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Top 40 Angel Countdown Begins Tomorrow!

Our All Time Angels List was my best idea in years, but was too a big task to take on alone; so I asked members of the Halosphere to send me their lists - their Top 100. Well, only The Chronicler jumped in the pool and the list so far has been a point calculated total of his rankings and mine.

Fortunately, Rob McMillin (of the 6-4-2 L.A. Baseball Blog) helped out with almost daily essays, along with a few other Angel-committed writers. Thanks Rob!

I decided to reach out to the Halosphere again and sent out an alphabetical list of the Top 40 Angels and asked people to number them 1-40. Fortunately, a few people responded with their votes and comments. Tomorrow the countdown begins, today allow me to introduce the prestigious voters and their Angelic qualifications:

Star-divide

The Bloggers
Reverend Halofan - Angel fan since 1975. Tattoo of the old red haloed California logo on right shoulder where it appeared on Angel uniforms from 1972-1986. As an art major at Cal State L.A., he once entitled an abstract painting Gus Polidor.

The Chronicler, aka, Black Hawk Waterloo - Angel fan who named his Chronicles of the Lads blog after a Bob Starr quote. Excellent grasp of stats and an ability to communicate what they mean rather than be an obtuse Mister Spock like 99% of the unwashed sabermetric hordes. His Detailed Biography clearly articulates the post-Game 6 parallel universe theory that haunts every longtime Angel fan's psyche.

Matt Welch - Is a famous political blogger and cultural commentator. Few people in Southern California can get you tickets to a sold out Angel playoff game AND a sold-out Bob Dylan concert. I first met Matt on the Amtrack back to Union Station once after a game and he can talk about any subject - but unlike the rest of us - he knows what the fuck he is talking about. He discusses the real world and the occasional Angel issue on what he calls his WARBLOG.

William "Shredder" Seitz - This man went to battle on internet message boards to defend the 2002 Angels as more than "just lucky" against the Spock-laden arguments of an army of nerdy stat heads who wouldn't bathe for a date if their mom started charging them rent on their 30th birthday. He was once featured in the Wall Street Journal as an Angel fan living in Chicago. On his L.A. Seitz blog, he blogs about sports and music, but (wisely) never about his personal life.

Rich Lederer - Proprietor of the excellent and informative Baseball Analysts site, Rich is most famous for taking his campaign to get Bert Blyleven elected to the Hall of Fame directly to the sportswriters who do the voting. Rich declined to vote for the entire list of forty candidates, picking what he considered to be the Top 25, and so vote totals on these Angels are divided by 8 and the remaining 15 players by 7.

The Faithful
Brent Carter - A pessimistic Angels fan, Brent has a photographic memory of Angels games from yesteryear that always impresses/amazes me. If he is not calling Angel Talk after games, his brother Kevin will occasionally steal some of Brent's great observations and phone in with the suggestion as if they were his, and thus is Brent's influence felt in the franchise

CUPIE - a regular poster to Halos Heaven best known for inventing our PANTHER! cheer, Cupie attends most regular season weekend games and is unofficial mayor of the $6 dollar parking lot on the South West corner of the stadium. He will hibachi a mean carne asada there for anyone who brings their own beer.

YESWECAN - when he is not phoning the Rev from Vegas asking about which pit bosses are likeliest to give him comps, Yeswecan is substitute posting here on this site while the Rev is on those very same Vegas craps tables. If you give up on the Angels at any point in the season and then they are kicking ass a little later on, he will never let you forget it. He bets Ace/low kicker like it is pocket rockets and sucks out top pair on the river so often you just want to kill him.

Thanks to our voters, see you all at Fresca's before the game!

0 recs  |  Comment 30 comments

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My personal life
he blogs about sports and music, but (wisely) never about his personal life.

Honeslty, if I did, it would be even more boring than my posts about sports and music.  

by LA Seitz on Jan 17, 2006 7:34 AM PST reply actions   0 recs

Rev:
Wasn't your art subject Gus murdered a few years back in some country south of here?

by Grich4mvp on Jan 17, 2006 8:07 AM PST reply actions   0 recs

Sadly, yes
The paint was long dry and suddenly there was a postmodern contextual twist to the subjective experience of viewing said artistic practice.

by Rev Halofan on Jan 17, 2006 10:50 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

My list
This is based exclusively on Win Shares in an Angels uniform.  Unsurprisingly, some current generation Angels place pretty highly here; what was a surprise was Albie Pearson at #22, Bobby Knoop cracking the top 30, and Darin Erstad placing in the top 10. Erstad is essentially done as a player, but he ranks amazingly high in the Angels history and was still a very good player when he was usable.  I also like the fact that both Troys ended up together on this list.

