Angels Player Power Rankings - Week 5

OK, I swear, I never intended for these to be bi-weekly, but well, here we are. Let’s just get right to the rankings before I procrastinate more and this post ends up being monthly.

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	Jered Weaver – You throw a no-hitter, you get to be #1. That’s just a rule… and common sense
2		+1 Last Week: 3	C.J. Wilson – Best free agent signing of the off-season. That should have been a more shocking statement, but, you know…
3		+6 Last Week: 9	Torii Hunter – After struggling early in the season, Hunter used the last two weeks to become arguably the team’s best hitter, which is both a credit to him and an insult to the rest of the roster.
4		+2 Last Week: 6	Mark Trumbo – You know, I think his much improved plate discipline might be for real. If it is, the league should be terrified.
5		— 0 Last Week: 5	Dan Haren – It was just unfair for him to have to be the follow-up act behind the Williams shutout and Weaver no-hitter, but at least the offense or defense didn’t help him out.
6		-4 Last Week: 2	Albert Pujols – He finally hit that homer, but his OPS is still giving me Mathis flashbacks. Even I can’t justify him being ranked higher than this and I have been one of Pujols’ most ardent supporters.
7		-3 Last Week: 4	Howie Kendrick – The most amazing accomplishment of Howie’s last two weeks is not that he had seven hits and two homers in two games, but that he didn’t get benched immediately afterwards.
8		+2 Last Week: 10	Scott Downs – Injured again? The Baseball Gods just don’t want the Halos to have a competent bullpen.
9		N/A Last Week: n/a	Mike Trout – His numbers aren’t great, but the Angels are 6-3 in games he has started. He is our Messiah.
10		+1 Last Week: 11	Kendrys Morales – He’s been hot this week, but I’m still not convinced that he is anything more than a 250-pound slap-hitter. A very good slap hitter, but a slap hitter nonetheless.
11		-3 Last Week: 8	Chris Iannetta – Not a great weak, but he scored major man points for finishing off Weaver’s no-hitter despite getting hit on the wrist by a pitch earlier in the game that was bad enough for him to have to sit out the next three games.
12		+7 Last Week: 19	Jerome Williams – Jerome Williams is actually really good. Yeah, I know, it’s weird, huh?
13		N/A Last Week: n/a	Ernesto Frieri – You had me at “mid-nineties fastball with explosive late action.”
14		+1 Last Week: 15	Ervin Santana – Five straight starts without the Angels scoring a single run for him. I don’t know what he did to piss off the batters, but I suggest he offer an apology. I bet one of those cookie bouquet things would do the trick.
15		-2 Last Week: 13	Maicer Izturis – And he isn’t the starting shortstop now… why?
16		+1 Last Week: 17	LaTroy Hawkins – Hmmmm… maybe having a bullpen where all the best relievers are brittle, card-carrying AARP members isn’t the best idea after all.
17		-10 Last Week: 7	Erick Aybar – How the hell did I ever have him ranked as high as #7? And how the hell did Scioscia ever bat him leadoff?
18		-2 Last Week: 16	Vernon Wells – Do us all a favor and either get good again just go in the tank completely. This mostly being bad with bi-weekly flashes of quality play is driving me insane.
19		-5 Last Week: 14	Peter Bourjos – I don’t care if he is hitting .180 and has two hits in his last 23 at-bats, FREE PETER BOURJOS!!! It is fun to want to free people!!!!!!!!!!
20		+4 Last Week: 24	David Carpenter – I remain mildly amazed that the Halos wisely demoted Kevin Jepsen and not the quietly effective Carpenter. Hooray for common sense!
21		-9 Last Week: 12	Jordan Walden – Well, don’t I look silly for supporting him so much these last few months. Let’s just pretend that never happened.
22		-4 Last Week: 18	Alberto Callaspo – Why is it he can keep getting starts despite a horrendous start to the season and Peter Bourjos can’t? The Scioscia works in strange and mysterious ways.
23		-2 Last Week: 21	Bobby Wilson – He is a back-up catcher who played very back-up catchery these last two weeks. That’s all I got.
24		-4 Last Week: 20	Jason Isringhausen – No way he is still on this team if Tony Reagins hadn’t left the Angel minor leagues devoid of anything resembling reliever depth.
25		-2 Last Week: 23	Hisanori Takahashi – I almost forgot he was still on the team, this is a good thing. I have the feeling I won’t be able to say that after this next potentially Downs-free week.