Angels Player Power Rankings – Week 15

As always, the rankings are based on a player’s overall season performance with a weight on recent performance.

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		— 0 Last Week: 1	Mike Trout – Between the All-Star Game and then the series in New York, I think I speak for us all when I say that we’ver had more than enough “Mike Trout idolized Derek Jeter” stories to last us a lifetime now.
2		— 0 Last Week: 2	Jered Weaver – I know I said that Verlander deserved the All-Star Game start more than Weaver, but, umm, yeah… in hindsight, Weaver should’ve started the All-Star Game.  My bad.
3		— 0 Last Week: 3	Mark Trumbo – Little known fact: Trumbo is actually the Gaelic translation of “Yankee Murderer.”
4		— 0 Last Week: 4	Albert Pujols – If I told you during the off-season that Albert Pujols would not be an All-Star in his first year with the Angels, would you have believed me?  I didn’t think so.
5		+2 Last Week: 7	C.J. Wilson – Now we all know the real reason Wilson wanted to get out of Texas and back to California: better access to the swimsuit model dating pool.
6		-1 Last Week: 5	Ernesto Frieri – The shutout streak is over.  Time to start a new one.  As long as it lasts through the upcoming Texas series, I’m good.
7		+2 Last Week: 9	Kendrys Morales – If Kendrys thought his nine-game hitting streak that ended right before the break was going to distract people from noticing that he hadn’t homered since June 20th, he was wrong.
8		-2 Last Week: 6	Scott Downs – With as good as Downs has been the last season and a half, we can forgive him for hitting this little rough patch.  It would have been better though had he not done it at the same time as Frieri.
9		-1 Last Week: 8	Torii Hunter – You know you’re old when you get four days off and then hurt yourself in your very first game back.
10		— 0 Last Week: 10	Alberto Callaspo – Callaspo is slowly starting to cool off, which means the fans demanding a trade for a new third baseman should reach a fever pitch again in… 3… 2…
11		+2 Last Week: 13	Erick Aybar – For the first three months of the season, he can barely make contact.  Now, Aybar is landing balls in the second deck like it ain’t no thing.  Baseball makes my head hurt sometimes.
12		— 0 Last Week: 12	Howie Kendrick – Mike Scioscia has benched Howie three times in the team’s last 12 games, this despite Howie going .303/.378/.424 over that span.  The good news is I hear Scioscia’s doghouse is air conditioned.
13		-2 Last Week: 11	LaTroy Hawkins – I must’ve missed the memo about Hawk getting passed by Jepsen on the depth chart.  Oh, it wasn’t just me?
14		— 0 Last Week: 14	Jason Isringhausen – Is it just me or does Isringhausen always look like he rolled straight out of bed and onto the mound?
15		+1 Last Week: 16	Peter Bourjos – Peter Bourjos doesn’t start often, but when he does, he reminds me that he might be the only big leaguer faster than Mike Trout.
16		— 0 Last Week: n/a	Jerome Williams – It is good to have Jerome back, but he is going to have to step it up, otherwise he is going to find himself replaced before the month is out.
17		+2 Last Week: 19	Ervin Santana – Ervin did not pitch this week.  He had a great week.
18		+5 Last Week: 23	Maicer Izturis – He’s alive!!!!!  Mighty Maicer lives!!!!!!!!!
19		-1 Last Week: 18	Jordan Walden – Bicep tightness fully explains why he can only throw his slider 58-feet, right?  RIGHT?  RIGHT!?!?!?!
20		+2 Last Week: 22	Bobby Wilson – Did you know that Bobby Wilson has a three-game hitting streak?  Why yes, that is a career-best for him, how’d you guess?
21		-1 Last Week: 20	John Hester – Yep, that’s right, he finally fell back behind Bobby Wilson in the rankings.  Go ahead and try and explain to me why that’s wrong.
22		-1 Last Week: 21	Hisanori Takahashi – Takahashi must like having Kevin Jepsen around because it means he doesn’t have the highest ERA (or level of fan hate) in the bullpen anymore.
23		+1 Last Week: 24	David Carpenter – No news is good news for Carpenter, though I’m sure he is wondering what he can do to inexplicably win over Scioscia like Jepsen did.  Maybe he needs to start pitching worse?
24		+1 Last Week: 25	Andrew Romine – And thus completes our weekly affirmation that Andrew Romine is still on the Angels active roster.
25		— 0 Last Week: n/a	Kevin Jepsen – Oh dear God!  Now that Jepsen has a save on his stat line, I fear that Scioscia might start treating him like he is a “proven closer.”  No lead is safe!  Run for your lives!!!

Biggest Riser: Maicer Izturis, up five spots

Biggest Dropper: Scott Downs and LaTroy Hawkins, down two spots each

Added to the rankings: Jerome Williams (activated from DL), Kevin Jepsen (promoted for reasons that have still yet to be fully understood by science)

Dropped from rankings: Garrett Richards (demoted temporarily), Dan Haren (disabled list)