Last week I celebrated that the Angels were good again. Um... oops! This week, that no longer appears to be the case so I apologize if you drown in all the sarcasm dripping off of this week's rankings....

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		+1 Last Week: 2	Mike Trout - He hasn't been hitting much, but at least he is still drawing walks and finally stole some bases.
2		-1 Last Week: 1	Albert Pujols - I'd suggest that his recent struggles and general inability to drive the ball are because of his aching feet, but I fear that he would yell at me like that poor Mariners beat reporter.
3		-- 0 Last Week: 3	Mark Trumbo - Another Angel with an inexplicable decrease in power. Mark is hitting .296 but with just 3 homers and a .163 ISO.
4		+2 Last Week: 6	Peter Bourjos - Nobody does more with less than Bourjos. By that I mean nobody get more hits by hitting the ball a shorter distance.
5		-- 0 Last Week: 5	Garrett Richards - His start went off the rails a bit when Scioscia tried to ruin his arm milk another inning out of him to spare the bullpen, but it is pretty safe to say he should keep his rotation spot after Weaver gets back.
6		+4 Last Week: 10	Howie Kendrick - A walk off homer against the Rangers? You just bought yourself three GIDPs worth of me not getting mad at you.
7		-3 Last Week: 4	Ernesto Frieri - Allowing a game-winning homer to A.J. Pierzynski is always going to get you dropped in the rankings.
8		+1 Last Week: 9	Scott Downs - Downs blew two saves last week and he is probably still the team's best middle reliever (also the blown save rule is stupid).
9		-2 Last Week:7	Chris Iannetta - I know he hasn't been on fire with the bat, but I still don't get why he has to hit behind Brendan Harris.
10		+5 Last Week: 15	Jason Vargas - The Angels' season summed up in one GIF.
11		+1 Last Week: 12	C.J. Wilson - The strikeouts and lack of walks are encouraging but would it kill him to pitch more than six innings? Oh, it will? That's a risk I am willing to take.
12		-4 Last Week: 8	Sean Burnett - He's the one Dipoto acquisition that has actually worked out so far this year so of course he is hurt now. Why wouldn't he be?
13		+1 Last Week: 14	Dane De La Rosa - With five appearances in seven days, Mike Scioscia clearly trusts De La Rosa but also seems hellbent on riding him into the ground.
14		-1 Last Week: 13	Tommy Hanson - Welcome back, Tommy. Keep your chin up.
15		+2 Last Week: 17	Jerome Williams - The best thing he did all week was not pitch a fit about being replaced by Roth at the last minute for the spot start.
16		+2 Last Week: 18	Josh Hamilton - So he is going to start hitting in May, right? Isn't that how this struggling, big name, free agent slugger works?
17		-6 Last Week: 11	Luis Jimenez - Maybe it is time to un-libre the Lucho and get Callaspo back in the lineup.
18		-2 Last Week: 16	Michael Roth - Even though the results weren't pretty, Roth showed some great signs in his spot start and very clearly has a nice future in front of him.
19		+1 Last Week: 20	Hank Conger - It was nice to see Conger homer but he really found his true calling in being the bench guy with zany, over-the-top reactions to homers.
20		-1 Last Week: 19	Brendan Harris - Harris is running out of steam, so thank goodness Aybar should be back this week.
21		+3 Last Week: 24	Joe Blanton - I am convinced that Blanton Jedi mind tricked Scioscia into leaving him in for an extra inning because Joe realized he pitched too well and needed to screw things up before he made his exit.
22		-1 Last Week: 21	J.B. Shuck  - I think we can all agree that this whole mess is somehow J.B. Shuck's fault. I don't know how, but it is.
23		-1 Last Week: 22	Andrew Romine - Romine got a hit! WE DID IT!
24		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Nick Maronde - Out of all the rookie relievers called up recently, Maronde is the one with the talent to make a big impact, and now there is a need for him to with Burnett on the DL. No pressure.
25		-2 Last Week: 23	Michael Kohn - Last week I said it was "throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks" for the Angel bullpen. Kohn ain't sticking.

Dropped from rankings: Lowe (pretending he has a stiff neck so nobody realizes that he just plain stinks)

Biggest Riser: Vargas, up five spots

Biggest Dropper: Jimenez, down six spots

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The April 29th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including frustrations boil over in the clubhouse, Hanson returns, Burnett to the DL and much more...

The Story: Frustrations boiled over in the Angel clubhouse after they dropped their series in Seattle.

The Monkey Says: That frustration was memorialized in this GIF. It is also memorialized in my ulcer. I really don't even know what to say anymore. This was a huge series for the Angels to turn things around and they did the opposite. As much as I keep telling myself that it is still early, that excuse just isn't going to fly much longer.

The Story: Sean Burnett has been placed on the disabled list with more tightness in his forearm.

The Monkey Says: When it rains, it pours.

