Angels Player Power Rankings – Week 21

RANK	PLAYER	CHANGE	COMMENTS
1		— 0 Last Week: 1	Mike Trout – Thank goodness his injury is very minor, there might've been a mass suicide among Angel fans if he had anything more severe than a hangnail.
2		— 0 Last Week: 2	Jered Weaver – The suckitis that has infected the rest of the team finally got to Weaver. These are going to be a loooooooong final six weeks.
3		— 0 Last Week: 3	C.J. Wilson – Wilson is becoming the master of turning starts that look like they are going to be terrible into pretty decent outings. That's good for the Angels, but bad for my ulcer.
4		— 0 Last Week: 4	Garrett Richards – He has one of his best starts ever against the Yankees but gets roughed up by the Astros, go figure. Still, you have to appreciate that since returning to the rotation, Richards has not walked more than two batters in an outing.
5		+4 Last Week: 9	Mark Trumbo – Let's hope this big week for Trumbo leads to a strong finish to the season as there are certainly a lot of people who are losing confidence in everyone's favorite homegrown slugger.

6		+1 Last Week: 7	J.B. Shuck  – My anti-Shuck rants would probably go over a lot better if he wasn't hitting so well right now.
7		-1 Last Week: 6	Erick Aybar – August was shaping up to be pretty nice for Aybar before he got dinged up.
8		— 0 Last Week: n/a	Peter Bourjos – Bourjos is already back fulfilling the prophecy that he is going to play through the rest of the season with a bum wrist, perform poorly at the plate and cause people to start doubting him again.
9		— 0 Last Week: n/a	Jason Vargas – If Dipoto was hoping to get a nice return in a trade of Vargas, that probably went out the window after two poor outings this week.
10		— 0 Last Week: 10	Grant Green – Green collected his first extra base hits this week, but he also struck out eight times. Let's just say the jury is still out.
11		— 0 Last Week: 11	Dane De La Rosa – How can we be sure that De La Rosa is really sharing the closer role when there are no games to close?
12		+3 Last Week: 15	Chris Nelson – That two-homer game came out of nowhere. In a world where the Angels will have to make assessments for next year based off of relatively small samples, that one performance could do wonders for him heading into spring training.
13		-5 Last Week: 8	Chris Iannetta – At some point I want to go back through and see how many weeks Iannetta has turned in where his average was below .100.
14		-1 Last Week: 13	Hank Conger – I still have no idea what he did to get reduced to making two starts per week, but it doesn't look like it will be changing anytime soon… unless Scioscia changes his mind for no good reason again.
15		+2 Last Week: 17	Josh Hamilton – The rankings yo-yo ride for Hamilton continues with this huge week, including a "crucial" walk-off homer to prevent the Angels from getting swept by the Astros… again.
16		-11 Last Week: 5	Kole Calhoun – It seems my Calhoun euphoria was a bit premature, but I still reserve the right to be pissed off if he gets buried on the bench now that Bourjos is back.
17		+2 Last Week: 19	Ernesto Frieri – Ernasty looks like he got himself right, but I don't think there is anything he can do to ever get the fans or coaching staff to fully believe in him again.
18		-2 Last Week: 16	J.C. Gutierrez – You had to know that sooner or later Gutierrez was going to fall apart. I blame the crooked hat.
19		-7 Last Week: 12	Kevin Jepsen – I say something vaguely nice about Jepsen, he gets shellacked the next week. Nice to see the universe is still in order.
20		+2 Last Week: 22	Collin Cowgill – It is only 50 plate appearances against mostly left-handed pitching, but Cowgill has acquitted himself nicely with a .325 wOBA as an Angel.
21		-1 Last Week: 20	Jerome Williams – Please, just call up ANYONE else to spare us from more of Williams. Not only is he pitching poorly, he is constantly struggling to get through five innings which is taxing an already tired and ineffective bullpen.
22		-1 Last Week: 21	Michael Kohn – What is more concerning than all the runs Kohn has been giving up is that he has struck out just one batter the entire month of August.
23	NO PICTURE AVAILABLE	+1 Last Week: 24	Buddy Boshers – Scioscia's new favorite toy hasn't been bad, but he hasn't shown anything to make anyone want to keep him around yet either.
24		— 0 Last Week: n/a	Andrew Romine – It continues to baffle me that an organization that thrived for so long because they had a strong bench led by a quality utility infielder just keeps rotating guys who have already failed several times over through the role.
25		-2 Last Week: 23	Joe Blanton – I didn't think it was possible for Blanton to be worse than he was in the rotation, but wow has Blanton in the bullpen proven me wrong.

Dropped from rankings: Tommy Hanson ("working on some things" in the minors), Nick Maronde (not the prospect we though he was), Tommy Field (demoted in favor of a better fielder, ironically)

Biggest Riser: Trumbo, up four spots

Biggest Dropper: Calhoun, down eleven spots