   1. Tim Salmon
   2. Brian Downing
   3. Jim Fregosi
   4. Chuck Finley
   5. Bobby Grich
   6. Garret Anderson
   7. Nolan Ryan
   8. Darin Erstad
   9. Wally Joyner
  10. Chili Davis
  11. Frank Tanana
  12. Mike Witt
  13. Troy Percival
  14. Troy Glaus
  15. Rod Carew
  16. Jim Edmonds
  17. Don Baylor
  18. Dick Schofield
  19. Mark Langston
  20. Dean Chance
  21. Doug Decinces
  22. Albie Pearson
  23. Clyde Wright
  24. Jarrod Washburn
  25. Adam Kennedy
  26. Bob Boone
  27. Bobby Knoop
  28. Andy Messersmith
  29. Bengie Molina
  30. Rick Reichardt
  31. Kirk McCaskill
  32. Jack Howell
  33. Buck Rodgers
  34. Reggie Jackson
  35. Gary DiSarcina
  36. Fred Lynn
  37. Sandy Alomar
  38. Leon Wagner
  39. Dave Chalk
  40. Mickey Rivers

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 9:42 AM PST reply actions   0 recs

Did you not have a vote?
It's not clear from the intro.  Some of the guys you mention aren't on the to 40 list, but much of that is due to the nature of Rev's list in general.  Scioscia and Moreno have no win shares in an Angels uniform, but are on the top 40 list.

by LA Seitz on Jan 17, 2006 10:29 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Not that I didn't have a vote
... but I didn't get it in under the wire.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 11:58 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

where was this list
three weeks ago when I did the math?

by Rev Halofan on Jan 17, 2006 10:34 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

I was busy trying to figure out
... whether I was going to pay for Lee Sinins' encyclopedia.  As it turned out, the historical win shares data was available online for free, but I had to hunt it down first.

And no, it doesn't include the postseason.

The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 11:25 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Erstad
Saying Erstad is done as a player is a tad premature I'd say.  He's be even higher on the list if it included playoffs!

by thewebb on Jan 17, 2006 1:16 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

2005
ROB - are you SURE these #s include 2005?

by Rev Halofan on Jan 17, 2006 1:30 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Christ, yes
I had to enter that year MANUALLY, and then only for those players for whom it would have mattered (Vlad, GA, Bengie, and a couple others).  The only one it really changed was GA, and it didn't even change his position on the list.  The Angels have had some good players...
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 2:23 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Ah, but did you....
... adjust for 162-game schedules for 1972, 1981, 1994 & 1995? Not that you have to, of course, but it helps give Grich & Salmon some extra due.

by mattwelch on Jan 17, 2006 3:30 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Nope
And I sort of doubt a couple months of playing time here or there, synthetic or no, would make much difference.  Hell, 2005 didn't make much difference for GA.
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 4:14 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

voting criteria
my rankings were determined by the following scientific criteria:
  1. how bitchin' was the player? (i.e. was he a panther?)*
  2. do i have his autograph? (nolan and downing got extra points for this)
  3. how has he helped angels baseball?
* Note: this does not say "how good were his lifetime and/or angel stats?" -- leave the computer analysis for college football

by yeswecan on Jan 17, 2006 10:59 AM PST reply actions   0 recs

Panther
See I always thought a guy could be 'Panther', but not 'A Panther'.  I've also thought of it more as an adjective than a noun.  But what do I know?

by LA Seitz on Jan 17, 2006 11:45 AM PST up reply actions   0 recs

parts of speech
although i think it can be used both as a noun as well as an adjective, i agree with you if you're saying that as an adjective it's cooler.

by yeswecan on Jan 17, 2006 12:09 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

Schofield?
I am surprised that Dick Schofield came in at # 18.  Yes, I would put Schofield above Albie Pearson!  I like Win Shares.  Thanks for your research, Scareduck!

by Yetijuice on Jan 17, 2006 11:01 AM PST reply actions   0 recs

8 years in the starting lineup will do that
Though I still submit that Schofield was full Panther. (He was my fave player post-Grich.)

by mattwelch on Jan 17, 2006 12:04 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

And best of all
was screaming ALL RIGHT BIG DICK when they announced his name - to the helpless consternation of the O.C.families all around.

by Rev Halofan on Jan 17, 2006 12:08 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

me, too
in high school we came up with a litany of them, including:

"Give it a hard stroke, Dick!"
"Let's go, Dick! Hit it hard up the middle!"

by yeswecan on Jan 17, 2006 12:50 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

m
"Matt Welch - Is a famous political blogger and cultural commentator. "

Matt Welch of Reason magazine fame?

Eat My Angel Dust.

by Angels95 on Jan 17, 2006 1:58 PM PST reply actions   0 recs

Reason magazine and "fame"
... do not belong in the same sentence.

More importantly, I've been an Angels fanatic since 1973, witnessed our first-ever playoff win (helluva game in the '79 ALCS), waited three days in line for World Series tickets in '82 (sleeping in the Pinto with my Dad, and reading my first-ever Bill James Baseball Abstract under the parking-lot street lamps) .... Was there at both home playoff clinchers against the Yankees, saw a late-'70s game against Texas with three bench-clearing brawls, used to walk up to the third deck during boring games to watch the moth-eating guy dip his prey in nacho sauce, smoked cigars on the field level before puberty, ragged the living shit out of Ken Kaiser & a decade's worth of opposing first basemen ... and played way too much Strat-O-Matic as a child.

Also, Damion Easley rode pine on my JV baseball team (I was a starter until ripping up my knee), my Dad coached onetime Angel Mike Fitzgerald in Little League, Rich Lederer and I grew up on the same street, and we're still a little chuffed that the team didn't move to El Dorado Park way back when.

by mattwelch on Jan 17, 2006 3:31 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

The Rev was being facetious
... at least, that's what I thought...
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

by scareduck on Jan 17, 2006 4:12 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

oh no
Matt Welch is famous, Brady Westwater told me so.

by Rev Halofan on Jan 17, 2006 6:38 PM PST up reply actions   0 recs

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