Not Having Vlad Hurts.

miss Altagracia’s cooking more than they miss Vladdy.

till the other day when the Rangers were down 2 and Vlad was pinching hitting late……and had the bases loaded with 1 one out…….

Guess what he did?

GIDP………rally over……game lost.

Its okay. We’ll always have the memories……especially 2004.

I miss Vlad. He was fun to watch and he put up big numbers when he was healthy. That having been said, I feel that Matsui was the safer choice to sign as DH between the two.

Matsui will (hopefully) break out of his funk and start hitting, and his only major health problem since coming to the majors (i think, though I could be wrong) was when he broke his wrist diving for a ball a few years back. From a numbers stand point, Matsui was the safer choice, while Vlad was the high-risk/high-reward choice.

Vlad certainly looks like he would have been the better choice, but when Reagins made the choice, he chose the safer player.

I miss Vlade and Chone AND REX, those guys represented the heart of the Angels for me.

There was way to much change for me this off-season. I feel the same way as far as Vlade goes, every time he was up I would give the game my undivided attention.

Sure Matsui was the safer choice, but I am a big loyalty guy, and I feel Vlade should retire a halo!

You don’t like the corporate feel ?

I know you IT types like to skim off the top when you’re sifting through the internet looking for sites to block.

We all miss having the big guy in the lineup, hacking away at the ball, clambering down the line, a big dopey grin on his face.
Godzilla is like a Samurai Terminator—all biz, no play…
As for Bigsy and his use of the double quotations to emphasize “specialized meaning” (a rhetorical strategy not endorsed by either MLA or APA documentation), I always laugh at that—it reminds me of Chris Farley and his pissed off guy on the SNL news putting all of his comments in quotes: “People say I ‘smell bad’ and I ‘look like a bum’” etc….
(Floyd help me out here)

how much money did we really save from not signing Vlad. I didnt like the off-season signing of Matsui all that much and even though the idea of a player being the “face of a franchise”…no one seemed to embody it more than Vlad.

Someone the other day asked me who my favorite Angel was. I almost said Vlad but then immediately remembered…damn…dude’s a ranger!

I dont even know who my favorite angel is anymore. I miss the Impaler!

On another note, my girlfriend has all but stopped rooting for the Angels since Vlad left. She’s pissed. It might take a year for it to wear off….

that should have been a double, but was’nt, because his knees were just too lame all last year to carry him on to second base. I won’t even mention how bad he was playing the field because of his chronic knees. Phi must have been trying to decide which “sprinkles” to use on the cupcakes and missed all the at bats where Vlad so often grounded weakly in to double plays.

I’m not hot at all on Matsui, but I am glad Tony Reagins saw the writing on the wall and moved on from Guerrero. I am glad Vlad has done well in Texas and I feel like he needed to prove something to himself and his playing ability, a drastic contrast from his phoning it in so often in Anaheim. Vlad was not that healthy last year and with a player of his age and wear, it was a big risk to sign him for a few years more.

Vlad might be hitting better at the moment- but Matsui will break out of his funk their career numbers are similar.
Matsui is a more patient hitter which, it is crucial to have a patient hitter in the heart of the lineup, remember Teix, something that sometimes killed me about Vlad- but I also secretly loved it.
HOWEVER
I would take Vlad in a heartbeat over Matsui- just because of the reasons you stated- Vlad was my hero. Literally my childhood hero… Whenever I would step up to the plate in community softball leagues I would tell all my friends to look out because “big daddy vladdy” was stepping up to the plate. Vlad meant so much more to the Angels Organization than his numbers. He was the face of our franchise. The part that makes it hard for me is the fact that Vlad wanted to stay- and looking at his contract in Texas we could really afford him- It reminds me of what Lackey said
Why couldn’t the Angels take a risk on a guy that gave so much of us fans a reason to cheer?
What are all of us fans with 5 Guerrero jersey’s supposed to do? Well- much like you cheering for Vladdy when he bats for Texas- I wear my jersey proudly. I wore it to the HH get together Sat.
I know that upstairs wanted to turn the page and I respect that- but I’m going to take quite some time to turn this page…

F*** that. Seriously. Just saying its bullshit. I dont know why we did it, but it doesnt make any sense that we let a guy like vlad go over a couple million and “good business sense” and then let our best reliever go to a division rival without even getting 2 draft picks.

But weren’t his demands of the Angels greater than what he accepted from Texas? As I recall the Angels expressed a willingness to sign him as a full-time DH for a year, but he wanted more years and time in RF. I could be wrong, but it seems to me Vlad is just as much to blame for his leaving as was the FO.

“yesterday and the day before” should be placed at the end of that sentence.

This is a temporary low for our team, just like the Kinsler “get the F off our field” time period last year. Remember the Alamo!

For all you stat heads, I think the biggest difference between this year and last is that we have 2 less smiles. Vlad and Chone were replaced with Matsui and Wood. That is the main reason why this team is more glum. Also, their crappy playing is sort of a factor, but I really miss seeing those guys’ joy for the game.

about the sad old little Lizzard, and it is easy to say that if Arte signed this guy with the idea that Matsui will sell in Japan, well than Arte fucked up on this decision when it comes down to how Godzilla will be percieved versus Vladdy. Vladdy will be far more loved and productive than Godzilla will ever be as an Angel.

Don’t care about Matsui. Love watching Vladdy bat.

I mean that not having Vlad anymore is emotionally a bummer—despite his lack of clutch hitting he was a tremendously popular player and his image resonates with all of us in a positive manner.
For instance, I was thinking about him the other night and I realized he is one player I will never want to see do badly—unless it’s like the end of the game against us or something along those lines. I will always be a Vladdy fan.

would be no help at all

as he has hit 2 tonight and has 4 rbis so far, which means he is currently leading the majors in RBI’s. OH! And the Rangers are on the road tonight. But yeah, he’s not performing.

Well written, I miss Vladdy. I think the team misses him too, in every way. I think letting him go was a huge mistake.

Pretty sure they would have warranted a Matsui-like deal had one been possible.

.100 with 2 RBI and 3 DL stints. I’d still miss him.