Wishing Brandon Wood all the best

If you’re one of those people who have booed Brandon Wood over the past couple years, I will bet that you’ve never met Brandon Wood. I’m also willing to bet that Brandon Wood has a lot more class than you.

Wood was designated for assignment yesterday and while some Angel fans are probably popping open a bottle of champagne, I am saddened by the news.

Wood’s struggle on offense is well documented and of epic proportions compared to what was expected of him. For most fans that’s most likely all they’ll remember about the 26 year old. Even though his release is justified, I am still very disappointed.

You see, even though statistics are critically important in baseball, there’s more to the game than just numbers for fans like Cheryl and myself. It’s about the experiences we have with our team and Wood has always made our experience special.

Wood has always and I mean always taken the time to stop to sign an autograph or pose for a picture over the years, especially at spring training. He was consistently up-beat, constantly smiling and never showed any signs of a player struggling. He was and is the consummate professional in that regard and I admire and respect him a great deal.

I know a lot of you could probably care less that Brandon Wood is a nice guy. The bottom line is that he didn’t perform at the level he needed to. I get that. I understand that. I don’t even disagree entirely with the need to designate him for assignment; I’m merely disappointed and saddened by the news.

At the end of the day, like most of you – I want to see the Angels win and I want to see players on the roster that will help contribute to winning. That being said, it’s also important to me that I like the players on my favorite team. Granted, that doesn’t always happen – but it definitely plays a role in my enjoyment of watching the team I root for.

I never embraced Francisco Rodriguez. I didn’t like his antics and his attitude and I especially found the way he interacted with fans (after 2002) to be especially unpleasant. Rather than go into details, let’s just say that I wasn’t disappointed when he went to the Mets.

I’ll take it a step further. Growing up in Southern California, I was a die-hard Lakers fan; in fact, the Lakers were my favorite team in all of sports. Now, I don’t even watch the NBA. Why? I don’t like a lot of the players. I stopped following the Lakers and the NBA as a whole when Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant continued to make more headlines off the court than on it.

It just got to the point where I could not separate the person from the athlete and just couldn’t cheer for the Lakers anymore.

I’m not saying that baseball is perfect and not without its own cast of characters; however, I do seem to find many more athletes that I do enjoy in major league baseball than elsewhere. Plus baseball teams have 25 man rosters and I find for every Milton Bradley that pops up now and then there are many more Torii Hunters or Vernon Wells’ throughout the game that are admirable men of character who love the game, make an impact in the community and do so many positive things.

I make note of these things all the time on this blog. My fandom for Torii Hunter is well documented here; as is my disgust for the likes of Milton Bradley.

So on this day, the day after Wood was designated for assignment, Cheryl and I are a little sad.

You know what? We are not the only ones. Judging by the reactions I’ve read from his teammates, a lot of them are saddened as well and to a man, they all seem to wish him the best.

So even though most fans might be happy with this move; Cheryl and I aren't like most fans and we too wish him all the best.

I will close with this: Lyle Spencer of mlb.com does a fantastic job of putting Wood’s situation in the proper perspective on his Rally Monkeys blog entry titled “Wood can find redemption.”

All bets are off

As much as I’d like to say that I’m enjoying the play-offs, I really can’t do that. Sure, some amazing things have taken place like Roy Halladay’s no-hitter, but I can’t say that I’m scheduling my life around the post-season.

I don’t know, I really don’t get a kick out of watching former Angels like Vlad Guerrero, Darren Oliver, Bengie Molina, Troy Glaus, Orlando Cabrera, etc., etc. doing things for other teams. The truth of the matter is that seeing them in their current roles doesn’t do anything for me at all.

In fact, they serve as a reminder that the current Angels aren’t there and I really hate that like you wouldn’t believe.

I haven’t watched an entire play-off game yet. I’m not saying I won’t – just that I haven’t so far.

Let’s just say I’ve had other things on my mind since last week. Since October 5 to be exact when Bill Plaschke of the L.A Times wrote about Arte Moreno and how mad he was about the season and how he was going to do whatever it takes to make his team one of the elite in the league again.

Let’s just say that this article really got my attention and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.

Moreno said the kind of things every fan wants to hear from his owner. Things like “If you want to continue to perform at the highest level, you have to keep building the business," Moreno said. "And that's what I intend to do."

And things like "We know where our weaknesses are, we know where we are thin, we know where we have to go to market," Moreno said. "It's going to cost money, but our fans need to know what we're committed to winning."

More music to my ears: "You're not in the playoffs, you're not a happy person," Moreno said. ''I just don't like losing, and we're going to make adjustments."

Those are the kinds of statements that make me want to cancel the post season and start the Hot Stove season like yesterday. I can’t wait to see what this team is going to do. When I read those statements by Moreno it got me fired up.

Then something strange happened.

I checked out the Angels official page and found an article written by Lyle Spencer on October 3; just two day prior to the on in the LA Times

The headline struck me – “Whole sale changes by Angels not necessary.”

What?

The two articles had completely different tones. In the Spencer piece Mike Scioscia was quoted as saying “I don't think we need to make a lot of changes," Scioscia said, "but we're always looking to improve our club."

Wait. Didn’t I just read… I mean… Are you kidding… Huh?

You know what I love about Arte Moreno? He’s kind of like Colonel Jessup (played by Jack Nicholson) in the movie “A few good men.” He wants to tell you what’s on his mind and if you wait long enough, he’s likely to do exactly that. He’s likely and willing to break company lines and give you the real deal.

