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Halos Heaven

Angels Spring Training Roster and Trivia

Your guide to who is who at the Angels Spring Training...

Star-divide

  1. 40-Man Roster Angels: Pitchers
    22
    -Trevor Bell - born the day of the "Donnie Moore Game" (10/12/86)
    68 -Ysmael Carmona - has been on the 40-Man roster for three years without ever making a top 20 prospects list.
    38 -Bobby Cassevah - edged out Downs at 6.4 to 6.5 H/9 for best on team (39.2 IP to 53.2 IP)
    37 -Scott Downs - same birthday (but one year older) as Robb Quinlan (Saint Patrick's Day)
    24 -Dan Haren - born one week before Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died.
    32 -LaTroy Hawkins - born five days before Harry Truman died.
    49 -John Hellweg - ranked as the #4 Angels Prospect by Halos Heaven's Ryan Ghan.
    40 -Kevin Jepsen - wearing the most powerful pitching jersey number in Angels history: Frank Tanana, Troy Percival and the Bartolo Colon Cy Young season all carried #40.
    58 -Michael Kohn - the Angels had the day off on the day he was born in 1986; they had just swept Texas in Arlington and split the S&Q State ahead of Hurricane Bonnie with sole possession of first place in the American League West.
    52 -Fabio Martinez Mesa - is a Scorpio
    59 -Brad Mills - wears the jersey number once worn by reliever Esteban Yan
    56 -Ariel Pena - was born on Cher's 43rd birthday
    43 -Garrett Richards - born on the 20th birthday of future Hall-of-Famers Jeff Bagwell AND Frank Thomas
    54 -Ervin Santana - you wanna know more ? Hey, buy the rights.
    21 -Hisanori Takahashi - the Angels tried to trade him in the offseason and nobody wanted him.
    63 -Rich Thompson - comes from the land down under
    51 -Jordan Walden - is a Scorpio
    36 -Jered Weaver - is represented by the Scott Boras Agency of Newport Beach, California
    57 -Jerome Williams - Hawaiian-born players traditionally take jersey #50 (for the fiftieth state) but it is retired in the Angels organization for Jimmie Reese.
    33 -C.J. Wilson - is a Scorpio
  2. Catchers
    16 -Hank Conger - wears the jersey number of Angels great Garret Anderson
    17 -Chris Iannetta - born the exact same day and year as Bobby Wilson
    46 -Bobby Wilson - born the exact same day and year as Chris Iannetta
  3. Infielders
    19 -Alexi Amarista - at 5' 7", the shortest player in camp.
    2 -Erick Aybar - has started 548 games at SS for the Angels, 4th best all time. If he doubles that number for the franchise, he would be in 2nd place behind Jim Fregosi.
    6 -Alberto Callaspo - on the day he was born, the San Diego Padres signed Bobby Brown. And before you scream "If only they had kept him away from Whitney" ...it was a different Bobby Brown.
    13 -Maicer Izturis - was born the exact same day and year as Sean Burroghs and is having a better career than the one-time first-round pick.
    35 -Luis Jimenez - nickname is Lucho
    47 -Howie Kendrick - when Howie was a prospect I emailed him a question on some feature at the Angels website and asked him what jersey number he wanted to wear in the major leagues. He answered that he preferred a jersey with any single digit. Wow! Still waiting.
    8 -Kendrys Morales - has like forty nicknames on this site's game threads when he is hot. Hopefully they all reappear this season.
    5 -Albert Pujols - I kinda hope this guy makes the team.
    18 -Andrew Romine - if Steve Physioc were still our announcer we'd be reminded that his brother plays for the Yankees once per inning anytime the guy was on the bench, let alone in the game. Oh wait, I just did exactly what i accused Phyzz of doing.
    20 -Jean Segura - one of four players in camp born in the 1990s.
    44 -Mark Trumbo - shares a birthday with Albert Pujols and Ethel Merman.
  4. Outfielders
    53 -Bobby Abreu - was born amidst the Watergate Scandal. But he was in Venezuela and has an airtight alibi.
    25 -Peter Bourjos - his jersey number has the best position player lineup in club history.
    48 -Torii Hunter - he's nine days older than A-Rod, ten times nicer, a hundred times cleaner.
    28 -Jeremy Moore - who is with me on a late-season Figgy-style pinch-runner steal of home?
    27 -Mike Trout - youngest player on the 40-Man roster.
    10 -Vernon Wells - overpaid.
  5. Non-Roster Invitees: Pitchers
    91 -Ryan Brasier - back in 2009, Matt Palmer wore #91 in Spring Training and made the club later in the season.
    86 -David Carpenter - isn't it funny how all these 70s revival hipsters never try to revive the Carpenters but that was all you really ever heard on the radio besides the Bee Gees in the 70s? Weird.
    41 -Eric Hurley - More people in Orange County wear clothing with his name than all other Angels players combined.
    87 -Matt Meyer - don't bet against a 27-year old lefty.
    45 -Francisco Rodriguez - only dude on the team from Mexico.
    70 -Matt Shoemaker - you could build a franchise around this man's moustache.
    81 -Daniel Tillman - let's watch Keith Olberman with the KTLA sports report from the day Daniel was born, including an update on rookie Jim Abbott in Spring Training.
    65 -Loek Van Mil - if it ain't Dutch, it ain't much.
  6. Catchers
    96 -Jett Bandy - one of four players born in the 1990s and easily the coolest name in Tempe.
    62 -Robinzon Diaz - your momma made a typo.
    97 -Carlos Ramirez - remember when Police Academy 5 was the #1 movie at the box office? If Carlos pans out, at least something good will have happened the weekend of March 19, 1988.
    98 -Alberto Rosario - you might say it is impossible for him to outperform the other Albert on the team but by all means, let the kid try!
  7. Infielders
    3 -Jorge Cantu - Wood's jersey, but hey, also Babe Ruth's!
    79 -Taylor Lindsey - youngest player in camp, three and a half months younger than Trout.
    31 -Efren Navarro - make us forget Zimbalist!
    72 -Darwin Perez - what is the subset of Angels fans who also have a Darwin anti-fish logo on their car?
  8. Outfielders
    77 -Kole Calhoun - the David Letterman Top Ten List from the day Kole was born (10/14/87)
    Top 10 Ways to Make Vice President George Bush More Exciting
    10. Kill a man with his bare hands on network TV
    9. Divorce Barbara; marry 13-year-old cousin
    8. Stick tongue inn Sam Donaldson's ear during press conference
    7. Disappear into Alaskan wilderness with Rosanna Arquette; return with necklace made of bear teeth
    6. Change campaign slogan from "Bush in '88" to "Party with the Bushmeister"
    5. Answer questions on "Meet the Press" with "I'm too drunk to remember."
    4. Bend standing microphone into pretzel-shape; give to cub reporter as souvenir
    3. Nickname him George "The Sexecutioner" Bush
    2. Start hanging with Earth, Wind & Fire
    1. Shorter speeches, tighter pants

