34-year old righty reliever Scot Shields is pitching some of the worst baseball of his major league career right now. Shields has pitched in 26 games (0 starts) for the Angels this season and he is 0-2 with a 5.13 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP. He has now pitched in 474 games (14 starts) in his 10 years with the Angels and he is 46-43 with 21 saves, a 3.11 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. I have a feeling that Shields is going to get into a groove pretty soon as he’s too good of a pitcher to have the results he has had so far this season.

26-year old righty swinging 2B Howie Kendrick has been pretty solid for the Angels this year. Kendrick has played in 74 games for the Angels this season and he is 82 of 295 (.278 avg, .727 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 7 homers, 48 RBIs and 6 stolen bases. Kendrick has been kind of brittle in his career so the Angels have their fingers crossed hoping he can stay healthy this year. In his previous four years with the Angels Kendrick has career highs of 105 games played, 61 runs scored, 10 homers, 61 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. Kendrick is on pace to smash all of those numbers as long as he can stay in one piece.

No one thought to much of the signing of 28-year old righty swinging infielder Kevin Frandsen when it happened. But he is swinging a hot bat for the Angels right now. He has played in 20 games for the Angels this year and he is 21 of 57 (.368 avg, .856 OPS) with 11 runs scored and 5 RBIs. Frandsen played in 174 games in his first four seasons in the majors and he was 98 for 408 (.240 avg, .645 OPS) with 41 runs scored, 7 homers, 39 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. With all of the injuries the Angels have suffered in the infield lately it’s important that Frandsen keeps hitting the ball when he’s in the lineup.

The Angels have placed 2B/SS/3B Maicer Izturis on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left forearm and they have designated 32-year old lefty swinging outfielder Michael Ryan for assignment. Izturis’ injury really hurts the Angels as he was going to be the starting SS for a while due to Erick Aybar’s recent injury. Izturis has played in 30 games for the Angels this season and he is 24 of 103 (.233 avg, .691 OPS) with 15 runs scored, 2 homers, 15 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. The Angels have activated Brandon Wood from the D.L. and he started at SS last night for the Angels. They need him to live up to his “ability” this time around or they need to get rid of him. Wood has played in 41 games this season for the Angels and he is 20 of 128 (.156 avg, .379 OPS) with 8 runs scored, 2 homers and 7 RBIs. Wood has whiffed an amazing 37 times this season while only walking 2 times. Michael Ryan played in 22 games for the Angels this season and he was 8 of 39 (.205 avg, .527 OPS) with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. Ryan is a victim of all of the injuries the Angels have suffered in the infield as the Angels called up 1B/3B Rob Quinlan to replace him on the roster. Quinlan has played in 17 games this season for the Angels and he is 4 of 31 (.129 avg, .375 OPS) with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. Quinlan is a much better hitter than he has shown this season and the Angels need him to step up.

When Kendry Morales went down for the season due to ankle surgery it seemed as if the Angels would have to go outside the organization for help. But lo and behold, catcher Mike Napoli moved to 1B and while not looking like a natural there he isn’t hurting the Angels there either. Napoli has played in 56 games for the Angels this season and he is 47 of 185 (.254 avg, .815 OPS) with 23 runs scored, 10 homers, 26 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. He is still a hacker (64 whiffs) but as long as he can play decent defense at first and give the Angels a power stick he will likely find a new home for the rest of this year unless the Angels deal for a 1B. With Jeff Mathis near a return to team with Bobby Wilson behind the plate the Angels look o.k. for now.

The Angels have placed 31-year old righty reliever Jason Bulger on the 15-day disabled list with a sore right shoulder. Bulger has pitched in 22 games (0 starts) for the Angels this season and he is 0-0 with a 3.74 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP. He has walked 15 batters while whiffing 23 in 21 2/3 innings for the Angels this year. The Angels have recalled 25-year old righty reliever Rafael Rodriguez to replace Bulger in the pen. Rodriguez has pitched in 24 games (0 starts) in AAA-ball this season and he is 3-3 with 8 saves, a 3.54 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP. He pitched in 18 games (0 starts) for the Angels last season and he was 0-1 with a 5.58 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP. He gave up 47 hits in 30 2/3 innings last season so he will have to be sharper than that if he’s going to stick around for a while with the Angels this time around.

