The Angels are in first place in the AL West and have a fine record of 52-34, third best in the majors behind the Rays and the Cubs, but they are going to be hard pressed to maintain that pace if they don’t start getting more offense.

Although they Angels are 6th in the major leagues in ERA, they are way down at 23rd in runs scored. And the biggest reason is their underperforming, overcrowded outfield/DH situation.

When the Angels tried to cram Torii Hunter into what was already an overcrowded situation, we knew that some guys would get left out, and predictably the Angels have gone with a rotation of highly-paid established veterans Hunter, Vlad Guerrero, Gary Matthews Jr., and Garrett Anderson.

Guerrero has shown some signs of emerging from an unusual early season slump, but Matthews and Anderson have been handed starting roles and 300 at-bats each, and have posted OPS figures of .678 and .697, respectively. Matthews’ OBP is only .319, and Anderson’s is even worse, at only .297. And these numbers are being put up in crucial corner outfielder/DH at-bats, where a team really needs to get a sizeable proportion of its offense.

In some sense it is understandable why the Angels keep running these two out there. Anderson has been a franchise centerpiece for more than a decade, and Matthews was awarded a huge 5-year $50 million contract two years back.

But it is time for the Angels to face reality and cut their losses by sending these guys to the bench. Anderson has been in steep decline at the plate for many years now, and is no longer even adequate on defense, while Matthews has never been more than a fourth outfielder at best, except for that one fluky, hGh-fueled free-agent walk year with the Rangers.

Meanwhile, Reggie Willits posted a .391 OBP last season, and Juan Rivera batted .310 and OPS’d .887 in his last full season in 2006. While it is uncertain whether either player would match those numbers if given an everyday starting job, both would almost certainly best what Matthews and Anderson are currently providing.

The Angels organization has been a model of stability and has not fired any of its front-office personnel in 9 years. But while that sort of patience and stability in the front office is an asset, major league ball players need to be evaluated more objectively.

If the Angels really want to get back to the World Series, the need to stop basing their lineup on sentimentality.

- What They Need Index -

This is one of a series of posts in which we eviscerate each team’s lambastable offseason blunders and laud their miraculous hot-stove coups.

The Angels again made the playoffs in 2007, and again were escorted to an early exit. Last year, the Anaheim squad did a great job of making the most of what they had—speed. Taking advantage of every opportunity to go first-to-third on a single, their aggressive baserunning served them well during the regular season when their small-ball style of play masked their lack of power hitting. But the injured Anaheim ballclub did not last long in October, and scarcely had the season ended when the Angels front office got to work.

In November, they acquired pitcher Jon Garland from the White Sox for Gold Glove shortstop Orlando Cabrera and cash. A few days later, they signed free agent center fielder Torii Hunter, one of the gems in an otherwise weak market. However, Hunter’s only an average fielder and is already 32. Plus, this gave the Angels a glut of outfielders: Hunter, Gary Matthews Jr., Garret Anderson, Vladimir Guerrero, Juan Rivera and Reggie Willits. (Could they have made a deal for Miguel Cabrera with the Marlins instead? The world will never know. On the one hand, the Angels’ farm system, though still good, isn’t what it once was—but on the other, the Marlins didn’t get nearly enough for Cabrera anyway. The two sides did some talking, but the deal fell apart.) Those of us expecting the Angels to continue their frenzy of activity with a move to exchange one of those outfielders for an infielder or a relief pitcher or, well, anything, were disappointed. If the Angels can’t find a way to get Reggie’s .391 OBP and speedy legs into the lineup somehow, they’ll be missing out on his productivity while also diminishing his trade value. I would rather see him start in left field over Gary Matthews, Jr. any day. (Well, any day except for when the Angels are playing the Red Sox, of course.)

So it is that the Angels will begin 2008 hoping that Erick Aybar can fill in for Orlando Cabrera. The 24-year old Aybar is the definition of a light-hitting infielder, though his offense should improve a bit once he’s getting regular at-bats. While he doesn’t have much experience at shortstop in the majors, it was his usual position through the minor leagues, so I don’t foresee a problem there. Plus, the Angels will be able to rotate their outfielders through the DH slot, keeping their bats in the lineup while giving their legs a rest. And Torii Hunter will provide the long-needed protection for Guerrero in the lineup. Finally, the addition of Jon Garland will give the Angels another solid arm behind staff ace John Lackey, which they’re no doubt doubly glad of now that 18-game winner Escobar has reported to camp with a sore shoulder.

