'Sup (Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-US PRESSWIRE)

When ESPN released their staff picks for 2012 on Wednesday, the Halos were voted the prettiest girl at the dance. Of the 50 polled, 18 selected the Angels as champs followed by the Rangers (8), Rays (7), Tigers (6), Phillies (5), Yankees (3), Cardinals (2) and a lonely vote for the Red Sox. It might be worth noting the Red Sox were last year’s overwhelming favorite. Let’s just pretend I never wrote that last part.

The Angels even have a good mix of support from the ESPN staff. From ex-players (Aaron Boone, Doug Glanville, Barry Larkin, Mark Mulder) to former GM/managers (Jim Bowden, Terry Francona) to stat folks (Steve Berthiaume, Christina Kahrl, Mark Simon), there is a diversity of love for the Halos.

Speaking of the stat folks, the Fangraphs staff also made their predictions Wednesday. The Angels led the way again but in a much tighter margin. The Angels (7) and Rangers (6) were the clear cream of the crop with the Rays (3), Yankees (2), Phillies (1) and Diamondbacks (1) in the “also ran” ranks.

It must be contagious. On Tuesday night’s The Baseball Show podcast, we all picked the Angels to win the World Series. Scary, huh?

Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-US PRESSWIRE

ESPN unveiled it’s top 10 players for the 2012 season on Tuesday. Angels fans have heard plenty about the top player on the list this offseason. The Angels mystery teamed their way to landing Albert Pujols this winter thanks to Arte Moreno’s rather deep pockets. While Pujols is coming off of his worst professional season (37 home runs, .299/.366/.541), he did fracture his wrist and hit and hit the 15-DL. A normal human player would take a while to get his power back from that type of injury. Pujols rubbed some dirt on it and finished 5th in NL MVP voting.

The ESPN experts seem to think he can rebound to his usual Pujolsian self in 2012. Here’s the criteria for their project…

To compile a top-500 ranking, 34 ESPN experts, polled over the final two weeks of February, started with a list of the top 600 players projected to play in the majors in 2012. Using a 0-to-10 scale, they evaluated only the quality of each player for the 2012 season.

Pujols finished with 9.62 followed by Roy Halladay (9.56) and Miguel Cabrera (9.50). Miggy is a damn fine hitter in his own right but will probably have a zany Scooby Doo type adventure at third base this season while Pujols is still an elite defender at first. PECOTA is projecting a 9.0 WARP (wins above replacement player) season for Pujols in 2012. Well, 8.4 in the last spreadsheet update I have but it’s still by far the best WARP for a hitter. Joey Votto and Ryan Braun have the second best projection with a 5.8 WARP. So Baseball Prospectus’ projection system is anticipating a clear MVP season for Pujols in his first year with the Halos. Huzzah!

If you don’t want to click over to ESPN, allow me to do the work for you. Here’s how the Angels players shook out in the rankings.

1. Pujols
24. Jered Weaver
35. Dan Haren
58. C.J. Wilson
107. Ervin Santana
125. Howie Kendrick
143. Peter Bourjos
155. Kendrys Morales
162. Mike Trout
163. Jordan Walden
187. Erick Aybar
205. Mark Trumbo
210. Torii Hunter
240. Scott Downs
271. Chris Iannetta
341. Maicer Izturis
351. Bobby Abreu (hahaha)
365. LaTroy Hawkins
438. Alberto Callaspo
460. Hasanori Takahashi
494. Vernon Wells

For those keeping score at home, the Angels and Rays had the most players in the top 500 with 21. The Angels average of their top 10 players ranked 5th behind the Yankees, Rangers, Red Sox and Phillies.

Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-US PRESSWIRE

Vernon Wells might be enjoying a pleasant spring (.276/.364/.448) but let’s not crack the champagne to celebrate his return from the dead just yet. Wells posted one of the worst seasons by an everyday player in recent memory hitting .218/.248/.412 last year with the Angels. And the fine folks at ESPN reminded Angels fans about that on Tuesday when they rolled out their Top 500 Players for 2012. In the first installment (read 401-500), Wells hung on to the list by a thread at 494.

Four. Hundred. And. Ninety. Freaking. Four.

But at least the Angels only owe him $63 million over the next three years. If it’s any consolation, I hear former Angels GM Tony Reagins is really assistant managing the crap out of that In N Out Burger. While spring stats are mainly meaningless, Wells hasn’t looked like a lost cause. So he can’t be that bad, right? Maybe.

Here’s the gist of the exercise…

To compile a top-500 ranking, 34 ESPN experts started with a list of the top 600 players projected to play in the majors in 2012. Using a 0-to-10 scale, they evaluated only the quality of each player for the 2012 season. Players who are expected to miss the 2012 with an injury, like Victor Martinez, were not included. Players’ ages were listed by what their in-season age will be as of July 1, 2012.

Naturally, I turned to one of the ESPN experts to see if Wells is really that bad. The wise, earringed, fedora wearing (and birthday boy on Tuesday) Baseball Prospectus-er, Kevin Goldstein, shared the bad news…

Might be. That’s only 16.5 better players per team. RT @MnkysThrwngDrts: @Kevin_Goldstein Gotcha. Is he really 494 bad?

— Kevin Goldstein (@Kevin_Goldstein) March 20, 2012

Yikes. The projections seem to agree. Only Bill James has Wells OBP-ing over .300 in 2012. And at .311, we’re not talking about a game changer. At least not in a positive way. His 3.8% walk rate in 2011 is a concern. Stephen Hawking did more walking last year than Vernon Wells. *submits that joke to The Big Bang Theory, cashes check, hangs head in shame* But is Wells really, really that bad? He did just hit 31 home runs and .273/.331/.515 as recently as 2010.

Yes, he is. Frankly, I’m getting tired of telling you this over and over. I’m not sure if Reagins knew what Fangraphs was at the time of the Wells disaster trade but a cursory glance at splits might have saved his job/self-esteem. In Wells’ resurgent 2010 season, he hit 21 home runs and .320/.363/.627 at his hitter friendly home park in Toronto. On the road, Wells hit 10 homers with a .224/.299/.400 line. So after moving him to a more pitcher friendly home park with two other pitcher friendly parks in the division, why should we be surprised Wells was awful in 2011?

I don’t know what “it” is, but Vernon Wells lost “it.” Is there hope? Sure. Wells did work with hitting instructor extraordinaire, Rudy Jaramillo, in the offseason. Maybe Rudy was inspirational. Maybe he had some magic beans. Maybe he gave Mike Trout his spring training flu.

Either way, Angels fans can look forward to Vernon Wells manning the outfield to start the season. The 494th best player in baseball.