wasn't able to do enough. Three playershad multi-hit games (Abreu, Matsui, and Bam Bam), but leaving the bases loaded a couple of times and leaving 9 on base all together, amounted to a frustrating one run loss. 

After splitting the series, the Angels are now 8-9 (2 back of Oakland), and get ready for another go at New York over the weekend here in the OC. As we get ready to get some revenge on one of our AL East rivals, I think it's a good idea to give love to the top Angel hitters, and to show extreme contempt for the underperformers so far.

These guys are coming through:

-- Howie Kendrick (.327/1/8): Bringing the pain, especially lately, HK-47 is leading the Angels in batting average so far this year. Is he finally going to get that batting title? No, but it's fun to watch Howard's Appliance's best pitch man swinging the bat so well. Just think, he was demoted to AAA last year.

-- Jeff Mathis (.324/1/3): I have always had Mathis' back, and until he went down to the DL a couple of days ago, he has finally been proving me right. Idiot fans have been crying about Napoli getting a seat on the pine in favor of Mathis, but now that Naps has gotten a shot with Math on the DL, he's hitting .160 with 0 home runs. There you go. Come back soon, Jefe.

-- Hideki Matsui (.302/4/11): While I think most fans were semi-excited with the 2009 World Series MVP coming to Anaheim this year, I don't think anyone thought he'd been leading the team in jacks (tied with Bam Bam), RBI, slugging percentage, OPS (nearly 1.000), and runs created after 17 games. I'm impressed as all hell by Godzilla, and only hope he can hold it together all the way to October.

-- Torii Hunter (.283/1/6): Big Game is the first sub-.300 guy who I think is really getting it done. The best part is that I figure he's only going to get better as the season goes on. Having Torii in that #3 spot is so awesome, giving you a reliable guy to drive in Abreu and Aybar if the get on base. It was funny how he played DH last night, the night he was awarded his Gold Glove.

-- Kendry Morales (.270/4/10): Bam Bam rounds out my five players getting it done with the stick after the first 17. Morales has turned into this constant long ball threat this year, and from either side of the plate, you are kind of always expecting him to put one in the seats. Tied for the Angel lead in jacks, and -1 of Matsui in the RBI chase, Kendry contiunes to make us forget about that brief love affair we had with Mark Teixeira (who is hitting .125 right now, by the way).

These guys need a swift kick in the knob:

-- Brandon Wood (.087/0/0): Who else could start this list? Don't get me wrong, I'm still backing Brandon to come around, but as we approach May I'm starting to get more worried. He went 0 for 3 with 2 Ks last night, and hitting sub-.100 after 17 games is just plain bad. Wood has a K/BB ratio of 15/2 and he has just 4 hits in 46 at bats. Come on.

-- Mike Napoli (.160/0/2): I know he's had limited play with the resurgence of Mathis this year, but he certainly isn't playing the way the girls at the clubs like so far. With just 4 hits in 25 ABs and no bombs to show for it, Naps may be giving way to Bobby Wilson if he doesn't pick it up before Math gets back. Not really, though.

-- Reggie Willits (.182/0/0): Remember when the all used to cheer, "Reggie! Reggie!"? Willits was a Wally Joyner type figure for fans in his first year, but has come crashing back down to Earth since. In limited play as a backup this year, Willits isn't showing us very much. 2 hits in 11 ABs shows that we may need to wait a little longer to make a verdict on his start, but it's still disappointing. A bright spot is his 4 walks to just 2 Ks.

-- Maicer Izturis (.208/0/6): We have come to expect quite a bit from one half of arguably the greatest trade in Angels history, and in his backup all over the infield role so far this season, he's been a tad disappointing. 6 RBI are pretty nice, but we're definitely used to Ma$e having a higher batting average. Again, 5 walks to 4 punchouts makes us hopeful, but Izzy needs to make more of his time in the lineup.

Hopefully all the guys mentioned will swing the bats well tonight, as the Halos open their series with the Spanxx. Ervin Santana (1-2, 4.35) will try to build on his last outing against AJ Burnett (2-0, 2.37). AJ had a 5.84 ERA against the Angels in last year's postseason, so hopefully the Angels can put a stop to the best Yankee start since 2003. 

Let's go Black Magic.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē