The Angels have signed 30-year old righty reliever Bobby Korecky to a minor league deal. He pitched in 5 games (0 starts) for the Diamondbacks last season and he was 0-0 with a 13.50 ERA and a 2.50 WHIP. Korecky has now pitched in 21 games (0 starts) in his major league career and he is 2-0 with a 6.85 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP. Korecky has been effective in his minor league career and that’s why the Angels are giving him a shot this spring.

The Angels have re-signed 32-year old righty swinging 1B/3B Robb Quinlan to a minor league deal. He played in 54 games for the Angels last season and he was 28 for 115 (.243 avg, .614 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 2 homers and 14 RBIs. Quinlan has now played in 435 games in his 7 years with the Angels and he is 303 for 1,079 (.281 avg, .734 OPS) with 130 runs scored, 25 homers, 119 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. This was a good move for the Angels because Quinlan is a decent bench player.

The Angels have finally got rid of 35-year old switch-hitting outfielder Gary Matthews trading him to the Mets along with $21.5 million bucks for 30-year old righty reliever Brian Stokes. Matthews played in 103 games for the Angels last season and he was 79 for 316 (.250 avg, .697 OPS) with 44 runs scored, 4 homers, 50 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. He played three seasons for the Angels appearing in 370 games in which he was 312 for 1,258 (.248 avg, .708 OPS) with 176 runs scored, 30 homers, 168 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. The Angels have been pissed off at Matthews for quite some time. They signed him coming off a career year which was partially made possible by his use of HGH. He appeared in the Mitchell Report and it appears that he quit taking PEDs resulting in a very poor performance at a very high rate of pay. Brian Stokes has a good arm but he hasn’t got great results to this point in his career. He pitched in 69 games (0 starts) for the Mets last season and he was 2-4 with a 3.97 ERA and a 1.56 WHIP. Stokes has now pitched in 157 games (5 starts) in his major league career and he is 6-11 with 1 save, a 5.02 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP. If Stokes helps out in the pen I’m sure the Angels will be very happy….if not, owner Arte Moreno will still be happy because he won’t see Matthews around anymore.

The Angels have signed 31-year old righty starting pitcher Joel Pineiro to a 2-year deal worth around $16 million bucks. He pitched in 32 games (both starts) for the Cardinals last season and he was 15-12 with a 3.49 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP. The most impressive thing about Pineiro last season was that he only walked 27 batters in 214 innings. He has now pitched in 285 games (216 starts) in his major league career and he is 87-79 with 2 saves, a 4.39 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP. The Angels are hoping that Pineiro can replace John Lackey in the rotation and it will be interesting to see how it works out. This was a risk worth taking for the Angels.

The Angels have signed 32-year old righty reliever Fernando Rodney to a 2-year, $11 million dollar contract. Rodney pitched in 73 games (0 starts) for the Tigers last season and he was 2-5 with 37 saves, a 4.40 ERA and a 1.47 WHIP. He has now pitched in 308 games (0 starts) in his major league career and he is 15-30 with 70 saves, a 4.28 ERA and a 1.42 WHIP. Rodney will compete with Brian Fuentes for the closer’s job in 2010 this spring with the loser being the set-up man.