Should The Angels Trade Make a Trade?

Alright, the streak is over.  Will the Angels be coming back down to earth or will they start another streak.

One could argue that their competition over their last 15 games or so was not so stellar except for their 3 game sweep of the Yankees just before the All Star break.

So, where do they go from here?  Do they mortgage the farm to get a front line pitcher or good set up man for the 'pen?  Do they stand pat and hope their unexpected offensive bounty continues and their shoddy pitching improves?  Do they promote the guys who have produced like Matt Palmer and Shane Loux to the rotation and demote Ervin Santana and Joe Saunders until they get their problems worked out?

By trading away good to great prospects along with some quality front line players do they weaken themselves to much and upset a chemistry that has finally taken them to the top of their division?

Lots of questions with no sure answers.  So far, Brandon Wood, the Angels' most coveted prospect, who is mentioned in almost all trade rumors, has not produced very much as the major league level.  Why?  Most would say that he hasn't been given the chance that Howie Kendrick, Juan Rivera, or even Kendry Morales has been given and that is the chance to play every day and get some kind of rythym going.  Woods has produced at every level except the major leagues.  For a long time the knock on him was that he struck out too much but he has shown much improved plate discipline over the last two seasons.

Other players frequently mentioned are Howie Kendrick, who seems to have found his stroke in recent weeks and raised his average almost 20 points over that same time period mostly coming off the bench.  Can he be the everyday player that he was?

Erik Aybar and Macier Itzuris have been playing lights out in the field and at the plate during the Halos recent streak.  Aybar's name has come up recently too in trade rumors.  Both of these players are hitting around .300 and have shown some spectacular fielding ability. 

However, most would agree that the Angels have a logjam of sorts at the second base/shortstop position.  This was one of the reasons that Wood was moved to third base in the minors two years ago.  They also have Sean Rogriguez waiting in the wings in tripple A at second base.  Rodriguez is a second baseman who it talented in the field and hits for both average and power.

So, with all this one could ask what's the problem?  We are in first place against a Rangers team that might or might not do their historical fold in the second half.  It's not like last years lead but it's 3.5 games ahead as of this point.  Do the Angels need to improve their starting pitching?  Absolutely.  The question is how.

The question that needs to be asked is who are the Angels going to count on in the future.  No prospect is guaranteed to be major league material no matter how good his minor league stats were.  Dallas MacPherson anyone?  But it is time to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

I like Brandon Wood.  Some people don't because he hasn't lit up the league in any of his call ups.  Scoisia himself seems to have something holding him back from playing him every day.  I trust Scoisia.  This is my dilemna.

I also like Howie Kendrick and think he will be a line drive hitter for the next 8-10 years in this league, hit for a high average, and give you a quality at bat almost every time up.  Is this enough when you have a guy giving you excellent play right now and another possible winner at the postion waiting in tripple A in Rodriguez?

Chone Figgins is the spark plug for this team and has been the team's third baseman for the last two years.  He hits for a high average but is not your prototypical high powered third baseman.  After the MacPherson fiasco, the Angel organization has been hoping that Wood would fill that role but has not come along in the last few years as quickly as they would like.  Figgins is 31 and his contract is up after this season.

If you trade for a guy like Halliday what do you get?  You get a 32 year old pitcher front of the rotation guy for a year and a half.  Supposedly the reason the Jays are even talking trade is that Halliday has made it clear that he is going to test the free agent market when his contract is up.  Considering what the Angels did with Frankie Rodriguez this last year, this means they are not going to pay top dollar to keep him.  That means Halliday is a longer term rental.

Is it worth giving up 2 frontline players and 2-3 high ranking prospects for a guy that will give you 5-8 more wins than an average pitcher?  If we don't resign Lackey after this season, which it looks like more and more, than what are we doing?  We are trading our future for pretty much this year.

Will Saunders and Santana regain their All Star form or are they showing that they don't belong?  Right now, after Lackey, we don't have any pitcher who is consistent so what is the point of destroying your current line up which has produced a league leading batting average, losing another possible front line pitcher in Saunders (which has been rumored), losing some young promising pitching prospects which are highly regarded around the league, for possibly 5+ wins.

Those wins aren't guaranteed either.  You would still have to fill Saunder's spot and, as unremarkable as he has been lately, he does have a lot of potential as he showed last year.  His problem is confidence and thinking too much according to pitching coach Mike Butcher.  These he can get back.  He was fine the first two months of the season when he faced stiffer competition and terrible the last two months when he faced lesser competition.  Plus, he is our only lefty.

The Angels offense has been out of this world the last few weeks.  Can they sustain it?  The fact that they have led the league in average for awhile now says yes.  Maybe not to this extent but yes, especially if Rivera and Hunter can come back to their former selves.

Nick Adenhart's unfortunate, untimely, and tragic death created a void in what the Angels planned to do this year.  He was ready willing and able to fill the back end of the rotation with a quality pitcher.  He was expected to work himself up to be a top tier pitcher over the next few years, ala Lackey.

Palmer has been an unexpected surprise but a 30 year old rookie having this kind of success after many stops along the way is difficult to hang your hat on.  Shane Loux is promising as is Sean O'Sullivan.  Can these guys pave the way because of the instability of Saunders, Santana, and even Weaver lately?

I would rather give them a shot and see if Woods can be the slugger we all hope for.  I also think Kendirck is too valuable to give up on considering how well he played the last few years.  We have too many upcoming free agents this year and if we don't sign at least half of them we will need our youngsters even more.

Vlad is as good as gone.  We have tried to work out an extension with Lackey for two years and it hasn't happened.  I know that Figgins likes the Angels but what if someone offers him an out of sight contract?  Moreno will pay but not overpay.

Morales, Abreu, Rivera, and Aybar have been pleasant surprises on offense.  It's pitching that we need, but I would rather lose either the division or even a playoff series this year for a better team next year. 

We thought with Lackey, Weaver, Saunders, Santana, Adenhart, and even possibly Escobar, we had enough starting pitching.  It just shows that you can't ever have enough and that is why I would rather keep our young and coming arms now to have a solid rotation later.