perspective

OK.
I went a little loony in my last post, but I think all Halo fans should be given some latitude after the events of today.

It was bad. Bad mostly that the Angels' #1 priority (Lackey) went to a rival, the #2 was taken off the board (at least he went to the Phillies rather than say, the Yankees), and who could have possibly been #3 went to a division rival. Basically, the best options for what the FO was trying to address (pitching) are gone.

But after taking some time to wallow in the sadness and thoughts of what-ifs, sanity returns.

On Lackey:
Losing Lackey will hurt the rotation, but its not the end of the world. The rotation still has a very good looking top 4, and any one of those four have the potential to step up and become an ace. Besides, now that the dollar numbers are known, there was no way the Angels would (or should) beat 5/$85M. So there's the silver lining, right? Yeah, its a good move for the BoSox now, but I'm sure, financial flexibility or not, they're going to be lamenting those 4th-5th years and that $16-17M/year. The Angels can better spend that money - especially if a top pitcher is available in FA next offseason. I'm just gonna hope that the BoSox defense/offense remains a mess (NO AGon) for the inevitable ALDS showdown.

Oh, and I gotta say, its gonna be interesting to see how Lackey integrates into the Boston clubhouse. He's known in Anaheim for his display of, um, displeasure of his fielders as much as he is known for his toughness. How's that gonna play in Boston, where the fans/media are rabid crazy and there's already a lead-dog pitcher (Beckett)? Like I said, it'll be interesting.

And I hope that Lackey is prepared to be boo-ed in Anaheim. While there will be some that won't fault him for taking the money (and remember 2002), I can understand the hatred that the Red Sox inspire in any Halo fan.

On Halladay:
Now losing out on him isn't that bad. Yeah, after losing out on Lackey, it would've been nice to pick Halladay up. But I never was a big fan of the idea of trading away half the young core for an aging and expensive pitcher. I was even less inclined to like it after hearing that the Jays wanted Reckling in any deal. Props to the Phils for scooping up Halladay so that they can dominate the NL for another 2-3 years while they're core is still intact. But man, I don't know how I'd feel if I was a Phils fan. After avoiding trading Brown and Drabek last July, looks like the Jays will get them after all.

On Lee:
This one probably sucks the most. Not so much cause we wanted him (who really thought he was available??), but because he goes to the M's. Jack Z is making a hell of a push - Figgy, Lee, and possibly Bay?? Figgy's signing didn't worry me too much, but dang, this Lee trade worries me. The hope was that the price would hamstring the M's in the future, but from how estatic Dave Cameron is, it doesn't look too good. I'd say that the Mariners have got to the point where they'll be competitive for the division title. And unfortunately for the Angels that means one more rival in the AL West. The bright spot? I doubt that the M's will be able to extend both King Felix and Lee, so hopefully the Angels can use the savings from this offseason to buy Lee next offseason.

The next step(s) for the Angels:
Obviously the Matsui signing doesn't make up for what happened today. I'm lukewarm on the signing - the good thing is its only for one year, but the bad thing is that Matsui is only slightly better than Vlad and he's not Vlad. We'll see how it goes..

The real question is what the Angels should do next. There has been lots of clamoring for Bay/Holliday coupled with trading Rivera. I don't like that. I really believe that Rivera is completely undervalued by Angels fans. He's not a "star" like Bay (who I think benefits from the exposure of Boston), but he has a very good contract for his production. Throwing money (and five years!) at a bad defender is not going to make the Angels better. The other popular proposal is to bring in Lowe for Rivera. Please. Just say no. That contract should be enough to scare away the Angels FO. Couple in the fact that Lowe is 37 and it just screams red flag.

So what TO do? I really have got no answers.. And that makes me think that the best option is to not do anything major.
Shore up the bullpen.
Find a veteran #5 for one/two years.
Lock up some of that young core.
Save your money for the monster 2010 FA class.
Play/trust the youngsters (none of this Izzy is gonna play 3b crap).

And please, please, please, don't do anything stupid.