Troy Buckley "Blessed"

A catcher once upon a time at Santa Clara, Troy Buckley is now in his 3rd year as the head coach of the Dirtbags at Long Beach State. Buckley has a plethora of experience coaching as an assistant in both the minors and at the college level.

Dirtbag faithful will always remember Buckley for being the pitching coach in the early 2000's when he molded future major league pitchers like Jered Weaver, Cesar Ramos, Vance Worley, and Jason Vargas. This was also the same time that Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria, and later Danny Espinosa were playing on the diamond at Blair Field.

When interviewed on Kbeach Radio's "3Up 3Down" on March 27th, Buckley told the hosts he "was very fortunate" to have had a chance to work with these future All-Stars and says his relationship with his past players have turned into "legitamate friends."

"We just talk, sometimes that's what they need" says Buck, "everyone's trying to tweak them and these are top major league pitchers."

Weaver and Vargas who were teammates at Long Beach State in 2004, have been reunited with the Angels here in 2013. Buckley discussed the personalities of each of his past players calling Vargas the "ultimate teammate" and Tulowitzki "one of the best baseball people I have ever been around" breaking down little small details of the game. "When Tulo talks, you're going to listen."

This years Dirtbags have had some key injuries, but his team has fought through adversity. Buckley preaches being aggressive and being competitive. Obviously there have been some high standards set by guys who have come through Blair Field, but a Dirtbag is also the guy still fighting for a spot at the AA level and laying out for a ground ball in high A. Ino Patron is a left-handed utility player who hits in the middle of the line-up and is by no means the fastest guy on the team. Down 10-3 in the 8th on a Friday night against Northridge to open up conference play, Patron led off the inning with a ground ball base hit up the middle. Watching the centerfield take a knee to pick up the ball, Patron shifted into high gear and turned his single into a hustle double. The next night, Patron was 2-2 with 3 RBI's and 2 BB leading his team to a 14-2 victory. That's what a Dirtbag does.

Long Beach State will continue it's tough conference play against schools like Cal State Fullerton and UCI. If your looking for bunt, steals, hit & runs, and solid fundamentals and a lot of passion, go watch a good college baseball game this spring. Great seats and entertainment for under $10.

If you would like to listen to the full interview with Troy Buckley, visit www.3up3downkbeach.com. Buckley talks about the Fullerton rivalry, college recruiting, the next level, and more baseball talk.

Sorry Wells, But It's About Time

You can argue that a lot of players in professional sports are disgustingly over paid. While Tony Reagins was the GM for the Angels, there were a few moves that made you scratch your head. Texeria for four months for Casey Kotchman who was hitting over .300, Scott Kazmir was a bust, and Bobby Abreau was old.

Vernon Wells signed for $126 million over seven years in 2011. A .218 batting average in year one and .230 in year two could place Wells as the biggest blunder contract of all time. A three time All-Star who has a career batting average of .273 has won multiple Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger. The problem was those awards came prior to 2007. He hit over .275 only once after 2006.

Having Wells struggle in 2011 brought Reagins GM short run to an end. Vernon's struggles and injuries in 2012 really got fans calling for his release. Jerry Dipoto has gone out and spent a lot of Arte Moreno's money, but it was on Albert Pujols, CJ Wilson, and Josh Hamilton. Wilson didn't have the year fans wanted and we're yet to see what Hamilton will do in his first year under the Halo.
But with all the dollars flying around, it was easy to ask "why not swallow the Wells contract for the better of the team?" It's now that time.

Paying Wells a boatload of money to play elsewhere will allow Hamilton, Trout, and Bourjos to be the everyday outfield. For Bourjos it's extremely important because he was always rumored to be in trade talks. One of the fastest guys in the league who will attempt to bunt for a hit at least once a series is a "Mike Scioscia type player." Having power is nice, but Scioscia's teams were at their best when they had scrappy guys that can situational hit and move around the bases. Bourjos will not hit .300 or have 30 home runs, but he will do all the little things like bunting, stealing bases, and running down fly balls that will make him a fan favorite. He is an ideal nine hitter that will contribute more than stats will show.

