Vladimir Guerrero Has Found a Home in Baltimore

Vladimir Guerrero finally has a team to call his own, and the Baltimore Orioles have a badass cleanup hitter. Everybody's happy.

The two sides agreed to a one-year contract this weekend, apparently worth $8 million. Of course, nothing is final since the deal hasn't been announced yet.

The free agent slugger, sitting at 436 career home runs over 15 big league seasons, hit .300 last year with 29 longballs and 115 RBI for the American League Champion Texas Rangers. If the 36-year-old passes his physical, he will most likely become Baltimore’s designated hitter.

Best of luck to the Sporting News AL Comeback Player of the Year (turning 36 on February 9) on passing his physical and continuing on his road to The 500 Club.

[Sporting News]

Adrian Beltre Gets Big Money from Rangers

Rumor has it, the Texas Rangers have reached a preliminary agreement with Adrian Beltre on a contract worth $96 million over six years $80 million over five years.

The American League champions have the ability to void the final season of the deal "under certain conditions" like if Beltre is injured or starts to suck. Besides, six years is a pretty big commitment for a guy who will turn 32 this April.

The free agent third baseman turned down his $10 million player option to stick with the Boston Red Sox this offseason. Beltre, who batted .321 with 28 homers, 49 doubles, and 102 RBI made the All-Star team for the first time in his 13-year career last season, oddly enough.

Vladimir Guerrero Wins Best DH Award

Talk about a comeback.

The Commissioner's Office announced Wednesday that Vladimir Guerrero has won the Edgar Martinez Outstanding Designated Hitter Award. The Texas Rangers' big bat helped his team earn not only their first ever trip to the ALCS, but also the first World Series appearance in the team's 50-year history.

Guerrero, a nine-time All-Star, batted .306 with 25 homers, 106 RBIs and 73 runs in 129 games from the DH spot. The most amazing part of the whole thing: he struck out only 56 times in 523 at-bats.

Good Job, Vladimir Guerrero!

Vladimir Guerrero hit his 400th career home run yesterday in the Los Angeles Angels 8-7 win over the Tampa Bay Rays. He nailed not one, but two longballs, and we think that's pretty awesome. Good job, buddy.

On that note, it's flippin gorgeous outside today, and Minnesota only has like 3 weeks of good weather left. Therefore, it is far too nice to blog... at least not until way later. When I'm sunburned. Have a great day all!

xoxo,
BLB

[Big League Stew] | [Halos Heaven] | [BoDog Beat]

The Angels are Screwed

LA Angels of Anaheim (that is what they're still called right?) outfielders Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero have both been placed on the 15 day DL. Hunter has a right groin strain, which has been bugging him on and off since May. Vlad has a strained muscle behind his left knee and a strained hamstring.

Hunter was set to make his first All Star appearance as an Angel - he'd been in twice before while playing for the Minnesota Twins. Who could forget when he robbed Barry Bonds of a homerun during his first All Star Game in 2002? (After which, in a fit of roid rage Barry ran out and hoisted Torii over his shoulder and if all of America hadn't been watching, he probably would have body slammed him. Supposedly it was all in fun.. But I bet security was poised and ready to shoot horse tranquilizers at Bonds....)

Some of Us Have to Get Up Early in the Morning!

My sleep timer shut my TV off twice last night during the 12 inning nail-biter between the Angels and the Red Sox. It was worth the wait and the extra coffee today...
Luckily, we have another day of ALDS action today. Well, not entirely lucky, since the White Sox also pulled one out of their asses. And we all know how most of the BLB feel about the White Sox.
There are a lot of Bostonians today talking about how wicked-retahded the outcome of the game was last night and how wicked-tiahed they are today and that they want to beat the crap out of anyone in an Angels t-shirt today.

Mothers, Lock Your Doors...

That's right. No child within a 50 mile radius of Anaheim is safe. Vladamir Guerrero is in the playoffs and therefore, needs extra fuel to thoroughly destroy the Red Sox. You didn't know? He eats babies. That's not a wad of chew or bubble gum in his mouth, those are baby giblets.

