The Los Angles Angels announced on Tuesday that they would be picking up the club opions on Vladimir Guerrero and John Lackey. They will however not be picking up the option on long time Angel Garrett Anderson.

Guerrero will be earning $15 million in 2009 while Lackey will be picking up $9 millon.

Anderson will be earning a $3 million buyout after the club declined his $14 million option.

The Angels also announced that 34-year-old outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. will have surgery Tuesday to repair the patella tendon in his left knee, and catcher Mike Napoli will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder

If the Angels wern’t the top team in the American league before today, they are now. The team has reportedley finished a trade that would send Casey Kotchman and minor league pitcher Stephen Marek to the Atlanta Braves for slugging switch-hitter Mark Teixeira.

Teixeira was hitting .283 with 20 home runs, and will bring in the power bat at first base that the Angels have longed for.

Casey Kotchman was hitting .287 with 12 homers for the Angels, and will be a solid addition to the Braves ballclub. Stephen Marek, 25, is a  right-hander who has gone 2-6 with a 3.66 ERA in 34 relief appearances for Double-A Arkansas this year.

Closer Francisco Rodriguez has lost his salary arbitration case with the Angels and will be paid $10 million dollars for the 2008 season.  K-Rod was asking for $12.5 milliong.  He has recently said that he doesn’t see himself being with the Angels after this season because if they really wanted him to be there longterm, they would have already signed him to a longterm contract.

Hopefully K-Rod will just go out there and play baseball for the Angels this season and be the player that he is capable of being.

Angels Blog

Juan Rivera and the Los Angeles Angels agreed on a one year contract with $2.025 million dollars on Thursday.  Rivera will be competing in the outfield for some playing time but right now it is hard to tell how many at bats he will be getting if everyone stays healthy.

Look for the Angels to possibly make a move trading Rivera or another player at some points this season.  Just a little hunch I have.

Angels Blog

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No matter if you are a casual or die-hard Angels fan, we feel that you are going to really enjoy Angelshomeplate.  We also encourage everyone to leave comments, and take part in the discussions about the Los Angeles Angels.  In the future, we will be looking for a couple of Angels fans that would like to contribute here at Angelshomeplate.  So start off by leaving some comments, and then who knows, you might just be able to join our little team!