Acquisitions: Torii Hunter, Jon Garland

Losses: Orlando Cabrera, Dallas McPherson, Bartolo Colon

Projected Lineup, Rotation, and Closer:

1. 3B, Chone Figgins, .393 OBP, 41 SB
2. LF, Reggie Willits, .391 OBP, 27 SB
3. RF, Vladimir Guerrero, 27 HR, .403 OBP
4. CF, Torii Hunter, 28 HR, .287 AVG
5. DH, Garret Anderson, 16 HR, .297 AVG
6. 1B, Casey Kotchman, .372 OBP
7. 2B, Howie Kendrick, .322 AVG
8. C, Mike Napoli, 10 HR, .351 OBP
9. SS, Erick Aybar, 1 HR, .237 AVG

SP1 John Lackey, 3.01 ERA, 224.0 IP
SP2 Kelvim Escobar, 3.40 ERA, 195.2 IP
SP3 Jered Weaver, 3.91 ERA, 161.0 IP
SP4 Jon Garland, 4.23 ERA, 208.1 IP
SP5 Joe Saunders, 4.44 ERA, 107.1 IP

CL Francisco Rodriguez, 2.81 ERA, 1.25 WHIP

Grade: A-

The Angels accomplished two major goals this offseason: acquiring a dependable starting pitcher and picking up a bat for the middle of their lineup. Their roster heading into 2008 is deep, with last year’s injuries having given some of their younger players and utility guys more experience. Their rotation looks solid—Weaver and Saunders are both young pitchers who should see a step-up in workload this year. Their lineup is stacked, too. My only reservation ist that Torii Hunter might not have been the best possible guy to get to protect Vladimir and, that by acquiring him, the team now has too many outfielders. But if the biggest problem a team has is too many good players, that’s an enviable problem to have. The Angels should make it to the playoffs again this year, and, if they stay healthy, have the roster to get a bit further this time.

-Hot Offseason Action Index-

Now that the 2007 season has come to a close, it’s time to parse the 2007 rookie class and separate the wheat from the chaff, the best from the rest, the cookies…from the crumbs.

American League

Cookie: Dustin Pedroia

My picking “Pedro” (as the guys on the team have christened him) should come as no surprise to regular readers of UmpBump. Quite simply, no other rookie has grown up as fast or as completely as the little man with the big swing. After a brutal first month in the majors, Dustin was hitting .182 at the end of April, and the ravening hordes of Red Sox Nation were calling for blood. Worse, veteran players on other teams were audibly laughing at him and his body-wringing swing during his at-bats.

They’re not laughing now. Pedroia finished the season with the best batting average of AL rookies (.317), the best OPS (.822), and the most runs scored (88). Though he only has seven stolen bases, he has the best stolen base percentage (0.88). And he’s one of the hardest batters to strike out in the league (just 42 K’s in 581 plate appearances, for a beautiful walk-to-strikeout rate of 1.12) . Such a rate of contact without a lot of power (just 8 homers on the season) must mean he grounds into a lot of double plays, right? Actually, no—Pedroia has done that just 8 times this season.

Defensively, Pedroia has been solid but not spectacular. This is an area where I believe his diminutive stature has hurt him—many a time I’ve seen him dive after a gapper, his 5′7″ frame fully extended, only to watch the ball sail just an inch past his wee arm. Nevertheless, he plays an acrobatic second base, epitomized by the amazing grab he made to save fellow rookie Clay Buchholz’s no-hitter.

In addition to his maturity on the field, Pedroia has also shown maturity off the field: after a brief hubbub early in the season when Alex Rodriguez through a multimilliondollar elbow at him to try and break up a double play, Pedroia’s mild comment (calling it “cheap” but also “no big deal”) got all kinds of airtime. And young Dustin promptly learned a valuable lesson: zip it.

For being the rookie to play the most like a big-leaguer, Dustin Pedroia deserves to be the American League Rookie of the Year.

Crumbs: Delmon Young, Reggie Willits, Josh Fields, Brian Bannister, Jeremy Guthrie.