Projected Angels Line-Up:

Trout  - speed, power, average
Aybar - switch hitter, situational hitter
Pujols - power, average
Hamilton - power, average
Trumbo - power
Kendrick - contact
Callaspo - switch hitter
Ianetta - good eye
Bourjos - speed, situational hitter

Aybar Contributes to the WBC Champion Dominican Rebulic

Pujols, Trout, nor Weaver participated in the 4th World Baseball Classic, but one Angel did. Erick Aybar represented his home country, the Dominican Republic along with many other big name major league players.

All-Stars Robinson Cano and Jose Reyes are the starters up the middle leaving Aybar to produce when called upon as a pinch-hitter, runner, or defensive replacement. As good of a player Aybar is, he was stuck behind arguably the two best players at their respective positions in the world.

Whether "clutch" is real or not, Aybar stepped up in multiple situations that helped lead the Dominican to the WBC championship with an undefeated record. Against the Americans and Braves fresh star closer Craig Kimbrel with a 1-1 count in the 9th inning of a tied game and a runner on third, Aybar watched a breaking ball miss the strike zone by a foot, but had it called a strike by home plate umpire Angel Hernandez. As furious as he was, Aybar dug in and drove the next pitch to right field for the go-ahead and winning RBI.  Even though it may be only March, Kimbrel gave up only one hit with runners in scoring position all of last season and never gave up two hits in an inning.

Aybar got the nod to bat 2nd and DH in the WBC championship game against Puerto Rico. Before the final game Aybar had been 3-9 with a sacrafice bunt and an RBI.  In the final game, a sac-bunt in the first to move Reyes to third, and a hit in the 3rd showed Aybar will not shy in big games. Angel fans should be proud to have him as their shortstop. A fabulous defender who hit .290 last year can sit second row behind Trout, Pujols, and Hamilton and just do his thing. Aybar will be a very productive piece of the puzzle for the 2013 Angels.

What to do with Hank Conger

A powerful backyard prospect out of Huntington Beach California, Conger has had his bat carry him to part time jobs in the show.  A great showing in the Futures Game during the 2010 All-Star weekend got Angel fans excited. The publicity was high for Hank because the festivities were at Angels Stadium.

Conger has hit over .300 his last three seasons in Salt Lake City. All three of those years he was called up at one point or another. Only one of those years he hit over the Mendoza Line while up with the big club. That was in 2011 when he had 177 at-bats in 59 games. His average for that season was .209 with 6 HR's, 19 RBI's, 17 BB, and 37 K's. Conger didn't reach 15 games with the Angels in 2010 or 2012. In his combined 20 games in those two years he hit .170, however, his 18 at-bats in 2012 came with zero strikeouts.

73 total games in the bigs is not even half a regular season, but it seems as though we've had a fair look at Mr. Conger. John Hester is the new backup competition for Hank, both behind Chris Iannetta who is the first every-day catcher the Angels have had since Benji Molina. Also with three years of part time work at the major league level, Hester has a very similar resume to Conger. Hester got his first taste of the show in 2009 but didn't get a trip up in 2011. Hester has been above the Mendoza Line all three times, hitting .250 in his first stint. Hester also has better defensive numbers than Conger. During their times in the bigs, Conger has made 10 errors in 73 games while Hester has made zero in 79 games. Their percentage of throwing out runners is roughly the same and nothing to speak highly about.

Chris Iannetta was hurt for 33 games last season. Hester got 27 of those starts, Conger the other six. Hank has been hitting very well this spring. His switch hitting abilities give him a nice variable for playing time against certain pitchers when Iannetta just needs a day off. At 25 years old, he can still get much better and more consistant both offensively, and more important defensively. We know Scoscia is going to push his catchers hard. With all the offensive power in the lineup this season, it will need to be his defensive efforts that will get him more playing time. Remember, Mathis would get more starts than Napoli. Offense is secondary for these catchers. Scoscia wants a good game called. If the pitchers have a low ERA with you behind the dish, you will get the start. Conger has the highest ERA for pitchers out of the three.