Scioscia on the other hand is like one of those guards at Buckingham Palace. No matter what you do or say to them, they’re not going to give you anything. Not a smile, not a wink; nothing.

So here’s the deal and this has been my gut feeling since the season ended. Forget whatever you thought might happen because when most people look at the Angels, they see some obvious holes that need filling. You know things like letting Hideki Matsui walk, making Bobby Abreu the full-time DH next year, etc., etc. You don’t need me to rehash all the scenarios that are pretty much uniform in their thought.

Prepare to be wowed. Prepare to see things no one saw coming. Let’s just say that all bets are off and I’m prepared for anything. I happen to believe Moreno when he says that he hates losing and wants to do something about it.

Now, some might find this alarming. Some might fear that he’s going to do something rash in the heat of the moment and some how make this club worse in the process.

Perish the thought. I get the feeling that Moreno let’s things burn in his belly for a bit and thinks long and hard about how do make things right. I don’t think he’s afraid to go after what he wants and I’m betting he’s asking all the right questions; hard questions and when all is said and done – he’ll have the answers and a plan to put this team back where it belongs.

I want Arte in that place. I want him so angry that he can’t see straight and when he’s done being mad, I want to see him with a laser-like focus and barking out orders to his staff.

Maybe it’s wishful thinking on my part. Maybe I’m making this out to be way bigger in my own little head than I should, but then again – it’s just how I feel. I want answers; I want the truth and I’m ready to handle it.

Bring it Arte. Angel fans are looking for a few good men.

80-82

The headline says it all; the final tally for 2010.

I suppose some sort of analysis of the just completed season is in order. Then again, I’m a little tired of pointing fingers and all that. Truth be told, I’m kind of glad the season is over. The season was all kinds of frustrating and the year has been emotionally draining on many levels.

That being said, I do feel obligated to do a brief recap. Fortunately, I can sum up the season failures fairly easily.

The reason for the Angels poor showing can be directly tied to Brandon Wood’s epic failure at the plate, Erick Aybar’s inability to become a good lead off man, the continued horrible play of Jeff Mathis (and Mike Scioscia’s puzzling loyalty to him), Scott Kazmir’s miserable performance and a bull pen that was no friend to Smokey the Bear, let alone the Angel starting pitchers (they couldn't put out a match with a fire hose let alone a fire).

The list above does not represent all the reasons the Angels failed; however, they are the most significant outside of Kendry Morales’ injury in my opinion.

Let the Hot Stove Season begin.

Here’s the first shot heard around the Southern California scene, courtesy of Torii Hunter and the LA Times.

"Arte is [ticked off]," Hunter said. "And when he's [ticked off], great things happen."

Don’t tease me Torii. Please let me look back on that quote with fondness come next spring. I want to look back and say, "Arte really didn't mess around." I’ve been hearing a lot of "big" talk of late from Tony Reagins, etc. and I want to believe what I’m hearing. Time to walk the walk.

Let’s make Plan A, (whatever the heck it is) a reality. No stop gaps. No settling. Make some magic and let’s get back to winning. Make this off-season one to remember for all the right reasons.

Now, how do we fans stay tuned? Let me break it down for you.

Between now and the day pitchers and Molinas report (and beyond), I’ll be checking MLB Trade Rumors frequently (and you should too). When I say frequently, I'm talking about every ten minutes (just kidding... sort of).

Anything that might happen or actually does happen will be found there (it's not all rumors). Consider it your one-stop shop for all things Hot Stove.You wan to know who all the free agents are - check out MLB Trade Rumors. Need a list of Scott Boras clients? MLB Trade Rumors has it. Man, I should get paid for this plug!

You should also check in with the OC Register’s Angel Blog regularly. It's really the best source for Angels-specific information in real time. Sam Miller and Dan Woike along with a cast of thousands (give or take that many) keep Angel fans on top of all the action.

And add AngelsWin and Halos Heaven to your internet book marks. The two fan oriented sites are usually among the first to hear about any late breaking Angels news. Let me put it to you this way - if an Angel fan hears it, sees it or heaven forbid, smells it - they're likely to post about it at one of the two sites on their active message boards. Both also have great blogs, conduct in-depth interviews with players, front office people, other not-so-famous folks and much more.

LA Angels Insider is also another great resource for all things Angels (they even let me post a blog there once in a while). Eric Denton runs a first class site with lots of exclusive content.

If you use Twitter, you need to follow Sam Miller (@SamMillerOCR), Dan Woike (@OCR_DanWoike), Mark Saxon of ESPN (@markasaxon) and Lyle Spencer of MLB (@LyleMSpencer).

Be sure to check out all the Angel blogs (see my blog roll on the right) and please keep coming back to this site; after all, I’m not going any where and I get depressed when my site meter dips too low.

That should keep you on top of all the Angel news all off season long.

In closing today’s post, I’ll leave you with a few photos from the last home stand. Enjoy!





Photos: Top Row: Bobby Grich at the 50th Anniversary Announcement, followed by Ervin Santana. Second Row: Mark Trumbo followed by Peter Bourjos and in the last row: The Matsui faithful.

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Top Row: Bobby Wilson, Hideki Matsui, Torii Hunter
Bottom Row: Mike Scioscia, Howie Kendrick, Scioscia again