Happy New Year! + Angels 2012 Resolutions
Happy New Year!!
I hope everyone had a great time last night and I wish you all the best in 2012!
New Year’s Day is traditionally a day for proclaiming resolutions for the year to come…and the wee hours in between New Year’s Day and January 2nd work just as well in a year where New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday. I don’t know about you all but it just isn’t New Year’s for me until I get to flop in front of the Rose Parade on TV with a nice brunch and a flute or several of champagne. I am not usually one to make specific official resolutions for myself. A general try to grow and improve in life is sufficient. In 2011, the Angels certainly did grow and improve over their 2010 season and it was a pleasure to watch. But there is plenty of room for continued growth and improvement in 2012. If the Angels happen to be in a more traditional New Year’s resolutions state of mind, I can certainly suggest a few resolutions they would do well to make for the coming season:
- Most importantly, everyone stay healthy! Take care of those hamstrings. Mind those groin muscles. Don’t let the walls get the best of quite so many arguments. Oh, and that freak plate jumping accident may have been a once in a lifetime thing and all, but how about we don’t jump on the plate anyway.
- Enough with the GIDPs already. This is a good resolution for everyone but Torii, and now Albert, I’m mainly looking at you.
- Think before you steal. Seriously. Thinking caps on and fully functioning. Successful base stealing is thing of beauty to behold and an Angels baseball staple. Caught stealing? Not so much on either count.
- Stop swinging for the fences every at bat, especially if that’s not really your swing. Watching all of you, I know this was not done to showboat. You were trying to kick start the offense which is admirable. But, more often than not, a nice solid line drive into the gap helps just as much as a homerun and always more than popping out.
- No runners left behind in 2012! Raise that RISP and more RBIs! This was a 2011 resolution, and you all definitely improved in this regard but what the heck? There’s always room for more improvement right?
- In 2011, you resolved to make the 8th inning a little less unnecessarily exciting. For 2012, let’s resolve to do the same for the 9th inning, shall we? Extra innings are only fun when we were already coming from behind and, while it’s certainly sweet of you to think of them, this economy has already given the antacid industry enough of a boost.
- Leave any woes from last season in the past. Everyone starts the 2012 season with a clean slate!
- You brought a lot of the old swagger and sense of fun back in 2011 and it was wonderful. Keep it up, please.
- I love seeing how Angels veterans always help out the rookies and the newbies and how quickly the rookies and newbies fit right in and really look forward to seeing it all over again in 2012.
This is a very simple game... 
Yeah, AP became a DP machine last year but I think it was partly due to bad luck and proper positioning. At least, that’s what I told myself as it was happening. Good list. I didn’t see anything about unleashing Jered Weaver’s hate for the Tigers though. I’d like to see more of that.
–Jeff
It seems to me that as the great sluggers age, they go through periods of time where they’re adjusting to small physical changes that affect their swing – I don’t now, like tighter shoulders, less flexibility in the wrists and elbows. But they work through them…or so I am now telling myself. Thanks Jeff. Yeah, I’m thinking Weaver should keep that Tiger hate in his pitching. As entertaining as that was, I think that no suspensions is another good resolution.
— Kristen
The Angels are an interesting situation in that they have to change the way they win ballgames from the past few years, which (interestingly enough) reflect themselves in the resolutions you have posed. As in, they used to beat teams by having 4-5 .300 hitters in the lineup who would drive you crazy on the base paths, a rotation full of 2 spot pitchers, and a very solid back of the rotation. Now, they have become an older power lineup, with a trio of Aces, and a whole bunch of young talented, but unexperienced relievers. I just found it interesting that most of the resolutions reflected this change.
I’ve read your repsonse like three times now Mateo and it sounds an awful lot like you’re saying you find it “interesting” that I grasped the same team dynamic changes you did…you do know that the whole La La Land thing really only applies to certain parts of L.A., right? 😉 All goofing around aside, you’re absolutely right. In order for the Angels to return to being a division leading team, aging players and personnel changes necessitate changing what it means to play Angels baseball.
— Kristen
What, no ‘I will not take on ridiculous contracts from other teams?” promise?
http://bluejaysnest.mlblogs.com/
I think that the key with successful resolutions, Buejaysnest, is not to set one’s self up for failure from the beginning, LOL. At least they didn’t take over Pujols contract from another team (they just invented their own outrageous contract…) so that’s progress (…er…sort of…).
— Kristen
I think my “interest” was more in opinions of the Angels formed only by hating the teams of the early 2000’s as a Yankee fan somewhat matched those of a person following them from less than a hundred miles away. I actually haven’t watched as much baseball related TV in the past year during the season, because of going to games, and in the offseason, because of suffering a bit from baseball overload.
That does make sense Mateo, though I was only kidding in my response. And I think you are right about a lot of fans being too close to their team to have the same perspective they would have about any other team. Love blinds us all, even in baseball. 🙂
— Kristen
Oh no, I completely got that you were kidding the first time. No worries. On an unrelated note, though, how do you do the emoticons? Is it just you typing in the usual characters and it just gets converted, or is it something else?
-Mateo Fischer
http://mateofischer.mlblogs.com
No problem. I just type the usual characters and WordPress converts it, which is problematic if you are writing out your own itemized numbers in a post in a 1), 2) format. When you get to number 8, WP wants to turn it into an emoticon. If your blog isn’t doing this, there is probably a prference you can adjust from the dashboard menus.
— Kristen