No Ace? Kings Will Do: Halolinks

Angels camp tour: Halos hope missing ace is right under their nose - MLB - CBSSports.com
"We've got five guys who are pretty good," said Jered Weaver, one of those five. "We've got five guys, where I'll want any of them out there."

Spring training games aren't as meaningless as they may seem - Sky Andrecheck - SI.com
Some initial evidence is striking: Of the 20 best spring training teams since 2003, 16 outperformed their PECOTA projections, indicating that there might be reason to give spring records a second look. Putting both a team's PECOTA projection and its spring training record into a statistical model, we can test this theory out more rigorously. Does a team's spring training record really tell us anything? Surprisingly, it does.

Seattle Mariners need more than Cliff Lee, Chone Figgins - Tim Marchman - SI.com
The Mariners were outscored by 52 runs last year. Run differential tells a bit more about a team's quality than winning percentage does, so in truth Seattle needed to make some improvements just to hold its ground this year. The significant thing about their winter may be that they didn't really make those improvements.

Angels' solid rotation is cause for optimism - latimes.com
"We might not have a bona fide No. 1 guy like CC Sabathia or Josh Beckett, but we have five bona fide No. 2 guys," Joe Saunders said. "And when you have that kind of consistency and talent in your rotation, it's going to be a good, fun year."

Los Angeles Angels Baseball Team Report and Insider Pitch - FOX Sports on MSN
At this time a year ago, manager Mike Scioscia was talking optimistically about having his deepest bullpen ever heading into the 2009 season. It didn't work out that way. The Angels' bullpen depth "evaporated" (in Scioscia's words) with an injury to Scot Shields and the regression of Jose Arredondo. This year, Scioscia is optimistic again with Shields returning from knee surgery and Fernando Rodney added in free agency.

Versatile Izturis a valuable asset - angelsbaseball.com
"Everything I've had to work so hard at, it just comes naturally to Izzy," Figgins, now with the Mariners, said last season. "He can do anything. It's like he came out of his crib playing baseball. That's why I call him 'The Natural.'"

There's been a couple recent posts that have sparked some interest...at least for me.  RedFog's post asking the question "Why do you care about baseball?" and Jeff Sullivan's "I'm Overwhelmed" over at Lookout Landing.   In a round-about way, the Sullivan post answers why I care about baseball.

Each day I typically follow the same routine; a quick update on HH for anything I have ongoing, and then a trip around the internet looking for Angels news or some other interesting baseball news.  What supposed to be a quick time-waster before getting into the shower, always ends up being a trip that I have to pull myself away from so I can make lunch for my daughter.  One site sends me to another, each link directs me to a "this will be the last one and then I REALLY have to get something done" post. There's always something interesting going on, there's always someone writing the best article I've ever read.  Before long I have open tabs spreading across the top of my browser, and a hungry little girl pulling at my sleeve.