Mr. Kendrick's walk off bunt.

Howie went out of his way to prove why he has what is takes to be my favorite Angel last night. Tied at 3 in the bottom of the ninth, Torii Hunter led off with a double to right. He was actually tagged out, but the call went our way. Shhh. After Godzilla was intentionally walked, Kendry grounded into a double play, putting Big Game on 3rd with 2 outs. Juan Rivera also earned a free pass, bringing HK-47 to the plate. With the infield back, Howie bunted a perfect shot toward second base, surprising everyone in the park. Kendrick legged it out, Torii scored the game winning run, and Robb Quinlan assumed his position on the outside of the dog pile. It was a thing of beauty, After the game, HK said he had a call to swing away, and that it was all his own decision. He pulls it off and he's a hero, you know what would have happened if the bunt rolled back to the pitcher. It was awesome, simply awesome. However, there were a couple of other really solid things that happened last night, being overshadowed by the bunt, and it's time to point them out.

-- Ervin pitched even better than the numbers suggest. 6.67 innings of 3 run ball with 8 punchouts. He was humming along for most of the game, striking out 5 in a row at one point. It was a solid no decision.

-- The call on Hideki Matsui that got Mike Scioscia tossed out of the game in the second inning was insane. Mats get the ball thrown at his head and drops to the ground while letting go of his bat. The bat goes forward on the drop, and gets called a strike for being a swing! Scioscia blows up and gets tossed out of the game, stating that he's never seen a call like that in 35 years of baseball. It was a bad call.

-- Torii Hunter not only scored the winning run, but also hit a game tying three run bomb on Westbrook earlier in the game, and finished the game 3 for 4, factoring into every Angel run scored. Talk about responding to all that "getting old" talk.

-- The Angels only left 4 runners on base in the game, which may be some kind of record for this year.

-- Brian Fuentes got brought in for the ninth inning in a tie game. I immediately thought, "Don't bring your closer in for a non-save situation." He almost proved me right, giving up two hits on 17 pitches, and letting the potential winning run for the Indians get 90 feet away. He was, however, able to squeeze his way out of it, and it should be noted. He earned the win.

-- Fernando Rodney pitched another scoreless inning. He's been alright, eh? 

Of course, it should be noted that despite all the celebrating, we're still just 12-11. But, we're only 0.5 back of the first place A's (12-10). So maybe I should have celebrated more! After an off day today, the Angels meet Detroit in Michigan on Friday for a quick rematch of their recent series. Joel Piñero (2-2, 3.42) will try to get back into his groove against Ricky Porcello (1-2, 7.91). A good first game of the series will be crucial, so hopefully La Piñata and the boys will come through.

P.S. The Clark W. Griswald Rally Monkey video in the game last nigt was on point.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Proof that the media is reactionary.

Oh, the media covering my Angels. What fun they have! Creating stories out of nothing, or almost nothing, and then getting proven wrong by the stellar performances of the Halo players. Last night, the Angels took their first step past the .500 mark, in a series where I'm expecting a sweep of the Indians. Jered Weaver pitched strong yet again (6 innings of 1 run ball with 7 Ks) to quietly improve to 3-0 on the year, Brian Fuentes struck out the side to earn his 3rd save of the year with little hip hip hooray from the idiot fans (of which, I clearly am not one), and the offense was on point (a three run first with an Aybar lead off jack and a sixth inning two run bomb from El Comedulce). The win not only made me proud, but it also gave the Angels three wins in their last four games, and made pre game media reports look stupid.

Pre game media concern #1: Torii Hunter is getting old.

Keep in mind, I heard all of this will driving home from work listening to the Angels flagship station, AM 830. The concern raised was Torii's slow start, and the fact that he may be getting too old to be on offensive force in 2010. Torii shook off the comments, stating that when he's good he's "in the prime of his career," and when he's slumping he's "on the verge of being old." Last night, Big Game went 2 for 4 with a walk and a run scored. He was crucial is getting on base, getting 2 doubles that rolled all the way to the gap wall. With last night's match, Hunt's slow start is a .284/1/7 start that has been good enough for me. Out of his 21 hits, 10 have gone for extra bases (9 doubles and 1 bomb). That's 48 % of the time he's going to extras. His slugging is .446 with an OPS of .799. That's right: an on base percentage of .353. How horrible. Add 3 steals in 4 attempts to the mix, and you have an alright April in my opinion. The best thing is that we can count on him to get better through May and beyond. So, can we not be worried about one of our best?

Pre game media concern #2:

This concern was the media again dragging out that Brandon Wood has had enough chances, and needs to either ride the pine or ride the plane (to SLC). Now, I have been somewhat critical of his slow start, but I have also been very vocal about the need for him to have a legit shot and to be patient with him. Last night, he had his best game of the year. Homeboy went 3 for 4 with a run scored, and he really nailed his hits right on the screws through the left side of the infield. Is this the turnaround game he's been waiting for? Woody now has five hits in his last three game, raising his average .071 up from the dregs. Time will tell if he's just getting lucky, or actually finding comfort in his stroke. I hope it's the latter. 

Pre game media concern #3:

The Angels are going to be so much better with Napoli in the lineup and Mathis on the DL. Haha! This is one I've already toyed with since the Math injury. Last night, Naps was a respectable 1 for 3 with a walk, and hopefully he's getting into the zone. At .171/0/2, he better pick up the pace soon...Wood is coming for him!

Post game media concern:

After the game, ESPN wanted to point out how Jered Weaver's young career is leaps and bounds better than his elder brother, Jeff. Hey, they got one right! Over his first 700 career innings (a mark he reached last night), Big Baby is 53-27 with a 3.69 ERA and 577 punchouts. Those are great numbers, and even better when you consider Jeff's first 700: 38-51, 4.38, 468. I'm not sure why they chose to compare the bros after yesterday's game, but yes ESPN, Jered is better than the guy we traded for Terry Evans

Tonight is part two of a three part series I like to call, "Erradicating the Indians." It's kind of like a precursor to what my Canucks will do to Jon's Blackhawks later this week and beyond. Joe "Crashing Back To Earth" Saunders (1-3, 5.82) tries to right the ship against upstart Mitch Talbot (2-1, 2.25). Talbot two hit the Twins over six innings allowing no earned runs in his last outing, and looks to pulls his Indians out of their tail spin. Too bad, though, because Joe Joe is ready to bounce back and continue his undefeated streak against Cleveland (2-0, 2.84). The Indians got punched out 13 times last night, and hopefully our V Tech lefty can keep the breeze going. 

Not a series lost to the Indians since 2007, and we don't plan to start now. Believe in the sweep!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

The Halos good, bad, and ugly.

I was all ready for the Angels to lose 2 out of 3 to the Yanks, get to a 9-11 record, and help me have a title for my post that would have read "9-11: Never Forget," or "Life after 9-11." Instead, we win the series against the Spanxx, get to 10-10, and the terroritsts won. Scott Kazmir had a much better game in the box score than it looked on the field, finishing up 5.3 innings of 4 run ball allowing just 3 hits. Of course, he handed out 4 free passes, allowed 2 jacks, and even beaned Robinson Cano. Thanks to an offensive explosion (8 runs on 7 hits) and a dominating bullpen (Bulger, Jeps, Rodney, and Gas Can going 3.67 innings of no hit ball). We've waited for the bullpen to come strong, and they certainly did yesterday...all over the face of the New York Yankees (inappropriate reference!). Meanwhile, Kendry Morales taught Joe Girardi and the Yankees a valuable lesson. Don't pitch to Bam Bam. In the 7th inning, with Hunter and Matsui on base, the Yanks decided to intentionally walk Morales with the score sitting on 5-4 in favor of the Angels. After the first ball, the Yankees changed their mind, and decided to go after K-M. Bad call. Morales poked a 400 foot bomb to left center and blew the roof off the place. Game over. Morales finished the game 3 for 3 with 3 RBI and a walk, while the combo of Jeter/Swisher/A-Rod/Teixeira went 0 for 13. 

There was much more good, bad, and ugly stuff from the weekend series that we can explore.

Good:

-- Kendry Morales, as mentioned, was a total stud this weekend. How about going 7 for 10 with 6 RBI in a huge 3 game series against a team like New York? Bam Bam is now hitting .329/6/16, just completely leading this team onward to victory.

-- The bullpen in the wins was no hit city. Brian "Tito" Fuentes quietly earned a perfect save in the ninth inning Friday night. No one really cared, despite drilling him last week for blowing one against Detroit. The rest of the hurlers were on point in relief of our starters. On Friday, it was Jeps/Rodney/Tito providing three innings of no hit ball. On Saturday, Scott Shields and Brian Stokes combined for 3 innings of 1 run ball, with Stokes contributing 2 innings of 1 hit/shutout ball. And, as mentioned, the staff was flawless on Sunday, wit 3.67 innings of no hit ball. Very nice to see it coming together, and to slowly start seeing Shields getting back into the groove. 

