At the start of this season, every Halos fan knew there was one team standing in the way of the postseason. A team within the division who they needed to beat regularly in order to keep, at the very least, the wildcard open as a way into Fall baseball. A team from Texas.  

Seriously though? It’s the Astros?

At the time of writing, The Angels have gone 3-6 against the Houston Astros in 2013. Let’s put that in perspective; a team with a payroll of over $140 million, is 3-6 against a team spending under $25 million. A team boasting at least three probable future hall of famers, 3-6 against a team of kids who most baseball fans would struggle to name without their rookie cards in front of them.

How the hell has this been happening?

One big part of it could be expectation. The Angels were expected to make short work of the Astros this year – it’s Houston’s first time in the AL West, and that’s at least part of the reason many thought the Angels had such good odds to make the postseason. The logic was, any team that had a significant number of games against the Astros had a better chance of gaining a wildcard than, say, the Red Sox, who play in a more uniformly tough division.

The June 4th, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Trout leads AL outfielders in All-Star voting, Vargas named AL Pitcher of the Month and much more...

The Story: Mike Trout leads AL outfielders in All-Star voting.

The Monkey Says: He holds a narrow edge over Adam Jones as the Baltimore fans are stuffing the ballot box like crazy this year, as exemplified by Brian Roberts being fifth in the voting at second base. A few other Angels appear in the results, but none of them are remotely in position to win the voting.

The Story: Jason Vargas was named the American League Pitcher of the Month for May.

The Monkey Says: Vargas had a great month but mostly against inferior competition. That isn't his fault or anything, but he isn't likely to continue pitching at this level with the competition about to step up big time.

The Angels just lost to the Astros.

The Angels just lost to the Astros 2-1.

The Angels just lost while only scoring one run off of remnants Erik Bedard.

The Angels just got swept by the Astros.

The Angels got swept in a four-game series by the Astros.

The Angels got swept in a four-game series at home by the Astros.

There is no coming back from this.

There is no climbing out of this deep, deep hole.

There is no excuse for this embarrassment.

There is no excuse for the Angels to be this bad.

There is no quick fix for the Angels.

There is no move they can make that will make this better.

This team sucks.

This team sucks hard.

This team sucks long and hard.

We surrender.

Like MWAH on Facebook

Follow MWAH on Twitter

Just know that coming off three straight losses to the Astros, I don't have a lot of nice things to say this week.....

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		-- 0 Last Week: 1	Mike Trout - Is it just me or did Trout make the final out in every single loss this week?
2		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Jered Weaver - Weaver hitting 91.6 MPH on the radar gun? /SQUEEEEEE!!!!
3		-- 0 Last Week: 3	Jason Vargas - So at what point do we get to start wondering when the Angels will approach Vargas about a contract extension?
4		-2 Last Week: 2	Howie Kendrick - Howie continues to hit well, but he also continues to hit into GIDPs at the worst possible time.
5		-1 Last Week: 4	Mark Trumbo - Trumbo only had an OK week, but I still can't help but wonder if he shouldn't be hitting third now instead of Pujols.
6		+5 Last Week: 11	Chris Iannetta - Turns out that sometimes good things happen when Iannetta takes the bat off his shoulder.
7		+1 Last Week: 8	Jerome Williams - So excited to find out what non-sensical excuse Scioscia uses to justify returning Williams to the bullpen despite having a 2.58 ERA and five consecutive quality starts.
8		-3 Last Week: 5	Albert Pujols - Maybe it is time to send The Machine out to get serviced. It looks like some of his parts are in dire need of maintenance.
9		+1 Last Week: 10	Erick Aybar - Aybar hit quite well this week, but he has walked just THREE TIMES all year. He is batting leadoff.
10		-3 Last Week: 7	C.J. Wilson - At what point do we start talking about moving C.J. back to the bullpen to work as the closer since he hasn't exactly been living up to his billing in the rotation?
11		-5 Last Week: 6	Alberto Callaspo - He didn't hit a lick this week, but at least he made a costly error that cost them a game.
12		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Tommy Hanson - Not an inspiring return for Tommy, but I think we can cut him some slack considering the circumstances.
13		-- 0 Last Week: 13	Dane De La Rosa - The line looks fine for this week until you realize that DDLR has never met an inherited runner that he didn't let score.
14		-- 0 Last Week: 14	Scott Downs - How is it possible that Downs didn't pitch at all this week? Has Scioscia lost faith in him or is he nursing another nagging injury?
15		-3 Last Week: 12	Ernesto Frieri - Man, if only the Angels had signed some other pitcher who could step in as closer when Frieri goes sideways.
16		-- 0 Last Week: n/a	Kevin Jepsen - Jepsen has looked pretty good since returning which leads me to just one conclusion: IT'S A TRAP!
17		+1 Last Week: 18	Michael Kohn - I'll give Scioscia credit for one thing with this bullpen, he really seems to be doing a great job of handling how and when he uses Kohn which is essentially as a ROOGY and strikeout specialist.
18		-2 Last Week: 16	Robert Coello - There was a debate this week about what to call Coello's special pitch. If you voted for anything other than "fuckleball," you are dead to me.
19		-- 0 Last Week: 19	Garrett Richards - I think Richards is the new Kevin Jepsen. Two-thirds of the time he looks unhittable, but the other third looks like a horror movie.
20		-- 0 Last Week: 20	Joe Blanton - I still want Blanton gone, but he has been improving, which is a pretty good problem to have.
21		-12 Last Week: 9	Josh Hamilton - I can tell that this back spams issue is going to be fun and totally not annoying and frustrating.
22		-7 Last Week: 15	J.B. Shuck  - Hurry back, Speedy Petey. Hurry back.
23		-2 Last Week: 21	Hank Conger - Did you know that Conger has started 18 games and collected a hit in 15 of those starts?
24		-2 Last Week: 22	Brendan Harris - Brendan Harris getting another start at first base fills me with rage.
25		-- 0 Last Week: 25	Chris Nelson - It was awfully nice of Nelson to knocking a game-winning RBI for the Angels considering how he is probably going to get DFA'd when Bourjos comes off the DL.

