This Week in Angels Baseball (Week of June 25th)

By Chuck Richter – Angelswin.com Executive Editor

Real quick, let’s go around the horn on some of the hot items in Angels Baseball this week and what Angels fans are talking about after the Philadelphia Phillies sweep. Check out in this week’s feature what Angels fans are talking about on our AW.com forum & some information on our upcoming Angelswin.com Summer Fanfest on July 5th.

• According to Jerry Crasnick at ESPN, Ervin Santana & Joe Saunders are the best 1-2 combo in the pitching rotation in all of Baseball. Who can argue? It’s pretty sick when Lackey is the third wheel eh. Check out the discussion on the board here

• Kelvim Escobar threw 32 pitches today in the ASL and was hitting 92-94 mph on the radar gun. The Angels were “very excited” about his velocity and Escobar said he felt “Great!” afterwards! Kelvim will pitch Monday in Rancho Cucamonga for the Quakes.

• On Tuesday, Cedar Rapids pitcher and former 1st round pick Trevor Bell was fantastic on the mound, pitching a complete game, while giving up just 1 run and striking out 7 hitters. It is the 7 strikeouts that is note worthy as he pledged before the game to give $100 bucks per strikeout to the Cedar Rapids flood victims. The end result was $700 of his own money that was donated to the families that were affected by this disaster. Major kudos to Trevor Bell.

• If you were Mike Scioscia how would you set the pitching rotation after the All Star Break? If it were me, I’d go with Lackey, Saunders, Santana. Garland and then Weaver. Chime in on our message board here to sort your rotation and why.

• So with our current roster of offensive performers, do you think we need a MOTO (middle of the order bat)? If so, who and what player or players could we offer to a club that will be sellers on the July 31st trade deadline? Give us your two sense here on the board.

• Lastly, sign up now for our AW.com 2008 Summer Fanfest on July 5th!! The event will feature an Angelswin.com members softball game at El Camino Park in the city of Orange at 10:00 am. Then we’ll have a couple grills cookin’ up some ballpark food and supply side dishes and drinks for our tailgate party starting at 3 pm (Under the Big A). A surprise appearance by a member of the Angels will join us during this time. Next, a big group of us AW.com members will watch the Angels take on the Toronto Blue Jays. Lastly, we’ll head on over to Throwbacks for our first “official” AW.com shindig at an Angels fan friendly bar that has partnered up with the Angels and AW.com. For more details and to sign up for this event, navigate here to RSVP.