-- Brandon Wood makes a good list!! A 2 run double in the fourth inning gave the Angels the lead, and would really be the big moment in the big 4th inning that turned the game in the Halo's favor. Finishing 1 for 4 in the game, Woody went 2 for 7 in his 2 games played this weekend, and has "improved" to .113/0/2 on the year. Certainly not the start he was looking for, but he's +.100, and we should be proud and expectant of a better May.

Bad: 

-- La Piñata got straight killed in the 1-7 loss on Saturday, going 6 innings of 6 run ball, allowing 11 hits and only punching out 2. And that's despite his usual ground ball/fly ball ratio, which sat at 11/4. The sinker wad working, but so were the Yankees' bats.

-- The top of the order went 1 for 10 over the weekend. The combo of Aybar (2 games) and Ma$e (1 game) at the top of the lineup turned out a .100 batting average in the series. How can we eat dinner, if the table isn't set? EA is now hitting .246, while Izzy is hitting .219. Hm.

-- Mike Napoli went 1 for 7 in the series, and his season is now looking like .156/0/2. The unfortunate injury to the red hot Jeff Mathis was supposed to be the chance hardcore Nap fans would have to show he was the man needed in the lineup. Jacks were always your proof. Where did they go? I still support Napoli, since he's an Angel, but we sure are missing Math right now, eh?

Ugly:

-- The collision between Mark Teixeira and Bobby Wilson has to be the lone point in the final category. Many around the "real" media are complaining about the hit. Many say that while it wasn't dirty, it may have been motivated by A) Mark's awful start to the year and B) Ervin beaning him earlier in the inning. Whatever the motivation, it sucked that Bobby Wilson got knocked the fuck out (I believe the explative is warranted based on the hit). Was it dirty? Probably not. Even Scioscia said it was a clean hit after the game, and while I don't generally agree with his decisions, he'll usually speak out in this kind of situation if it was really dirty. Just a tough play, and a bad situation. At least Wilson doesn't remember what happened. Get well soon Bobby, Napoli needs some help.

Now we're 10-10, 2 games back of 12-8 Oakland, and half a game up on the 2010 AL West Champions from Seattle (9-10). With the Indians rolling into town (8-10), we may have a little chance to get closer to that AL West lead. Tonight, it's Big Baby (2-0, 2.77) against David "Who Am I?" Huff (1-2, 3-flat). The Indians have been shut out in three of their last five games, and there couldn't be a better time to put some distance between us and the .500 mark.

Good luck, boys.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

We are the Nation of Domination.

A little WWF (not the World Wildlife Foundation) reference starts the celebratory post after the Vancouver Canucks rolled into the second round of the playoffs with a game 6 win over the Kings, 4-2 last night. The quote of the night, after the game, came from Kings' announcer Jim Fox who said, "Clearly, the Kings outplayed the Canucks in this series, but it just didn't work out." Classic. Clearly, you paid attention to game 2 and 3 only. Clearly. With 2:03 to play last night, tied at 2, Mikael "Shamu" Samuelsson tried to blast a shot in the middle. His stick shattered, and the puck slowly slid to a waiting Daniel Sedin. DS buried the rubber in the net, under a diving defensiveman, and 5 hole on Quick. Iept up from my couch, bashed my shin into our coffee table with celebrating (on accident), and high fived my wife and 3 month old son (who was wearing a Canucks onesie thanks to my boy Andrew...who is Chone Figgins elevator buddy). An empty netter from Alex Burrows (his 1st "goal" of the series) sealed the deal less than 60 seconds later, and the Canucks are marching into the second round again.

Before we turn the page on things, though, let's take a look at positive from this game and series as a whole, negatives spanning the same time frame, and our frame of mind with (most likely) a rematch from the 2009 second round on the agenda.

Positives:

-- Roberto Luongo stood on his head! 30 saves on 32 shots, and probably 5 saves out of those 30 that were complete show stoppers. The glove save as he was rolling on his back? I replayed it 10 times. Even my wife's draw dropped. Even one of the goals he allowed was a near save. If he would have had his paddle straight on the ice instead of slightly angled up, Doughty never would have scored. Bobby was fantastic in last night's game, his first truly awesome outing, and it was fun to watch.

-- Andrew Alberts stayed out of the penalty box for two straight games. Are you serious? The Game 2 and Game 3 whipping boy found some way to put together two actually good games, and it showed. The 'Nucks were able to stop the Kings power play, keep Luongo safe most of the time, and it was partially thanks to our #6 D-man. Good stuff, pal.

-- How about Bernier? I know, Mikael Samuelsson and the Twins have been an offensive force (thanks for the breaking news, NHL Network), but lesser known is the impact of the role players like Stevie Bernier and Po Po Demitra has gone over looked. Last night, Stevie scored a huge goal on the power play that drew us even in the game. It was his fourth goal in the six game series. Did you know that? As for Po Po, he scored a giant thied period goal in Game 5 (that opened up a 5-1 lead) for his second in the series, and he's been mixing it up on that third line like crazy. You wouldn't know he missed everything before the Olympics.

-- The Swedes. And finally, no list of positives from this series would be complete without pointing out the obvious. Mikael Samuelsson scored seven goals in the first five games of the series, Daniel Sedin nailed four in the six game series, and Hank has 1 and a handfull of assists. A top line running like tha gives a fan all kinds of confidence for a strong playoff run.

Negatives:

-- The penalty kill. Things turned around slightly over the three game winning streak, but the Kings scored on nearly half of their power play opportunities. It was a flat disaster. Add to that the fact that we seemed to take penalty after penalty, and it wasn't a good combo. Tough to watch, to be honest.

-- A self-defeating attitude. Let's face it, while there aren't many negatives right now, this one may be lurking in the shadows. The Canucks, Orca Nation, and the city of Vancouver seem to be filled with sports suffering. We seem to always think we have a Stanley Cup kind of team, and we seem to always have our heart broken in the Western Conference Semifinals. Will this be the year we can shake that repuation? I sure as hell hope so. And, this leads into the third and final section of this little rant. 

Round Two:

San Jose was the first Western Conference team into the second round, and now the Canucks. Remaining are the teams from the Blackhawks/Preds series and the Wings/'Yotes series. The Hawks lead the Preds 3-2 in their series with a chance to lose it out tonight in Nasvhille. Meanwhile, the Red Wings and the Coyotes are going to Game 7 tomorrow night in Arizona. Scenarios abound, but you know where this is all headed. 

1) Hawks win, PHX/DET win: If the Blackhawks win one of their next two vs. Nashville, we have a second round repeat from 2009. While I think the Hawks are the most dangerous team left, I also realize how much fun playing them is. It would be completely intense, ridiculously hard hitting, and so much freaking fun.

Canucks in 7.

2) Preds win, 'Yotes win: In a Nashville comeback scenario, we'd match up against the winner of the PHX/DET game 7 (which could really go either way). Am I weird to think that Phoenix would be an easy series? I know they're the feel good story of the year for the NHL Network (probably because the NHL are partial owners now), but they're playing way above their heads right? I think we'd steam roll 'em.

Canucks in 5.

3) Preds win, Wings win: This isn't the Buffalo Wings of the Laguna Roller Hockey League we're talking about here (undefeated at 2-0-1 heading into Thursday's match with the "Crease Banger Cougar Hunters," real name), this is the never surprising Detroit Wheel With Wings, Wings. This may be as dangerous as the match with Chicago, but certainly not anywhere near as fun. I don't want this series at all. I'd even rather lose to the Hawks than these bastards. Just because I don't want it, I'll pick us better than I really think we'd do.

Canucks in 6. 

There you have it. We'll roll out a more complete round two preview once it's all set up, which could be tonight if the Blackhawks pull through.

I'm coming for you, Jon Davis.

As for the other game tonight: Go Sabres Go!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

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

The streak is over. Get my suicide axe.

Hopefully the Simpsons reference is appreciated. Brian Fuentes came back off the DL and got a rude welcome in a tight situation, giving up a game tying jack and an eventual game winning RBI hit for the Tigers last night. I'm sure you can picture the chorus of boos raining down from the upper decks at The Stadium last night, and even better, the calls to local sports talk radio to put Fernando Rodney back in the closer role. Um, Fuentes was the MLB save leader last year. He blows a save and we're supposed to cast him back to Rancho? We win 5 in a row, and all of the sudden you get greedy and expect to beat a team with Miguel Cabrera when you only score 3 runs and don't have a single player with a multi-hit game. Just a week ago, we couldn't  buy a win, what's with these bandwagoners? Well, put down the suicide axe, while we explore why this one loss doesn't make life not worth living.

-- Starting pitching: We be rolling. Even in last night's loss, Jered "Ace" Weaver tossed 7 innings of 2 run ball. It was the sixth straight awesome outing for a Halo starter, and seventh nice start in the last eight games. Surely a bullpen is going to cost you some wins on the back end, but if you have this kind of stellar starting pitching day in and day out, you're going to be winning way more often than not. It makes you optomistic for every game against any opponent.

