Well I asked the question yesterday if Sunday nights game was a thriller or just another stepping stone to yet again crushing Angels defeat by the Red Sox. That answer was a successful bunt away from being yes.
Had Erik Aybar made contact with the baseball on the attempted squeeze play; this series would have been on the verge of being all time great. But in the end the Angels yet again were not able to come through we needed to the most and with some spotty defensive plays are out of the playoff before reaching their ultimate goal of world series.
I will not go out and say this season was a disaster. The team won more game then it has ever had in it history and they gave its fans entertainment throughout the year. Although I would not deem this year as a success since it generated such lofty expectations.
All is not lost with the failure of the season setting into the fans and the players. There will be some tough decisions the organization will have to make. The team has shown in the past to allow players to walk from the team when they think they have internal replacements. This year is not so clear what they will do. Garret Anderson is one of my all-time favorite Angels but I think he is living on borrowed time; I think its time to either play Kendry Morales or trade him. Frankie Rodriguez, Juan Riviera and John Garland I think will all get better deals from teams elsewhere I can’t see them returning to the team next year.
As for contract extensions, Vlad is the oldest 34 year old I have ever seen. I think we need to see what he could do as a primary DH over a full season before investing lots of money in to his rickety knees. Lackey is very emotional and is really fired up since he just lost a decisive game but I think he will calm down and wants to stay with the Angels. The organization needs to try very thing they can to keep him around for a long time. Figgins needs a contract extension now when his value is down and then later we can trade him since there are lots of teams interested in since services. With Juan presumably leaving the team Mathews have knee surgery and hopefully Angels not picking up GA’s option Chone can slide over to play LF. This would leave 3rd base open for FA or Brandon Wood who seemed to be turning the corner at the end of the year.
As for free agency there are a couple of needs we could fill. If they could some how find enough money to and convince Tex to resign it would solve a lot of problems. Although all the quote he has been saying have not sounded to promising; calling this 2 month with the Angels a nice “holiday” and the angels were not even on his list of team to go to before the trade. There is no great impact 3rd baseman so I would stick with either Figgins or Wood. As for OF I would be shocked it they sign another one this off-season. Starting Pitching will be interesting since there will be a hole at the five spot again and Adenheart proved he was not ready. Do they spend big buck to bring in CC Sabathia or just fill it in with a middle of the line guy like they did with Garland.
My preference would be to resign Tex over CC let GA, Juan, K-Rod and Garland all walk. Make Wood and Morales everyday players and get rid of our hitting coach Mickey Hatcher, which I have been calling for going on 6 years now.
Here is the lineup:
Figgins LF, Howie Kendrick 2B, Tex 1B, Vlad DH, Hunter CF, Morales RF, Napoli C, Wood 3rd, Aybar/Izturis SS ell I
