I am working on the NEW Top 100 Angels Series to begin Friday and Rob McMillin was kind enough to send me a calculation of the Top 100 Angels using the Win-Shares method (a complex sabremetric measurement developed by Bill James and refined by Dave Studeman). This calculates offense, longevity and defense into the equation and had some surprising results. Angels I stupidly left off the list, like Mickey Rivers, were there, as were some recent Angels not then making an impact (the list was published in the offseason following 2005).
More than 20 Angels I included on the list were not on the Top 100 Angel WinShares list. For example, Bo Belinsky got the team headlines galore for a few seasons in the early 1960s and he pitched the first no-hitter in franchise history - he was the face of the young franchise and added to the team's glory... but Bo did not compile a lot of Win-Shares. Brad Fullmer, in the high 90s of my Top 100 for his integral role in the offense of the 2002 World Champion Angels - nowhere on the WinShares List.
Conversely, Angels I disregarded like Ramon Ortiz and Rudy May were not only on the WinShares list, they were in the top 70!
But the last thing I thought i would find was an Angel who I had never heard of (!!!)-- but there he is, sitting at # 96 on the Angels All-Time WinShares list, the late FRED NEWMAN who, according to the Bill James measurement of baseball greatness, was the 96th greatest Angel in compiling WinShares in franchise history.
The 100 Top Angels List that will premiere Friday will consider statistical achievements, but a player who is steeped in franchise lore will certainly have that poetry quantified into his final tally.