-- Baserunning: Has anyone noticed, because no one is talking about it. During the Angels winning streak, and even last night (Aybar and Hunter), the Halos are stealing bags again. For some reason we found our legs again, and are playing "Angel Ball." When we are swiping bases, we are pressuring the bad guys, and when we apply pressure we win. The increased speed on the basepaths is a huge asset.

-- Howie Kendrick: HK-47 has turned it on. The often called "Future Batting Champion" has found his stroke. Despite going 0 for 4, HK is hitting .315/1/8 over the first 16 games, and seems to be getting hot lately. The middle of the order will always be slamming, but Howie holding it down in the bottom third is encouraging as all hell.

-- Look at the division: We're a game and a half off the division lead. The season is early, we're only rolling at .500 (8-8), and we're still only 1.5 games back. Oakland is 10-7, Seattle is 9-7, we're 8-8, and the Cocaine Rangers are 5-9 (Vlad was a solid addition, eh?). No reason to worry when you look at this division, even if we got ripped up for the next couple of games.

So, it's time to get back on track and show the bandwagoners that their concern was all for naught. I mean, Brandon Wood is still hitting just .093/0/0, but still, there is no need to worry about A) Fuentes, B) Wood (yet), or C) this team in general. Guess what? Big Joe Saundo (1-2, 4.26) is ready to get to his personal .500 and be the stopper after last night's loss. He'll face Justin Verlander (0-1, 6.88). Early last year, Verlander gave up 7 runs in 5 innings against the Halos, a mistep he is sure to repeat. Good luck boys.

In other news, the Rams are on the clock in 4 minutes at the NFL Draft. Will we be shocked by their move?

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Misplaced confidence after Game 4.

Listen to the collective sigh of relief from 7th Canucks all across both nations. Down 2-3 in the 3rd period, and hit with a 2 minute minor for tripping to Daniel Sedin, I wasn't feeling real good about my chances. I even told my wife that I felt like it would be one of those scoreless frames that ended in a loss for the good guys. To my glorious relief, I was brought luminous joy rather than suffering (4 points for the mysteries of the Rosary reference), when my boys stepped it up and polished off a solid third period effort to ride to a 6-4 game 4 win. It was (another) Mikael Samuelsson goal, a Sami Salo power play blaster as he skated in, a thrilling split the D goal from H-Bomb, and a finish 'em off empty netter from Mr. Empty Net Ryan Kesler that helped the 'Nucks to the comeback win. Have you ever seen Hank more pumped for a goal than the game winner last night? Great, great stuff.

So, after a game 4 win that was more narrow than it seems, is my confidence misplaced? The answer lies in 3 players.

Roberto Luongo: Oh Captain, my Captain! El Roberto didn't exactly stand on his head in Game 4, despite having some ridiculous saves, and he really hasn't had that standout game all series. That, leads to a little boost in confidence for me. Luongo is going to have an off the charts game in this series with the Kings, and we're just waiting for it. I wanted it in Game 3, but didn't get it. Now, I'm hoping to see Lu lead the team to victory with a crazy game at GM for Game 5. As they say in baseball, Roberto is due.

Mikael Samuelsson: Shamu has been freaking ridiculous. This is one hot Swede! After nailing down 30 goals in the season, and making the 'Nucks look like Mensa members for signing him, MS has now nailed 5 goals in the first four games of the series. He has been an unstoppable force. And, with Alex Burrows taking the role of the pest rather than the top line scorer, Mike has seen more time on the Sedin line. AV has created some kind of ultra superhuman Swedish dynamic that has been paying off. Early in the regular season, I used to say that as Samuelsson goes, so goes the 'Nucks. It seems that could be true in the playoffs as well.

Nolan Baumgartner: Don't laugh, this isn't a joke. The Orca have had a parade of #6 defensivement during the second season, thanks to the injury to Willie Mitchell. Andrew Alberts proved to be in love with the sin bin too much, Aaron Rome pulled something (his dignity, maybe) and ol' standby The Baumer filled the role. While 44 wasn't the answer to stopping to unhuman Kings power play, he did finish even on the +/-, which is good for a #6 guy. We need Baumer, or whoever fills this role for the rest of the series, to play significantly above their heads to solidify our chances for total victory.

So, heading back to BC with home ice advantage in this 2-2 quarterfinal series, I'm excited about our chances. The comeback kids from the regular season were back in action last night, snatching the guaranteed series win for the Kings with some amazing third period play. Now it's just a matter of who can win 2 out of 3. I have a hint for you: it's the team I root for.

Best of luck to Buffalo to get back on track, and a swift kick in the ass to Chicago to figure out how to play hockey and beat the Preds.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

I don't know how to feel about Game 3.

First off, I'm angry. I'm angry for two reasons. 1) The Canucks really didn't put out 60 minutes of playoff style effort at Staples Center last night. 2) The refs seemed content to completely hand the Kings every opportunity they could with a barrage of anti-Canuck calls. So, now that my Vannies have gone the way of the Buffalo and dropped behind 1-2 in their Quarterfinal Series after last night's 3-5 loss, am I more frustrated by the poor play or the poor calls?

Poor play:

Roberto Luongo gets pulled in the second period. Look, I'm an ardent Luon-gold supporter, and I'll be the first to point out that Bobby had some bad breaks and poor play in front of him. Of the 4 goals he allowed on 16 shots, 3 came on a Kings' advantage and 1 came on a ridiculous turnover right in front of the net by Kyle Wellwood. That being said, I think every 7th Canuck around both nations has been hoping that our Captain could rise above all those issues and put up a stand-on-his-head type of performance. It's not a very exciting thing, as a hockey fan, to see your franchise goalie getting yanked in the middle frame of a hugely important game 3 in the playoffs. For sure the Vannies need to take less dumb penalties, and for sure they need to play a little more fundamentally sound with possession in front of their own net, but El Roberto also needs to become this transcendent force that prevails in spite of everything being against him. I know he can be that kind of guy.

Speaking of players who I support more than anyone else, Kyle Wellwood may a nearly unforgiveable mistake that led to Luongo getting the hook. As mentioned, Welly grabbed the puck in front of his own net, got pressured, and flung an ill advised backhand pass in front of the net, that was promptly stolen and buried through Lu's 5 hole. Roberto wasn't even close to being ready for the shot, not really expecting the chain of events to go that way, and Dub Dub's mistake seemed to hand it all the way to the Kings.

Alex Burrows has fallen silent. Despite almost getting awarded the non goal off Daniel's skate, my main man AB has fallen silent at the worst possible time. And, you know, maybe it was Burrows making the Sedins better and not always the other way around.

I should stop here, and give love to Mikael Samuelsson, who scored again last night. It's his 4th of the series, quickly solidifying his cult hero status among Orca Nation.

Poor calls:

The idiot in the war room in Toronto that overturned the goal off Daniel's skate (that would have pulled the 'Nucks within one early in the 3rd) should be drawn and quarered. Even the Kings' announcer said he thought it was a goal. Did anyone see a distinct kicking motion from Daniel, or did everyone else see what I saw? Burrows centered the puck, Sedin was hockey stopping into the crease to slow down, and the puck deflected off his skate. No intent to kick, no intent to redirect, just a lucky bounce. Well, I guess it wasn't a lucky bounce. That goal getting taken away stalled the Canucks momentum and ruined the magic. I'm still so angry about that call.

How about holding the stick? With the Vaninies down by a goal in the third, a Kings forward went down to the ice in front of Raycroft and held onto Steve Bernier's stick, keeping him from making a play on the puck. The ref's arm went up in the air, and the Kings announcers stated that there was a delayed penalty. As the play went on, the ref put his arm down, nothing was ever called, and the rest is history. Is it just me, or are we seeing some kind on conspiracy going on here? Fuck.

Henrik for holding leads to the third Kings goal. H-Bomb, rarely in the box, gets called for a holding penalty when both of his hands were on his stick and a Kings player wrapped around him. Hank's body got tangled with him, and he had the puck, but there was never a hand placed on the Kings player. Holding was called, and the Kings promptly went 3 for 3 on the power play.

Rayzor gets messed with. True, there was a goalie interference call eventually, but that was the second time that Raycroft got taken out in the third period. I'm talking, getting hit to where he's spun around and falls to the ice. On the first contact play, the arms of the refs mysteriously stayed at their sides while Canucks fans everywhere were screaming at their TV sets. I know the home team gets the calls, but this was madness out there last night.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. I guess that's all I'm good for on the day after a loss like that. The fact is that the 'Nucks now trail in their series 1-2 with one game left to play in LA before getting back to beautiful British Columbia. We're still in line for my 'Nucks in 6 call, but we need to steal one on the road tomorrow night. Wednesday at 7 pm is big time.

Don't let me down boys.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

I wish Andrew was more bummed on the sweep.