And he's gonna need that extra bit of oomph, if he wants to defeat Youkilis's face-muff. What IS that thing anyway?
In other playoff news... Brew Crew disappoints, Wrigleyville is crying in their beer.

Hopefully, tomorrow we can write about some kind of altercation in Tampa involving A.J. getting punched in the face again.

The Mike Napoli Show

There's Garret Anderson, Torii, Vlad, and... Mike Napoli!

The Los Angeles Angels catcher is leading the club with 10 homers after nailing two on Sunday to drive in a career-high five runs in the Halos’ 10-2 victory over the cross-town Dodgers.

His 10 bombs equal the number between Anderson and Hunter and are six more than the slumping Guerrero. Why are his 23 RBIs so impressive? Napoli has only played in 27 of the team's 46 games, since he's sharing backstop duties with Jeff Mathis.

[LA Times]

Angels Outfield Could Be Back to Normal

Los Angeles Angels slugger Vladimir Guerrero could return to right field (for the first time in a month) for game 2 against the Boston Red Sox on Friday.

Halos manager Mike Scioscia also revealed that Garret Anderson could play left despite the conjunctivitis that swelled his right eye so badly, it looked as if he took a Carlos Zambrano-sized left hook to the face.

Guerrero has been the Angels' acting DH since the beginning of September, when he irritated his right triceps muscle.

The Red Sox lead the series 1-0 after Josh Beckett dazzled Fenway with a 4-0 complete game shutout on Wednesday, striking out eight over nine impressive innings.

Kelvim Escobar (18-7, 3.40 ERA) will take the hill on Friday vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (15-12, 4.40 ERA) before the series heads to Los Angeles for game 3.

[Boston Herald] | [Bare Baseball] | [From the Dugout]

Fun With Polls: Midsummer Classic

In our most recent poll, we asked who you thought would win the Home Run Derby. Turns out, 6% of you were right on the money. Good job!

The larger 32% of the voters (and I) bet on the Canadian Crusher - hoping he'd hit more than 5 bombs all night - to win it all. The event turned out somewhat anti-climactic for Justin Morneau and us as well.

Vladimir Guerrero is a Monster

Los Angeles Angels slugger Vladimir Guerrero left Monday's game against the Boston Red Sox with a bruised right wrist after being smoked by a Josh Beckett pitch in the first inning.

X-rays taken at Fenway Park were negative, to the delight of every Angels fan in the world. The right fielder was nailed on an 0-2 pitch after Orlando Cabrera hit a one-out homer.

Guerrero, who was sixth in the AL with a .364 batting average and second with 12 RBIs as of Monday, crouched down and held his wrist as manager Mike Scioscia came out of the dugout.

Plate umpire Rick Reed issued a warning to Beckett and the Angels, but all sides agreed there was no intent to hit Guerrero.

[FOX Sports]

Vladimir Guerrero The Destroyer

Vladimir Guerrero went 4-for-4, smoking the ball like it were batting practice.

The Rangers' biggest nemesis had a solo shot and two RBI singles to lead the Angels to an 8-4 victory Tuesday night. In 56 career games against the Rangers, Vlad is hitting .442, with 21 homers, 49 RBIs and 49 runs scored.

Arbitration Eligible

Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer were among the 100+ players to file for salary arbitration on Friday, setting themselves up for big, fat pay raises.

The Twins got more than a bargain for those two last season as Morneau made $385,000 as the AL MVP and Mauer made $400,000 as the AL batting champion.

How big of an increase their salaries will receive is yet to be determined. To give you an idea of what those two could (and should) make, here is a list of a few players' post-award season salaries. Inflation is inevitable.

• Albert Pujols: 2005: $11 million | 2006: $14 million
• Alex Rodriguez: 2005: $22 million | 2006: $25.6 million
• Miguel Tejada: 2002: $3.5 million | 2003: $5.1 million
• Vlad Guerrero: 2005: $12.5 million | 2006: $13.5 million

[Baseball Almanac]