Time for Free For All Friday, a time to talk about all the Angels-related topics that slipped through the cracks this week, as well as any other totally unrelated topic you feel like bringing up.
Here are a few topics for you to discuss amongst yourselves:
- I saw an interesting discussion on Twitter started by our friends at AngelsWin.com. The question was, given the recent news about MLB wanting to move the Astros to the AL West, which team we Angel fans would prefer join the division. This is a tough choice for me because you have to think about it both long-term and short-term. Obviously, getting the Astros just makes the division easier for the Halos for the next few years whereas getting the Diamondbacks or even the Rockies would make it harder. The three are probably all on the same level in terms of being long-term threats, at least in my mind. What concerns me about Houston though is that it means more travel and more early games for the Angels. I’m sure the Rangers would love to have a regional rival, but it inconveniences every other team in the division. The Diamondbacks would be better for the Angels since Phoenix is relatively close, but I think Colorado would be a compromise everyone could live with and still possibly even be a rival for Texas. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’ve spent a lot of time in Colorado and I know folks there don’t care too much for Texans, though I don’t know if it goes both ways. In any event, it sounds like the Angels could be getting company in the AL West very soon… assuming the evening out of the leagues doesn’t include the elimination of the current divisional structure.
- With the Red Sox hitting the skids in the last week or two, I have noticed a few folks wondering if the Halos might actually still have a shot at the wild card. In a word, no. Let’s be real here, the Angels are seven games out of the wild card and have 19 games to play. In a best case scenario, the Angels go 15-4 to finish with 93 wins. That means the Red Sox would have to go 7-12 for the Halos to win the wild card outright. That isn’t totally out of the question since the BoSox do play nothing but AL East foes the rest of the way, but I have a hard time believing they would be so good all season long only to fall apart now. Plus, the Angels probably aren’t going 15-4, and if they do, they’ll probably win the AL West. Believe me, I’m totally in favor of the Red Sox losing a lot, but I doubt it will result in the Angels making the post-season instead of them.
- Jerome Williams is quickly becoming a cult hero amongst Angel fans and I want to jump on the bandwagon too, but I just don’t think I’m going to be able to buy in until I see how he does against a team that can actually hit. Thus far he has faced a terrible Baltimore team and twice gone up against Seattle, the worst offense in baseball. Not exactly great litmus tests. What really sucks though is that Jerome isn’t likely to be tested any harder the rest of the season since he is on schedule to face a lousy Oakland lineup twice and Toronto once. Now, the Jays can really hit, so that will be the best challenge he will face, but I don’t know if that will be enough for the Angel front office to pencil him into a rotation spot for 2012 if he is able to keep the Toronto lineup in check.
- I watch a lot of MLB.tv now and one of the annoying parts about an otherwise awesome product is that they repeat the same ads over and over again. I’ve already made fun of the laughable Umpire Camp ad in this space before, but the one other ad that really confuses me is the one for Revlon. How is the people who watch baseball on their computer the target demographic for womens’ cosmetics? I may be a tech geek in my day job, but I do have a marketing degree from an Ivy League university, so I think I have at least a little bit of an idea about marketing and for the life of me I can’t figure out why Revlon would waste their money on MLB.tv ads. I feel like that is the equivalent of running an ad for motor oil during an episode of The View.
Or just feel free to bring up a topic of your own. I don’t really care (as long as you keep it clean) because it’s Friday.