Much of the coverage surrounding the acquisition of Dan Haren, and the subsequent departure of Joe Saunders, was centered around who “won” the trade. That is, which team received the most value in the swap of players. Lost in some of that shuffle, it seemed to me, was any real analysis of what Haren’s presence, and Saunders disappearance, does to the Angels rotation. After the jump, we’ll fix that oversight.

In the first of three parts I wanted to do looking at where the Angels are now that the All-Star Break is upon us, I thought it would be fitting to look at what may be the brightest spot on this team: the pitching.

In the comments to my article on options to replace Morales, a sort of debate has begun on whether or not any trade should be made at all. To sum up my feelings on it (though you can read the full article, along with the comments that followed it, here), I don’t think the Angels should make a move to replace Morales when there are so many other holes on the team.
The rotation has stabilized a bit, with Weaver solid almost all season long, and Ervin Santana getting better as the season has progressed and showing signs of the pitcher [...]

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It’s time for another AL West Matchup Preview! This time the Angels go into Seattle looking to continue their winning ways against their AL West foes, and we welcome SodoMojo’s Lead Blogger, Griffin Cooper, to give his take on this matchup. As for our take here at Halo Hangout:
In the second matchup with Seattle in as many weeks, the pitching matchups take on a decidedly different look. Both teams avoid the other’s ace, as both Felix Hernandez and Jered Weaver made starts on Thursday. The Angels, luckily, also get to avoid Cliff Lee, who utterly dominated them the [...]

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While I am fully aware that the title of this is going to upset my Saunders-supporting readers out there, nine innings of good pitching doesn’t erase the nearly 400 previous innings of sub-par pitching. With that out of the way, though, there is no question that this was easily Saunders’ best performance of the season, and probably his best since May 9th of last year when he pitched a shutout against the Royals. In fact, for Saunders it was only the third complete game and second shutout of his career.
Whether over his head or not, for the Angels [...]

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The time has come to unveil something I’ve been working on behind the scenes with some of my fellow FanSided bloggers! Since the AL West is likely to be such a tight race this season, I thought it would be good to take a little deeper look at the games we’ll be playing against our division rivals. Along with my take on the matchups from the Angels perspective, one of the bloggers from the opposing team’s blog will be giving us his take from his perspective, and then each of us will give our predictions for the series.
So, [...]

Wednesday night’s pitching matchup at Fenway underscores the alternate (some might say “cheap”) route the Angels took during the off-season in putting the team together.  82 million dollar man and former Angel lead dog John Lackey will take the mound against Joel Piniero, who was on sale during the off-season.
Entering the 2010 season, it was not hard to see the value in getting  a guy like Piniero for less than one-fifth the total cost of Lackey, while also collecting two high draft picks because of his departure to Boston.
Joel Piniero (2009): 214 IP, 218 H, 105:27 K:BB, 3.49 ERA, 15-12 [...]

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I’d like to take you back a bit, to a simpler time. A better time. A happy time. It was a mere 204 days sooner, and the Angels were getting the monkey that is the Red Sox in the playoffs off their back, finishing up a sweep at Fenway to advance to the ALCS. It happened in dramatic fashion, with the pitching letting us down early, but the offense storming back to win the game by scoring three runs in the 9th, and off closer Jonathan Papelbon no less. It was amazing, and sweet, and nearly as good [...]

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Winning streak? Gone. Get on a series-winning streak? Nope. Over .500? Not anymore!
What went wrong in Thursday night’s game is pretty clear: Joe Saunders only lasted 2.2 innings and got blasted for 5 runs on six hits with 2 walks and no strikeouts. It marked the third bad start in four games for Saunders, who finished the night with an ERA of 5.82. Not exactly great. It’s far too soon for me to talk about how right I was in my prediction of Saunders’ performance this season, but whether you thought he’d repeat 2008 or not, this start [...]

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After a 3-7 start to the season, who would’ve guessed the Angels would be heading back home after their first road trip riding a three-game winning streak, and sweeping their series with the Blue Jays? I know I didn’t. Weaver went into Toronto having won his first two starts of the season, and up until the April 14th game against the Yankees, he was the only Angels pitcher to take part in a winning effort. Apparently, a trip to the great white north was just what the team needed.
Weaver won again in the first game against the Jays, [...]