“Oh. Your Nostalgia File. Oh. That’s Swell, Because I, uh, Don’t Have to Eat This Month.”

I can’t really claim vindication over having predicted that the Angels’ run as rulers of the AL West would end in 2010, given that I had been erroneously predicting it for years before it happened. So I was reluctant to say that it wasn’t an aberration. But at this point, I think it’s pretty safe to make the funeral arrangements. When I first heard about this trade, I thought it was impressive that the Jays managed to dump Wells’s albatross contract and get the most valuable player in the deal, but was wondering how much albatross stew they had to eat to get the Angels to sign the deal. I was shocked to hear that the answer was apparently “none.” Yes, Wells had a pretty good year last year, but did you see how he was living at replacement-level the two years before that? How can the Angels delude themselves? And why they wouldn’t pay as much for better players they could have had for a draft pick or nothing is deeply puzzling.

In fairness, as SEK says elsewhere if 2004 ever comes back Hunter and Wells will be a dynamite combo. Frankly, I don’t know how the Angels missed out on Andruw Jones. But I bet Marquis Grissom would come out of retirement for a nice 3 years/20 million. And if he won’t, six words: Little Sarge can still surprise you!

…as with any sports news, things could always be worse: you could be an Islanders fan.

…Halos Heaven: “Angels Release Mike Napoli, Sign Juan Rivera To Four-Year, $86 Million Extension.” It’s funny because etc.