Since the Angels will be seeing former ace John Lackey tonight for the third time this season, I thought it might be interesting to look at players that left the Angels this season for greener, or not-so-greener pastures. The list of names is a bit of a long one, including the former ace and World Series Game Seven Winner, the person most considered the Face of the Franchise in recent years, as well as the Halo’s 2009 MVP and one of the best arms in the pen. Mixed into that group were people that had some potential but never [...]

Since I was interested to hear what people would think of my Crazy Suggestions, I linked to the post on the Angels message board I post on to get some reaction over there. Needless to say, there was plenty of criticism, and most people thought it was at best overreaching. Fair enough, and I know I thought as much as the ideas were spinning in my head, but why call them crazy suggestions if they’re not, you know, crazy? Anyway, since I know only a few of my readers are from the message boards, I thought I’d give the rest [...]

I’m calling these crazy suggestions, because they’re things I’ve only been thinking about for a couple hours, and I don’t know how willing the front office will be to do most, if any of them. Still, at least at the moment, I think they’re a few moves we could make that could go some distance towards improving the team. Some of it will be contingent on the front office opening their wallets, which they haven’t always been willing to do, and some of it will demand a little creative thinking on the part of Scioscia and the front office, but [...]

(Photo Credit: Yardbarker.com)
A number of places, including Mike DiGiovanna from the Los Angeles Times, have said that the Angels are quite interested (“at or near the top of the Angels’ wish list” was the exact quote from DiGiovanna) in acquiring Nats 1B Adam Dunn. To tell you how I would feel about this move, I’ve come up with something that I think would make my feelings quite clear.
Currently, I do not own an Angels jersey. This is mostly due to a lack of money, and because I’m weird in that I want things exactly how I want them. The idea, [...]

If only we could’ve convinced St. Louis to let us host last year’s All-Star Game instead of the 2010 incarnation, perhaps we’d have more people worthy of representing our team in their home park. As I pointed out in my bit for the Call to the Pen article, the Angels had eight different hitters with a WAR above 2.5 at the end of last season. As we pass the midway point in the month of June, the don’t have a single person with a war above 2.5, including the pre-injury Kendry Morales. Torii Hunter’s current 2.0 mark would put him [...]

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 [...]

(Photo Credit: Yardbarker.com)
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 [...]

(Photo Credit: Yardbarker.com)
Hopefully you’re able to read this through the tears. With a swing and a jump, the Angels season may have broken as badly as Morales’ leg did yesterday. As of this morning, Morales was second on the team in both wOBA and WAR behind only Mike Napoli, and lead the team in AVG, HR, and RBI (among players with at least 100 PA). In short, he was a huge piece of our offense, and it’s hard to imagine he’s not out for the season now.
Unfortunately, this may have a big impact on 2011 as well. It depends on [...]

(Photo Credit: Yardbarker.com)
This may be the Player Preview I’m dreading the most, simply because it may be the hardest. Almost everyone else that I’ll be looking at has some sort of MLB track record, even if it’s as small as Kendry Morales’ 279 games. Brandon Wood is an entirely different case, entering 2010 without even 1/3rd of the games played at the Major League level, and so we don’t have much of a history at this level to look at.
His minor league history, of course, is quite well-known among Angels fans, at one point rating as high as Baseball America’s [...]

(Photo Credit: Yardbarker.com)
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 [...]