The Angels went to Rogers Centre (correct spelling), a place where they notoriously only win when Jarrod Washburn pitches with the flu, and came away with a freaking three game sweep. Most moronic Angel fans don't even realize how epic this actually was. To celebrate, I texted my dear friend Andrew with simply, "Sweep." I wanted him to be crushed with the Angels stellar sweep of his Boo Jays, failing to realize how much of a realistic fan he is. He responded with, "I could have pitches and beaten the Jays." Now that comment is either a) A slam on former Ilenia love interest Ervin Santana or b) A recognition of the fact that Toronto ain't all that and a bag of chips. Either way, Do's realistic approach to the three straight losses took the wind out of my sails when it came to gloating about the big weekend. And, while I may not be the usual flip flopping Angel fan who has gone from "trade Torri and demote Wood" to "crown these guys World Series Champs" (not to mention wearing an Ed Hardy shirt and driving a jacked up truck with a "Fox" racing sticker on the back window), I am excited about the solid turnaround our pitching staff made o'er the weekend.

Jered Weaver (7 innings of 2 run ball. 5 hits, 8 Ks, no walks): J Weav did what he does best, as he showed yet again that he is the supreme ace of this staff here in 2010. Improving to 2-0 on the year, Weav threw 108 pitches, with 68 finding the zone. He was helped out by a Kendry Morales solo bomb, and a three run eighth highlighted by a 2 out 2 run double by Mighty Maicer. The 7-5 win was quite a way to bounce back after New York.

Joe Saunders (8 innings, 2 unearned runs. 5 hits, 2 Ks, 1 walk): Not to be out done, Joe Joe had his first positive outing of the young year, in a big way with 8 strong. 73 of his 107 pitches were for strikes, and the only Jays to cross the plate with the Colonel on the mound were due to Brandon Wood's two errors (uh oh). Big Joe Saundo (in memory of Rex Hudler) was backed up by Howie Kendrick's 3 hit/3 RBI morning (with a jack), JR's bomb and 2 RBI, and a 2 for 4 outing for backup Reggie Willits. A winning streak was born.

Ervin Santana (9 innings of 1 run ball. 4 hits, 6 Ks, and no walks): It's as if each pitcher wanted to outduel the previous. Young Stud, Erv Daddy went the complete game in yesterday's brunch battle, coming one strike away from the CG/SO before Lind blasted a meaningless jack. Erv has 70 strikes on 106 pitches in the game, and got helped out by Matsui and Mathis' RBI doubles (the new bash brothers?). Math is now hitting .333 with a jack and 3 RBI, not to mention his stellar quarterbacking behind the dish (six points for the cross sports reference!). The first sweep of the season was just that easy.

Let's also point out:

Fernando Rodney getting back to back saves on Friday and Saturday.

Brandon Wood responding to being sat on Friday by going 1 for 8 in the final two games. 

Erick Aybar reaching base 5 times in the series to set the table. 

Torii Hunter now leads the team with his .341 BA, while Hideki's 8 RBI and 3 jacks are still #1.

No rest, though, as we booked in home for tonight's series opener against Fernando Rodney's old buds from D Town. D Town will throw the emotionally unstable D Train (0-0, 4.91) at us, in his 3rd start of the year (1st not against KC). We counter with Joel Piñiero, affectionately called La Piñata, who came around in his previous start and is now 1-1 with a nice 2.70 ERA and even-1 WHIP. Can the Halos get another amazing start now that we're back home, and improve to 7-7? We're 2.5 back of Oakland, and closing fast. Hopefully we can keep the streak alive against Los Tigres.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Too many men on the blog.

While Andrew Alberts is getting most of the blame for his ridiculous three trips to the penalty box, it was a downright foolish too many men on the ice penalty in OT that sank the 'Nucks in Game 2 of the Western Conference Semifinals. Now, the series between the Orca and the Kings is knotted at one and headed to the Staples Center. What's the good word heading into game three?

-- Mikael F-ing Samuelsson is red hot like his old Red Wings jersey. The Swedish Storm nailed two goals on seven shots in the series opener (including the GWG) and tallied another goal on 3 shots in Saturday's loss. The goal in game two was a straight wrist shot from just inside the blue line that Quick somehow missed. Those are fun. He's looking like a pretty important acquisition now, eh? Keep it up.

-- Sami Salo made the biggest mistake in Game 2, in my opinion. Outside of the Canucks just playing way to complacent as a whole, Sami Salo half pinching up and then falling down on that Simmonds goal in the 2nd was awful. This guy is our #1 defender on the ice, and he looked like a complete moron, allowing a 3-on-1 rush after he fell, that easily led to the game tying goal. Either go all the way up and take the body, or hold back at the blue line and don't get beat. 

-- Despite what the Kings announcers are saying, Roberto Luongo is having a good enough series for us. Sure, we don't have any shutouts (yet), but allowing just two regulation goals in back to back playoff games should be enough to get two wins. It may have been, if the knob of Lu's stick wouldn't have knocked in the King's OT winner Saturday after he made the initial save. While it would be nice for Bobby to have that epic game, especially at Staples tonight, let's give him props for doing a good job so far.

-- Zero Sedin action in game 2. Let's be real: in game one the twins combined for 4 points, and in game two there was a whole lot of nothing. Sure, we saw a couple of chances with the top guns out there, but nothing to write home about. The Kings figured out the key to beating Vancouver in the playoffs: eliminate the Twins. But let's be honest, can they do that two games in a row? Look for D-Sedeezie and H-Bomb to be back on the scoring sheet tonight.

So, do we fear and fret at this point? Not really. We called the 'Nucks in 5, I believe, and I'm still thinking that's what we're going to get. This is a big Game 3, though, as the loser will have to suffer endless questioning of their abilities by local sports talk radio (well, maybe not in LA). It's a big one, and we need to make something big happen.

Predictions: Henrik has a 3 point night in a 4-1 Vancouver victory. Redemption!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

La Piñata stands tall v Yanks.

Wait, wait, wait. We won a game where J Weav didn't start? Get out of here. That didn't happen. Yeah, it did. Thank you to AM 830 for providing the lunch time coverage for me yesterday, and thank you to the St. Louis Cardinals pitching coach for teaching Joel that cutter. Piñeiro had the best outing of any starting pitcher in this young season, powering through 7 large innings of 1 run ball, allowing just 5 mesely hits and striking out 7.

Nick Johnson: 1 for 4 with 2 Ks
Mark Teixeira: 0 for 4 with 1 K
Alex Rodriguez: 0 for 3 with 3 Ks
Curtis Granderson: 0 for 4

This was the start of a pitcher trying to be the hero. Agent Stopper. After the Halos have been getting banged around, JAP (the newest addition to the rotation) was the guy to slam the door. Mike Scioscia had a closed door meeting before the game to try and get our boys pumped up, and it worked. Now, with Joel stepping it up, will the longer tenured Angels be able to follow suit and step it up on the mound? 

Scott Kazmir will be making his first start of the year, after missing start #1 due to rehabing his aching hammy. The Kazmanian Devil knows the Yanks pretty well, coming from the AL East not too long ago. Add to that the lifetime numbers of various pinstripped losers against Kaz:

Derek Jeter: .111
Robinson Cano: .154
Alex Rodriguez: .125.

Jeter is worse against Kazmir than any other MLB pitcher. Can we swipe a series win from NYY, get our first winning streak, and start fostering a litte winning attitude around here? I'm going to go with yes, because I like Kaz, and I think Phil Hughes is a bitch.

P.S. Props to Fernando Rodney for his solid save against the Yanks yesterday to fill in for Tito Fuentes, who will briefly be doing some DL time. 

P.P.S. We need to explore Scot Shield a little bit in the near future (0 innings of 2 run ball yesterday, and he just couldn't get his groove at all). Poor Scottie.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Is Henrik the greatest Canuck of all time?

Even as recently as last year, most Canucks fans (myself, not included) would have had an argument that Henrik Sedin wasn't even the greatest Sedin in Canucks history. But after the season he put together in 2009/2010, we are exploring the possibility that the first Art Ross trophy winner in Vancouver history may be the greatest Canuck of all time. Let's explore the case that my all time favorite of the Twins (I have had an official #33 blade on my stick for some time, and drilled an assist in the season opening roller hockey game last week) is the Canucks' GOAT.

1. Art Ross: This isn't some small award. The Ross award is the trophy for the player who scores the most points in the NHL, and H-Bomb is the first Vannie to ever earn the honor. That's a pretty nice place to start.

2. Single season point record: Not only did he win the Art Ross, but Hank's 112 points this season are the most points ever tallied by a Canuck in a single season. By stats alone, he just had the best season in team history.

3. Single season assist record: 81 of those 112 points were assists this year, and that mark becomes even more impressive when you consider that Daniel Sedin was injured fr 1/4 of the season. Hank makes other players around him better.

4. Most assists by a Canuck: Talk about making players around you better, Henrik has been doing it since he got here. In his 728 games in Vancouver, Henrik has 434 assists. That's 19 more assists than #2 Trevor Linden (insert sign of the cross), and Linden played in 410 more games. That's impressive.

