Halos Heaven

The Anti-Crosby! Rosales Leads A's To Series Win - Athletics Nation
Based on today's first start in an A's uniform, Adam Rosales can hit HRs (when nobody else can do anything off of Joe Saunders for 6 innings), hit in the clutch (turning a 3-2 deficit in the 7th into a 4-3 lead with a single to right), can lay off bad balls and draw a walk (forcing in a run and giving him 4 RBIs on the day), so...yeah, doesn't remind me of Crosby.

Rosales' home run came in his first major league at bat.

Game Wrapup - angelsbaseball.com
Joe Saunders was sharp through six and exited with the Halos clutching a slim lead, but the series went to the A's after the bullpen continued its early season struggles. Bobby Abreu and Juan Rivera homered.

Some video "highlights" from yesterday's game.

Team Reports - CBSSports.com
12 -- Home runs allowed by Angels pitchers during the first week of the season (including nine in a four-game series against the Twins), the most in the majors through the season's first week.

This stat tells the story.  Four of the 12 hits Saunders has allowed in his two starts have left the park (but only one yesterday).  Taking a quick look at Saunder's stats, his home run rate has increased each year since 2006, while most of his other stats have stayed pretty consistent.  In other words, his flyballs are going further.

Angels are still working out the bugs - LA Daily News
Hunter said he didn't know what was wrong. But it was more like he didn't know where to begin. "Defensively we were erratic, baserunning we were erratic, pitching and hitting was off and on," he said. "A lot of things weren't there, but when all cylinders click it's going to be a lot of fun."

Fans need to keep telling themselves that, "when the cylinders start clicking", not "if".  Repeat after me, "it's only one week.  It's only one week..."

Los Angeles Angels' Brandon Wood falters at tough time - ESPN Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Angels' third baseman didn't have the happiest first week playing in Anaheim. He managed one single in his first 19 at-bats, giving him an opening-week batting average of .053. Until Sunday, he could say he was making all the plays in the field. But at a pivotal point in Sunday's 9-4 loss to the Oakland A's, Wood made his first appreciable defensive lapse. He played back on Mark Ellis' chopper in the hole in the eighth, then threw softly to first for an error that opened the door for the A's to score three unearned runs. When Wood took a called third strike and walked off the field in the seventh, some fans booed. "It might be hard to believe, but my head's not all jammed up with a bunch of negative stuff," Wood said. "I realize as a player I've got 19-20 at-bats or something like that. There's a lot of time to start swinging it and this is as bad as it's going to get for me. From an offensive standpoint, it can only go up."

"This is as bad as it's going to get for me."  God, we hope so.

Saunders, Halos endure 'aggravating' loss - angelsbaseball.com
Saunders was rolling entering the seventh inning as he entered the frame having retired the past 13 batters he'd faced. But Ryan Sweeney and Kevin Kouzmanoff hit back-to-back singles before Ellis' RBI double, which ended Saunders' afternoon. "I thought Joe threw the ball really well," Angels manager Scioscia said. "I thought he threw better than his linescore would show. Leading up through the seventh inning he changed speeds really well, and you have to give the A's some credit in the seventh inning for bunching together some hits."

+/-, RZR, and New Fielding Stats - FanGraphs Baseball
There have been a few changes to the fielding sections of the site. The biggest change is that John Dewan’s Fielding Bible +/- runs saved is now available on all the player pages and leaderboards going back to 2003. We’ve also added Revised Zone Ratings, which The Hardball Times used to carry.

SBN's newest partner rolls out their newest numbers.

Rain in Frisco leads to talk of three-team twinbill - Sporting News
Giants president Larry Baer tells the San Jose Mercury News the Braves were asked if they would be willing to return to San Francisco on Tuesday, an off-day, after playing in San Diego on Monday afternoon. The Braves and Giants would play at night, after the Giants' regularly scheduled game against the Pirates in the afternoon. The Braves would then return to San Diego to resume their series with the Padres The idea did not go anywhere, the paper reports, because the Braves want to keep Tuesday open if Monday's game in San Diego is rained out.

How cool would that have been?  Watching your team play against two different teams on the same day?

Barry Bonds says he's 'proud' of friend Mark McGwire -  SI.com
Home run king Barry Bonds said he is "proud" of slugger Mark McGwire for returning to baseball as the St. Louis Cardinals' hitting coach and for admitting his use of performance-enhancing drugs. "I have a really good friendship with Mark McGwire. I'm proud of him," Bonds said Sunday.

There's something you can put on your resume, Barry Bonds is proud of you for doing something he's not man enough to do himself.

NYY@TB: Longoria's drive hits a roof speaker - Video - MLB.com
4/11/10: Evan Longoria hits one that bounces off a speaker in the roof, which is ruled a single by the umpires

Skeletor was unhappy.

Chan Ho Park had some issues, but what makes this video so funny is the un-named player in the background laughing his ass off.  And the fact Park has no clue as to why.

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