Not that I think these guys are crummy players—just that it’s the crumbs they’ll get stuck with when Pedroia gets the cookie. Delmon Young has gotten a lot of attention as a potential ROY for knocking in 93 RBI, no mean feat (it doesn’t hurt that his average, which was .288 overall, jumps to .347 with runners in scoring position). However, the Tampa Bay left fielder has a hideous VORP (just 5.7, compared with Pedroia’s 36.0). And while Young gets props for playing in all 162 games this year, he instantly loses those props for failing to run out a grounder and being benched by his manager with just one game left to play. I know it’s hard to run out every ball when it’s the end of September and you play for the Devil Rays, but this is just the kind of immature incident that has gotten Young in trouble in the past. It’s not big-league. It’s bush-league.

Willits, left-fielder for the Angels, gets an honorable mention for having the best eye of the rookie class. Though it’s hard to strike out Pedroia, it’s hard not to walk Willits: a .391 OBP, 69 walks, and 4.44 pitches per plate appearance. Once he gets on, pitchers had better keep their eye on him, too—he had 27 steals this year. But he has absolutely no power—just 20 doubles and no homers.

Josh Fields should be an interesting guy to watch develop. The White Sox third baseman only played 100 games this year, which hurts his ROY status in my mind, but he’s an interesting combination of above-average defensive ability and power hitting. His average was just .244, yet he hit 23 homers and has a .480 slugging percentage. If he can learn some plate discipline (he had 125 strikeouts in those 100 games—yikes) he could be a real threat for Chicago.

As for the pitchers, Guthrie and Bannister, it’s hard to say what these kids would have done if they’d been on better teams (as opposed to the Orioles and the Royals, respectively). Bannister may not strike out a lot of people, but he doesn’t walk a lot of folks either. He was consistently good all year long, but especially effective June through August. Guthrie was a bit more uneven, but finished the year with comparable numbers. I don’t think either of them is the rookie of the year, but I’d sure like to have them on my team.

National League

Cookie: Troy Tulowitzki

The Rockies shortstop has really turned it on in the past week to help his team get to the playoffs, with a grand slam here, a triple there, a couple of doubles over there. But that’s nothing new for the newbie—he’s been playing well all season long. His .287 average, 24 homers, and 98 RBI make him a great offensive shortstop. Lucky for the Rockies, then, that they sacrifice absolutely nothing on defense: Tulowitzki has been the best defensive shortstop in the league this year.

Crumbs: Ryan Braun, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Hunter Pence, James Loney.

Ryan Braun, third baseman for the Brewers, has a drool-worthy amount of offense: .324 average, .634 slugging percentage, 1.004 OPS, and 34 homers. Those homers look even more amazing when you realize he played in just 113 games. Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, I feel bad about giving awards to guys who don’t play on an everyday basis, or close to it. I also feel bad handing out cookies to guys who are the worst at their positions, defensively. And Braun has been, hands down, the worst third baseman in the league this year. Sorry, Ryan. Even your husky VORP (57.2) isn’t enough to save you.

What about Hunter Pence, you ask? The Astros centerfielder put up some very good numbers—.322 average, 69 RBI, 17 homers, and nine triples in 108 games. He uses his speed well in the outfield, where he’s above average defensively, but I feel obliged to note that he has a harmful .69 stolen base percentage. Nevertheless, If he’d played in more games, he could have given Tulowitzki some real competition.

I also considered Kevin Kouzmanoff, the third baseman for the Padres. Alas, poor Kevin! He loses another heartbreaker to his Colorado foe. His offensive numbers are juuust a touch softer than Troy’s across the board. Plus, he’s right down there with Braun as a craptastic corner glove. Nevertheless, he was the only rookie besides Tulowitzki and Diamondbacks CF Chris “.237″ Young to play in more than 140 games, and that, plus his decent numbers, is enough to earn our consideration.

Finally, I feel obliged to give an honorary crumb to James Loney, the young Dodgers first baseman. Like Pence, if he’d played in more games (as opposed to just 96) he could have given Tulowitzki a run for his money. In three important categories, he achieved some impressive numbers: his .331 average, .381 OBP, and 114 runs scored. As two nice peripherals, his walk-to-strikeout rate was the best in the class at 0.58, as was his average with runners in scoring position—a whopping .419. And not that first base is a defensively demanding position, but it’s worth noting that he can hold his own there.

Loney, Pence, and Braun (move him to first base, somebody!) might not be your NL ROYs, but any of them could very well end up being your NL MVPs a few years hence.