Marcel has the Angels and Rangers tied at 87-75 which would force a one-game playoff game to decide the division champ and which team makes the playoffs. Even with a potential extra wild card team, Tampa would have first dibs according to Marcel.

There are some issues with this system, of course. Marcel probably isn’t giving the Rangers new Japanese ace Yu Darvish enough credit. Marcel doesn’t park-adjust so it shouldn’t matter if you think Albert Pujols will hit more home home runs at Angel Stadium than he did at Busch last year. But it might not give Pujols enough credit for a bounce-back season, either, even though he was still pretty terrific in 2011.

What does it all mean? Frankly, it just means I spend too much time on the Internet and this is a slow time for baseball news. You’re welcome.

H/T: @enosarris for pointing out the Marcel link and I was joking about adding more playoff teams.

(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 #3 prospect, and after 7 years at various levels in the Angels’ system his chance to shine at the highest level has finally arrived. He’s taking over the reins at the hot corner from the Angels single most valuable player last season, Chone Figgins, who left for Seattle via free agency. To say that he has big shoes to fill, after Figgins lead the 2009 Angels in both UZR and WAR, would be an understatement. Expecting him to do it may be another matter entirely.

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(Photo Source: Yardbarker.com)

Before the 2009 season, Kendry Morales was the much-hyped prospect from Cuba that was stuck first behind Casey Kotchman, and then Mark Teixeira at first base. With Kotchman traded for Teixeira, and the Angels unable to resign Tex after the 2008 season, it was up to Morales to give the Angels a solid, power bat at first base. As everyone knows, he delivered better than most anyone would’ve realistically expected him to.

Morales had seen playing time with the major league club, registering over 400 Plate Appearances between 2006 and 2008, though he only compiled a .249/.302/.408 line, which is not exactly impressive for 1B. The following 622 PA’s changed all that, when Morales put up a .306/.355/.569 line and finished 5th in MVP voting. While not the most valuable player the Angels had last season (that title goes to the departed Chone Figgins, unfortunately), Morales was clearly a big part of the offense. This season, with Figgins gone north to Seattle and Torii Hunter coming off of a career year, he’s going to have to play an even bigger role. The question, of course, is if he will repeat his numbers, or will regression sink it’s nasty teeth into Morales’ 2010 numbers?

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