    55 -Doug Deeds - if he promises me that his At-Bat music will be AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap he will get a hell of a lot more ink in his favor on this blog.
    39 -Ryan Langerhans - former Mariner wearing the sacred Robb Quinlan jersey number.
    76 -Matt Long - in a publicity stunt that worked, radio stations around the world played the newest single by Whitney Houston I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me) at 9 AM on 4-30-87, the day Matt was born.
  9. In case you are wondering... yeah this took all day...

Poll
Better music came out of which of these decades?
1970s
192 votes
1980s
147 votes
Granpa, can I get on the internet to vote in that stupid poll?
64 votes

403 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  24 comments

Comments

There were some really interesting facts. I like Vernon Wells – Overpaid. Lol

Great read. As for the poll regarding music...

Between the 80’s and 70’s, is it really a question? Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Culture Club. The 80’s sucked! I’ll take Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, Al Green and Earth Wind And Fire, any day of the week over those one-hit-wonder, pop-bands of the eighties. And nothing would’ve made George H.W. Bush exciting, other than a scorching case of herpes.

I would argue that just as much great rock came out of the '80's as came out of the '70's

Van Halen’s “1984”, Scorp’s “Love at First Sting”, Def Leppard’s “Pyromania”, Guns N Roses “Appetite for Destruction”, Rush’s “Moving Pictures”, the Police “Synchronicity”, AC/DC “Back in Black”, Nine Inch Nails “Pretty Hate Machine”… and not to mention one of the best selling albums of all time, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. These are just examples of some of the great music that came out during the 80’s.

I spent the ’80’s listening to KROQ, so I have to admit that I love Depeche Mode, the Smiths, the Cure, etc.

True, there were a bunch of “one hit wonders” in the ’80’s, Dexy’s Midnight Runners “Come on Eileen” is one of my favorites, but that is true for every decade, not just the ’80’s.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love music from the ’70’s, hell, I love pretty much all music, with the exception of hip-hop and rap. However, I think that it is unjust to characterize the ’80’s as nothing but a bunch of “one hit wonder pop bands”.

The Pixies were an '80s band.

’Nuff said.

80s

Ill take pop over pretentious.

Racist!

I don’t think I’ve ever heard Jimi referred to as pretentious.

As someone who was born in the '90s but can't stand most of today's music, I think I can be impartial in this matter:

The ’70s rocked. The ’80s rocked. The ’70s rocked harder.

This post made my balls tingle

Good work

"Loek Van Mil- if it aint dutch. it aint much"

Damn f***ing straight.

Went 70s

The rock was just much better. So was the soul. Thouhg 80s pop kills 70s pop.

That being said, I think there has been, and always will be, great new music. You just have to find it.

amen brother
An OMC reference on Halos Heaven?

Now I can die a happy man.

Late 70s gave us some good music if you looked hard enough to find it

Early punk, Iggy, etc. But it also gave us James Taylor which led to the evil spawn of today known as Jack Johnson, and Donovan Frankenreiter.

I'd say it was a day well spent... What are ya gonna do work?
U2 never gets any love

why is that?

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.

and the Edge

still hasn’t learned how to play guitar, regardless of his appearance on “It might get loud”, (which is one of the best music documentaries that I have ever seen). Compared to Jimmy Page (eternal rock God) and Jack White, the Edge is a complete hack.

Dang Rev and I thought it took my a long time to make the crossword puzzle

That was a superb read … best line “Albert Pujols — I kinda hope this guy makes the team.”

Jersey #40

yes, worn by Tanana, Percy, and Bartolo but also by Fuentes who might had jinxed it.

Albert Pujols was born on January 16, 1980.

Exactly 487 years earlier, to the day, Christopher Columbus set sail from Albert’s home country on his return voyage of his first trip, opening up The New World and changing the course of human history, forever.

Just think...

If Spain didn’t launch that expedition, we wouldn’t have the greatest slugger of a generation! Gracias, Spain!

It took you all day, and you've only gotten 18 comments?

That’s kinda harsh. Thanks for the hard work. It was a fun read.

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