Putting A Halo Over The Winter Meetings

It's been 12 years since the then-Anaheim Angels selected infielder Alfredo Amezaga ahead of a 19-year-old kid out of the Dominican Republic in the 13th round of the 1999 amateur draft. That kid's name was Albert Pujols.

Since that time Pujols has developed into one of the greatest players in Major League history, being named an All-Star nine times and capturing three National League Most Valuable Player Awards while Amezaga is a .247 career hitter and has played for four different teams in a nine-year span.

445 home runs later, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim finally got it right.

In a shocking development, Los Angeles and Pujols came to an agreement Thursday, agreeing to a 10-year $250 million contract, that includes a full no-trade clause.

Reagins Resigns

Reagins experienced his ups and downs
while in the Angels' front office.

After a month of consideration Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim general manager Tony Reagins has decided to resign from his current position with the organization. The decision comes just a week after the Angels were eliminated from postseason contention, missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

Although team president John Carpino has said Reagins, who has two-years left on his contract, will stay with the club as and serve as a special assistant to Chairman Dennis Kuhl.

Reagins, 44, was hired by the Angels on Oct. 16, 2007, succeeding long-time GM Bill Stoneman after he decided to step down. His first order was business was stealing Torii Hunter away from the Minnesota Twins in November of '07 and rapidly become the face of the franchise.

Although, he made many controversial moves during his tenure in Anaheim and it started in the winter of 2008. Reagins let closer Francisco Rodriguez sign a three-year $37 million deal with the New York Mets that offseason after a record-breaking, 62-save regular season. He replaced Rodriguez with left-handed soft tosser Brian Fuentes, who despite leading the league with 48 saves in 2009, quickly became unpopular by the city of Anaheim for his inability to close games out cleanly.

At the 2008 July 31st trading deadline, Reagins made a deal with the Atlanta Braves to bring switch-hitting slugger Mark Teixeira to the Big A, sending fan favorite first baseman Casey Kotchman to the National League.

The move indicated the Angels were all in that season, vying for their second World Series title of the decade. They finished the regular season with the first 100 win season in franchise history and the best record in the majors at 100-62. The script wasn't written the way they had planned as they were swept by the Boston Red Sox in the ALDS.

They would eventually lose Texeira to free agency, leaving a gapping hole at first base.

In August of 2009, Reagins acquired the talented left-hander Scott Kazmir from the Tampa Bay Rays, absorbing the final two-years and $22.5 million left on his contract.

During his time in Anaheim, Kazmir was far from his '07 form, when he led the American League in strikeouts with 239. He was 11-17 in his regular season career with the Angels, posting a 5.31 ERA in 188 innings. The lefty maybe be most remembered for his time in Anaheim by making huge throwing error in the Game 6 of the '09 ALCS.

After only brief stint with the club this year, he was released.

Despite all those questionable moves, Reagins might be remembered most for this past offseason. The one time Angels intern traded catcher Mike Napoli and outfielder Juan Rivera to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for All-Star Vernon Wells, agreeing to inherit the final four-years and $81 million left on his deal, much like he did with Kazmir.

Toronto would turn around and trade Napoli to the Angels division rival Texas Rangers.

Wells had a dismal year for the Angels batting .218 and having the worst on-base percentage in the league at .248. While Rivera struggled adapting to a new environment across the boarder, he would be enjoy a trade back to the National League and hit .274 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, driving in 46 runs over 62 games.

Texas, who was not involved in the initial trade, made out with the biggest steal. Napoli batted a career-high .320 with a .414 on-base percentage and added 30 home runs and 75 RBIs to an already potent Rangers' offense. His .631 slugging percentage ranked highest in the majors.

The Angels also found themselves in the discussion for free agents Carl Crawford and Adrian Beltre, after ownership promised a big offseason. Instead Crawford signed with their arch postseason nemesis in Boston and Beltre, who would have been the most dangerous third baseman they had since Troy Glaus, landed in their division with defending American League champion Rangers. Even though Crawford underachieved his first year in Boston, he is still the prototypical Mike Scioscia player.

There was a lot of heading hanging when
Kazmir was on the bump in Anaheim.

His ability to bunt, run, go first to third and play stellar defense would have fit in perfectly with his small ball mentality.

Reagins' biggest moves last offseason came when he signed left-handers Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi.

It was not all bad for the former GM in his time at the helm. He won two AL Western Division titles with a 363-285 record during his tenure. He traded for ace right-hander Dan Haren last season, giving the Halos arguably the best one-two punch atop their rotation.

His final move as GM was no question his best. Before the season's final month he signed ace Jered Weaver to a five-year $85 million extension, keeping him off the open market and away from the vultures in the AL East.

Whether the decision for Reagins to step down was or wasn't a mutual one, its looks to be the right one and MLB is set for a shuffling of the deck this offseason.

Dream Weaving

Trumbo's Time

Weaver is on His Game

Weaver is the early front-runner for the AL
Cy Young Award.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim possess arguably the best one-two punch on the mound in Major League Baseball and right-hander Jered Weaver has been the center of it all.

A year after becoming the first Angels pitcher to lead the Major Leagues in strikeouts with 233 since Nolan Ryan did so in 1977, Weaver is picking up right where he left off. With his team's 5-0 win over the Oakland Athletics Monday night, Weaver has started the season unbeaten at 6-0.

He leads baseball in all three Triple Crown categories with six wins, 0.99 earned run average and 49 punch-outs.

There is no way that Weaver can continue this pace all season long, but at any rate, this has been an unbelievable run to kick off the 2011 campaign.

