From our fellow SBNation site Beyond the Box Score comes this little gem:

Who's Hacking, Who's Not

The biggest hacker on the list is, duh, Vlad Guerrero. Also up on the list are Brandon Wood (duh again) and Erick Aybar (broken record). You'll also see all-time Angel Darin Erstad on the list.

On the "Who's not swinging at crap" list, you'll find current A's Jack Cust, Frank Thomas, and Daric Barton. Also included is current Jay and former Athletic Marco Scutaro, whose last name is fun to say if you extend out the u to "oooooo."

We are, admittedly, in first place, but I'd like to see at least one of our players learn to stop hacking at crap. The first step is Vlad learning that his bat speed doesn't allow him to hit literally everything anymore, and he's helping out the team if he walks instead of striking out.

It is what it is, I s'pose. Interesting to look at, though.

It's now far enough in the season for me to start worrying about our traditional AL West Rivals, the Oakland A's. As everyone knows, this was supposed to be a rebuilding year, with Haren pitching for Arizona, Swisher with Orlando Cabrera in Chicago, and Barry Bonds unsigned. That said, their starting pitching has been stellar, proving again that Billy Beane is a freak, or at least lucky.

Anyone have any predictions as to the future performance of the Athletics? I have a hard time believing that their pitching's gonna stay this strong once the league has seen it more than once, but then again, Oakland never really seems to drop off the map either. Their lineup scares nobody, but when some guy named Dana has an ERA right near 3, you start to wonder.

The poll is unrelated to Oakland but still relevant.

With a single through the hole in the bottom of the eleventh to give our favorite AL East team, the Rays, a 5-4 win. Looks like the Sox have been having some trouble with the Angels, current and former, lately. He got mobbed after getting around from first and as I've previously mentioned, Timlin sucks, and is the losing pitcher.

Northeastern alum Carlos Pena had a pinch hit in the game, but was replaced with a pinch runner and the inning later ended.

I miss Haynes, I liked him, and he kept Figgy in line. Fun to watch. :-)

As I'm sure you all know, I live in Boston with Fenway Park blasting its video scoreboard directly at my bed. I also have the "privilege" of watching 80 or so Sox games a year. As such, I'm probably more intimately familiar with the team than anyone else here, and I feel I have something to contribute when it comes to analyzing our biggest non-divisional rivals.

Tonight's game was a textbook example of a game we could have won with proper bullpen usage. Wtih that said, here's the way to beat the Red Sox on any given night.

1.) Red Sox games are obscenely long, on average. While we get used to games that end in two and a half hours, the Sox tend to extend games well over three and a half hours on a regular basis. Why? They take lots of pitches and their pitchers slow down the game when they have a lead. The key here, however, is that they take picthes. You will be infintiely more successful with the Sox if you don't walk them. Ever. They have a lineup which thrives only when crap hitters like Julio Lugo and Kevin Cash make it on base for the power hitters. People like Kevin Youkilis walk more in a game than Garett Anderson does in a season. You need to throw strikes at all times. On an 0-2 count, they'll often wait for the waste pitch. Don't fall for it. Throw a strike on 0-2 and you'll do what Weaver did to the inning that had Pedrioa-Ortiz-Manny. He struck out the side without working up a sweat. Throw strikes. You don't get a real break in this lineup (Jacoby Ellsbury isn't actually good, for the record), so you can't afford to put people on base without making them earn it.

2.) The Red Sox have lots of guys who are good hitters. If you get a sizable lead, you don't start walking guys and pitching like you have a sizable lead. If you're up 4 runs, start micromanaging. Put in a reliver with effective numbers and make it stick. Darren Oliver should have been out of the 'pen the second Manny Ramirez hit a home run which Vlad managed to rob. Pitcher wins/losses are a bullshit stat, and until managers decide that winning games is more important than giving pitchers a chance at a decision, they'll keep losing games.

