During the Hideki Matsui press conference today, Mike made it pretty clear where the Angels stand on all of these "Trade Juan Rivera for X" theories with the following statement:

"We have four bats we want out there every day with Juan, Torii, Bobby and Hideki," Scioscia said. "That's a pretty big quartet in the middle of our lineup."

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Thankfully, management clearly sees the incredible value we are getting out of our left fielder, who is easily worth twice his current salary, and plans to keep him as a big part of our future. Trading him for albatrosses like Lowe, or somebody else and then replacing him with 5 years of Jason Bay, who'd be a defensive downgrade and only a slight offensive upgrade, is a bad idea. The Angels' management seems to understand this and has made it pretty clear where they stand.

So can we please put all of these rumors to bed and rejoice that Juan "Johnny Rivers" Rivera will be throwing chumps out from the warning track and bleaching fastballs into the stands for at least two more years? I for one, am stoked on this fact.

Here's to you, Number Juan!!!!