5. #4 in points with a lot of career left to go: Henrik still has plenty of time in Blue & Green (or whatever color uniforms we wear in the future), and currently sits #4 on the Vannie points list. With 572 points, he's looking at moving ahead of Vannie legend Stan Smyl (673) in 1-2 seasons, and has his sites set on breaking Linden (733) and Markus Naslund (756) eventually. 

That's a pretty good case for good ol' 33, but there is one thing that would convince everyone across mainland BC. That, of course, is a good playoff run. Pavel Bure is well known around these parts as the greatest playoff performer in Vannie history with 31 points in the Stanley Cup run in '94 when we lost in 7 to the Rangers (not to mention being a well respected regular season stud with 60 goals in that same season), as well as being tied with Trevor Linden for the most career playoff goals in a Canuck uni (34). So, if you haven't yet bought into my "greatest of all time" moniker for Henrik Sedin, let's wait for him to step it up starting tomorrow night against the Kings in the first round of this year's playoffs. If H-Bomb can put up 25-35 points in a deep playoff run, I don't think you have much of an argument against me.

Thank you for bringing back Versus, DirecTV. Let's get these playoffs going!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Take that, 1972.

Eight games into the season, and my Mighty Halos are 2-6. A 5-7 loss to the Yankees, despite a ninth inning grand slam by Bobby Abreu, sent the Angels to their worst start since 1972. I guess all I can say is that our former worst start in franchise history (after quite a bit more than 8 games) resulted in a World Series Championship. We're still lucky that it's only been 8 years since that glorious year! Now, though, on a day when Hideki Matsui picked up his World Series ring at Yankee Stadium prior to the game, I've got more questions than answers.

Will idiot fans get of Woody's back? Brandon went 1 for 3 with a walk today and even crossed the plate on the BA grand slam (remember, we had zero slams last year). B-Weezy is now hitting .091, and survived the day without getting punched out. Is he slowly but surely ready to find his way.

Will I finally get of Abreu's back? We've been waiting for him to come out of his shell, and his 9th inning grand slam may have done just that. He may have finished the day 1 for 5 with 2 Ks, but it was a big 1, and now BA is hitting .265/2/5 on the year.

Can I say "I told you so" about Jeff Mathis yet? I've always been a Mathis-matician fan, supporting him to get more time over Napoli, and he's finally swinging the stick here in '10. Jefe went 2 for 4 in today's loss, and is now ripping it up at .350/1/2 this year. Okay, I'll do it. I told you so!

Will we get a win in a game where someone not names Jered Weaver starts? Honestly, this is my main concern. Sunday, Joe Joe drops to 0-2 after 6 innings of 4 run ball. Today, Young Erv dropped to 0-2 after 5.67 innings of 5 run ball. While the bullpen has been completely hit or miss this year, the starting pitching has been shockingly suspect. What the heck is going on? And, can Joel Piñeiro turn things around tomorrow?

And finally, who the hell is Bobby Cassevah, and why is he up here? An 8.31 ERA so far has me wondering why he isn't wearing a Bees hat in Mormon country while Thompson and the Moose gets up here.

So, we're 2-6. Idiot fans around Halo Nation are probably going to be whinning on sports talk radio while I sit in traffic on the 405 South after work today. I hate it, and I hate it for two reasons. A) We really have no need to make such ridiculous judgments after 8 games about where this season is headed. Sure it's fun, but lets be real. If we're sitting at 18-40, then we can start the whinning, but at 2-6 we should really just be exploring the current problems and figuring out what can help this team run better. None of this, "Trade Torii Hunter for prospects because this season is lost" garbaga, please. B) Those of you who know me, or have been reading this blog over the last 3 years know that I secretly enjoy it when my favorite teams suck. I've always felt this way for one reason: I hate all the bandwagon fans. They're the ones complaining about how Brandon Wood shouldn't get any more chances. We scarred them all off for a while, but in 2002 they came crawling back, infesting our fan base. They haven't left! If we do end up having a couple of thin years, which I don't think is going to happen, we can consider the positive of all those morons being chased off to sport their Anaheim Ducks t-shirt jerseys at Dodger games rather than at our beloved Big A. Don't get me wrong, I want my team to succeed, and enjoy it like nothing else. But, I'm just saying that there is a positive to your team being shitty (which, again, I don't think we are/will be any time soon). 

What a rant. Good luck tomorrow, Joel.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

My LSF NHL playoff preview.

After a thrilling 7-3 regular season ending win for the Canucks over the Flamers, with Henrik putting up 4 assists to wrap up the Art Ross trophy over some doofus from DC, I'm just giddy for the opening round of the NHL playoffs. Are you ready? Three out of four LSF hockey teams made the playoffs (sorry, Andrew), so you'd have to figure one of us will make the Stanley Cup finals, right? Let's take a quick look at the first round LSF matchups and make some predictions!

-- Buffalo v Boston: Dear God, the Sabres have to win this series, right? There is no way that Tim Thomas is going to beat out Ryan Miller, right? Wait, wait, the Bruins won four out of six against Buffalo in the regular season? Uh oh, is Brandon getting nervous? Keep this in mind: The Bruins are ranked 30th in goals scored in the NHL this season and they still won't have Marc Savard. This series will also be a stingy special teams battle, with Boston and Buffalo ranking on top of the penalty kill table, but you'd have to expect that Vanek and company will rise above Chara and such.

ESPN Prediction: BUF in 7.
My Prediction: BUF in 6.

-- Chicago v Nashville: I'll be willing to be that Jon Davis is A) Playing World of Warcraft right now, B) Still showing off his swolen ankle as a battle wound from our thrilling 4-3 shootout win in our roller hockey season opening, and C) Thinks the Hawks are going to sweep this series against the Preds. Chicago won four of six regular season games against Music City, and looks strong with the options of Huet or Niemi between the pipes. Add to that the fact that Chicago allow the least shots on goal in the NHL, and you have a nice combination of situations here. The Preds, meanwhile, finished 24th on the power play and 28th on the penalty kill. Now I'm starting to see a sweep. With the salary cap looming for Chicago after this year, you have to figure now is there time...to advance to the West finals and lose to Vancouver! Slam! 

ESPN Prediction: CHI in 5.
My Prediction: Same.

-- Vancouver v Los Angeles: Ah, this is what I've been waiting for. The Canucks put up a nice regular season, despit tons of injuries and so so Luongo at times. Having the lading point scorer in th NHL didn't hurt. Way to go Henrik! The big question mark is Bobby Lu. Will he play like he has recently? Or, will we see Luon-gold again? The Vannies had six players with 25+ goals, and a balanced attack lends well to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Kopitar is really the only explosive offensive force in LA. If he's down for a couple of games, we easily walk off with a series win. And, you think Luongo has had his confidence shaken lately? Jon Quick was winless in his final 8 outings this season, creating a little more of a question mark between the pipes than for us. While we still have a banged up blue line, that has kind of become our team identity, and I don't see how we could lose this in a seven game series. ESPN disagrees, but I think that is just to be cool.

ESPN Prediction: LA in 7.
My Prediction: VAN in 6.


Thursday, we have Buffalo & Boston going at 4, Vancouver and LA going at 7, and our roller hockey game against the Hornets going at 8:30. Quite an exciting day.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

2-5 has taught us some things.

A 2-5 start, and all kinds of Halo fans are ready to jump off the bandwagon and start rooting for the 2-4 Doyers. The pitching has been off, with only one starter getting a win (Weaver on opening day) and the team only getting wins when one starter starts (again, Weaver). The latest debacle was a 4-9 loss to the 1st place A's (go ahead, and read that again), and it made me wonder if my early love for the bullpen (even in their first couple of losses) was a little too soon. Either way, our 2-5 start has taught us a few things about our Angels, other than the fact that most fans are really idiots (we already knew that).

-- Our last place team may be 3 games back, but we sure have found our new offensive powerhouse. Hideki "Me So Sorry" Matsui leads this Angels offense with .370/2/5 numbers. People, including fans and local sports talk fools, gave us all kinds of crap for pick us Mats, but check him out. He's bringing the pain after the first 7. 

-- Did we really get the better end of the GMJ for Stokes deal? I sure thought so after Stokes season debut of 2 shutout innings against Minnie. Then he went and gave up 3 runs to the Twins on Thursday. He may have gone 0.3 shutout innings yesterday, but it doesn't really restore the faith after his walk happy, piss poor outing from last week. Let's hold off and wait and see how this Stokes thing turns out. I'm pulling for you.

-- Hey, Brandon, we're waiiiiii-ting. This was supposed to be Wood's coming out party, and look where we're at after 7 games. Note: I'm still praying for Woods to be the man we need rather than the return of D-Mac, but I'm definitely putting him on notice after the first week. .053 is not a respectable batting average for the first week. Also on notice: Napoli (.111 means Mathis gets more starts), Ma$e (.182 as Wood's backup), and even Aybar (.232 as he comes crashing back down to earth after the hot start). The offesne has been off, I'll admit, but that's not the main problem after the first week.