Weaver is responsible for almost half the Angels' 13 wins this season, finding themselves a game back of the defending American League champion Texas Rangers. The remarkable part of Weaver's run is his ability to finish what he started. He has already thrown two complete games in his six starts, one being shutout.

This start should not come as much of a shock to many after Weaver's breakout 2010 season.

Even though Weaver only went 13-12 last year, he was a victim of many pitchers problems throughout baseball, lack of run support. Weaver was at the bottom of the list when it came to that category. That being said, Weaver established career-bests in ERA (3.01) and innings pitched (224.1).

With the departure of longtime ace John Lackey to Boston prior to the start of last season, the question was raised who would fill that void he had left? Weaver has done his best to put Lackey in the past and claim the label as not only the ace of the Angel staff, but one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Weaver is a former first-round pick by the Angels back in 2004 and is finally reaching expectations. In 2006, after the towering 6-foot-7 righty was called up, he showed a glimpse of the future, starting his young career an impressive 9-0. Since then, Weaver has won as many as 16 games in a single-season and was named to his first All-Star Game in '10, fittingly right in his own backyard.

Still only 28, the future looks bright for Weaver and Co. at the Big A.

The next time Weaver takes the mound, he will be on verge of becoming only the third pitcher in Major League history to win his first seven decisions to begin a season.

The Dream Weaver will look to continue to woo hitters to sleep well into the summer.

Change in the Woods

Wood watches his two-run double Monday night.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim made a tough decision last week by deciding to part ways with their former top prospect, Brandon Wood.

The Angels designated Wood for assignment last Tuesday to make room for shortstop Erik Aybar, who was coming off the disabled list. Days later the last place Pittsburgh Pirates decided to take a chance on the 26-year-old infielder, claiming him off waivers.

The decision by Pittsburgh could prove to be a good one.

It was apparent that the Angels could no longer wait on the development of Wood as an everyday Major Leaguer. The change of scenery could help Wood become a serviceable Major League player in the Steel City.

Wood was named the 2005 Minor League Player of the Year, where he slugged 43 home runs and drove in 115 runs at A-Rancho Cucamonga. Along with that success came extreme high expectations for the Texas native -- expectations he never quiet lived up to.

Los Angeles gave the third baseman job to Wood at the start of 2010 season after Chone Figgins signed a five-year deal that offseason with the division rival Seattle Mariners. It was supposedly Wood's time to shine in Anaheim. Wood never got comfortable and finished the season batting a dismal .146. Wood's career average in the big leagues is not much better, batting just .169 in 468 at-bats. Those number don't give the Pirates any reason to believe the move to Pittsburgh will be any different.

Don't count Wood out just yet.

Wood is heading to the Pirates with not many expectations, unlike when he was coming up through the Angels' system. With the Pirates also being in the cellar of the National League Central most of the past two decades there is not a lot of media attention, finding himself in a spot where he can finally start over and try to establish a solid Major League career.

Wood has often drawn the comparison to Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt. Schmidt was a .197 career hitter after his first 400 at-bats in the Major Leagues, but went on to hit 548 career home runs and a three-time NL Most Valuable Player Award recipient.

By no means is Wood the next Mike Schmidt, but history shows success can be achieved after such a slow start. The change of scenery is exactly what Wood needs to succeed at the big league level.

Wood made his Pirate debut Monday night in Washington, going 1-for-4 with a two-run double in the team's 4-2 victory over the Nationals. Even though it's only one game, it's a step in the right direction for the former first-round pick.

If Wood does not succeed this time around, he might need to be looking for another job soon. The third baseman will need to go back to what got him to the big leagues in the first place, hitting with good wood.

An Angel that Earned His Wings

Anderson receives a curtain call
during his 10 RBI night.

Former Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim outfielder Garret Anderson has decided to call it a career. The announcement was made official on Tuesday morning.

Anderson played 17 seasons in the big leagues with three different teams, including the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers the last two seasons. Although, Anderson will always be known for his 15 fabulous years in Anaheim.

Anderson, a native of Los Angeles was drafted in the fourth round of the 1990 amateur draft out of Kennedy High School. Little did we know that he would become an immortal angel.

In his 15 seasons as a member of the Angels, Anderson became the franchise all-time leader in games played (2,013), hits (2,368), doubles (489), runs (1024), extra-base hits (796), total bases (3,743) and runs batted in (1,292). Some consider Anderson the greatest player in franchise history and there is no argument here.

During his tenure, the Angels made six playoff appearances with five of them coming as American League Western Division champions. They made two ALCS appearances winning one of them in 2002, heading to their first World Series in franchise history.

That season the Angels made the postseason by winning the AL Wild Card and eventually defeating the San Francisco Giants in an epic seven-game series with the help of Anderson's bases-clearing double to seal the victory in the decisive seventh game.

Anderson was a player that flew under the radar most of his career, which is just the way he would have wanted it, but was quietly a one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball.

From 1996-06 only two players had more hits than Anderson's 1,956 throughout that time period, Derek Jeter (2,138) and Alex Rodriguez (2,023). Anderson stole the show at the at the 2003 Midsummer Classic winning the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award. In August of 2007, Anderson made the New York Yankees pitching staff his personal batting practice session, going 4-for-6, driving in 10 runs. The last four came on a grand slam he hit off of left-handed reliever Sean Henn to cap his amazing night.

Anderson was designated for assignment by the Dodgers on Aug. 8 of last year after only batting .181 in a pinch-hitting role. That would be the last time we would see Anderson in a Major League uniform.

Anderson's No. 16 will soon be in the right field bleachers in Anaheim, never to be worn again and just maybe one day Anderson will reach the pearly gates of baseball heaven, Cooperstown.