25-year old righty swinging 3B/SS Brandon Wood came to the majors with a ton of hype as he crushed a lot of homers in his minor league career. But it has not converted into any success at the major league level. Wood has played in 63 games for the Angels this year and he is 30 of 182 (.165 avg, .410 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 3 homers and 12 RBIs. He swings at everything as he has an utter lack of discipline at the plate as he has only walked 4 times this year while whiffing 54 times. Wood has now played in 149 games in parts of 4 seasons with the Angels and he is 73 of 406 (.180 avg, .479 OPS) with 37 runs scored, 10 homers, 31 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. He has walked 11 times now and whiffed 128 in his major league career to date. The Angels wouldn’t likely get much for Wood in a trade so the choice is really to keep him or cut him. It will be interesting to see what the Angels decide to do with him.

31-year old righty swinging outfielder Juan Rivera lost his starting job when the Angels called up 23-year old top prospect Peter Bourjos. But, Bourjos has been overmatched in his first taste of the majors so far. He has played in 11 games for the Angels and he is 5 of 37 (.135 avg, .409 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 2 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. If Bourjos continues to struggle I have little doubt that the Angels will turn back to Rivera. Rivera has played in 96 games this year for the Angels and he is 86 of 334 (.257 avg, .729 OPS) with 48 runs scored, 12 homers, 43 RBIs and 2 stolen bases.

The Angels went into spring training with the idea of having 26-year old switch hitter Erick Aybar as the full time starting shortstop and leadoff hitter. Aybar has been a disappointment with the bat so far this season for the Angels who have to start considering dropping him in the batting order. Aybar has played in 28 games for the Angels this season and he is 27 of 110 (.245 avg, .652 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 1 homer, 5 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. The Angels are currently without their infield safety net as Maicer Izturis is hurting so Aybar is going to keep playing every day no matter how badly he struggles with the bat.

It’s interesting to see what the Angels are doing at catcher so far this season as Mike Napoli has been riding the pine in favor of Jeff Mathis. Napoli has played in only 5 games this season for the Angels and he is 2 for 15 (.133 avg, .369 OPS) with 1 RBI. He has a .256 career average with the Angels with a .851 OPS as he has a lot of power for a catcher. He has cranked 66 homers in his four years with the Angels including 20 in each of the last two years. I have a feeling that the Angels are going to trade Napoli before too long as they appear to favor Mathis’ defense over Napoli’s hitting behind the plate.

3B Bradon Wood really looked overmatched against the Twins. He played in 3 games against the Twins and he was 1 for 12 (.083 avg, .166 OPS) with 5 whiffs. The Angels will likely give Wood a long look before making a change at 3B because he has been one of their best prospects for a long time now. Still, look for Maicer Izturis to steal some of his playing time away if he continues to struggle this year. Izturis has played in 2 games for the Angels this season and he is 0 for 4 (.000 avg) with 1 RBI. The Angels really want Wood to get into gear because he has power that they really need for 2010.