The big talk today is that Catcher Ryan Doumit has been offered a contract by a few clubs and one of them is rumored to be the Angels... read all about it: Ryan Doumit To Sign Soon?

This dude would be an upgrade from Jeff Mathis and probably push Hank Conger to AAA (or trade bait) while Mike Scioscia clings on to Bobby Wilson for dear life. Doumit's lifetime stats are extraordinarily impressive compared to Mathis and Wilson. In the real world he is way beneath what Mike Napoli produces and at 30 is on shaky ground as far as being a slam dunk contributor for a long time.

Conger seems to be knocking on the door but Jerry Dipoto might be attempting to sell high on visions of Hammering Hank. Unless Doumit signs a one-year deal here, Conger turning 24 in January would seem to signal that he can stand one more season of everyday catching in Salt Lake, but had he been drafted by any one of at least half of baseball's major league squads is there any question Conger would have caught 120 games in 2011?

Doumit's eerie career OPS+ of 100 sort of shadow-cackles Jeff Mathis into oblivion. It is a Callaspoesque move, though, to substantially upgrade a black hole position by acquiring the statistically generic equivalent of a flat line.

And now for something completely different, the LA TIMES hoochies out their advertorial to Howard's to talk about his love affair with the Angels.