-- Talk about going on notice, how about the starting rotation? Joe Saunders (7.36 ERA in his first 2), Matt Palmer (6.43 ERA in his spot start), Ervin (6 even in his first start), Piñeiro (4.50 in his debut). Weaver pitches with an even 3 ERA through his first 2 games, but the rest of the pack needs to step it up. Now.

We're 2-5, 3 games back of the A's (who saw that one coming?), and are off for our first roadie against the Yanks tomorrow. It's a day game, which sucks, and it's Erv Daddy (0-1, 6.00) against Andy "I never get old" Pettitte (0-0, 1.50). It's the return of H-Dek to Yankee Stadium, which I'm sure will be the reason that this series will get some play with the real media. So, will a series with a solid Yanks squad (4-2) be the thing that pops us out of this funk? Let's hope so. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Is Rams suffering linked to the draft?

My Google Reader homepage brought my attention to a story on the Rams, of course from ESPN, stating that the leading cause of their futility has been their poor draft choices over the last 9 years. The writer informs us that only one first round pick of STL has made a Pro Bowl during that span of time. While it is pretty obvious that a lack of Pro Bowl spot doesn't mean you aren't good, I wanted to explore this idea in a little more depth. Let's find out if Sam Bradford is going to join a very sad group of players.

2000: Trung Candidate (RB; Arizona): Playing only from 2000-2003, and finishing his career with just 7 TDs on 1,095 rushing yards, this clearly wasn't a great pick. 1.6 percent on his touches ended in a fumble. 

Ruling: Bust.

2001: Damione Lewis (DT; Miami), Adam Archuleta (DB; ASU), Ryan Pickett (DT; Ohio State): In '01, we had 3 chances to get it right with a first round pick. Damione Lewis currently has 244 tackles, 22.5 sacks, and 4 forced fumbles in his career, which saw him spend time in STL, Carolina, and recently getting picked up by the Pats. Maybe not a super star, but a fairly decent pick. Archuleta, on the other hand, probably can be considered a super star around Ram Nation. 530 tackles, 18 sacks, and 4 picks are the numbers he boasts, and he was a staple of the Rams secondary from '01-'05. He then skipped around to Washington, Chicago, and Oakland, before landing in the UFL in 2009. I'll always stand by this pick. Finally, Pickett has had a fine NFL career, landing a 4 year, $14 million contract from the Packers in 2005. He's still a member of Green Bay, after playing '01-'05 in STL, and his 422 tackles stand up pretty well.

Ruling: Decent.

2002: Robert Thomas (LB; UCLA): After 2 years with the Rams, Thomas was relegated to the journeyman role, and failed to go beyond the Redskins practice squad in 2009.

Ruling: Bust.

2003: Jimmy Kennedy (DT; Penn State) Kennedy has been tossed around since his 3 years in Blue & Gold as a nose tackle, and currently holds a backup spot in Minnesota.

Ruling: Bust.

2004: Steven Jackson (RB; Oregon State).

Ruling: Superb pick.

2005: Alex Barron (OT; FSU): Despite starting 58 of the 60 games he's been in since coming to the NFL, Barron has been known as the false start king around Ram Nation, and we're still waiting to see if he's got anything worth rooting for.

Ruling: Maybe still to early to tell, but pretty much a bust.

2006: Tye Hill (CB; Clemson): After posting the fastest 40 time at the combine, Hill came out like gangbusters in his rookie year. After getting 50 tackles and 3 picks as a rook, he finished the next 2 seasons on the injured reserve, and was traded to Atlanta for a 7th round pick. He was later cut, and signed by the Titans recently.

Ruling: Awesome pick for one season. Bust after that.

2007: Adam Carriker (DE; Nebraska): Took over at nose tackle for the Rams, and was voted team rookie of the year. He missed the entire 2009 season due to injury, but he hopes to pick up where he left of in the upcoming year.

Ruling: Too soon to tell, but seems like a decent choice.

2008: Chris Long (DE; Virginia): His first sack was on Eli Manning and his first 2 sack game was against the Pats. Beautiful. He was voted the AP All-Rookie, and in his Sophomore campaign he finished second on the team in sacks and first in tackles for a D-lineman.

Ruling: Quality pick.

2009: Jason Smith (OT; Baylor): 6 year, $33 million? It's a pretty major contract for an OT who started 5 games in his rookie year. The jury is way, way out on Smith.

Ruling: Infinitely too early to tell, but at least he's from Baylor and not Rice.

Final score:

Quality: 2
Decent: 5
Busts: 5

So, you be the judge. Are the Rams recent failures able to be blamed on poor draft picks? Or, is it just bad coaching, poor ownership, and idiotic decisions at the QB and WR positions? 

Welcome to hell, Mr. Bradford.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

What we know after 3 games.

Back to back losses to the Twinkies, and just like that we're 1-2 on the new season. The latest version was last night's 2-4 loss at home to Minnie. Ervin Santana came out and had a better outing than the mainstream media is giving him credit for. 6 innings of 4 run ball in the loss, getting himself 4 Ks and only allowing 1 BB. Sure he took the loss, and sure he allowed homers to Morneau and Hardy, but overall it was a decent enough outing. On the downside, the offense was flat outside of Matsui. Sure, JR got a nice infield single (on what was really more of an error on the second baseman) for our first run, and Naps knocked an RBI single after HK47 got into scoring position in the 9th, but the overall lack of timely hitting kept us off the mark.

So, after this 1-2 start, I thought we'd explore what we know for sure so far:

-- Hideki Matsui is an extreme stud. Feck all the haters who assumed that he was just another eldery slugger with bad knees (Vlad is hitting .571 with a jack for Texas this year). Matsui put the God in Godzilla again last night, going 3 for 4 with a run scored, and set the table up for the JR 2 out RBI. Overall this season, Hideki has a very decent grouping of numbers: .455/1/2. He seems like a very solid DH signing for our boys, and is really doing all he can to convert The Big A into "Matsui-land."

-- This bullpen is firing on all levels. Once again, the 'pen was electric last night, with Jason Bulger going 2 innings of 1 hit/shutout ball and Scottie 2 Hottie finishing up with a 1 hit/shutout inning and 2 Ks. This just adds to the rest of the pen so far, starting the season off with 10 innings of 5 hit, shutout ball. Inspirational! Especially because no reliever has pitched more than one outing so far.

-- Brandon Wood is going to be riden by the idiot fans all the way to his demotion back to the minor leagues. Whoa, whoa, maybe I just went a little to far. Slow down, Tommy. Listening to "Angels On Air," all I hear is stupid fans complaining about how he sucks. On and on. Three games, you morons. These are the same fans who have been complaining for 2 years about how he never gets a long enoug shot. Pick an argument, fools. 1 for 12 over the first three games (.083) is clearly a tough start, but Bobby Abreu is only hitting .182 over the same 3 games, and there isn't a single fan complaining about his start. Two things on my view about Brandon Wood: 1) Calm down and give him time. Let's save judgment for after 1 month (at the earliest) and 2) Maicer Izturis is a VERY capable backup 3B. Even if he simply gets platooned over there, Ma$e is going to put up good numbers. By the way, jerks, Brandon Wood was our #9 hitter last night, so RBI will be low, and expectations for a high average out of that slot aren't ever that high. Best of luck Woody, I'll stand by your side...for a while.

Tonight, the Halos try to salvage a split against Minnesota. Joel Piñeiro gets his first real chance to start for the Angels against Kevin Slowey. JP went 4-0 in 6 starts over Spring training, and looks to follow up last season's comeback in St. Louis here in So Cal. Also tonight, Hideki Matsui will get his first game in the field, plaing left. 

Let's give extra love to Scot Shields, by the way, as he in the lone surviving Angel from the 2002 World Championship squad. 

Let's go get us that split!

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Colonel Joe chokes the chicken.

My attempt at a humorous title may be lame, but so was Joe Saunders' 2010 debut last night at The Stadium. Joe Joe went 5 innings of 5 run ball, allowing 8 hits and 3 bombs in the Halos 3-5 loss to the Twinkies last night. I guess when you are trying to get out of jams and get tagged with a few long balls, it really isn't as bad as the mainstream media makes it out to be. But surely, Saunders' opening game of the year was under the bar of what we've come to expect from openers of yore. The offense kept it a game, but the crappy Joe Nathan replacement (who is also the tallest player in MLB history) held the Halos off easily to put us back at .500 ball.

Let us pray for the souls in Purgatory:

-- We'll start with the negatives, which starts with Joe Saunders. Allowing a Mauer bomb in the 1st, Morneau's jack in the 3rd, and even a JJ fecking Hardy yard shot in the 4th, he was far from being on point. Allowing 10 on base (8 hits and 2 BB) and punching out just 4 wasn't the right combination. No where to go but up for our left handed #2.

-- Good ol' JR earns an 0'fer. Really, not that big of a deal, but Juanito went 0 for 4 in the game, and was the only starter (outside of Kendry Morales) not to reach base. We need that 6 spot to be popping off every night, baby.

