Old Time Family Baseball

Quick, what do you do when you have a large budget, strong core and may only need a few pieces to put yourself in the thick of your division? If you’re the Anaheim Angels (Not the LA Angels, never the LA Angels!), you kick the tires on Adrian Beltre and Carl Crawford, trade your-should-be-starting catcher and take on one of the worst contracts in aging outfielder Vernon Wells. Sportswriters couldn’t figure it out, bloggers were confused, and it looks like even Carl Crawford was left shaking his head:

“They obviously didn’t want me that bad because I’m a Red Sox. I don’t know what happened. It was weird. I heard they said my contract was too much. Then they paid more [per year] to Vernon Wells. I didn’t understand that. [Werth] is 31 and I’m 29. It didn’t make sense to me, either. And this is why I’m a Red Sox.”

The Red Sox and Angels have a pretty nice cross-country rivalry that’s been brewing for the last decade and this should stoke the fire a little bit. Unfortunately, not many marketing campaigns can be built on Carl Crawford vs. Vernon Wells as it lacks even the meety punch of a Starlin Castro/Derek Jeter throwdown.

(h/t Hardball Talk)