» Los Angeles Angels News

After scoring 12 runs against the Chicago White Sox, the Angels come back with a whopping 3. There were only 3 players in the starting lineup that will make the starting lineup come April, so I can’t really complain. For an extended look, here’s the box score. And here’s the recap….

Angels 3, Athletics 1
at Tempe, Ariz.
Feb. 26, 2009

Angels at the plate: Kendry Morales went the opposite way for a line-drive single and pulled a double into the right-field corner. Kevin Ramos, who will play in the World Baseball Classic for Panama, tripled and singled home a run. After getting robbed of extra bases twice in the opener, Brandon Wood doubled and singled in three at-bats. Reggie Willits had an RBI single, and Jeff Mathis doubled and scored.

Athletics at the plate: Jack Cust blasted a solo homer, his first of the spring, down the right-field line. Ryan Sweeney singled twice, and Chris Carter doubled.

Angels on the mound: Starter Jordan Walden showed why he is a favorite of scouts, striking out three hitters in two scoreless innings, including veterans Cust to end the first and Rob Bowen to close the second. Walden yielded two hits and no walks. Brian Fuentes made his debut in an Angels uniform and worked a scoreless third, striking out Eric Chavez and retiring Cust after yielding a pair of singles.

Athletics on the mound: Starter Sean Gallagher surrendered three hits, including a double and triple, but worked out of jams in both of his innings, striking out two and walking one. Brett Anderson yielded three hits and a walk in a two-run fourth, his lone inning of work.

Cactus League records: Angels 2-0; Athletics 0-1-1.

Up next: The Angels host the Rockies on Friday at 12:05 p.m. PT. Sean O’Sullivan will start against Colorado’s Greg Smith.

I only wish it was on TV. I got to listen to it on my computer, for free. Thanks to the Angels, they made an agreement with MLB.com so all Angels Spring Training games will be radio broadcasted for free! Anyways, here’s the recap.

Angels 12, White Sox 3
at Tempe, Ariz.
Feb. 25, 2009

Angels at the plate: Cleanup man Mike Napoli, robbed of a hit in his first at-bat, cracked a two-run double in the third to left center. Hainley Statia doubled twice, scoring a run and driving in another. Hank Conger drove in three runs with a pair of singles, Freddy Sandoval doubled, singled and drove in two runs, and Ben Johnson

cracked an RBI double.

White Sox at the plate: A.J. Pierzynski’s second single, a liner to left, produced a pair of runs in the second inning. Josh Fields singled and doubled, scoring a run. Jerry Owens opened the game with a drag-bunt single and had a sacrifice fly.

Angels on the mound: After Matt Palmer yielded two runs on five hits, Scot Shields and Jose Arredondo each pitched a perfect inning of relief, Shields striking out one man and Arredondo a pair. Rich Thompson delivered two perfect innings.

White Sox on the mound: Starter Clayton Richard worked two scoreless innings, giving up one walk. Octavio Dotel was nicked up for three runs on two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. Lefties Matt Thornton and Randy Williams each pitched a scoreless inning of relief.

Cactus League records: Angels 1-0; White Sox 0-1.

Up next: The Angels host the Athletics on Thursday at noon PT. Jordan Walden will start for the Angels against Sean Gallagher of the A’s.

According to Mike DiGiovanni of the L.A. Times, the Angels front office plans to contact John Lackey’s agent on a possible long-term extension before the start of the regular season. He is open to re-signing with the Angels, but also stated that free agency is intruiging.

John Lackey should be expecting a contract extension soon.

“There are a lot of guys who worked hard for us to have that right,” said Lackey, who has a 91-63 career record and 3.81 ERA in 6 1/2 big-league seasons. “A lot of guys would like to check it out at least once.”

Personally, I don’t think the Angels can afford to let Lackey sign with another team during the offseason. I’m expecting the Angels to confront Lackey on a deal somewhere between 4-5 years and around $10-$12 MM per (5 yrs, $60 MM) season.

