Can C.J. Wilson Say Anything Right?

The Angels made a big splash by signing Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson this offseason. So far, Pujols is hitting .222/.300/.296 without a home run and Wilson keeps raising eyebrows for his off-field actions. Wilson won his Angels debut by allowing one run on three hits over seven innings. The four walks weren’t great but it was a solid debut. Unfortunately for the straight-edge left-hander, his name keeps showing up around the Internet for other reasons.

As one of the more active tweeters in baseball (follow him @str8edgeracer), Wilson attempted to prank former Rangers teammate, Mike Napoli, by posting his phone number on Twitter. It was not well received, to say the least. But more on that in minute. On Friday, Wilson hit the Web again in a Deadspin post titled C.J. Wilson Says The Rangers Wasted His Time.

You can read the whole radio interview transcript over at Deadspin. I’m just going to hit a couple of highlights because I hear those Gawker folks are a litigious bunch. Just kidding you guys, put the phone down. Let’s start with the headline…

"Did you feel slighted that the Texas Rangers used all that money on Yu Darvish and not you?“No not really. They are entitled to do whatever they want. It’s their money. I just…the only thing I was to get upset about was that they kept saying ‘Oh hey we are going to make an offer. We are going to come at you or whatever and they didn’t.’ It kind of wasted my time, which I feel like especially in the off-season my time is invaluable because the longer the off-season the more fun things I can do. If I was able to make a decision in early November then that would have been a lot easier for me. They dragged it out a month making me think they were going to make an offer, but the fact that they didn’t is no big deal. The fact that they paid so much money for Darvish and it’s their prerogative. They can spend that money anyway they want.”"

So, that title is more or less taken out of context, right? I read that answer a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t seeing it through Angels rosey red glasses but I don’t see a problem with what he said. Am I missing something? It sounds like he gave the Rangers time to make an offer that never came. He doesn’t even sound bitter about it.

But I’m sure Deadspin raked in more pageviews making it sound like Wilson was fuming mad at the Rangers. Which is fine. KATE UPTON LEAKED NUDE PHOTOS. I found his explanation of the “Napoli phone number-gate” more interesting…

"Explain Mike Napoli’s cell phone number being released. Was that meant to be a prank or was it an accident?“Well it was a prank of course. I thought the part that was supposed to be funny was that I made it look like I was giving him my phone number, so everybody that would call him would be like ‘Hey C.J. and then he’s like this isn’t C.J.! This is Mike Napoli!’ People would be like oh my gosh it’s Mike Napoli, which is kind of funny when you think about it, but nobody liked it besides me and my friends and my teammates and people on the Rangers didn’t think it was very funny, so whatever. Sometimes you take a risk like that and you risk some sort of negative backlash or whatever, but I’m not an expert level prankster. I’m just a guy that likes to throw pranks once and awhile. I learned my lesson. You can only prank people with a sense of humor, I guess.”"

Was it a good prank? Nope. It was more of a homework assignment for Napoli since he had to change his number. And if they weren’t that close as Napoli claimed, I suppose it was a bit of a jerk move. The extra jab, “You can only prank people with a sense of humor, I guess,” was a nice touch though.

It certainly looks like everything Wilson does off the field is going to be scrutinized. At least he won’t be racking up DUI’s. I’m sure Angels fans won’t care what he says or tweets as he darkhorses his way to the AL Cy Young this year.