Los Angeles Angels Luis Valbuena hoping to play his way into line-up.

The Los Angeles Angels made a lot of moves this off-season acquiring Cameron Maybin and Danny Espinosa to fill two of their major holes at 2B and LF.  They added some depth with Ben Revere & Martin Maldonado as well as Jesse Chavez.

The move the Los Angeles Angels made in late January though, may pay the bigger dividends than all of the others.  On January 24th the Angels signed former Houston Astros first/third baseman Luis Valbuena to a two-year deal.  Valbuena provides a left-handed power bat who can play first and third base and also DH.

Valbuena is an eight-year veteran who has played for four other teams including the Cubs, Indians, and Seattle as well as Houston over the past two seasons.  For the Astros last year as a platoon player Valbuena hit .260 with 13 homers and 40 RBI’s with a .357 OBP which is impressive.  The most impressive thing about Valbuena’s numbers last season is that he did them in only 292 at-bats (full-time players usually have close to 600 at bats).

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For his career Valbuena has 83 homers and 269 RBI’s and is a career .232 hitter.  However the Angels like him for his 54 homers he has hit in the past three years (average of 18 per season).  Valbuena is expected to get a lot of action at all three positions 1B, 3B, and DH.  There has even been talk that Valbuena may bump C.J. Cron out at first base.

While I think that would be a mistake for the Angels to give up on C.J. Cron, if Valbuena plays well this Spring he will cut into Cron’s playing time.  However, the fact that he can play third base and also DH means that manager Mike Scioscia will have some line-up options with Valbuena and also right-hand hitting Jefry Marte who can also play first, third, DH, and also left field.

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So far this Spring Valbuena is batting .308 with no homers and four RBI’s.  Cron is doing even better hitting .455 with one homer and one RBI.  As for Marte he is hitting .308 with two RBI’s.  So Scioscia will have a tough choice when it comes to choosing a first baseman, but Valbuena’s ability to hit from the left side give him an extra advantage over Cron and Marte.

Next: Angels have many questions this Spring

Whatever happens Luis Valbuena will be one of the keys to the Angels success.  Especially with Albert Pujols on the mend Valbuena will be a good stand in at DH until he returns.  Good Luck Luis and welcome to the Angels.