Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years! While most of us were enjoying the holidays, the Angels were hard at work as they signed free agent reliever Brian Fuentes to a two-year contract. The contract is does include a club option for 2011 as well. Fuentes is expected to take over the closers role for the Halos.

Fuentes signed for $17.5 million for two years with a $9 million option forthe option year in 2011.

Welcome to the Halos Brian!

It’s been a while since we have blogged about the Los Angeles Angels here at Angels Home Plate. Right now most of the talk going around is about Mark Teixeira and Francisco Rodriguez. It will be interesting to see if the Angels management offers the money to keep Tex in a an Angels uniform but right now I would say it doesn’t look to good.

There are rumors about Teixeira going to the Washington Nationals, Baltimore Orioles, or the Boston Red Sox. All I say is keep him away from the Red Sox!

As far as K-Rod, it appears that he is destined to be a New York Met. The Mets are currently looking K-rod’s medical records and will make an offer after viewing them.

In other news, Brandon Wood was released from his winter team in the Dominican. Wood was having a terrible time hitting the ball as he hit .167 in 48 at-bats for Estrellas before being released. He is still one of the top prospects for the Angels however and should see quite a bit of playing time next season.

Angels News

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

I wasn’t able to get Saturday’s game in until now, so I’ll just do that one with Sunday’s game.

After putting on a absolute show in the first game of the series with The Nation, The Angels took Game 2 with some timely hitting and of course, strong pitching. Josh Beckett was incredibly tough as usual, and was backed by Kevin Youkilis’ 17th home run in the second inning. It would stay 2-0 Boston until the 7th, and that’s when things would get dramatic. Vladimir Guerrero crushed a Beckett fastball into the bullpen in left field to put the Angels on the board. This would cut the Sox lead in half. The Angels were wearing Beckett out, and the next two hitters, Torii Hunter and Garret Anderson singled. After Reggie Willits bunted the runners over, Beckett intentionally walked Howie Kendrick. Then on a 1-0 count, pinch-hitter Erick Aybar tripled down the right field line to clear the bases and send Angel Stadium into a frenzy. They had gotten to Josh Beckett, and he would be done after he finished the 8th inning. A relief for Joe Saunders, who had pitched so well and was on his way to a loss. For Beckett, his hitters couldn’t bail him out against a tough Angels bullpen, and he was charged with his 6th loss of the season. K-Rod earned his 39th save. Halos win 4-2. 

Saunders: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, SO

Guerrero: HR (16)

Beckett: 8 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, BB, 6 SO   

 Now for Game 2.

The Angels, as you probably just read, took the first two over the Red Sox in the series. The Clutch hitting would continue for the Halos as America would watch them beat Boston for the second straight night on National TV as they took the game 5-3. The Angels took the lead early, when Vladimir Guerrero and Torii Hunter hit back to back home runs against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield in the 2nd. The Red Sox would tie it with 2 of their own the next half inning. From that point, Jon Garland dueled with Tim Wakefield to keep the game tied, and it was–until the 7th inning. With Coco Crisp on second base, Vlad Guerrero dropped Jacoby Ellsbury’s line drive, allowing the go-ahead run to score. The Halos were not ready to give up. Knocking Wakefield out of the game, they scored 3 runs in the 8th inning. Howie Kendrick’s run-scoring single against Wakefield would tie the score, and Casey Kotchman’s game winning two-bagger down the right field line against Manny Delcarmen would almost guarentee a win. Yeah, that’s how GOOD Francisco Rodriguez has been this year, and he showed it. Coming into the game in the top of the 9th, K-Rod struck out the side for his 40th save of the season. Nobody has been better.

At the end of the year, we may be calling Rodriguez the all-time saves holder for a single season. Better than Mariano Rivera, better than Trevor Hoffman. And he’s only 26. …..Okay I’m rambling, but this guy at least needs some Cy Young consideration, especially if the Angels go deep into October. If they take care of business against the Red Sox in October like they this weekend, then this team just might.

Angels Blog

The Los Angeles Angels struggled at the plate and only scored two runs as they lost 3-2 to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday evening.  The Angles offense was the reason they lost the game as they only had six hits and left 12 runners on base.

Garret Anderson had both rbi for the Halos as he had a two run rbi single in the fifth inning.  Torii Hunter and Howie Kendrick both scored on the play.  The first three hitters in the lineup went a combined 0-12 in the game as they just didn’t get the job done.

Joe Saunders pitched a pretty good game as the tossed all eight innings.  Saunders gave up six hits and three runs in the game as he took the loss to fall to 12-5.  Saunders gave up a sac fly to Josh Hamilton in the first inning, then a solo home run to Chris Davis in the fifth, and then a rbi single to Hamilton in the sixth inning.

