When you are a ex-catcher playing left field and you have the nickname of the Incredible Hulk it seems unlikely that you would be batting lead-off but that’s exactly where Brian Downing batted in the line-up and it worked. The Angels batted him at the top of the line-up because of his batting eye as he had great plate discipline. Downing played in 1,661 games in his 13 years for the Angels and he was 1,588 for 5,854 (.271 avg, .813 OPS) with 889 runs scored, 222 homers, 846 RBIs and 27 stolen bases. Downing walked 866 times for the Angels while whiffing 759 times which was part of the reason he was leading off. Downing is all over the all-time lists for the Angels as he is #3 in games played, #3 in hits, #8 in OPS, #3 in runs scored, #3 in homers, #3 in RBIs and #2 in walks. In summation, Downing is one of the most underrated players in Angels’ history.

The Los Angeles Angels have lost Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero but the line-up in the field looks pretty set for the 2010 season. If the season started next week this is the way the line-up would look like:

C-Mike Napoli
1B-Kendry Morales
2B-Howie Kendrick
SS-Erick Aybar
3B-Brandon Wood
LF-Juan Rivera
CF-Torii Hunter
RF-Bobby Abreu
DH-Hideki Matsui

The only position the Angels might try to improve on is at 3B and that is only if they don’t want to finally see what Brandon Wood can do. The Angels are rumored to be kicking the tires on Melvin Mora who would be a nice fit on this team as long as he doesn’t cost too much. The Angels still have Maicer Izturis who could also handle the hot corner if needed. Even if the Angels go with Wood at 3B they should score a lot of runs.