I’m no fantasy baseball expert, but, let’s take a look at what I project for the 2009 Los Angeles Angels for you fantasy junkies.

Let’s start with the starting pitching. One of the most underrated pitchers in the game is SP John Lackey. He doesn’t get much recognition anywhere. He led the league in ERA in 2007, and pitched 224 innings that year. He’s averaging over 7 strikeouts per 9 innings in his career. Because he only started 24 games last year, he may be lower in some draft projections. Look for him, he’ll be a sleeper.

Ervin Santana, who spent time in the minor leagues during the 2007 season, had an All-Star 2008. The guy has so much upside. His blazing fastball and tight slider along with 214 k’s over 219 innings had him finishing with a 16-7 record. In 2006, his .241 BAA was second best in the AL to, yes, you guessed it, Johan Santana.

So, here’s what I think the pitchers statistics will look like for 2009.

John Lackey: 18 W – 7 L, 3.15 ERA, 200+ IP, 200+ K’s

Ervin Santana: 17 W – 8 L, 3.30 ERA, 200+ IP, 220+ K’s

Joe Saunders: 15 W – 10 L, 3.75 ERA, 180+ IP, 125+ K’s

Jered Weaver: 15 W – 11 L, 4.00+ ERA, 180+ IP, 200+ K’s

Dustin Moseley/Nick Adenhardt (combined): 13 W – 10 L, 4.50 ERA, 125+ IP, 100+ K’s

Vlad is looking healthier than ever as he enters the 2009 season.

As for hitters…..

3B Chone Figgins - .280 AVG, 5 HR, 50 RBI, 100+ R, 50+ SB

DH/OF Bobby Abreu – .300 AVG, 20 HR, 100 RBI, 100 R, 20 SB

DH/OF Vladimir Guerrero – .300 AVG, 25-30 HR, 125 RBI, 80 R, 5 SB

CF Torii Hunter – .275 AVG, 25 HR, 80 RBI, 90 R, 20 SB

DH/OF Juan Rivera – .280 AVG, 20 HR, 80 RBI, 70 R, 10 SB

1B Kendry Morales – .275 AVG, 15 HR, 70 RBI, 70 R, 10 SB

C Mike Napoli – .255 AVG, 35 HR, 80 RBI, 60 R, 15 SB

2B Howie Kendrick – .325 AVG, 10 HR, 60 RBI, 70 R, 25 SB

SS Erick Aybar – .270 AVG, 10 HR, 50 RBI, 60 R, 30 SB

To some, these may be biased. But, as a true Angels fan, I if anyone, know what these players are capable of. And it’s not too far fetched to see these guys achieve these numbers.

Hi all. I’m a new author here, and I’ll be covering mainly Angels baseball. Let me introduce myself first. My name is Anthony, I live in the beautiful Southern California, and I am absolutely obsessed with baseball. Specifically, Angels baseball. I want to thank Jeffrey for giving me the opportunity to post Angels news, rumors, and information on his wonderful website. Now, let’s talk Angels baseball.

Who’s new to an Angels uniform?

After letting record-setting closer Francisco Rodriguez walk away and sign a lucrative contract with the New York Mets, Los Angeles thought they could use players on the inside to fill the void. However, after hearing former Colorado Rockies lefty Brian Fuentes express his interest in returning home to Southern California, the Angels looked in to it. The two sides agreed on a two-year, $17.5 MM deal. Fuentes isn’t looking to perform like K-Rod did, he’s looking to just do his job, close games. I’m looking at Brian Fuentes having a good year. Something like 35 – 40 saves, with an ERA from the 2.00 – 2.75 range.

Another new player, that came to a surprise to some of us, was outfielder Bobby Abreu. Just after you thought the Angels had enough Major League outfielders, 5 at the time, they added another. Abreu is projected to start in left field.

