You look at the run diffs and you wonder how this race can even be close. Oakland should be in front by seven. Sooner or later, you'd think the Angels' luck (yes, that luck is partly K-Rod) has to break. But there were the D-Backs last year...

This is where you're a little confused about how to play baseball. What the LAA are doing is trying to stop the pitcher from dictating the game. They don't want to hit with 2 strikes so they go up there aggressive and are looking to hit fastballs early in the count. They don't want to let the pitcher get into a rhythm of 1,1,2 and dominate the game. I used to love pitching against teams like this because if you know they're going to do it and you can get them to swing at pitches off the plate you can be successful but it's pretty effective against guys who want to get ahead in the count and go to their out pitch.

There's nothing wrong with being aggressive if you aggressively hit the ball on a regular basis.

The Angels aren't a team of all Vlad Guerreroes, however. They have the second worst team OPS in the AL. Making all of those outs without lots of power -- not their aggressiveness in itself -- is what is letting pitcher thow CGs against them.

That's correct but their lack of success has more to do witht he decline of Guererro and Anderson than anything else. Every year since '02 when they've finished in the top half of the league in runs they've either won the division or the WS. I'm not saying I'm a huge advocate of playing like this but they aren't being aggressive for the sake of being aggressive they think they're going to get better pitches early in the count, they don't want to hit with 2 strikes and they want to bring the game to the pitcher instead of the other way around. They also think it helps you get ahead int he game because you're not waiting for the pitcher to tire. It's worked pretty well for them over the last 7 years. One reason it's hard to get a lot of aggressive hitters to be more patient in the pros is this is a fairly popular philosophy in HS and youth baseball where they don't want to get dominated by a kid with a big fastball and the defense isn't as good.

The Angels just aren't scoring lately. That's 4 straight games they failed to score more than 1 run.

I figure Anderson must have pictures of Scioscia in flagrante with a mule. There's no other reason why a 36-year-old corner outfielder who can't hit, can't run and can't field should be playing any day, much less everyday. He hasn't had an OPS above the low eight hundreds since 2003. This year he's clicking at .661.

Guerrero's having a down year so far by his own standards, but he's a decent bet to rebound. Last year he clocked in with his tenth straight .900+ OPS season. If he declines further, though, this team could drop right to the bottom of the league in runs scored. They're close to the bottom already.