The Halos and Rangers will now play game three of the four game series on Wednesday night.  The series is tied at 1-1 and the Angels will be hoping to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Angels Blog

Juan Rivera hit a two run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning off of Athletics relief pitcher Keith Foulke and the Los Angeles Angels went on to beat the Oakland Athletics by the score of 7-4.  With the victory the Angels took two out of three games from the A’s and improved their season record to 51-34.

Rivera’s home run put the Angels in the lead for good and then the Angels got two more insurance runs with single runs in the seventh and eighth innings.  Erick Aybar had a solo home run in the seventh and Reggie Willits had a rbi sac fly in the eighth inning. Casey Kotchman also recorded an rbi in the game and now has 40 on the season.

Joe Saunders improved his record to 12-4 on the year after picking up the victory.  Saunders pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up six hits and four runs.  Two of the four runs were earned and charged to Saunders who now has a 3.04 era.

Jose Arredondo, Scot Shields, and Francisco Rodriguez all did good out of the bullpen. K-rod grabbed his 34th save in the game as he continues to have a marvelous first half of the season.

The Angels will now be off on Thursday and will begin a series with the Toronto Blue Jays on friday.

Angels Blog

The Angels went into Dodger Stadium with high hopes for the weekend and were promptly shut out in the first game, 6-0 by their cross-town rivals. Joe Saunders struggled as Chan Ho Park pitched a great game for the Dodgers, throwing 6 shutout innings. The combination of 3 Dodgers relievers kept the Angels’ bats quiet for the rest of the night. The Halos mustered only 4 hits total in the loss.

Russell Martin got the Dodgers started in the first inning with a solo home run against Saunders. The Dodgers would plate 2 more runs in the fifth, one of them earned. After Saunders was lifted for a pinch-hitter, Justin Speier allowed a 3-run home run to Andre Ethier in the 7th. There’s nothing more to say about this game. Jered Weaver will face the Dodgers tonight, as the Angels will try and even up the series. This is a dream come true for Weaver, who grew up a Dodgers fan.

Joe Saunders: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, (2 ER) 4 BB, 4 SO

Chan Ho Park: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 7 SO

Andre Ethier: 1-1, 3-run homer

Angels offense: 4 baserunners all game

The Los Angeles Angels pitching struggled on Monday night as three different pitchers allowed runs to cross the plate.  The New York Mets were able to push across six runs in the game and defeat the Angels 9-6 to take the first game in the series.

Jered Weaver pitched 6 1/3 innings but gave up eight hits and six runs.  Two home runs were hit off of Weaver but they were both solo home runs by Carlos Beltran.  Things could have been a lot worse for Weaver had there been some runners on base when Beltran was batting.  Weaver is now 6-7 on the season after taking the loss.

Jose Arredondo gave up two hits and two runs while only recording two outs.  Arredondo came into the game after Weaver exited and he did a terrible job.  Darren Oliver then came in to the game and threw 1 1/3 innings while allowing one more run to cross the plate.  Justin Speier finally got the final two outs to finsih up the poor night of pitching.

Garrett Anderson led the Angels with two rbi as he went 2-4 in the game.  A sac fly in the first inning and then a rbi single in the seventh inning accounted for both of Anderson’s rbi’s.  Chone Figgins, Torii Hunter, Howie Kendrick, and Jeff Mathis all had one rbi in the game as well.

Good output by the offense, the pitching just didn’t keep them in the game.  The Angels will try to get back on track Tuesday as they take on the Mets once again.

Angels Blog

The Los Angeles came up just short as they lost to the Los Angeles on Thursday night by the score of 4-3.  The Angels were out hit in the game by 10-7 and they just couldn’t get the big hit that they needed to do to either tie or take the lead.

Ervin Santana tossed six innings while giving up nine hits and all four Blue Jays runs.   The winning run for the Blue Jays came in the sixth inning when Santana gave up a solo home run to Lyle Overbay.  Santana is now 6-2 on the season.

Darren Oliver and Justin Speier both pitched scoreless inning for the Angels as they didn’t allow a run in the seventh or eighth innings.

The Angels got one rbi each from Maicer Izturis, Jeff Mathis, and Sean Rodriguez.  The veterans of the team were no where to be found tonight and that is why the Angels lost the game if you ask me.

Angels Blog

The Los Angels Angels were able to get by the Toronto Blue Jays by the score of 3-1 on Tuesday night.  John Lackey picked up his first win in the last eight months as well in the game.

Lackey tossed seven innings and gave up seven hits but only one run to get the win as he improved to 1-0 on the season.  I think Lackey will come out and be a great pitcher for the Angels now that he got the first win of of the season.

Scot Shields pitched a scoreless eighth inning before Francisco Rodriguez came in to pick up his 18th save of the season.

Garret Anderson grounded into a double play in the first inning but atleast a run cross the plate for the Angels.  Then in the third inning Casey Kotchman had a rbi double and in the seventh inning, Vladimir Guerrero had a sacrafice fly.

Good win for the Angels!  Angels Blog