-- The dreaded LOB. The Halos had their chances, leaving 7 runners on base last night. Godzilla may have been last night's biggest offender, leaving 2 runners in scoring position in 2 out clutch opportunities. 

The Heavenly Choir:

-- Making it's second straight appearance in the Heavenly Choir, the Halo bullpen was rocking and rolling again last night. The Palm Tree came back to remind us how good he is, getting himself 2 shutout innings despite a hit and two walks. Newbie Brian Stokes (straight up for GMJ to the Mets, for those of you not paying attention) had 2 no hit innings, finishing with a 4-0 ground ball-fly ball ration. I like him already!

-- Torii "Big Game" Hunter comes through like a mega-star. T-Hunt picked up all 3 RBI for the Red Hats, including a monster 2 run jack in the fifth and added a RBI double that chased Nick Blackburn from the hill. 

-- I could have picked Howie Kendrick (2 for 4) or Brandon Wood (1 for 4 with only 1 K!) next, but I have to bring Erick Aybar back for his second straight "Choir" pick. EA Sports may have gone 0 for 3, but he walked twice at the top of the lineup, and scored 2 runs by being on base when Torii came up with his stick. In 2 games, Erick Aybar has started to put Halo Nation at ease with his leadoff abilities. Nice work.

Don't think I was going to let it go unmentioned that the Angels set the Guiness World Record for most people gathered in one place wearing fleece blankets last night. 43,510 fans got in on the World Record, which broke the previous record set by Cleveland Cavs fans back on March 5. They just had a mesely 17,758. It's already a record breaking season. And, there's nothing like having a cross sports rivalry.

At 1-1, the Angels are officially 0.5 back of the Rangers, and locked in a tie with 1-1 Oakland and Seattle. Tonight, game 3 of the season opening series gets it on as Carl Pavano goes against Ervin "El Rosario" Santana. CP was 14-12 with a 5+ ERA last season, and he gave up 6 runs, 10 hits, and 4 jacks against LAA his last time out. Meanwhile, Mr. Hooters, Ervin Santana, went 8-8 with a 5+ ERA in his injury plagued season last year, and hopes to get back to his 2008 form of being 16-7 and ranked 4th in the AL in Ks. If you've been paying attention to Erv's career, or keeping up with the LSF, you know he has an every-other-year sort of thing going in his career. Hopefully 2010 will continue that trend. 

Let's get to 2-1.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Does Henrik have Art Ross hope?

In the 3-3 shootout loss (I refuse to give them a 4th goal) to Colorado, the Nucks showed comeback heart again. Late in the game, Henrik Sedin sent a tight pass to a streaking Daniel, who netted the tying goal to force OT. On the down side, the Canucks failed to score a single shootout goal, and Bobby Lu faltered in the third round to escape with just a single point (giving us K-Earth 101 with 2 to go). The third period assist for H-Bomb got our boy to 107 points on the season. Will he be able to hold off Ovi for the Art Ross trophy?
Hank's 107 puts him just plus one on AO in the race for the Ross with 2 games remaining for the Orca. The Caps also have just two games remaining on the year (vs. ATL & BOS), while the Vannies have a slightly more difficult 2 (SJ & CGY). Can Henrik rise up over the fina two games? Will the defense from the Thrashers and Bruins stifle Ovi for just 120 more minutes? 
AO won the trophy in 2007/2008 with 112 points, and on the flip side, there has never been a Canuck to ever win the trophy. As we come down to the final two games, and focus on the playoff positioning as teams jockey for the #6 spot, Orca Nation will also be focused on the Art Ross race, hoping Henrik can beat the Caps super star into submission. 
Go Henrik Go!
As a team, meanwhile, my Mighty Vannies take their 48-27-5 record into Northern California tomorrow to battle the Western studs from my wife's hometown. There is still a chance for the 'Nucks to grab 50 wins this year, if they win out, and that would truly make it a regular season to remember. They haven't seemed that great as we've gone day by day, have they? As it sits right now, after a little action last night, the Canucks would battle the Kings in the opening round (which would be cool, because I'd have a chance to hit a game if I'm lucky), but theo option of opening the second season against the Preds or the Wings also still exists. Either way, I'm getting excited.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Angels on pace for 162-0.

I know, I know. It's a dumb, played out joke. But I love it. Kendry Morales, Hideki Matsui, and Jeff Mathis are also all on pace for 162 home runs this year. Move over Barry Bonds! Last night, the Halos fought off the Twins with a combination of 2 out RBIs, long bombs, and pretty quality pitching. It was a nice way to start out the 2010 season, a 6-3 win over the '09 Central Champs, an it's time to start out our coverage.

The Heavenly Choir: 

-- Jered "Big Baby" Weaver went 6 innings of 3 run ball in the opener, punching out 6 and allowing just 5 hits (and 2 walks). He recovered nicely from misteps, had a 7-5 ground ball-fly ball ratio, and shined as our staff ace tonight.

-- The bullpen was solid, as a whole. Let's lump all three relievers into the heavenly choir after last night's game. Kevin Jepsen got himself into a jam (loading the bases, hitting O. Hud), but came out unscathed. Fernando Rodney shined in his Halo debut with 1 shutout inning. Brian "Tito" Fuentes earned his first of many saves with a perfect ninth. Inspiring stuff. 

-- Erick Aybar quickly made us forget whats-his-name who wore #9. EA Sports went 2 for 3 with a walk and 2 runs scored, and was pesky all night long for Baker and the Twinkies. Good stuff, EA!

-- Hideki Matsui comes through with a huge opening day. Godzilla didn't disappoint as out new DH, going 2 for 4 with a 2 out RBI and a huge jack late to push us ahead for good. He didn't leave any runners on base, and made us all forget about his previous tenure with the Empire.

-- ...other jacks and such. The Halo offense was on point. Jeff Mathis-matician hit a bomb in the seoncd, Kendry "Bam Bam" Morales completed the second half of the back to back homers with Godzilla, and Juan Rivera even shined with a 2 out RBI knock. Ah, goodol' JR.

Let us pray for the souls in Purgatory:

-- What can we say about Brandon Wood that hasn't already been said about Dallas McPherson? Just kidding. I'm not ready to jump ship on our mighty third baseman finally getting a shot, but if he keeps up the 0 for 4 with 3 Ks nights, Scioscia may be ready to.

-- Bobby Abreu has a rough outing at the 2 hole. BA went 0 for 4, which was really disappointing based on how hot Aybar was swinging the bat. Luckily for BA, Torii was a mad walking food, and the Matsui/K-Mo/JR combo was there to knock 'em in.

At 1-0, the Angels are locked in a three way tie for first place with Vladdy's Texas Rangers and Chone and Casey's Seattle Mariners. This is already so exciting!! Poor, poor Oakland. 

Tonight, the Halos continue their four game season opening series against Minnesota, looking to keep the streak alive. Tonight it's Nick Blackburn of the Twins going against Colonel Joe Saunders at the Stadium. The Twins haven't lost back to back games to open a season for the last 16 years, but Joe Joe is ready to break that curse. Meanwhile, the Halos are trying to open a season with consecutive wins for the first time since '07.

To get you pumped up, enjoy this stat of Saunders': Joe Joe's 33 wins over the last 2 seasons ranks second in the American League. That's right. Only Roy Halladay (37) has more AL victories over that time period.

Go Angels Go.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Monday's afternoon snack.

I'm bored at work, and there's some interesting stuff going down with some of my favorite LSF squads, so enjoy the buffet of information that you probably don't care about.

-- Opening day. Can't get enough of that opening day. Open all day long!! The Angels & the Twinkies start their season in 3.5 hours at The Stadium. Two pitchers with professions for last names go head to head, as Weaver & Baker get it on. Will Aybar be the new Figgy? Will Weav be the new Lackey? Will Godzilla be the new Impaler? I can't freaking wait.

-- The Rams have parted ways with Marc "I was raised Catholic" Bulger. 22,814 passing yards, a 62.1 completion percentage, 122 TDs, 93 INTs, and a whole lot of shit talking on this very blog. Adios, amigo. Rumors are that Arizona may bring Bulger in to follow in Kurt Warner's footsteps...again. Didn't AZ pay attention to how that worked out in STL? As for me, I'm going to try and pretend that I'm excited for the Sam Bradford era to start for my Rams. Here we go.

-- A win against Sheffield United would possibly lock a promotion reward to Newcastle United tonight. Just one season in the lower division and we're right back at it? #1) I called it, and #2) Watch out Everton!

-- The Celtics beat the Cavs yesterday. LeBron James had a chance to win the game (or at least tie it) on a last second shot, and threw up a brick. Bingo, the C's showed that they can hang with the best. Will the Heat be our opening round match up?

