Lou E Ville

Remember all the gritty, smart players we had in 2002? Why are we now the dumbest team in the majors? We make more boneheaded plays than any other two teams combined.

Aytard

Bud Norris once allowed a home run with the bases loaded. All four runners stayed on third, afraid to score on Bud Norris.

Bud Norris throws a knuckle ball with one finger. It clocks in at 99 on the gun.

Bud Norris once stared down Mike Trout and limited him to a single.

Bud Norris doesn't call the wrong number. You answered the wrong phone. There used to be a street named after Bud Norris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Bud Norris. Bud Norris has a grizzly bear carpet in his room. The bear isn't dead. It's just afraid to move. Bud Norris has already been to Mars. That's why there are no signs of life there. Jesus walked on water, but Bud Norris can swim through land. Bud Norris and Superman once fought each other on a bet. The loser had to start wearing his underwear on the outside of his pants. Bud Norris doesn't flush the toilet. He simply scares the poo out of it. Bud Norris once urinated in a semi truck's gas tank as a joke. That truck is now known as Optimus Prime. Death once had a near Bud Morris experience. Ghosts sit around campfires and tell Bud Norris stories. Bud Norris can slam a revolving door. When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Bud Norris. Bud Norris once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are known today as giraffes. Bud Norris once got bit by a rattle snake....after three days of pain and agony, the rattle snake died.

A scant few picked up on your vibe, Chuck, but here goes.... The Angels can get MVP production from a guy making (what does Trout make) but can't get average production from 25 million dollar guys.

Aaron Hernandez will be released from prison.

I know I'll be in the minority here, but I think the crash and burn this team did rests mostly on the shoulders of Hamilton. We lost Greinke, dumped Haren and Santana and, using Morales, we replaced them with three question marks. The Hamilton signing was supposed to make the offense mask the weaknesses in the pitching staff. If he hits .280 and hits 35 homers with 100 RBI, we're all slightly disappointed. No one expected this tank job, and it has put pressure on other parts of the team that couldn't handle it.

LOL. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the 9th and 10th innings?

I see a couple of pieces being traded off, like Downs and Howie and either Trumbo or Bourjos and maybe even Frieri. I see us tanking pretty bad for a couple of weeks. Especially if Albert elects to have surgery, which I hope he does. But then, with no more pressure on them, I see us playing halfway decently down the stretch. Maybe even playing .500 in August and September. Would be a nice consolation prize to play spoiler to the A's, Rangers or Red Sox.

Mike I told you to be more subtle than this. I'll do the heavy lifting here you just manage the team.

Scioscia and Dipoto AREN'T on the same page and that is the cancer eating away at this team. Players know these things. I'm sure you have players loyal to one or the other, and this is the result. Arte kind of swooped in late last year and said both men were safe, but truth be told he might have been better served getting one or the other out of there. I'm guessing Dipoto because of Scioscia's contract, and I'm good with that. Dipoto strikes me as the kind of GM that Steinbrenner would have fired long ago.

You watch....Hamilton will start hitting AFTER we trade off the surrounding pieces.

Brandon here's what got me thinking about this question. We had a decent team last year. We had a better record than the Tigers and swept them in Anaheim in September. We blew a bunch of games earlier in the season where everyone was blaming Scioscia (the horrible game in Texas to name one). Well, if we blame Scioscia for defeats, we have to give him credits for the positive trends, right? My thought process was that Scioscia lets a couple of games go early in the season to figure out who he can rely on later in the year. Is that realistic?

AO wasn't 2004 the year they actually got off to a great start, but Glaus and a couple others got hurt and then we almost blew a huge lead before getting it together at the end? Glaus came back in September and we came back and beat Oakland?

As in, before 2002.... When Mike Scioscia took over as manager this franchise was a couple hundred games under .500. He got us to the brink before this year, where it looks like we're about to fall back on hard times again. My question is this....for those who remember what it was like before Scioscia, it seems like two out of every three years we would get off to a pretty good start, then more often than not fade in September. Under Scioscia it seems like the opposite, we get off to slow starts more often than not, but almost every year he's been here we have kicked ass in September. Why do you think this is? What is it about his managing style that flipflopped one of a franchise's biggest personality traits? Has the schedule changed? I know the Angels used to get a lot of home games in April because the Midwest teams would have problems with rainouts and even snow cancellations. Does his National League style of ball take longer for teams to "get"? Is it more about personnel decisions than anything to do with Scioscia? What say you?

Stop! Hamiltime.

Yeah those jokes are....wearing thin?

Especially that close to the heart.

Can honestly say in 40 years of closely following sports I've never heard of a player going to the DL because of an armpit. If this isn't fodder for a writer penning our epitaph later on this year I don't know what is.

Anyone see the movie Real Genius? We have to sedate him, then plant a tiny device in one of his molars. He wakes up the next day and thinks he's hearing the voice of God. "Josh? Josh? I want you to stop swinging at balls out of the strike zone, Josh." Hamilton then says "Okay, God, I will." Then, to seal the deal, say "Josh? Stop touching yourself."

If we traded Howie and Ernesto to the Tigers, what could we get in return?

Howie to the Pirates for two pitchers.

The definitive answer on this debate is this....Yes, we trade Kendrick, but only if they agree to take Aybar, too. /thread