Abreu will be hitting 2nd, in front of Vlad in the lineup.

However, after resigning Juan Rivera to a 3-year, $12.75 MM deal, someone is going to have to start at DH. 8-Time Gold Glove center fielder Torii Hunter, for one, surely won’t get many starts at DH. Vladimir Guerrero has openly stated that he has no desire to take that role either.

So with the rotation of Abreu, Guerrero, Hunter, and Rivera, this leaves out OF Gary Matthews Jr. Matthews may miss the start of the season due to offseason knee surgery, and he struggled through knee trouble all year en route to a season that saw him hit .242 with just eight homers and eight steals despite appearing in 127 games. We can give him a little bit of a mulligan for that, but at 34 and coming off of knee surgery, we can’t expect a big bounce in his numbers. The signing of  Abreu renders him potentially just a fifth outfielder, so playing time could be really hard to come by, lessening his chance of a rebound.

Matthews, highly overpaid, is a possible trade candidate come July. The Angels have absolutely no use for him, and his no-trade clause ran up at the end of last season.

Kelvim Escobar’s phenominal spring training came to a halt on Monday, when the righty began to feel tightness in his left calf during morning stretches. The veteran right-hander shouldered past two significant hurdles on Friday and Saturday, throwing comfortably from a mound and waking without pain the following morning. “I was worried about how I was going to feel today,” Escobar told MLB.com on Saturday afternoon, “and I felt great. I had good range of motion and no problems at all when I went out to do my long toss today. That was big, very important. You usually find out the next day where you are, and I’m really excited.

More Angels news to come soon. I hope you enjoyed my first post as an author of Major League Blogging. Have a great evening everyone.

Bye Bye Yanks, hello LA. Abreau is headed to the Angels! To be honest, it is a monster pickup in my humble opinion. Sure they lost K-Rod, but another bat in the lineup will certainly increase the cushion for the next closer in those late innings.

According to some reports, the Angels are eyeing to offer a deal to free-agent outfielder Bobby Abreu, although General Manager Tony Reagins still has to comment on this subject.

Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com said that two general managers are told that Abreu will be transferred to an American League team. Another source told Rosenthal that the deal concerning the Angels was closed.

Two other sources said that Abreu and the Angels have had a stern conversation involving the outfielder’s on year deal with the team.
When Abreu entered the free agency pool, and went on finding a potential three year contract averaging $16 million, but in a league overflowing with talent and a not so good market made Abreu to think twice, although there had been rumors that he would go for and $8 million, one year deal.

Boasting a career average of a .300 hitter with a .498 slugging percentage along with a .405 on-base percentage, Abreu would provide a good balance to a team that is full of right handed bats. Kendry Morales, who is expected to replace Mark Teixeira this season at first base, is the only left handed player with power.

If Abreu signs with the team, this would put a mark of ending Garret Anderson’s chances of suiting up for the Angels. Anderson, the club’s most prolific offensive player is also a free agent, with the Mariners expressing their interest along with Ken Griffey, Jr.

“I’m just waiting to see where this goes,” Anderson said. “I’m being patient, and I’m optimistic something will get done.”
Signing Abreu will mean leaving Adam Dunn on the market. All these for the fact that they see Abreu as the best all around player, being able to play bothe left and right field, not considering his history as a good base runner.

Abreu has stolen 22 or more bases for the past 10 seasons, and being with the Yankees in 2006 after 8 1/2 seasons with the Phillies.
He began his career with the Astros in 1996.

Abreu has produced at least 100 RBIs across seven of the past eight seasons, and has delivered 20 or more home runs in his eight of the past 10 seasons.
With Gary Matthews Jr.’s accessibility for the start of the season questionable due to his recovery from knee surgery, Abreu would join Vladimir Guerrero, Torii Hunter and Juan Rivera in a four-man rotation that would be involving the three outfield spots and the designated-hitter role.