The Angels reunion with former pitcher Ervin Santana went exactly as planned, as the offense greeted him with four homeruns, including one from his former catcher to win their fifth game in a row.  But, four homers was not tonight’s story, folks.  Joe Blanton got his first win of the season pitching 6 1/3 innings, giving up 2 earned runs before being pulled in favor of the bullpen.  It almost seemed too good to be true so Ernesto Frieri decided to make Blanton sweat in the bottom of the 9^th, but Coello took his place with two outs, and finished the game off.

Whenever it appears Blanton is headed for the bullpen, it seems like he steps up for one start to end the argument.  With Jered Weaver coming back next week, Scioscia has a tough decision to make.  Who stays, who goes?  It’s either Jerome or Joe.

Angels 5, Royals 2

A lot of conversation these past two months have revolved around Albert Pujols and his declining performance. The man is a mess of injuries, pressure, and unfair media scrutiny. I recently wrote about how all this could be worked through in an article from last week. One of the talking points was sticking Pujols in the DH spot, indefinitely. This is something we all knew would happen somewhere down the line during his career with the Angels, but I don't think any of us expected it to happen so soon. To be fair, it isn't solely because of his deteriorating skills (they haven't declined as bad as we all seem to think), it's more of a necessity to keep him healthy and allow our young starters to get out on the field every day. Once Bourjos comes back Trumbo is going to taking back the majority of the 1B starts and Pujols is still a player that needs to be playing every day. Adding that to the fact that keeping him at DH allows him to rest his ailing lower body without having to grind through 9 innings of 1B work nearly every day.

I know what you're all thinking, "$250 million to a DH?! Ridiculous! No DH is worth that money". I'd have to agree with you there, but Albert Pujols isn't just any hitter. Let's stop and talk about the money for a second here, many believe this will go down as one of the worst contracts in baseball history and I have to shoot this down immediately. One of the biggest issues people have with this is the size of the contract; everyone assumes that because it's $250 million over the next 10 years it's a franchise crippling contract. This couldn't be any further from the truth. Even with the "albatross" contracts of Josh Hamilton (5 years $125 million) and Albert Pujols (10 years $250 million) the Angels payroll is still under $150 million. This isn't like the Yankees or Dodgers where the organization has taken in a few star players with monster contracts that push the team’s payroll to $200 million+. This is a unique case because the management has worked out very team friendly deals with star players like Howie Kendrick, Erick Aybar, and Jered Weaver for the next few years AND they have multiple young stars making scrap money. The Angels will have franchise cornerstones in Mike Trout, Mark Trumbo, and Peter Bourjos for most of the decade, and this isn't under the assumption that they will be signed to long-term extensions in the near future. 

Again, this isn't like the Yankees where they throw out huge money to A-Rod as a cornerstone to the team, only to see him undergo a rather ugly fall from grace due to an illicit past with steroids and injuries and the franchise immediately goes into panic mode. Albert Pujols is just going to be a supplemental player to the likes of Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo, and even Josh Hamilton; he won't be anchoring the power of the offense like A-Rod was expected to. It's up to Mike Scioscia to realize this soon enough and move him out of the three hole and down the lineup in order to get the real star hitters on the team in the key batting spots, as I went over in my previous article.

I know you're all still thinking "But it's still $250 million for a DH!". It does seem like a massive number off the bat, but since this is such a unique situation it has to be looked at from a special perspective. Albert Pujols is practically paying for himself, without a question he will be paying for his own contract throughout his Angels career. How is this? The biggest reason the Angels were willing to throw so much money at him was the monster TV contract the deal would bring to Anaheim. The Angels will be pulling in $120 million a year thanks to the Pujols contract effectively sealing the deal, that's almost the entire Angels payroll right there. Bringing in $120 million a year will be more than enough to cover the cost of the Pujols contract, and then some. The Angels won't be left out to dry if they need to make any other free agent signings or take on extra payroll in a trade, or when the time comes to extend the young stars on the team. This contract in no way is going to come close to crippling the team due to the special circumstances surrounding this contract. Add in the fact that after 2017 the contract will be the only one on the books and it becomes clear that this is in no way a back-breaker for the Angels. No other long-term contracts to manage at that point makes it far easier for the organization to continue building without having to build around any other "albatrosses".

How do you solve a problem like Joe Blanton? If you were to ask your typical Angel fan the answer would be to take him out behind one of the Big A dumpsters, shoot him in the head and wait for the garbage truck to come by and pick up the remains. While that solution does have a certain appeal, the health department might lower Angel Stadium's grade, so we'll have to explore other avenues. We'll have to do it quickly though because if everything goes according to plan, tonight will be Joe Blanton's last start for a long time.

The optimal scenario is for Jered Weaver to return from his broken elbow next week and slot into Blanton's spot in the rotation. With Tommy Hanson due back and Jerome Williams pitching well, it is the perfect time to exile Blanton to the bullpen. The only real issue is that the team must be willing to throw in the towel on Joe.

