It was a stunning day, to say the least. The Angels score Pujols and Wilson. Don’t even get me started on what a ridiculous contract this is. Or the fact that you can not cite one single time of one of these monstrous contracts ending “happily ever after”. Usually ends with the signing team eating a large amount of the contract so that someone will take them off your hands.
Let’s look at the numbers for a minute. We’ll start with Pujols and what he means to the Angels offense. Not going to go all “Moneyball” on you here, but here are some numbers in a nutshell. Mark Trumbo played a lot of first base for the Angels last year (yes there were others) but since the number of AB’s are close, we’ll just ballpark this-
| Player | AVG | HR | RBI | SLG |
| Mark Trumbo | .254 | 29 | 87 | .477 |
| Albert Pujols | .299 | 37 | 99 | .541 |
Albert was hurt AND got off to a slow start, so you can imagine his numbers being much better BUT, this was the third straight year Albert’s stats have declined. Ultimately, the difference isn’t that huge. The Angels were 10th in the AL in hitting. The Rangers were 3rd. The Angels were the 8th best at the long ball, while the Rangers were 2nd. If you tack on the additional 8 homers that Albert had, they are still 8th. The Rangers had the 3rd most RBI’s in the AL, while the Angles were 10th. By a sizable margin. Not that there were many offensive weapons available via free agency, but it seems that Albert’s $50 mil per season might have been better spent on 2 or 3 players. There is no one in the Angel lineup to really protect Pujols. Unless someone comes to the forefront, nobody will ever have to actually give Albert anything to hit. Wells and Hunter are declining, in fact, I would seriously doubt Vernon Wells will be an everyday player for them this year based on his HORRIBLE 2011.
The Rangers still are considerably ahead of the Angels on depth and the fact there really isn’t anyone you can pitch around in our lineup. Did anybody notice that our most productive hitter during the series (and all of the post season really) hit EIGHTH?
I have no illusions that Mitch Moreland would be anywhere close to Albert Pujols. But Nolan pointed out that his recently operated on wrist caused his production to disappear in the second half of the season. Take that and the fact that the hot stove season isn’t even over yet we don’t have to point out that a Ranger signing of Prince Fielder almost makes the Pujols signing moot.
Without dazzling you with stats on the pitching front I will point out a couple of things about the Angels getting C.J. Wilson. And I will try not to be just another bitter fan. These are legitimate concerns I had while we were still deciding if we would keep Wilson. In July C.J. made some remarks about being as good as or better than Jered Weaver. There were a couple of ugly things he said down the stretch about the media. Then pepper in the fact that the reason why the Rangers didn’t have home field for the Series was a homer he surrendered in the All Star game. Then came his pathetic post season work. All of that concerned me well before the Winter Meetings.
Now while the Rangers have a new wild card in the rotation and a deep farm system that can be used to maybe bring another starter to Arlington (Shields, Garza), the Angels have been rumored to be willing to trade Ervin Santana for some offensive help which of course would water down their rotation.
Nefi Feliz? He started a ton of games and was dominant in the minors. When we first called him up, it wasn’t unusual to see him go two full innings. Question mark? For sure. But I trust in Nolan and JD. You should too.
