Just in time for Christmas

My head is spinning. If you’ve been following the Angels off season as closely as I have, you’re probably a little dizzy as well.

We started this off season with some big talk from Arte Moreno. We crawled through the last two months by watching the Angels lose out on Carl Crawford, sign a couple of aging left handed relief pitchers, and making a significant offer to Adrian Beltre.

The latest rumors/news/whatever-you-want-to-call-this-stuff is that the Angels are after Scott Podsednik. Yes, that Scott Podsednik, the soon-to-be 35 year old outfielder.

Wait, it gets better. Joe McDonnell tells us that the Angels have dropped out of the Adrian Beltre sweepstakes. Boo-ya. Cue Kool and the Gang because it’s time to celebrate… if you’re a Rangers or an A’s fan that is. (Edit: this story changes by the minute... Angels out, Angels in, etc.)

According to McDonnell the Angels are also interested in closer - Rafael Soriano. Hip, hip… Zzzzz. I know the old saying that you can never have too much pitching, but the Angels biggest holes remain on offense. There's another saying that good closers are wasted on bad teams. Catch my drift? Every stinking year it’s the same old question – where are the Angels going to find a big bat?

Optimists will tell you that there is still time for the Angels to make some significant moves to improve the offense. I’m here to tell you that the options are getting slimmer and slimmer. Think about this – the longer it takes for the Angels to make a trade (assuming that’s the best route), they’re running out of trading partners. A lot of teams are filling their needs via free agency or through trades with other teams.

For example; the Angels have a surplus of catchers, but the market for catchers I getting smaller as one catcher after another has signed a free agent deal.

From my point of view, things don’t look good; they look bleak. It’s frustrating to watch and alarming as all get out.

My take is that we’ve heard a lot of empty talk that has been backed up with confusing and conflicting reports. Does Arte Moreno want to play big boy baseball or not? The honeymoon is over Arte. You’ve been put on a pedestal by Angel fans, but now you should be prepared to be peppered by tomatoes.

I have to tell you, I’m getting tired of blogging about the Angels off season. I feel like I’m bingeing in negativity and I don’t like it much. I’d much rather be making fun of the Rangers, A’s or Johnny Damon.

Maybe Santa Claus will come in and save the day and put a nice lead-off hitter and a big bat or two under the Christmas tree. Then again, maybe the Grinch intercepted them and gave to other teams in the division.

All I know is the Angels have a bit of a Public Relations problem on their hands. How bad is it? If you’re on Twitter – check out the hash tag: #ArteMorenoLies. It’s getting to the point where Scott Boras doesn’t look so bad and Arte Moreno and Tony Reagins look like the Key Stone cops. Just saying.