Dropped from rankings: Mark Lowe (DFA'd with extreme prejudice), Billy Buckner (one night stand), Sean Burnett (fragile)

Biggest Riser: Iannetta, up five spots

Biggest Dropper: Hamilton, down 12 spots

Like MWAH on Facebook

Follow MWAH on Twitter

The June 3rd, 2013 edition of daily news for the Los Angeles Angels including Scioscia defends moving Trout back to LF, Hamilton gets testy with reporters and much more...

The Story: Mike Scioscia defends his decision to move Trout back to left field once Peter Bourjos returns.

The Monkey Says: I agree with the move but disagree with some of his comments. Scioscia was clearly responding to the ill-informed Rosenthal piece last week when he suggested that playing center isn't what got Trout's bat going but rather hitting right in front of Pujols. Not only has lineup protection proved to be something of a myth, but Pujols is hitting so poorly now, it is highly doubtful that he is providing any kind of protection at all.

The Story: Josh Hamilton got a little snippy with reporters when discussing his struggles.

The Monkey Says: The money quote was, "I can't predict the freaking future. Do you want me to go say I suck and sit in my locker?" He also says he is confident that he will come out of it once he gets his timing down. One would have to think that if the timing isn't there come early June than it isn't coming. What he needs to do is work on his pitch selection, but I guess that has never hindered him in the past so he just assumes it will start working again sooner or later.

Remember how this past winter every Angel fan was salivating at the thought of being able to eat up the Houston Astros? We should be used to the fact that as Angel fans nothing will come to us as expected. Following that trend, the Angels have been absolutely pathetic against the Houston Astros this season and this afternoon's game was no different. Near fantastic starting pitching littered with a few unfortunate mistakes by C.J Wilson mixed in with absolutely pathetic defense and the inability to hit with RISP killed the Angels. Why does it seem like the Angels defense always falls apart behind Wilson against the Astros?

The only real thing the Angels could have done to win this game is having anybody other than Callaspo playing 3B, but that is very unfair thinking. This has been an important week for the Angels, we've all learned as fast as the hot streaks come the cold ones can hit just as hard...

and how hard it has hit.

Astros 5 Angels 4

What the hell was that? How is it that Bud Norris can look like Cy Young against our beloved underachievers? Do you realize that he has beaten the Angels three times giving up one run in the process? How is that possible when facing such a vaunted lineup? Oh yeah, forgot, the Angel bats have gone silent again. So after winning 8 in  row, the Angels have given most of that back in a week and find themselves in the same whole they were a month ago. I'm really starting to hate watching this team play. I need a drink...

Angels 0 Astros 2