the14thjoey

I'd deal with nightmare parking for a season in exchange for a new ballpark. That's easy for me to say, since I live so close to the stadium.

People here did it to Francisco Rodriguez, John Lackey, and Vladimir Guerrerro. Only one of those three would be welcomed back with almost unanimous cheers.

Next thing you know, Chuck will go to an Angels game and not even wear a little red.

I was a senior in high school at the beginning of this season. My baseball coach was from Cleveland, and he knew I was a big Angels fan. He gave me so much shit during this series, especially with the Indians taking the series. One time he even offered me $100 if I could write a 5 page essay on the history of the Angels in the World Series. During the later April series after the Angels beat the Indians 21-2 (and outscored them 36-4 for the series) I cut the box score out of the newspaper and posted it on the door of his classroom. He knew it was me and he was pissed. I had already graduated and moved on when we won the World Series. Otherwise, I'd write that essay for him.

This is great! Spoiler alert: the first 20 games will be pretty disappointing.

The seeds were planted before, but I have to say 1994. That may seem odd, considering that was the strike year, but the strike really got my attention on baseball. It helped that the Angels were so good in 1995. I guess 1995 was my first taste of the old Angels paradigm of playing well enough to finish just short. I was as big a casual fan as anyone up until 2002. I went to games all the time and I was thrilled at wins and disappointed at losses, but 2002 is when I really began truly identifying with the team. That's because 2002 was my first year at school in New York after living my entire life in Santa Ana. Anybody who moves away understands how their relationship with their hometown changes. The Angels were my connection back home. The whole "east coast goes to bed before the west coast plays their games" is pretty accurate, but I stayed up late struggling with 2002's version of streaming video. Beating the Yankees and winning the World Series really helped me establish myself in New York. You wouldn't believe the respect Yankees fans gave to a kid wearing an Angels hat in the city.

In all fairness, the Astros have the best record in the league.

I got confused at first thinking I might have stumbled on RangersLoseToTheAstros.com.

I had trouble with the formatting so I just posted a picture of my table. If a mod or anybody can do better, I have the data in a spreadsheet that I can send to you. However, I guess we can just stick with this since nobody will be allowed to make their prediction after tonight. I can easily add a few more names at the end of this later.

The final list is coming up. These people need to choose a different run total. You doubled up on a prediction. Cory 822 GoodTimesGoneBad 823 nando714 827 Biergott 833

I will compile these into one list, starting now. By the way, my prediction is 839.

The Angels do this for select seating areas in select games depending on which package you buy. http://losangeles.angels.mlb.com/ana/ticketing/miniplans.jsp?affiliateId=H1141F41R-4O8 Check out the 4 packages on bottom.

Don't underestimate the value of even $1 million. If no on-the-field value comes out of this (and the team is no worse), then saving $4-5 million and possibly getting under the luxury cap is a good deal. I'm not getting a huge rise out of it, since "it's not my money," but some people will be happy simply having Wells off the team. Billionaires don't get rich by spending millions of dollars when they don't have to.

http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/mil/ticketing/advance.jsp It's a mini plan where with each Brewers win, your seats get upgraded. It's a fun way to get fans more into the game, and I'd love the Angels to try something like this.

The Yankees have a pretty good outfield now...said the guy who thought it was 2004.

Everyone here seems to hate him, but I think he's built a solid career.

I really want to see an analysis of how international baseball competition involving the "best players" has impacted different parts of the world. If something is out there, my 2 minutes of google-fu hasn't found it. I should clarify what I meant about the WBC enhancing Spring Training. It enhances it for the fans. However, I don't think it really impacts spring training too seriously because ultimately players who participate are still getting their work in. They're still preparing for their season, just not with their MLB team. Also, the spring schedule is extended to somewhat mitigate any time players spend away. For example, I am absolutely not concerned about Erick Aybar being away with the Dominican team. If anything, for someone like him, I think it's good for him to get some heated competition in before the regular season begins.

I wasn't arguing which is the more valuable commodity right now. Of course, it's the billion dollar business of Major League Baseball. I'm just stating that an injury is not going to set either of them back. However, I will address your points: You think it "disrupts" Spring Training, but I think it enhances it. I'll agree to disagree with those saying that an individual's primary concern should always be their MLB franchise. If a player wants to come out to represent their country, I think they should. Furthermore, I think all players should want to, but that's my humble opinion. I've never heard a GM state they want the tournament to go away, but I certainly believe some of them probably have. The Angels organization seems to be one that discourages their players from participating in things like this. I heard Pujols really wanted to play for the DR, but I understand why he didn't or couldn't. However, I really think Trout, Hamilton, Frieri, and Weaver would make their teams better and I see no major reasons why they couldn't have participated. That's a shame. I do agree that the qualifications to play for a roster are a bit silly, but the whole point is to improve on the global footprint of the game and I think that is being somewhat accomplished. The Olympics and World Cup "suffer" from strange qualifications to play for a country, and those are two of the most popular events in the world. Also, there are a few sports being reviewed for reinstatement into the Olympics, including baseball/softball (one application) and wrestling. Only one sport will be chosen. I am a huge baseball fan, but I don't see how wrestling can be left out of the Olympics. If baseball is not reinstated, and I believe it won't be, then the World Baseball Classic is left as the premier international baseball competition. I think this further solidifies the competition as here to stay.

It's set up so that when USA loses, they can say "Who cares? We didn't even send our best players." It wasn't set that way on purpose, but it's what it ended up being.

But the question isn't which one we should keep around. It's whether an injury, in any context, would be the beginning of the end.

No more than a good player being hurt in a MLB regular season game would mean the beginning of the end of MLB.

Where were there Latins?

Well.......yes.

Now Zambrano is clowning around in the Puerto Rico-Venezuela game.

At about the 2 minute mark you can see Mo Vaughn watching the brawl from the dugout.