Troutstanding

Of course. I thought he was referring to next year. My bad.

Where does Trumbo play?

Thanks!

Does anyone know what these patches are that the Angels players have been wearing above "ANGELS" for a couple weeks? All I can make out on the TV is the initials "LEW" Just curious.

I believe the two-hole is the perfect spot for Mike. Trout hit 30 home runs last year and is on pace to match that this year. His slugging percentage in the .500s in too high to waste on a lead off hitter, in my opinion. The issue that I have with the line up is that Aybar is leading off with a .284 OBP. It sort of defeats the purpose of lowering Trout in the order when the guy ahead of him only has three walks. The other benefit to batting Trout second is that he has more protection there, although Albert hasn't exactly been productive.

No way... How can they even make that decision before Blantana allows 10 hits in his 5 IP tonight?! Maybe it's a fake announcement as some sort of confidence booster for Blantana going into tonight's game...

Even if the offense continues to score runs, I would still switch Aybar and Shuck provided that Aybar continues getting on base in a fourth of his at bats.

Do you really want Trout in RF? Hamilton in CF? I would to see Shuck leading off until Bourjos gets back, assuming the both of them continue to play at a high level. Soon I would drop down Hamilton in the order until he starts performing well.

Bourjos hasn't done or proven anything in the league? Apparently you weren't watching Bourjos in 2011. Not to mention the fact that Bourjos was tearing it up before his injury while Trout was batting .250. While Trout is solid at worst in CF, Bourjos is definitely better. Trout was moved to the second spot in the line up to utilize him more, not to knock him. He was put there because he is so good, not despite his ability.

The idea is for Trout to be protected by Pujols and Hamilton and so that Trout has more opportunities to drive in runs. Aybar leading off is by default. Peter Bourjos was obviously doing great until his injury.

What does his outfield position have to do with anything? Hopefully he does get hot, and hopefully Bourjos comes back as strong as he was. I don't see why you wouldn't want to have both of them doing well...

As if the manager has some way of knowing ahead of time which pitchers will suck that night... The extremely drastic swings of emotion here after a win or loss are absolutely ridiculous. All I would say is that I was surprised to see David Carpenter coming to the mound in the fourth. I expected Jerome there. But I'm not butt hurt about the choice... That's all. Hate on.

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Why wouldn't he revert back closer to his career numbers rather than turn in even worse numbers than 2012? His career average is .275 and his slugging percentage has never been less than .361. Is he really at such a sharp decline at his age? I think these projections may be a tad optimistic but I think they are reasonable enough. I wouldn't be surprised if he out performed these numbers.