Wow.

That is all we need to describe what Angels GM Jerry Dipoto has done in his first offseason in Anaheim. First, he acquires C Chris Ianetta from the Rockies for P Tyler Chatwood and shipped away C Jeff Mathis for RHP Brad Mills from Toronto. Doing these moves alone would have been great, as getting rid of Mathis and his extremely heavy bat. Ianetta gives the Angels a veteran catcher who is effective at the plate and behind it, a definite upgrade over Mathis or Hank Conger. Brad Mills is a AAA reliever who could provide some good bullpen depth in the coming years. But Jerry wasn’t done there. He then signed veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins who has been one of the best set up men in baseball since his long career started.

After those smart moves, Dipoto made a couple signings that turned the baseball world upside down. Santa Jerry gave Angel fans two gifts for Christmas. One is named C.J. Wilson, one of the top starting pitchers in the game, and the other one needs no introduction.

On Thursday December 8, at approximately 7:30 am, I got in the car to go to school, turned on the radio, and I learned of the biggest news in Angels franchise history. Albert Pujols became an Angel. Every baseball person was in shock, facebook and twitter blew up with the news, and every Angel fan pinched themselves to make sure it wasn’t a dream. A few days later Pujols and Wilson were introduced in a press conference held at Angel Stadium that was attended by upward of four thousand fans.

Now with the best hitter of this generation the Angels are now legitimate World Series contenders. It has been a great off season for the Halos, and it could still get better. Ryan Madsen, a top reliever formerly with the Phillies could end up in Anaheim, and trades involving Bobby Abreu, Alberto Callaspo, and/or Maicer Izturis could be made to bring more pieces to an already great team. All in all Jerry Dipoto has done a phenomenal job making moves that will make 2012 a magical season.

http://www.chargers.com/news/article-1/Pagano-named-defensive-coordinator/287440a2-e872-4535-8b6b-3004020d48ea

With much surprise, the open position left by Greg Manusky was not open for very long. Today the Chargers announced that Linebackers coach John Pagano will be the new Chargers Defensive coordinator after Greg Manusky was fired from that position earlier today. In my previous post on the Chargers season recap, I said that I wanted to see someone who will look to create turnovers. While I’m not totally sure on Pagano’s Defensive philosophies, I think this is a good hire. The recent string of Linebackers for the Chargers have played pretty well. From Pro Bowler Shaun Phillips to Kevin Burnett and Brandon Siler, who both played great in 2010 and signed elsewhere last off season. Also, second year MLB Donald Butler after an injury filled rookie season, was phenomenal playing next to Takeo Spikes. 

In addition to his players playing great, another thing tells me this is a good hire. The fact that the front office didn’t bring in any outside candidates shows that they truly believe that Pagano is ready to take the next step and has been for a while. It could also mean that they didn’t want to rock the boat, and just wanted to stick with the same defensive system for the most part. All in all, I’m glad that Manusky is out, and while it remains to seen if Pagano will be successful, I think the Chargers made a good move.

And so another disappointing season has come to an end in San Diego. What started with so much promise, especially after not starting slow. The six game losing streak is what really killed the hopes of making a superbowl run, and the biggest culprit of all the losses is turnovers. Take away Philip Rivers’ botched snap at the end of the Halloween game and that would have been a win. Take away the two pick sixes in the Green Bay game and that would have been a win. take away some of the turnovers in the New England game and that would have been a win. All of these are really frustrating because the Chargers are easily capable of going into the playoffs and beating any of the teams in the field and winning it all. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait ‘til next year. 

Despite this year’s troubles, the Chargers are still a good team with key players at key positions. Anytime you have a Pro Bowl quarterback, you’ll be in a position to win. I’ll get into what roster moves the Chargers front office should make at a later time, but there is not many that are needed. 

Yesterday the announcement was made that Head Coach Norv Turner and General Manager AJ Smith would remain with the team at their respective positions. While I think a new coach with a tough, no excuses mentality would have helped the team, I think Norv is fine for the job. As for AJ, I think he should have been shown the door. He has failed to replace key players that have left such as Darren Sproles and Shawne Merriman. Those two players made this team great. With Sroles, Philip had a good safety valve waiting for him and he didn’t have that this past season. Ever since Marriman got injured, that pass rush has been non-existent. Without the pass rush, the defense has failed to create turnovers and get off the field. Also his top draft picks recently have turned out to be busts. Larry English, Buster Davis, among others have not produced the way first rounders should. I think the main reason AJ will be staying is because there are not many good GM candidates out there looking for work. There are plenty of coaches such as Jeff Fisher, maybe Bill Cowher, but not whole lot in the GM department. So, the Chargers will just have to keep on rolling with AJ Smith. 

