The Angels have a $9 million option for 2009 for John Lackey. Should they pick up this option? Should they tear it up and renegotiate more years for John to stay in L.A. of Anaheim now?

Tell the Angels WHAT TO DO...

Mark Teixeira will be 29 just after opening day in 2009. He is a free agent. He made $12.5 Million in 2008. His agent is Scott Boras.

Tell the Angels WHAT TO DO...

Following are the available free agent infielders who are even worth considering.

Catchers - We don’t need a catcher

1B
Mark Teixeira (29)

2B
Mark Ellis (32)
Orlando Hudson (31)
Felipe Lopez (29)

SS - We don’t need a shortstop

3B
Maybe* Hank Blalock (28) (* $6mil club option)
Joe Crede (31)

If Figgy and or Howie were traded for prospects, a signing of one any one of the 2B or 3B here would make sense. It is Teix or Kendry at 1B here in '09.

WHAT TO DO is our offseason feature examining a 2008 Angel player each day to discuss where the player fits in the club's plans for 2009.

Jon Garland is a free agent. He just turned 29. He made $12 Million in 2008.

Tell the Angels WHAT TO DO...

I was driving thru the OC today anyway, so I decided to stop by the stadium. Not to be a masochist, not to try for an autograph, just to connect. I pulled up to purposefully park in the diamond club parking by the Helmets that I would never get for a game. There were maybe ten cars. Over by the offices there were lots of cars parked. I thought maybe a lot of season seat holders are asking for refunds on their postseason packages instead of keeping the monies reserved as down payments on 2009. You gotta think in a cash-tight economy that some of them need an infusion of the green and that, repaid and clear, some of them won’t be back.

By the 3B Gate a truck was loading up what appeared to be the disassembled parts of the vendor booths, those irritating saps hollering to win season tickets if you just give them you personal ID-theft ready information. A reminder that the Angels’ biggest sponsor was Shell Vacations Club, a TIME-SHARE outfit. So there were PVC tubes, tables and signage. A lone folding table stood at the front of the stadium on the bricks.

I went into the store. There was one other guy in there buying stuff. There were three girls working. Nothing had been discounted yet. I asked if they had been busy. They emphatically answered "No." Fact of life: If a girl in her 20s gives a guy in his 40s the time of day it is because she is bored as shit. These three girls were so bored, they were up for an extensive chat session. "We were busy earlier today with returns." I asked her if that meant they were returning merchandise to the manufacturer or a warehouse. "No, no. People are bringing back their jerseys and jackets for refunds." I was stunned, "WHAT!?!?" They explained that any merchandise can be returned if the person has the receipt and the tags are still on them. The only exceptions are if the item has obviously been worn.

"So a lot of people are jumping off the bandwagon and want their money back?" I asked, almost scared of the answer I would be given. "Oh yeah," they said in unison, matter-of-factly, like jaded retail pros who know the way the system works. This is now easily my longest conversation with a group of 20-something chicks since I was, oh 25, almost 20 years ago. They needed no prompting from this point on. One told about a guy who brought back men’s women’s and children’s jerseys, caps and shirts and said his neighbors were Dodgers fans and that his family just could not wear their Angels stuff. One mentioned that a lot of people were pissed about the early exit. They all nodded that this was the common refrain from customers.

If you like the Angels enough to be reading about them on internet blogs you have probably come across the refrain that Angels fans are just bandwagoneers. I have written passionately that this is not the case; a core fan base has always been here. Well, today, the opposite rang true, to the sound of cash registers clinking in reverse.

I had seen the death last night, written about it into the wee hours and read about it all over again this morning. And now I had attended the funeral, just a preacher, me and the sun.

I left the store without buying anything. A truck was picking up that last folding table out front. The other one down the line was gone. My journalistic instinct to take a picture of all these events was outweighed by my fan’s still-broken heart. I stopped on the way back to the car and had to mark the moment. I lifted the camera and snapped the Big A. When I started the car, Elton John’s "I’m Still Standing" was on the radio. I examined the picture I had taken on my camera’s digital screen and for the first time in 18 hours, I smiled. The first thing we have for the 2009 season is a theme song. YEah yeah yeah.

WHAT TO DO is our offseason feature examining a 2008 Angel player each day to discuss where the player fits in the club's plans for 2009.

Garret Anderson has a club option for 2009 that will pay him $14 Million. The Club can buy it out for $3 Million and Garret will become a free agent. They could re-sign him for less, but would have to bid on the open market.

Tell the Angels WHAT TO DO...

Starting Howie Kendrick in the playoffs after he came back from injury so late in the season was, in hindsight, a mistake. THE mistake. He disappeared, was overmatched and the palpable failure magnified itself into grand defensive lapses that cost us almost dearly in game three and dearly in game four. To a lesser extent, Erick Aybar brought little to the team

We will never know what would have happened if we had started Sean Rodriguez and Brandon Wood in the playoffs. Maybe we would have pined for Aybar and Kendrick, but perhaps the warmed-up AAA-rookie duo would have done more than those two.

There are other what-ifs, but were the Angels to have had the simplest offensive production from EITHER of those two spots, the team would at least be looking at a deciding game five.

Barring that, the only other missing factor was the spark plug factor on which Scioscia offenses depend so heavily. So Figgins not getting on base in 3 out of 4 games was a kick to the balls of any chance the Angels had. Also note that the great game Figgins had with the glove was also the game where his bat showed up.

So it wasn’t Frankie, it wasn’t Reggie, it wasn’t Shields. It was Howie, the decision to play a rehabbing Howie over a number of options, an absent Figgy, a weak Aybar.

On August 13, Howie Kendrick pulled up lame on a hit with a bad hammy and a few innings later, Maicer Izturis dislocated his thumb. One player came back and was ineffective and one player’s platoon partner couldn’t handle the full-time role. Perhaps the fate of the season was decided then and there.

To whine a bit, a lot of calls went Boston’s way, their pitchers and batters were free to saunter about the mound and box and then blame west coast viewing audiences for 5 hour games, followed by quickened Rapuano strike zones making for the 6th inning starting 90 minutes after the first pitch. I thought for a minute about a headline that read: “Tim Welke = Tim Donaghy?” but no whining. I could bitch about the absurdly pro-Boston telecast, but Red Sox Nation is about to get served a plate of shit to eat when the whole nation roots for the underdog Tampa Rays and the Boston Beer Belly Fans wonder where all the lovable adoration of America went. Hint: We loved your dirty water when it quenched the underdog but it has acquired an entitlement stench beyond Steinbrenner proportions.

Everyone showed up except our middle infielders, the calls went Bitchston’s way, the media was all Franconastroka and we were STILL in every game against the aging World Champions. When Billy Beane says the playoffs are a crapshoot he is lauded as a statistical genius and Oakland fans bend over for biannual rebuilding projects. When Angel fans hear that the playoffs are a crapshoot they still recall the snake eyes roll in 2002 that paid off and everything pales. It is the price of success.

Paying that price is John Lackey, team leader, Angel icon and alone without run support in two games that were eminently winnable. As always, no matter how bright the future looks, you have to wonder how many more postseason chances even the best of them will get.

We'll have to wait until next year to find out.