Rob Long: Like A Thief In The Night
For awhile now, we've been hearing about Albert Pujols going to several teams. We've heard Pujols to the Chicago Cubs, Pujols to the Miami Marlins and of course Pujols staying home in St. Louis to finish his career as a baseball god with the Cardinals.
While driving around this morning playing my daily role as dad, I began hearing talks of Pujols to the Los Angeles Angels. Makes sense. The Angels were the perrennial favorites to win the American League West. Then, something happened in Texas called Nolan Ryan and the Rangers. That changed everything.
Now, the Angels strike back by landing the big fish of the free agency period in Pujols. All of a sudden, they are players again in a division that they lost by 10 games in 2011. In fact, the Angels went from 96 wins in 2009 and winning the division by nine games to 86 wins and a 10 game gap in 2011.
The Angels did not stop at Pujols. They fortified that rotation by adding C.J. Wilson, which also takes something away from the Rangers rotation. Adding Wilson to Jered Weaver's 230 plus innings, 18 wins and 2.41 earned run average. The Angels are certainly a better team today than they were at the end of the season. The question still remains, are they good enough.
Can the Angels fill anymore gaps now? They just spent $227.5 million today. That money is committed over the next 10 years. Is this team good enough to just add Pujols and Wilson? The Rangers sure hope not. At least for now, all's good in the great city of Anaheim.
Rob Long
