All season long, you really haven’t heard anything about the LA Angels of Anaheim, or wherever they’re from. If any AL West team was being discussed in the media, it was the surprise Texas Rangers, but all of a sudden, the Halos have quietly assumed their regular place atop the division. Despite a down year for the obviously aging Vlad Guerrero, an underperforming ace John Lackey, and the tragic loss of Nick Adenhart, the team has managed to perform very well. Torii Hunter is on pace to have a career year, Bobby Abreu has been his consistent self, and Jered Weaver has emerged to become a legit front line starting pitcher. And while Brian Fuentes isn’t on pace to save 62 games like Francisco Rodriguez did last year, he’s still been a solid option in the 9th inning for them. If they do want to hold onto their first place position, they need to shore up that situation, because a bad bullpen can kill any good team regardless of who they have elsewhere.

While Fuentes has been good, their main problem is the rest of the bullpen, which has been borderline awful. Scot Shields has seen his numbers decline, and the young guys they have brought up haven’t produced for them at all.

A lot of people wrote them off in the pre-season, but they’re looking pretty good. I expect them to be pretty active at the deadline, also. If they could pick up a bat like Aubrey Huff, or better yet Matt Holliday, and a bullpen arm like Danys Baez, they could be in position for yet another playoff berth and possibly a deep run. I wouldn’t put it past the Angels to do just that.