Orange County Register

Mat Gleason of Halos Heaven runs down the Angels for Yahoo. He coins an amazing phrase: “The Scioscialist Angels,” to describe a team that routinely confounds stathead expectations. He also overreaches a bit with this:

“Their 2B platoon of Howie Kendrick and Maicer Izturis has combined for 125 RBI.”

Well, sure, but that’s because the “2B platoon” played a lot of games at shortstop. Between them, Izturis and Kendrick appeared in 219 games. Why not say Angels’ third basemen Chone Figgins and Maicer Izturis combined to score 183 runs? Or that left fielders Bobby Abreu and Juan Rivera combined for 191 RBI? After all, Izturis was an occasionally third baseman, and Abreu saw some time in left.

But, hey, that’s nitpicking! The Angels’ 2B platoon really was tremendous, as the Angels finished second in the AL in RBI and sixth in OBP at that position.

Bring it home, Mat:

“Overcoming the popular favortism for all things Fenway will be tough, but barring the Boston bias that has become routine behind home plate, the Angels win a ring for Nick Adenhart, for Arte Moreno, for the best-looking fans in baseball and for every follower of the sport who understands that Pythagoras was really such a square.”

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