Torii Hunter: WTF??

I am beyond trying to understand the Angels. Last year, they pay $50 million over 5 years to an overrated center-fielder coming off a career year.

This year, they pay $90 million over five years…to a slightly better overrated center-fielder coming off of a career year. WTF?

Thats $140 million of waste. And this team is still paying good money to Garrett Anderson!

I’m not saying Hunter won’t be a good player for the Angels this year- he probably will. Actually, he probably makes the team a little bit better. What is frustrating to me is that if they did not have Anderson, Matthews, or Hunter, their outfield of Rivera, Willits, Guerrero would be almost just as good.

The best part about it is that now, Matthews is going to be used as a designated hitter/corner outfielder. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought a huge part of the reason the Angels paid him so much was because of his center field defense, which is stellar. Obviously, Hunter is a pretty incredible defensive center-fielder too, but basically, the Angels are now paying Matthews 10 million a year to be an average major-league hitter.

What’s even worse is that this move pretty much makes Juan Rivera, who is a much better hitter than Matthews (he is also making a hell of a lot less money than Matthews), a part-time player. Juan Rivera has proven that with consistent at-bats, he can be one of the most productive hitters in the league- and now there is no place for him at all. I’m just praying that the White Sox are interested in trading for Gary Matthews.

Whatever. If the Angels want to waste a bunch of money and the team still wins- and they will win the West again next year- I guess I shouldn’t care as a fan. What bothers me is that they could be saving this money for Miguel Cabrera or another legitimate hitter that would essentially book a ticket to post-season play for years to come and help their chances to get to the World Series.

Absolutely Awful

Even with the recent struggles of a few conference teams, it’s easy to argue that the Pac-10 is the best top-to-bottom conference in college basketball right now.

Unless you are talking about the very bottom.

Oregon State is absolutely awful. I mean beyond bad. I don’t know how they are even going to win one game in conference play this year.

The Beavers lost to the Alaska Nanooks on Saturday in the Top of the World Classic. Alaska is a Division II team that lost by 58 points to Cal – another team picked to finish towards the bottom of the Pac-10 Standings. They also lost by 35 points to IUPUI in the same tournament. And they somehow beat Oregon State.

Granted, Oregon State will get former Kansas starter C.J. Giles for conference play, but to watch this team try and compete in the Pac-10 this year should be nothing short of amusing.