We missed Billy Moran on our Post-2005 Top 100 Angels list, but research shows him to be the first great Angels 2B-man, made expendable only by the emergence of the great Bobby Knoop (who was undervalued in his showing on that list, an error which will be corrected).

Moran arrived in a trade in June of 1961 and was traded in June of 1964.While wearing a Halo, he played over 3200 innings at 2B outperforming league averages in an era of defensive greatness. He played in 160 games for the exciting 1962 overachievers, batting 2nd almost exclusively. He was an All Star that season and posted 13th place in the league MVP voting. Never one to be confused with Ted Williams with the bat, he knew his game well enough to place in the top ten in sacrifices in 4 out of his 7 big league seasons, twice with the Angels in '62 and '63.

CAREER STATS

In the comments... Pick 'em
• Harold Baines
• Jay Bell
• Bert Blyleven
• David Cone
• Andre Dawson
• Ron Gant
• Mark Grace
• Rickey Henderson
• Tommy John
• Don Mattingly
• Mark McGwire
• Jack Morris
• Dale Murphy
• Jesse Orosco
• Dave Parker
• Dan Plesac
• Tim Raines
• Jim Rice
• Lee Smith
• Alan Trammell
• Greg Vaughn
• Mo Vaughn
• Matt Williams

The Angels offered arbitration to 4 of their 5 arbitration eligible free agents, holding back on only veteran outfielder Garret Anderson.

Looking at the chance to get a possible 7 draft picks before the 2nd round begins, the Angels offered arbitration to Mark Teixeira, Francisco Rodriguez, Darren Oliver and Jon Garland.

Complete Guide to Every MLB Team's Arbitration Decisions

This closes the door on Anderson's 18.5 years with the club. He was drafted in the 4th round of the June 4, 1990 amateur draft. He leaves at or near the top of every offensive counting statistic in franchise history. Having recently retained the services of Scott Boras as his agent, the Angels seemed in no mood to risk him calling their arbitration bluff, not with the possibility of Boras presenting the case to the independent arbitrator.

The four players extended arbitration offers have a week to accept. It seems most likely that the Angels will target Darren Oliver for a two year deal rather than let him go. The other three players are more likely content to test the free agent market despite the gloomy economy looming for the 2009 baseball season.

Yahoo Coverage Link

Five of six Angel Free Agents will yield the angels high draft picks if they turn down an offer of arbitration. However, some of them might accept the offer. The Five Are: Garret Anderson, Jon Garland, Darren Oliver, Francisco Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira.

MLB.com Coverage Link

Garland and Teix are the lest likely to accept the offer, so those are no-brainers. Any one of the other 3 would not be the worst one-year contract the club ever signed. Juan Rivera is also a free agent but will not yield any draft picks. This is the thread to discuss who we need and who we cannot risk inviting back into the fold.

Ninja Reagins must cut bait under the crescent moon and stars this evening...

#78 - Shigetoshi Hasegawa, RHP

Continue reading this post »

The Top 100 Angels are logjammed at postions #71 - #77... you can help clear this up by voting for the Top Angel out of the Following 7 in our poll...

Righty Reliever Doug Corbett was the bridge between the starting pitching and Donnie Moore in the 1986 pennant race. He amassed 10 saves that season himself and spent 4+ years finishing 98 games in an Angels uniform. He was the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the 1986 ALCS, making him, for years, the answer to the trivia question: Who was the last pitcher to get a postseason win? He held this distinction from October 11, 1986 until October 2, 2002, when Francisco Rodriguez was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the ALDS (it was Frankie's first victory at the major league level). Jered Weaver is the answer to the question now.

Would the Angels have won the West in 1986 without Corbett? Perhaps. But he was a solid constant in the pen during a golden half-decade in team history, and he is #79 here today because of it.

Career Stats

Relief Pitcher MARK CLEAR dropped a few places in the standings since our last countdown of the 100 All-Time Angel greats.

Here is the writeup he got here on this blog post- 2005:

The Angels won the American League West for the first time in 1979. Slugger Don Baylor was named the American League MVP. Angel Reliever Mark Clear finished 19th in A.L. MVP voting that year. But I've always had the feeling that they wouldn't have made it without him. It wasn't his 14 saves and it wasn't his 11-5 record (still among the top ten Angel single season Winning %). It was the feeling of destiny created by a guy who always seemed to have two runners on base representing the tying and winning runs and finding a way out of it. Destiny or heartburn, Clear paved the way for many an Angel fan's ability to cope with dramatic relief efforts instead of pleasant 1-2-3 Ninth Innings.

Rob McMillin of the 6-4-2 L.A. Baseball Blog delves into the details...

You have to wonder about a guy who gets drafted at age 18 whose club immediately gives up on him. That was Mark Clear's story, an eighth-round pick (171st overall) in 1974 who spent one year in the Phillies' organization. Released just after spring training in 1975, the Angels picked him up the following June as a free agent, and he immediately began beavering away in the Halos' minor leagues. Struggling for another three years in single-A and AA ball, a light went on for him in El Paso: his prolific walks declined somewhat, but his strikeouts soared.

Immediately going into the Angels' bullpen, his wicked curveball was matched only by his shaky control, walking 68 batters to the 98 he struck out in his rookie season. Nonetheless, his early work was dominant, posting an otherworldly 0.53 ERA in 1979 spring training that caused the club to release reliever 11-year veteran Ken Brett despite owing him $165,000. "They never really told me I'd made the team," Clear later said. "I came to the park and they had a suitcase with my name on it." He made sure the Angels wouldn't regret that decision, following up his remarkable spring training with a 2.75 ERA over his first three months in the Show, an effort that earned him an All Star berth along the way to the Angels' first AL West division title. He led the pen in innings pitched (109) and strikeouts that year.

Clear came back the next year with similar numbers to his 1979 campaign, and was widely regarded as untouchable when he was traded on December 10, 1980, along with third baseman Carney Lansford and Rick Miller, for 30-year-old shortstop Rick Burleson and 29-year-old third baseman Butch Hobson. Both would turn into busts; Burleson played in 253 games over five seasons with the Angels, while Hobson had only two years left in the majors, only one of them with the Halos. Meanwhile, Clear would earn another All Star trip with Boston.

After three tours of Milwaukee from 1986 to 1988, Clear missed all of 1989 thanks to elbow surgery in March, and re-signed with the Angels as a free agent the next year. He signed for a minimal contract, and suffered the indignity of being sent to AAA Edmonton just after spring training; he pitched in four games before he finally retired.

Career Stats