I would hope after spending 250 million on pitchers contracts in one offseason (including the 10 Pettite will get), that you would be able to field the best rotation

Why do we compare a player against the average positional defense for one year? Shouldn’t we use a multi-year average? If we have a crop of great CF defenders one year, all those CF look worse than they should. How stable is the quality of defense in the league? I’m guessing during the offensive peak (cream/clear era) I’m guessing defense slipped as players bulked up and became a little slower. That would mean it would be easier to look good in that era. I don’t know how hard this would be or how you do this but I think it would make the stats much stronger.

Also, I was looking through tango’s blog, MGL said that the park factor for Safeco UZR defense was about 1.03 to 1.04 which means its easier to play than the average park.

The Angels have been pulling wins out of their asses at will this past half-decade. Call it luck, call it moxy….I’m still going to be optimistic. 2009 could be the year it finally catches up to them (in terms of not winning around 95+ games, that is), but until it happens, I’m going to hold out hope. It worked out great for the past half-decade, why not another year? If this were any other team, I’d be worried. With the Angels, you can almost just expect them to win games, despite not being as good statistically as their record would indicate.

The Angels still aren’t done making moves. I’d like to see them sign Bradley, trade for Joey Votto (excellent suggestion, Gammons) and maybe sign Derek Lowe. I mean, they could pull it off. They could just use the $ for Tex to sign Lowe and Bradley. They also have the resources to pull off a Votto trade.

I know they’re not nearly as good as their W/L record would suggest. But 5 years of pulling it off. Why not 6? The fact that they pulled it off for five consective years give me hope that they could pull it off for another year. Keep in mind that the Angels win a ton of games. They’re right up there with the Yankees for most wins since 2004. If they eventually regress to the mean, so be it. But you can’t deny the fact that they just find ways to win games.

I’m not foolish enough to think that they’re regression-proof, though. Because they’re not. But false hope is better than no hope at all, right? I know their current roster isn’t good. If the Angels win around 78-80 games next season (with this current roster), it wouldn’t surprise me one bit. I’m just trying to be optimistic here.

Thankfully, there are some nice players remaining. I hope Reagins makes the right choices. Bradley+Lowe+Votto would make an excellent offseason.

They weren’t as good as their pythag. That’s what I meant. The Angels always seem to get that one big hit when it matters the most. Or that one final pitch in that crucial moment when it matters the most. They always seem to get out of trouble and get that one big hit. Trust me, I would know. I watch them. They magically transform into different hitters/pitchers in crucial moments of the game. That’s how they win a ton of games. They come through in the “clutch”.

I hope to God that continues. If not, we’re in trouble.

Ok.

I’m kind of new to these blogs. Forgive me for not using the reply button correctly.