Why not Maicer?

Greetings! Some of you may remember me. I’m Ben, the other guy that used to post on this site.  Well, after a long layoff, I’m back at you with what else, an Angels post.

I, like Gilbert, love the Angels and I can’t really complain too much about the way the organization is run from either a baseball standpoint or an organizational standpoint. The one thing that continually frustrates me about the Angels is their perpetual inability and non-desire to get the most out of some of their commodities.

Juan Rivera is my favorite Angel and his presence made it totally unnecessary to sign Torii Hunter, especially when there are capable outfielders like Reggie Willits and Terry Evans on the team. Nonetheless, I will concede that signing Hunter does make the Angels a slightly better team offensively and a much better team defensively. Plus, when you add the fact that Hunter is as good as it gets in the community and will put even more fans in the seats, I can understand why the Angels were so eager to sign him.

I also am in the minority of Angels fans who thinks that Dallas McPherson was brought up too slowly, used improperly, and cut too early, despite his injury problems. I think he is going to rake for the Marlins and have the same kind of success that Bobby Jenks had for the White Sox the year after the Angels cut him in favor of keeping Chris Bootcheck among others.

For me, Maicer Izturis also falls into the category of improperly used commodities that the Angels have.

When the Angels let Orlando Cabrera go in the offseason, I thought it was a great sign for Izturis. Cabrera was fun to watch and had a really good year last year, but Maicer Izturis is making a lot less money and has proved he can do basically the same job Cabrera did with playing time. It seemed to be a good idea to have Izturis start and groom along Erick Aybar and Brandon Wood.

But alas, it seems like Aybar will at least split time with Izturis and likely get the majority of playing time at shortstop once the season starts. I really hope that is not the case. Aybar proved last year that he isn’t major league ready yet. He swings at every pitch, makes foolish decisions in the field, and his high stolen base numbers are more than offset by the amount of times he is caught stealing or picked off.

Meanwhile, Maicer has been great when he’s had stretches of consistent at bats. He gets on base pretty well, makes contact, and even hits for a little bit of power. And his defense has been sensational at both third base and shortstop. In other words, he is Orlando Cabrera! Never mind how much both players are being paid- if Cabrera was good enough to start and short without petty competition, why isn’t Maicer? He is so clearly the best option there for this season (barring a breakout first half of the season in AAA by Brandon Wood) that it shouldn’t even be a debate. Here’s hoping that the Angels make the right decision when the season starts.

26 days ’til Opening Day: Jose Molina

There are 26 days left until that best day of the year, MLB’s Opening Day.

26 is the uniform number Jose Molina wears. While Jose has never been an everyday player or a great hitter, he’s famous for being one of the three Molina brothers (with Bengie and Yadier).

All three are catchers in the majors, and all three have been on teams that won the World Series. Jose was a long-time Angel, but is now a backup catcher on the Yankees, and it’s extremely weird seeing him in a uniform other than the ones the Angels wear.