Bobby Abreu who has been disgruntled with the free agent market this offseason has finally found himself a home for the 2009 season. Abreu has signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers for one year. The contract will pay him a little bit more than $5 million dollars and also include some incentives.

It’s quite the pay cut for Abreu who earned $16 million from the New York Yankees last season. However Abreu struggled in the field and hit .296/.371/.471 in 684 plate appearances.

Angels Blog

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 Angels Angels lost a heartbreaking game on Wednesday night as closer Francisco Rodriguez gave up a rbi single and a walk off two run home run as the Angles lost to the Texas Rangers 5-4.  K-Rod first gave up a rbi single to Michael Young, and then Josh Hamilton went deep for a two run home run to win the game for the Rangers.

Angels starting pitcher Jered Weaver tossed six innings while giving up seven hits and two runs.  Weaver was only charged with one run however and he struck out five batters.  Weaver didn’t pitch to badly, he worked out of some jams which really helped out.  Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields both pitched scoreless innings for the bullpen.

Juan Rivera had three rbi for the Angles as he had a rbi sac fly and then a two run home run to lead the team at the plate.  The Angels also got one run when Torii Hunter grounded into a double play.  The offense did enough in the game to win, the bullpen just didn’t hold on this one time.  Tough loss for the team overall.

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

Vladimir Guerrero and Garret Anderson rallied the Los Angeles Angels in the bottom of the eighth inning as they came from behind to beat the Oakland Athletics 5-3. Guerrero had a rbi single that scored Reggie Willits to tie the game a 3-3 and then Anderson hit a two run home run to put the Angels up 5-3. Great come from behind win and the superstars stepped up late to carry the team.

Besides the heroics in the bottom of the eighth inning, Jeff Mathis and Casey Kotchman both had a rbi each as well in the game. Mathis had a rbi sac fly in the second inning while Kotchman had a rbi ground out in the third inning.

Scot Shields picked up the win as he pitched the top half of the eighth inning and allowed one run. Shields is now 4-2 on the season. Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth inning to record his 33rd save of the season. Starting pitcher Ervin Santana pitched a pretty good game as he lasted seven innings. Santana gave up eight hits but only two runs to get the no decision.

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