3.) The Red Sox bullpen is much, much worse than it looks. Hideki Okajima is a hilarious excuse for a relief pitcher. He literally CANNOT throw strikes in any count. His head is facing his shoes during his delivery. He does not have an accurate, 98 mph fastball. He is a slop-throwing lefty who relies so heavily on impatient batters that when he does throw a strike, he looks legitimately surprised. You have an easier time walking to first base on 4 straight crap-balls into the dirt than you do hitting said crap-ball. Mike Timlin sucks and there's no reason to give him early-count outs. Julian Tavarez throws strikes, but you should never swing at anything he throws that isn't a fastball. Once you get to Papelbon, you've already screwed up. Hope to get an off-speed pitch and put it into right. The fastball is not gonna be hittable, by and large, and he gets an expanded strike zone.

4.) Don't ignore, and don't place too much emphasis on, early performance in a game. Dustin Pedroia is a scrappy hitter (I suspect his BABIP is ridiculous, but I'm not gonna bother looking it up unless someone tells me I'm obsecenely wrong). Play him to pole. Every time. He will also hit for power and gets amped up late in a game by sucking on a cheekful of chew. Just because Manny Ramirez has looked like shit his last two AB's doens't mean you let him get into a hitter's count. And just because Garret Anderson has two hits in the game, that doesn't mean he (and his miserable bat speed) should be in the box in the bottom of the ninth.

5.) Terry Francona is old and extremely uncomfortable in his baseball gear. Make him walk up and down the dugout steps.

6.) Don't forget who you are. The Angels are not a team which can be expected to hit 6 home runs a game. They should, however, have a #2 hitter who can put the ball in the outfield. Re-learn small ball against a crappy bullpen and you will win often.

I guess a lot of that is obvious, but the Angels did none of that today. And that pisses me off. Because I could get on base vs. Okajima on 4 pitches.

I BUMPED THIS TO THE FRONT PAGE - If you have bugs to report or SOLUTIONS to some of the obvious problems here on HH2.0, please use this thread. Needless bitching about new things, though, is, well, not needed... (Rev out)

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This new format SUCKS. Seriously. I've given it some time, and I usually adjust to major changes like this, but this is TERRIBLE. Here's the thing: SBNation was one of the few remaining sites that actually loaded in milliseconds on a standard broadband connection. This meant that a.) I could read Halos Heaven on my Blackjack at work and b.) actually going to and from the page was not a multimedia nightmare.

This is, as far as a concern, a stupid way to fix something that wasn't broke. No, the blogs as a whole were not particularly professional looking, and the format was clearly outdated, but does this look any better to you? Millions of interstitial ads (mention your ad-blocker and I will discount every opinion you ever have from now on) combined with ridiculous avatars and a posting scheme which, somehow, managed to be worse than the original.

Oh, and Firefox hates this place.

If I give someone like $20 or something can I have my old HH back?

Let me put this as simply as I can: I spend about a quarter as much time here as I did before the redesign. I spend much of that extra time at as-of-yet unchanged format sites. This change is not attracting more users, because the type of people interested in this blog aren't going to come here for avatars and "recs" on "fan posts." They're gonna come here for Angels news. And now I'm trying to find a less garish place to find that.

-Marcus

Sorry, but I figured someone was gonna say it sooner or later,so it might as well be me. I mean, he did show flashes of competence amidst a sea of 88 mph fastballs last season. And hey, he won game 7 of the World Series, right? How's he pitch against the Red Sox?

Note: This is a joke. I do not want the Angels to sign Jeff Weaver. If they do, I'm going to require some sort of reconstructive facial surgery after smashing my head into my desk until I lose consciousness.

With due deference to Rob at 6-4-2 and ihearhowie, here's an article about Torri Hunter and his rise from an extremely difficult childhood to a very large contract.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-hunter17feb17,1,6233963.story?page=1

This is the kind of thing that makes you forget about stupid contracts, or at least alter your viewpoint.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3147956

"Guerrero says he's almost fully recovered from irritated right triceps'

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Vladimir Guerrero said he has almost fully recovered from an irritated right triceps that prevented him from playing right field for the Los Angeles Angels at the end of the season.

Guerrero:

"I am doing some exercises and the doctors have told me that I will not have problems," the 2004 AL MVP said. "It will not be necessary to operate either."

Sounds good to me. Surgery sucks.