Angels Player Power Rankings - Week 2

With the first week of the season in the books, the power rankings have already seen a big shake up, mostly because a certain big money free agent can't stop swinging and missing…

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		— 0 Last Week: 1	Mike Trout – Nobody is happier that Josh Hamilton is getting reamed over his strikeout problem than Mr. Trout, who has already K'd eight times this season. Clearly the BBWAA had it right.
2		+1 Last Week: 3	Albert Pujols – Albert doesn't always homer in Arlington, but when he does, he usually homers twice.
3		-1 Last Week: 2	Jered Weaver – Good thing Weaver hurt his elbow on Sunday night otherwise all we would be talking about is how bad he was (again) in Arlington. Bullet dodged, am I right?
4		+3 Last Week: 7	Mark Trumbo – Could barely get the ball out of the infield in spring training, now leads the Angels in doubles and has a home run to his credit as well.
5		+8 Last Week:13	Chris Iannetta – Iannetta might have been the Angels best hitter in the first week which is great because it gives me early ammunition for my campaign to get Mike Scioscia to stop batting him eighth in the order.
6		+10 Last Week: 16	Kevin Jepsen – He may not be as flashy, but from a consistency standpoint, I'm starting to wonder if the Angels might not be better off with Jepsen closing. I know. I can't believe I wrote that either.
7		+3 Last Week: 10	Jason Vargas – Have we decided on calling him Viva las Vargas or Circus Vargas yet? Is it context dependent maybe? Is there another tired Vargas pun that I am not thinking of?
8		-2 Last Week: 6	C.J. Wilson – When the surgeon fixed C.J.'s elbow this off-season, he apparently forgot to fix his "one bad inning ruins an entire start" problem.
9		+2 Last Week: 11	Peter Bourjos – A 1.135 OPS to start the season. Torii who?
10		-5 Last Week: 5	Erick Aybar – It only took three games for Scioscia to order Aybar to lay down his first ill-advised sac bunt to move Mike Trout over to second base.
11		+4 Last Week: 15	Tommy Hanson – Hanson had a solid Halo debut in the boxscore. On the radar gun? Not so much, as he averaged just 87.7 MPH on his fastball according to Pitch f/x.
12		-3 Last Week: 9	Ernesto Frieri – His line this year is already a microcosm of his career. Two inning pitched, four strikeouts but the only hit he allowed was a homer.
13		+4 Last Week: 17	Alberto Callaspo – After a .399 OPS the first month of the 2012 season, it is nice to see Callaspo get out of the gates quickly this year.
14		-6 Last Week: 8	Howie Kendrick – It would seem that Howie has decided that instead of grounding into double plays that this year he will instead strikeout in situations where all he needs to do is put the ball in play to score a run. Just when we think Kendrick is going to zig, he zags!
15		-11 Last Week: 4	Josh Hamilton – Between all the boos, strikeouts and Texas pitching around Pujols specifically to get to Hamilton (and having it work), I can't say that I am terribly enjoying the Hamilton era much in the same way as I can't say that I enjoy having a white-hot poker jammed up my nostril.
16		+3 Last Week: 19	Garrett Richards – He has a real chance to be a big weapon in the bullpen, but as we saw on the game-tying homer he allowed, he still needs to work on maintaining his focus even though he is pitching in shorter stints.
17		+1 Last Week: 18	Sean Burnett – Burnett is barely cracking 88 MPH on the radar gun, so go ahead and add him to the growin list of Angel pitchers with a highly disconcerting loss of velocity.
18		-6 Last Week: 12	Joe Blanton – Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Joervin Blantana.
19		+4 Last Week: 23	Mark Lowe – Josh Hamilton wasn't the only former Ranger who had a rough time against his former team.
20		-6 Last Week: 14	Scott Downs – Guess who has two of the Angels' four losses? Go ahead, guess. Correct! OK, now guess which lefty reliever shouldn't be allowed to face right-handed batters anymore?
21		— 0 Last Week: 21	Hank Conger – Getting through his first start of the season without any obvious defensive gaffes is a big moral victory for Hank.
22		-2 Last Week: 20	Jerome Williams – Every other reliever in the bullpen made at least two appearances (and all but Frieri made three) before Williams made his first this season. He has to be pretty happy that his salary is guaranteed because right now he is the one on the chopping block if/when Ryan Madson gets activated.
23		+2 Last Week: 25	Brendan Harris – I'm trying to think of a comment for him but all I am blocked by the fact that I can't get over how his headshot looks like he just smelled a fart.
24		— 0 Last Week: 24	J.B. Shuck – Did you know J.B. Shuck has seven career home runs? No, not in the majors. I mean seven career home runs across his entire career in the majors and minors with exactly zero of them being hit above Double-A.
25		-3 Last Week: 22	Andrew Romine – Romine has struck out in every single on of his at-bats this season! Oh, wait, he only has a single at-bat.