If I had told you Jason Vargas would make his best start of the year against the Mariners you would have to likely assume the Angels would come away with the win. Well, despite Vargas giving up only 2 runs in 8 innings of work the Angels faced another stomach-churning late-inning loss. Although Vargas pitched fantastically in his first start in his old home ballpark he was outdueled by Angel killer Hisashi Iwakuma. It's not really to surprising to me that the Angels lost to Iwakuma as they're never able find a way to get the better of him offensively. The Angels have fallen to 9-15, just barely a step ahead of the pace they set for themselves last year. Even though that doesn't sound so great if the Angels had started out at this place last year they would have been in a far better position to make the playoffs at the end of the season, so there's that. Regardless of the fact that their little see-saw game is starting to get a little pathetic after giving away the Seattle series the last two games I still believe the Angels will win 20 before they lose 20. 

That's just hopefully speculation at this point, because at this point right the the Angels aren't looking too hot.

Mariners 2 Angels 1

There has always been one constant when it comes to the Angels. Mike Scioscia is the manager now and for the foreseeable future. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the game. Most people believe the Halos would be insane to get rid of him since it would be an inferior replacement coming in. However, this season has highlighted a few flaws in that thinking. Scioscia's game decisions have been suspect over the first month of the season and tonight showed that there might be some real traction to the "change is coming" arguement. Time will tell if Mike can right the ship and get this team to the playoffs.

Angels 2 Mariners 3

Games in which the Angels take a 5-0 lead should not end up being this stressful. But when your pitching staff is a collection of youngsters and reclammation projects, nothing is going to come easy. The hurlers almost threw this game up on more than one occassion but managed to wiggle out of enough trouble to get the win. I want to say the Mariners lost this game as much as the Halos one it, since the M's left 13 men on base. But in the end the Angels managed just enough offense, defense and pitching to pull out the win and eek a bit closer to .500.

Angels 6 Mariners 3

In some ways, a sporting event is like an old timey, fun timey melodrama. We have our heros, we have our villains and we, the fans, play our part as the audience by cheering the good guys and booing the bad guys. In true dramatic fashion, sports fans have written a robust history of wacky and off-the-wall traditions. From the Darth Vader Masks of the Oakland Raiders to tossing octopi on the ice for the Red Wings in Detroit, fan traditions and cheering sections are as varied as they are oddball.  Recently, the Angels designated a new addition to the stadium.

The Trout Farm is the official cheering section for Mike Trout and sits in left field seats next to the bullpen, where Mike Trout often sets up shop on defense. Unlike previous fan-created cheering sections of MatsuiLand and ToriiTown in right field, the Trout Farm was set up by team management to help keep the excitement high for last season’s Rookie of the Year. During home games, the section comes alive with pounding thundersticks, waving cardboard cutouts of Trout’s face, and free team t-shirts. Indeed, if the whole stadium were as up for the game as the Trout farm, perhaps West Coast sports fans would not have the “lazy” stigma that fans in other locales seem to enjoy labelling us with.

While the Angels play has shown improvement as of late, fan enthusiasm remains somewhat low. Perhaps the key to unlocking the inner madness of fandom lies in the cheering section formula. At the Big A, there is a large swatch of landscaping near the rock pile in center field that provides golden opportunity for a new cheering section. It will require remodeling, of course, but after a few coils of barbed wire, a few makeshift trenches, and some strategically placed mortars to launch fireworks, you’ve got the Angels Firing Range where Howie Kendrick can fire at will with his HK-47 and Mark Trumbo can practice his pinpoint accuracy dropping Trumbombs on the few fans fortunate enough to gain access to this new cheering section. Complete the motif with a couple of T-shirt launchers and watch the outfield roar!

This season so far has been....some sort of ride. A rash of injuries has plagued the Angels, sending a good number of their starting regulars on the DL. A sudden outbreak of injuries opened up a sizeable number of spots for the kids on their way up from the minors to show off their goods out of the bullpen. Take, for instance, Angels 2012 9th round draft pick Michael Roth. This is a kid who has barely logged one season in rookie ball yet he's managed to find himself a spot in the Angels’ bullpen thanks to injuries plaguing the Angels. Then you also have pitchers like the recently recovered Michael Kohn, who showed a healthy amount of promise in his major league debut back in 2010 before being sidelined midway through his 2011 season with Tommy John surgery. Even though Dipoto spent a lot of time and money trying to fix this bullpen it's still quite a ways from becoming stable, especially with Kevin Jepsen and Ryan Madson out on the DL. Having guys with big promise but little to no experience is a crapshoot when trying to make permanent fixes, but you have to think with the number of guys trying to fill a limited number of holes there has to be at least one person capable of rising to occasion.

