The Angels have signed 31-year old righty starting pitcher Joe Blanton to a 2-year, $15 million dollar deal with a club option for 2015. Blanton pitched in 31 games (30 starts) for the Dodgers and Phillies last year in which he was 10-13 with a 4.71 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. He has now pitched in 237 games (228 starts) in his first 9 years in the majors and he is 83-75 with a 4.37 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. Blanton is a solid back end of the rotation pitcher. I like this pickup for the Angels as they didn’t have to break the bank for Blanton.

The Angels have signed 30-year old lefty reliever Sean Burnett to a 2-year deal with a club option for the 2015 season. Burnett pitched in 70 games (0 starts) for the Nationals last year and he was 1-2 with a 2.38 ERA and a 1.24 WHIP. He has now pitched in 354 games (13 starts) in his first six years in the majors and he is 15-23 with 10 saves, a 3.58 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. Burnett was by far the best lefty reliever on the free agent market, so this was a nice pickup for the Angels. Burnett will team with Scott Downs in the pen to make the Angels very tough on lefty hitters late in ball games in 2013 and beyond.