And yet another one - Draft
As the Chronicler said, it’s difficult to find something to write about when the “team is playing well and there’s nothing to complain about”.
After losing the last game against the Twins in a very disappointing way - on a Nick Punto jack (his first one of the season) after OC failed to turn a double play and errored instead (one of the greatest things about the English language is that you can turn every noun into a verb!) - the Angels fell behind 0-4 against St. Louis early, but bounced back big to take the game 10-6. In the early innings, the game unpleasantly reminded me of last year, when the Angels hacked away against a subpar pitcher, failing to come through with a clutch hit when they finally managed to put some men on. But those days finally seem to be behind us. Even though they were out-homered 3-0, they outhit the Cardinals 17-12 and, unheard of last year, even out-walked them 6-1. Especially those five walks drawn against starter Kip Wells proved crucial in my opinion, because instead of cruizing to a quality start was gone after 5+ innings and 88 pitches and the Angels lit up the Cards’ relievers, especially Tyler Johnson (4 H, 4 R in 0+ IP) and Ryan Franklin (3 H, 2 R in 0.2 IP).
Bartolo Colon pitched like I expected he would after missing a start with triceps tendinitis, throwing reasonably hard, but missing his spots more often than not and giving up three long balls (I wonder what the front office is going to do if Colon continues his 2004 reminiscence as Saunders seems to be the better choice as long as Colon is not 100%). Both Daren Oliver and Hector Carrasco were able to pitch one no-hit, no-walk, no run inning apiece (Oliver actually striking out the side) and allowed the Angels to get back into the game. So all in all, if we ignore Colon’s outing for a second, a very nice win. Now I’m looking forward to see the Molina brothers stealing of each other. 
Draft Day
Although I had never heard of any of those guys before the draft, let alone seen them play, I’m still quite happy about the Angels’ first two picks. Since the Angels are currently a relatively young team, they don’t need quick help at any position, so selecting some high ceiling high-school pitcher in Jonathan Bachanov with the first pick seems to be a good strategy to me. Another good choice was right hander Matthew Harvey, who dropped down to #118 because he is represented by Boras. I’m not a big fan of Boras and the fact that small market teams pass on talent because of signability concerns kind of contradicts the idea of the draft, but in the current environment, the Angels are advised to take advantage of their relatively deep pockets. After all, those signing bonuses are peanuts compared to a free agent contract nowadays. I would have rather seen more high-school picks in the following rounds, but as I understand it, later round high-school picks are unlikely to sign and what do I know anyway. Maybe Trevor Pippin, Andrew Romine or even Matthew Scioscia turn out to be the next hidden gem.
And one last thing: If nothing else, my Sports Weekly interview brought me a link in the current Link-O-Rama of the one and only Aaron Gleeman. That is so cool! Seriously, to me, that’s like the initiation rite of blogging or something. I only wish I had a more interesting post up at that time.