Let's not forget, the team did sign him to a two-year, $16 million deal that was roundly criticized at the time. Thus there is a monetary commitment there that the team may want to support even if it flies in the face of the sunk cost principle. Yanking Blanton from the rotation after just less than two months would be an open admission that Jerry Dipoto got that move dead wrong. Being able to own up to a mistake and acting quickly to rectify it is an admirable trait, but not a trait a lot of GMs possess.

Does Dipoto actually have the kind of stones to admit he was wrong? Blanton's start tonight should give us a strong indicator. If Blanton pitches even at an average level, it might give the Halos all the ammunition they need to play the, "he's been working on some things and showing signs of progress, so we want to give him a chance to turn it around." Even as I type that hypothetical quote, I can hear just hear it coming out of Scioscia's mouth and it sends a shive down my spine.

The May 23rd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Weaver could return next week, Madson suffers another setback, Mike Trout cycle facts and much more...

The Story: Jered Weaver had a strong 75-pitch outing in extended spring training and could return to the Angels next week.

The Monkey Says: Weaver had a great line, but it was also against a bunch of scrubs, so let's not read too much into this. The real question is where was his velocity and how does his arm feel. Sure, the injury was to his non-throwing arm, but I still think there was at least a little bit of something bothering his pitching arm that the team hasn't told us about.

The Story: Ryan Madson suffered another soreness setback and won't resume his rehab assignment for 3-5 days.

The Monkey Says: Or more, because it is Ryan Madson so who the hell really knows. He just can't go more than two weeks without a setback it seems, so I don't know what level of confidence that we can have that Madson will ever be able to join the active roster and actually make a consistent impact.

Okay, so I'm trying to temper my excitement a bit about the Angels winning four games in a row. This is mostly due to the fact that, with the exception of Jake Peavy, the pitching they have faced has been less than stellar. But give credit where credit is due, the boys are hitting the pitches they are supposed to hit. The pitchers are throwing strikes and getting batters out. The manager seems to be making the right decisions. This is how we all imagind it was supposed to be. Time will tell if this is the start of the real Angel season or just another step foward before a huge leap back.

Angels 7 Mariners 1

Apologies for the gap between posts from me, I’ve been busy with my “night job” at the NZ International Comedy Festival, and also, quite frankly, I’ve been waiting for the Angels to improve.

It’s not quite happened, has it? Third worst record in Baseball, 11.5 games behind the Rangers at the time of writing, and a bullpen who must be thankful that they warm up so far from the dugout, to prevent starting pitchers coming after them with a bat. It hasn’t been pretty.

However, there are a few signs that we all shouldn’t all throw in the towel and become Dodgers fans, and not just because they suck this year, too.

The talent is starting to show through. Mike Trout is hitting .308 with 6 Home runs in May, thus far. Mark Trumbo is looking settled, Kendrick has been a one man comeback machine, and even Josh Hamilton is warming up after a dismal April.

On that note; what is it with the culture of the Angels? Two years in a row (three, if you count Vernon Wells), a huge-money star player has come to the club and struggled through April. At least Albert Pujols had the excuse of changing leagues, facing pitchers he wasn’t used to, and the change of scenery and climate. Hamilton hasn’t even moved divisions. You have to wonder if these players are too exposed to media scrutiny and the exceptional expectations brought on by such a massive payroll. But I digress…

The DL list should start to shrink. If it gets any bigger, we’ll be seeing Mike Scioscia put the pads on again himself. But with Aybar back, Weaver apparently improving, and Bourjos waiting in the wings, if they can just somehow get some bullpen arms healed, they’ll look at lot better at the end of May than they did on the first.

The month ahead should be easier, with series against Seattle, Kansas City and the Dodgers, all of whom have their own problems. Let’s just hope they don’t take them out on Anaheim.

Look, again, this week’s news headlines have shown how little a few weeks of Baseball matter, in the bigger scheme, but wouldn’t it be nice to have some good news for a change?

I’m still hopeful. For my sins. 

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The Angels' outfield defense was supposed to be a many splendored thing. With Josh Hamilton supplanting Mark Trumbo in right field, Mike Trout shifting to left and Peter Bourjos returning to a starting role in center, the Halos had arguably the best defensive outfield in all of the land.

We even joked how the Halos could play just Trout and Bourjos and still have nary a ball drop in the outfield. Ha! Ha! Ha! LOLZ. /fart sounds

Intellectually, that all still makes sense. Mike Trout and, when healthy, Peter Bourjos have range on range on range. And that Josh Hamilton guy is no slouch either when playing in the corner rather than center where he just doesn't have the athleticism anymore. The problem is that our eyes thus far hath been deceived... or at least that is what the defensive metrics would have us believe. Just look at this table of how the Angels' preferred starting outfield grades out in the most popular advanced defensive metrics. SPOILER ALERT: Negative numbers are no bueno.