-- I don't think Irish Nation should shed to many tears for offensive tackle recruit Matt James, who recently died during Spring Break. I mean, it's a sad thing, especially for his family. But, when you make the choice to be so drunk that you fall off a balcony, it was just that: a choice. Maybe it's because of all my time in Isla Vista at UCSB that I have my stance on this one. 17 year old high school kids shouldn't be Spring Breaking in Florida anyways. Stay home with your family and friends, kids.

-- Christian Ehrhoff was injured in the OT win over the Wild and his knee is all swelled up. However, the Canucks have reported he's fine, and will be held out until game one of the playoffs just to let him rest.

How about the LSF having a writer live and in person for the Doyers opening series in Pittsburgh? Hopefully B can drop us a line on his fun time in the PA.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

The division has been clinched.

A lot of the crowd missed out on some exciting action at GM Place last night. With 55 seconds left in the game, Alex Edler buried an empty netter to make it 3-1 over the Wild and seal the deal. Or, at least, that is how it should have finished. In reality, the Wild scored two goals on Luongo after the empty netter to force OT, and only after an extra session Sami Salo power play goal did th Orca walk off with a division clinching 4-3 win. Does this most recent win make us nervous for the playoffs, when we have trouble closing against a crappy team w/ a 2 goal lead in the final minute?

Somewhat, yes. Roberto Luongo has been off coming down the home stretch. 3 goals against last night, 8 goals against vs LA, and 11 goals against the 4 games before that. We've seen him getting pulled left and right, seen Ray Ray get more time, and are left hoping he can find his groove before the first round of the playoffs. If not, hopefully Burrows, H-Bomb, Ma$e, and Kes can just outscore the others. 

Speaking of division titles, the Vannies have now won the NW two straight seasons, four times since 03/04, and a total of 7 glorious times. Can we get back to the glory days of 93/94 when we won the West...and eventually lost to the hated Rangers? I hope so. With a Stanley Cup win, of course.

We now have three games remaining in the regular season: Colorado, San Jose, and Calgary. No easy final three, to be sure, but hopefully we can find the confidence over these final three games to prepare us for round one against either the Wings, Kings, or Preds.

Will we be able to run the table and get 106 points? 

Probably not, but it's fun to root for it.

Way to go Vannies. Let's finish strong.

-- Sent from my Palm Prē

Likes & Dislikes from Freeway Series.

Did anyone else read that Hideki Matsui popped a foul ball into the parking lot during the final AZ Spring game and busted Arte Moreno's car? Classic. Welcome to the team, Godzilla.

Now that the crew is finally back in their rightful Anaheim home, the Angels got it on in the traditional Freeway Series last night to wrap things up on the preseason schedule. It ended up being a nice 4-3 Halo victory, with Brandon reportedly crying in the crowd and his brother Jon reportedly missing the game to play World of Warcraft. Ha. I hope they both read this. Either way, there were a couple of things that Halo Nation liked about last night's game, and a couple of things that we didn't like.

Likes:

> Ervin Santana pitched really well after starting rocky. After allowing Los Azules to get a run in each of the first two inning, El Rosario really settled down, doing work on Manny (0 for 3), Kemp (0 for 3), and Loney (0 for 3). Man, the Doyers heavy hitters are so good! E-Daddy finished with 4.67 innings of 2 run ball, allowing 5 hits, but punching out 9! Facial. He looks completely ready to get the season started.

> The bullpen held tight. Jeremy Hill, a minor league acquisition, went 1 inning of 1 run ball. But, Francisco Rodriguez (the second best Angels prospect nicknamed F-Rod behind former Quake Fernando Rodriguez) went 1.3 innings of shutout ball, Jason Bulger added an inning of perfect ball, and game winning pitcher (and most gigantic white due on the field that day) Kevin "Big Country" Jepsen went one inning of shutout ball to close things out. The bullpen is going to be either the saving grace or the detriment of the Angels in 2010. Saving grace would be nice.

> Hunter's opposite field bomb. It was nice to see Torii go yard to the old right field bullpen on the up and away fastball by Clayton Kershaw. I was surprised that it had enough to get out, but it sure as heck did, and it was Big Game's third of the Spring (all three failed to hit the owner's windshield).

> Peter "El Burro" Bourjos goes 1 for 2 with a walk. El Burro has been an up and coming LSF stud for quite some time, and it was nice to see him get on base 2 out of 3 times in the game. While he definitely won't earn the extra outfielder spot, he'll be here eventually (or, possibly, be pretty impressive trade bait).

Dislikes:

> Seeing GA in a Dodgers sweater. I cheered him on, just like everyone in the stadium, but it was weird watching "00" take those nice easy swings and splitting the outfielders for his patented double. GA finished 1 for 2 with 3 standing ovations.

> Erick wasn't '09 Figgy at the top of the order. I know we're just looking at this indiviual game, but Erick "Bunt Master" Aybar went 0 for 3 on the top of the order. I know he'll pan out there, or get replaced by Ma$e, and I have confidence in him, but in the first game back at The Stadium (albeit a Spring Training game) you've got to get on base if you're the #1.

> The Abreu Project also went 0'fer. Scioscia has had some critics about wanting to start Bobby Abreu in the two hole this year. I definitely haven't been one of them, as I think that it's a perfect fit. However, it sure would have been nice for Mike if BA would have move 90 feet up the base path.

> Robbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb! It's looking more and more like Andrew was right earlier in the Spring when he said, "The extra 'B' is for Bees." Quinny has not really had a productive Spring, and he went 0 for 1 after taking over for Kendry at first base in last night's game. Is there any chance that you have Quinny on the opening day roster? Maybe just for solidarity's sake? We'll miss you in SLC, homeboy.

Tonight is the Los Angeles version of this series, with the Angels heading up the 5 freeway to the Stadium Way exit to try and make it a Freeway sweep against the Doyers. Neither team has a chance to finish the Spring at .500 or better, but it'll still be an exciting preseason farewell. Newbie Joel "JAP" Pineiro is slated to start for the Red Hats, and hopefully we'll get to see what Woody can bring to the table in the final game of the warm up fixtures. Then, on Monday evening, live on ESPN 2, it is opening day for our favorite hard ball squad as Jered Weaver and the Halos go against Scott Baker and the Twinkies in a 2002 ALCS rematch. Big Baby is 3-1 with a 3.51 ERA in his career against Minnesota, while his counterpart is 0-4 with a 5.59 ERA against the Angels in his career. What a nice way to start things off on our AL West title defense. It's a four game series, and it's going to be a barrel of fun.

Is Big Baby ready to be #1?

Baseball season is so close I can taste it. Yesterday, Jered Weaver came out in what is most likely his final start of the Spring and pitched like a Cy Young winner. Big Baby went 5 innings of shutout ball with 9 punchouts and allowed just 1 hit. He nearly doubled his total K count for the preseason, which was 10 prior to the match against the Cubbies. I, for one, was somewhat worried about our probable #1 ace of the staff based on his Spring performance, but this final start got me thinking that he may be ready to be a #1. Is he?

Yes: This young stud has been nothing but solid since getting up with the Halos, and replacing his elder brother back in 2006. Remember he won like 7 straight to start his career, and we were all washing his balls like it was our profession? He finished that season 11-2 with a 2.56 ERA. Since that, Weav has produced seasons of 13-7, 11-10, and most recently 16-8. His Ks have continued to improve, finally reaching 174 over 211 innings last year. He kind of took on the role of the ace in last year's division title run when Lackey spent time on the DL, and he has proved time and time again ("Every fucking time") that he will go out and pitch his best ball against anyone. Keep in mind, he's 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.06 WHIP over his career in the playoffs, and was great for us last year with 14 Ks in 13.67 innings. With Lackey off to Bean Town with his ugly wife, now is the time for Big Baby Weaver to step it up, look like a caveman, and pitch his brains out as the Halo ace.

No: Mental toughness. This is a seriously underrated non-stat quality that so-called clutch players need to have. While John Lackey was a solid #1, we all become acustomed to his tyraids after giving up a single in the middle of a shutout in the 5th. Lackey would get angry and allow a marry go round of hits. Is Jered the same way? We've seen J Weav get plenty upset on the hill (again, "Every fucking time") and we've seen how losing his cool has only led to negative consequences. Has he somehow developed the toughness we haven't seen in him thus far, a toughness that maintains when the other team starts to catch a break? Also, how many World Series Championship contendors are placing their rotation ace hopes in a kid with 2 1/2 years under his belt, who just one year ago only earned a record 1 game over .500 play? If you take the name out of it, and just present those facts, Halo Nation may think twice before hopping on the bandwagon with Baby Weaver running the mound. 

While it's fun to play devil's (lowercase because I'm a God Warrior) advocate, you know that I'm a "Believer in Weaver." T-shirt contract, anyone? I think the Halo rotation of Weaver, Saunder, Kazmir, Santana, and Piñero is the legit #1 rotation in the AL West (in your face, ESPN-supported Mariners!), and I wouldn't want any of the other guys out there against the Twins on opening day other than The Caveman. 

Prediction: Jered Weaver goes 17-6 on the year with an ERA sub-3.50. 

-- Sent from my Palm Prē