Another announcement came out today, dealing with the coaching staff. Turner announced that Defensive Coordinator Greg Manusky has been relieved of his duties and will not return to the team. I completely agree with this move. The defense clearly took a step back this season and changes had to be made. One person who will not like this is 14 year veteran LB Takeo Spikes. Spikes joined the team after playing for Manusky with San Francisco. However, hopefully a new coordinator will help end Spikes’ career long playoff drought. Moving forward, I think the new Defensive Coordinator needs to be someone who’s main focus is to take the ball away. When the Chargers were consistently winning AFC West titles, they led the league in turnover differential. The past two seasons, that was not the case. Too much focus is on how much yards a defense gives up but it should be about points allowed and turnovers. The Green Bay Packers defense allowed almost the most yards in the league, but they took the ball away at key moment and almost went undefeated. 

It was a frustrating season for the San Diego Chargers, but with the right roster tweaks this off season, the team should be back at the top soon enough.

I just want to comment on how the short off season and the season so far has gone for the Lake show. With the lockout shortening the season, many people think this will help the Lakers old legs, I however disagree. As we have already seen there has been many games in a short amount of time. Sure the season is shorter, but the NBA wanted to squeeze as many games as possible into this short season. With so many games in so little time, there will not be many opportunities for the aging bodies that are on this team to rest. In addition, there will not be many opportunities for Head Coach Mike Brown to have practices and allow the team to soak in his new system. 

As for the off season, the Lakers suffered two bad losses in Shannon Brown and Lamar Odom. Shannon wanted more minutes and those were only availible elsewhere. While they did not get much in return for Lamar, it was a deal that had to be done for the good of the team and for the good of Lamar after “the veto”. They came close to getting a big addition in Chris Paul, however commissioner David Stern cranked up the LA hate machine and vetoed that deal. To make matters worse, CP3 went to the cross-the-hall rivals LA Clippers and thus has created many Clipper bandwagoners. I guess now the Clips wont have to pay people to attend games now. Nevertheless, thiis finally creates a rivalry between the two LA teams and should make for some interesting games with Kobe/Pau/Bynum vs. Blake/CP3/Deandre. Despite all this Clipper nonsense, the city of Los Angeles still belongs to the Lakers, there are still more Laker fans walking around, and that won’t change any time soon. I look forward to January 14th when we get to witness the hardwood version of the Battle for Los Angeles. 

Moving on to the additons the Lakers made, adding Josh McRoberts, Jason Kapono, and Troy Murphy were two moves that went underlooked by Laker fans and especially national fans. But these two guys as we have already seen, can shoot well especially Kapono, and provide quality depth to improve the second team which needed help. 

Getting to the actual games, the Lakers endured some heart breaking losses against Chicago, Sacramento, and Denver, but also got some good wins against quality teams like New York, Houston, Denver, and Utah.

Andrew Bynum has been a revelation since his return from his 4 game suspension. With his 20/20 performance in last nights game against the Rockets and excellent showings against the Nuggets, Bynum has been the best center in the league thus far. Steve Blake has been playing well and shooting effectively. Now he has been the shooter the Lakers thought they were getting last off season. Kobe has also played well in spite of his wrist problems, still among the best players in the league.

From a bigger picture, the overall defense has much improved since last season, yet the offense has started slowly. The offense finally came alive last night vs. Houston and looks to continue to do so. This Laker team will only continue to get better as Mike Brown’s system continues to soak in.

Despite all the drama of the offseason in LA, it is a young season and there is plenty of exciting basketball left in Hollywood. 

LA, duh

For my first post on here I just wanted to tell you what this will all be about. I am a diehard sports fan and have been for as long as I can remember. I live in Orange County, California, and given that location, my favorite sports teams are the San Diego Chargers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the Los Angeles Lakers. If I had to choose only one of those I guess it would be the Chargers simply because I enjoy football the most and I played it back in high school. However, my favorite team varies depending on what time of the year it is. 

So getting on topic for this blog, I’ll pretty much just be writing about those three teams, some of it being my opinion and some of it being articles from other sources. Also news from other teams from the NFL, MLB, and NBA, and maybe a little about my personal life here and there. 

Feel free to just read, comment, share, ask me a question or whatever.

So Enjoy!