While we were celebrating the arrival of three new Angels in a 10-hour window last week, the Rule 5 draft happened. The Angels did not take anyone in the draft. They did, however, get their minor league pockets picked in a testament to Eddie Bane's drafting and Jerry Dipoto's change of focus.
Despite the delusional self-appointed "analysts" (aka the tweeting idiots out there in the Kuiper belt equivalent of the Halosphere) who bet their lives on Angels farmhand Trevor Reckling being claimed in the Rule 5 Draft, the once Lyle Spencer hyped equivalent of Al Downing remains property of the Anaheim Wrecking Crew.
For the second year in a row Robert Fish was selected. Last year he was claimed by the Yankees but returned before the season began. This year the Braves took the lefty, whose 3.26 ERA in spacious Dickey Stephens Park down in Little Rock was not a world beater.
Four occasionally-heralded Angels names were taken by other clubs. The Blue Jays took outfielder Gabe Jacobo whose underwhelming 2011 campaign in AA had put him in roster limbo. Ricky Alvarez could not get past Cedar Rapids (Low-A) as an Angel and now the Cubs think they can do something with him; we'll see about that. Shortstop Michael Wing batted .317 and hit 11 homers against much greener competition at High-Single-A Inland Empire. His Twitter advice for all his friends? Treat Yourself. He was way down the Angels infielders depth chart and is now in the Padres organization.
On the day we signed Albert Pujols, his old club extracted a measure of revenge by drafting Barret Browning from our AAA Salt Lake affiliate. Seeing as BB did not win the Cy Young award last season, let's wait to see if the redbirds laugh last on that one.