Lou E Ville

Bottom line...the scheduling in any league is supposed to be as fair as possible. When the Angels get stuck with the Dodgers, the Mets get stuck with the Yankees, and then someone gets the Padres or Phillies every year, that's correctible. I'm not from L.A., so I can't answer whether the fans would complain if the natural rivalries were done away with. I just want to see Trout in the playoffs. Hamilton screwed up the first go round.

Trojans still alive. Wow.

If we lose a playoff spot by one game, fair scheduling matters. Also, USC sucks. What a complete implosion.

Who did the Twins get in their two 4-game interleague series?

Can we at least get four guys who throw sinkers? Let our defense keep us in games?

The worst part is there's no stopper. You look at the next guy up and you're like "ugh, okay who's after him?"

Who was your favorite player at every position? C Bob Boone 1B Wally Joyner or Darin Erstad 2B Bobby Grich SS Rick Burleson 3B Doug DeCinces LF Brian Downing CF Mike Trout RF Tim Salmon DH Don Baylor SP Chuck Finley SP Mike Witt SP Jered Weaver SP Bert Blyleven SP Nolan Ryan RP Troy Percival RP Frankie RP Huston Street

Carew was an RBI machine. My friends used to call him 4-0-2-0. No runs. No ribbies.

I put Garret in left because he played that position and isn't he the all-time leader in half our offensive categories? Not to mention his three-run double in Game Seven. I knew Fregosi would be in there, just didn't know what position he played (started following the team in 78). I like Carew at first and Grich at second. DeCinces was a beast in 82 but so was Glaus in a couple seasons. Salmon was my all-time favorite Angel until Trout came along. I wanted to put him in the outfield but Vlad was better and honestly, so was Garret, probably. Garret was the silent assassin.

Downing played LF in 1982. I loved that team. I updated their stats every time I got a boxscore (no internet back then).

Obvious starters.... CF Mike Trout RF Vlad Guerrero LF Garret Anderson DH Don Baylor Not so obvious.... 1B Pujols? Carew? 2B Grich? Kennedy? SS ???? 3B DeCinces? Glaus?

Yep. Think one of the Niekros won 300 games and the other won 200. Hough used to kill us with the Rangers.

You and I can't just learn how to throw a knuckleball, but professional pitchers can. It's a difficult pitch to master, but it's not rocket science. It's the same distance to the catcher's mitt. If he tries it and he can't get it down, what harm was done? It's not like it's going to hurt his arm. I covered a AAA team here in Louisville and the longtime catcher learned how to throw it and he would pitch the ninth whenever the team's bullpen was depleted. And he never embarrassed himself or the team. I'm not suggesting Madison Baumgardner try it. I'm suggesting a guy who has lost 15 mph off his fastball give it a shot. Will he learn it in two weeks? No. But if you have all winter what harm can it do to try?

who lose so much velocity but still know how to pitch....why don't they learn how to throw a knuckleball? Is it a pride thing? An 80 mph fastball would work if you throw a 50 mph knuckler, which are supposed to be more effective the slower they are. I mean if it works, you add three to six years to the end of your career, and all the money that comes with it. If it doesn't, you weren't going to get anyone out the way you were accustomed to.

At first I hated it. Now I really like it. He's putting other studs around Trout. Making us more like Kansas City. I still resent Aybar for the failed suicide bunt at Boston. Who knows what Newcombe could have been. I remember a long line of Angels prospects 10 years ago that never panned out. Remember when we turned down a trade for Miguel Cabrera because we liked Howie so much?

Gene Mauch gave the best answer to this topic. The Angels led the league in sacrifice bunts by a wide margin in 1982. Someone asked Mauch why he was such a bunt-happy manager. He said that it was a misunderstanding. His philosophy was only to bunt when facing a top notch pitcher. Get that run across because chances are you aren't getting a big inning off of the other team's 1 or 2 starter. But if it was a 3, 4 or 5 starter, let er rip. And it should be noted that Mauch had the team to pull it off. Veterans at every position. Bob Boone and Tim Foli were masters at it.

The craziness of this postseason is reminding me of 1986. I was telling someone about the Angels-Red Sox series and I got to thinking. How many people know that the Angels won Game Four that year going into the ninth trailing 3-0? All they remember is Game Five.

And think....Utley plays against the Mets tomorrow, and we could see a Royals/Blue Jays matchup in the next round. More fireworks to come.

I don't know what Utley said after the game, but here's what he should have said.... "I went into the slide thinking one thing and one thing only...break up the double play so we can tie this game. It's the playoffs and we can't go to New York down 2-0. After watching the replay, it's obvious I came in too high and slid too late. I apologize to Tejada and the Mets. My only intention was to get that run home." Everyone can relate to that. If he tries to deny that it was too late or too high, he opens himself up to more criticism.

It's a dirty play made even dirtier by Utley. Came in way too late and way too high. That being said, I'm not sure what Tejada was thinking. No way in hell he was going to get the runner at first.

At least I don't have to witness the inevitable meltdown that was bound to occur at Yankee Stadium. No way these relievers (minus Street) would survive in that shithole with those shithole fans and shithole umps. We could lead 5-0 going into the eighth and to me it would feel like a 1-0 lead.

The only reason to assign blame is so you can fix what's broken for next year. The rotation and bullpen go hand in hand. If your starters don't make it to the seventh more often than not, every flaw in your bullpen gets exposed.

Did we simply have too many schmoes in the bullpen like Morin and Bedrosian, or was our entire bullpen worn down at season's end because we had a below average rotation? Discuss

In 2005 we had to play Game Four in New York one night, Game Five in LA the next, and Game One in Chicago the day after that.

...hoping to inject some of their 2011 mojo. The Cards made the playoffs based on an amazing finish that year. Maybe it's working? Would be a funny juxtaposition of the year they won with a bunch of our ex-players/playoff heroes like Eckstein and Kennedy.