A lot of the regulars are due to start flooding back into the roster, with Erick Aybar already making his extended spring training debut and Ryan Madson set to throw against live batters. Even Alberto Callaspo will be back soon, but with Luis Jimenez proving to be such a valuable player (and fan favorite) it'll be tough to find a spot for him to come back. Relievers are going to start finding some foots kicking them out the door real fast, but who will be the first ones to go? I originally expected David Carpenter to survive a wee-bit longer on the big league roster, I knew that he wouldn't last very long but I didn't expect him to play himself out of a job so fast. Can you really be surprised though? After his horrible outing against the Texas Rangers where he gave up 4 runs in the 4th inning he was shown the door real fast. On one hand he did come into a crap situation with the bases loaded and the Texas Rangers offense, of all offenses, knocking at his door. One the other hand he showed absolutely no balls in his performance when he displayed his lack of ability to throw strikes in high pressure situations. Carpenter gave up 2 walks, with the bases still loaded, and then proceeded to give up 2 game breaking hits before recording only one out. There’s no place in this bullpen for relievers who lack any real backbone coming into an intense game, and with the way the Angels play nearly every game is an intense game. This season so far has been....some sort of ride. A rash of injuries have plagued the Angels, sending a good number of their starting regulars on the DL. A sudden outbreak of injuries opened up a sizeable number of spots for the kids on their way up from the minors to show off their goods out of the bullpen. Take, for instance, Angels 2012 9th round draft pick Michael Roth. This is a kid who has barely logged one season in rookie ball yet he's managed to find himself a spot in the Angels’ bullpen thanks to injuries plaguing the Angels. Then you also have pitchers like the recently recovered Michael Kohn, who showed a healthy amount of promise in his major league debut back in 2010 before being sidelined midway through his 2011 season with Tommy John surgery. Even though Dipoto spent a lot of time and money trying to fix this bullpen it's still quite a ways from becoming stable, especially with Kevin Jepsen and Ryan Madson out on the DL. Having guys with big promise but little to no experience is a crapshoot when trying to make permanent fixes, but you have to think with the number of guys trying to fill a limited number of holes there has to be at least one person capable of rising to occasion.

A lot of the regulars are due to start flooding back into the roster, with Erick Aybar already making his extended spring training debut and Ryan Madson set to throw against live batters. Even Alberto Callaspo will be back soon, but with Luis Jimenez proving to be such a valuable player (and fan favorite) it'll be tough to find a spot for him to come back. Relievers are going to start finding some foots kicking them out the door real fast, but who will be the first ones to go? I originally expected David Carpenter to survive a wee-bit longer on the big league roster, I knew that he wouldn't last very long but I didn't expect him to play himself out of a job so fast. Can you really be surprised though? After his horrible outing against the Texas Rangers where he gave up 4 runs in the 4th inning he was shown the door real fast. On one hand he did come into a crap situation with the bases loaded and the Texas Rangers offense, of all offenses, knocking at his door. One the other hand he showed absolutely no balls in his performance when he displayed his lack of ability to throw strikes in high pressure situations. Carpenter gave up 2 walks, with the bases still loaded, and then proceeded to give up 2 game breaking hits before recording only one out. There’s no place in this bullpen for relievers who lack any real backbone coming into an intense game, and with the way the Angels play nearly every game is an intense game.

Following David Carpenter was the far FAR more promising Nick Maronde, who has shown to actually be able to handle major league hitters in tight spots. After Maronde made his debut last year many were sold on his ability to pitch at the big league level out of the bullpen, he was just flat-out killer in his 6 innings of work for a kid with his lack of experience. Apparently the management thought so as well, moving from the game plan on having him develop as a starter and letting him work out of the bullpen full time. In his first appearance against the Rangers following Carpenters inept performance Maronde allowed no runs through 1.1 innings of work. In fact, Maronde only threw 22 pitches in his 1.1 innings whereas Carpenter needed 19 to get one out. With Sean Burnett on the backburner due to a minor injury and Scott Downs reduced effectiveness Maronde is in a really strong position to win a spot out of the bullpen full time as a lefty reliever. One of the Angels biggest problems out of the pen is having a strong lefty reliever to pitch the middle innings, but with Maronde's makeup he is very qualified to fill that role; he could even provide more outs than the standard reliever if need be. Maronde is one of the many relievers in this 'pen who can really earn a spot full time.

Then you got guys like Dane De La Rosa, who has still been very good with the Angels bullpen but isn't really much more than a stopgap until the other regulars are healthy again. In 10.1 innings of work De La Rosa has pitched to a clean 2.61 ERA, though his K/BB ratio still leaves a bit to be desired. To be fair I really think De La Rosa deserves the role Kevin Jepsen has been given but has never really earned in my opinion. I find the Kevin Jepsen experiment to be incredibly tiresome, he's just not a reliable reliever to begin with and he doesn't deserve to be pitching in a major role out of the 'pen. Jepsen is one of those back-up guys who you just throw in during one of those "screw it" situations where either you can't really win or you can't really lose (though with Jepsen on the mound that could be debatable). De La Rosa will likely be one of the ones to go after the end of this DL madness even though he's pitched well enough to have time beyond the return of Jepsen and Madson, but I don't see that happen. What I do see happening is Jepsen flaming out like he always does, that’s when De La Rosa or another reliever who has proved equally worthy will be given a solid spot out of the bullpen.