Too little, too late?

Well, what every Angels fan has wanted all season finally happened on Friday as Bill Stoneman finally got the stones to send down Jeff Weaver and bring up STUD minor league pitcher Jared Weaver.

Ever since the World Series win in 2002, everyone has sort of perceived Bill Stoneman to be a golden-boy, but ever since, through MULTIPLE stoopid moves, he's come down to earth. I hated in in the late 90's and I still don't like him today. Letting Troy Glaus go was a mistake, and I don't just say that because he was my favorite player. Glaus was only one year removed from his Lasik and before the knee injury was hitting the snot out of the ball. Stoneman got trigger happy and as a result, made two mistakes at once. He let Glaus go and in the process, made Chone Figgins the defacto third-baseman. I love Figgins and he is a pure catalyst for this team. But he was a perfect role player. The club had the ability to start him every day somewhere, whether at DH or filling in to give anyone else a day off.

Then he let Bengie Molina get away last year. The better Napoli develops, the less this one is going to hurt, but really that's just dumb luck for Stoneman. The biggest clutch-hitter on the team and the leader of the "Latino Half" of the club, Molina was not resigned because Stoneman didn't find him worth the cost when he had a solid defensive catcher in Jose Molina and he also had.....Josh Paul. Well Paul turned into a big-ole bust, the likes of which haven't been seen since Justin Bauchman. Napoli got called up and has been incredible, but Stoneman gets ZERO credit for that one.

And then the team was looking for another bat over the past month, which they desperatley need and apparently, the cost was too high for Stoneman to pull the trigger on trading prospects. I'm sorry, but other than Jared Weaver, there are three other starters at Salt Lake who are valuable. Stoneman was probably demanding that Jeff Weaver be part of any deals, and nobody wants to touch that plague. Now we get NOTHING for him, no power hitter, but a stronger rotation? As long as Colon can get back into form (I give him 5 starts before I give up hope/2 down, three to go), we'll be ok with pitching and the same rotation (Weaver, Colon, Escobar, Lackey, Santana) should be in one piece next season, and that's pretty damn good. a #1 guy, two young potential #1 guys, and two solid #2/3 guys in Kelvin and Lackey.

But without a deal for a bat, it's too little too late for this season. Pack it in. Let the young guys (Morales, Napoli, Murphy, Kendrick) continue to get experience at the big league level. That will only help them out for next year and the years to come. All four of them were rushed to the show, but now that they are here, let them get their AB's.

And one more note to Stoned-man: Since we're going to phone in the rest of the year anyway, isn't it time to dump JC Romero and let JONATHAN ROUWENHORST get up to the show, too!?!?! Between him and Esteban Yan, you're 0-for-2 on signing lefty relief. Give your own guy a shot now!