Angelsjunky

Josh Hamilton isn't injured.

Trout has sucked too, it is just that his paycheck is half a million.

...that the first three home runs of the year were hit by Iannetta, Kendrick, and Callaspo. Way to go, bottom of the lineup!

At least I have Latos on my fantasy baseball team.

God, who gives a shit if people smoke pot? I mean...really?

Wow. Angelswin.com mojo actually works.

Yu Darvish is very, very good. A possible Cy Young candidate this year.

LOL - come on folks, we're all on the same team here. Its only game one!

Oh please, Chuck. All Sullivan said is that Weaver might not have a lot of room for error. The rest was me. This isn't about playing sides but trying to understand the situation clearly. I obviously want Weaver to continue to be great, but I'm merely voicing the POSSIBILITY that he might take a step down if his velocity doesn't pick back up. Not everyone can be Greg Maddux. That said, I still expect Weaver to be very good for the next 5+ years, and I'm not even writing off continued excellent. Just voicing a possibility here.

Jered Weaver is not Greg Maddux, who is one of the twenty or so greater starting pitchers in baseball history. But even Maddux dropped a notch when he lost a bit on his fastball. From about age 33 on he wasn't the same pitcher he was from about age 26-32.

Sorry - I forgot that we're not supposed to bring a diversity of viewpoints, not all of them homerish, to the table. Apologies!

Its actually a bit worrisome. As Jeff Sullivan said, Weaver might be the type of pitcher that doesn't have a lot of room for error. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see him morph back into something akin to the #2-3 starter that he was earlier in his career, as soon as this year. I'm not betting either way, just saying that it could happen.

Seems about right. Three out of Andrus' four season have been ~4 WAR, which for market value is $15-20MM a year. Also consider his age and further development, then even $15 million per year isn't bad at all. Of course this will only drive up Trout's price-tag.

I think the key for Trout is can he transform some of those strikeouts into walks? If he can then he'll have a similar year to last. If not then I think we'll see some regression.

I don't know storm, but you're probably the first to ask that question twice.

Good news about Conger - I'd really like to see Hammerin' Hank do well and even--dare I say?--fulfill his earlier potential as the catcher of the future for the Angels. I think he's a potential .800 OPS hitter so if he can manage even just mediocre defense he's going to be a major plus. I agree with this roster 100%. Calhoun and Jimenez need a bit more polish and Shuck has a nice OBP/decent speed package that is more ideal for a 4th outfielder/pinch runner.

Here's a case in point: Albert Pujols 2012: Spring Training: .383/.437/.850 with 7 HR in 23 games March/April: .217/.265/.304 with 0 HR in 23 games Hmm.

To be honest I'm still a bit mixed on Jerry's work. I think the Pujols contract is going to be really ugly for at least half of it, and the Hamilton one is questionable and a huge over-pay. I'd also have preferred to give Haren one more year, at least over the three starters he brought in. But I think its a bit soon to say. This year is rather huge in terms of whether Dipoto's various gambles have paid off: Can Pujols come back strong? Can Hamilton re-find his superstar stroke? Was letting Haren and/or Santana go a mistake? What about Hanson? Etc. In other words, the jury is still out either way.

Good job, Dave. I like how you school him on Lincoln. LOL.

I heard he's going to be living in Trout's mom's basement.

To quote Emerson: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

Yeah, for some reason I think Aybar is going to have a career year.

What an absolute moron.

Of course not, but I just think that many of us Angels fans are setting ourselves up for disappointment. Trout had a historic season in 2012 and while it is possible that he equals or even surpasses it in 2013, chances are he's going to drop a bit. Now I don't buy into a lot of the rather pessimistic outlooks that I've read from many stathead pundits about Trout, but if we're talking about probabilities than predicting 35 HR and 60 SB, while possible, is very, very unlikely.