The Angels have signed 29-year old righty starter Daniel Cabrera to a minor league contract. Cabrera pitched in 15 games (9 starts) for the Nationals & D-Backs last season and he was 0-6 with a 6.00 ERA and a 1.98 WHIP. He has now pitched in 162 games (155 starts) in his major league career and he is 48-65 with 1 save, a 5.10 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP. His main problem has been his control as he has walked 520 batters, hit 55 of them with a pitch and he has 71 wild pitches in only 892 1/3 innings pitched. I’m thinking that the Angels will convert Cabrera to relief thinking that he might be able to keep his concentration for shorter outings.

34-year old lefty Brian Fuentes has been getting hit hard this season. He has pitched in 15 games (0 starts) for the Angels and he is 3-1 with 8 saves, a 5.52 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP. He has given up 5 homers in only 14 2/3 innings and that is downright horrible for a closer. But he has whiffed 19 batters so his stuff is still good. You have to wonder how much longer the Angels are going to put up with Fuentes as the closer when he could be a dominating situational reliever. 33-year old righty Fernando Rodney has the ability to close out games. He has pitched in 26 games (0 starts) for the Angels this year and he is 4-0 with 5 saves, a 2.70 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP. But he has walked 17 batters in only 23 1/3 innings this year which can’t be tolerated in a short reliever. It will be up to Mike Scioscia to decide if he’s going to put up with Fuentes’ gopher balls or Rodney’s walks in the ninth inning.

Righty reliever seemed to be on top of the world in 1985 with the Angels. He was a All-Star (for the only time of his career) and he finished 7th in the Cy Young Award Voting and #6 in the MVP Voting in the A.L. Moore pitched in 65 games (0 starts) for the Angels in 1985 in which he was 8-8 with 31 saves, a 1.92 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. He pitched in 155 games (0 starts) in his four years with the Angels and he was 19-17 with 61 saves, a 2.75 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. Moore is #5 all-time in Angels’ history in saves (61). The Angels were seemingly heading to the World Series in 1986 as they had a 3 games to 1 lead over the Red Sox. But in the ninth inning of Game #5, Moore came into the game and he gave up a game tying homer in the 9th inning to Dave Henderson of the Red Sox and then he gave up the game winning run on a sacrifice fly to Henderson in the 11th inning. The Red Sox went on to win the series making Moore the Angels’ version of Bill Buckner. On July 18, 1989 Donnie Moore lost it shooting his wife 3 times in his home in front of his three kids. His oldest daughter ran from the house with her bleeding mother taking her to the hospital. Donnie Moore’s wife survived his assault but he didn’t as he turned the gun on himself committing suicide. It’s a tragic story in that he never got the redemption that Buckner eventually did when the Red Sox won the World Series. He would have also gotten that when the Angels eventually won the World Series but he took his own life before it finally happened.

30-year old lefty swinging outfielder Cory Aldridge is off to a hot start in AAA. He has played in 48 games in AAA-ball this year and he is 53 of 179 (.296 avg, .853 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 9 homers and 43 RBIs. Aldridge has now played 14 years in the minors appearing in 1,354 games in which he is 1,274 of 4,795 (.266 avg, .786 OPS) with 662 runs scored, 182 homers, 761 RBIs and 98 stolen bases. His only taste of the majors leagues came way back in 2001 with the Atlanta Braves when he played in 8 games and was 0 for 5 (.000 avg) with 1 run scored. The Angels need bench help and with that in mind Aldridge should be considered for a call if he keeps playing well.