Farewell to Vernon Wells
Goodbye, Vernon Wells. You were great as Wez in Mad Max 2, and iconic as Bennett in Commando, and California will miss you.
What?
Oh. The other one. Better start this again…
Jerry Dipoto has done it again, pulling off the impossible by trading Vernon Wells. He and a chunk of that much derided salary are off to the Yankees, probably the only other team in Baseball with the depth of pocket and roster to be able to afford him.
But let’s not celebrate in an unseemly fashion. Let’s look back on the highlights of Vernon’s two seasons with the Angels.
Yes, really, there were some.
2011 may have been, to put it kindly, a miserable year for Wells, but it had its moments. A grand slam to bury the Orioles, a two run RBI in the bottom of the 10th to silence the Mariners, a fistful of highlight-worthy catches and outfield plays. And, let’s face it; his return to Toronto on August 12th, when he walked out to a standing ovation and then put Brandon Morrow’s first pitch to him into the left field seats, was pretty darn cool. For me personally, there was the Fourth of July game, my first at The Big A, when he went 2 for 4 with a solo HR in a 6-1 win over Detroit.
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Chris Iannetta’s the man. He’s earned this title, he’s played like it and no one is disputing this. However, I believe that Iannetta will inevitably need some time on the DL given his recent past and the physical demands of playing catcher for the Angels. This will open the door for Conger to earn some playing time. I believe his defense, or more specifically his throwing will progress far enough that Scioscia won’t be afraid to deploy him in Iannetta’s absence. Conger’s ability to hit from both sides of the plate for average, some power and show good plate discipline will make him an attractive and dangerous option for the Angels. This isn’t to say that Chris Iannetta is going to be bad, quite the contrary, I think he’ll be even better in 2013 than he was in 2012. But a productive Iannetta/Conger timeshare is inherently a better option than any lineup featuring 
This isn’t a “dig” on Josh Hamilton. He’s a great hitter and will continue to be for quite some time. He may have hit 43 HR for Texas last year, but when we look at his career thus far, that appears to be an outlier. In previous season where he had played in 120 games or more, he hit 25, 32 and 32 HR’s. His .359 batting average from 2010 also appears to be an outlier. His strikeouts have since skyrocketed (though to be fair his walks have progressively increased as well). So playing for Texas, the norm was more like a .300 batting average with around 30 HR’s. But Hamilton is no longer playing in Texas. The tall wall in RF and the marine layer in Anaheim knock down their fair share of potential HR’s. Hamilton should still be a productive hitter, to the tune of a .290 batting average with 40 doubles and 25+ HR’s, but gone are the MVP caliber days.
