The Angels had only managed 13 runs in the previous seven games, so the three runs off eight hits they put up Wednesday actually wasn’t bad, but not good enough to avoid their fifth straight loss. Hunter, who has spent most of the season in the clean-up spot, is going to have a very different role batting second, and it’s definitely going to hurt his RBI numbers. However, he could see a spike in runs, if anyone can actually drive him in, that is (in the seven games before Wednesday’s loss, the Angels were hitting .190 with runners in scoring position).

There’s no doubt he’s been way better in May (.275/.293/.338) than he was in April (.155/.204/.227), but it’s all relative, right? We’re talking about a hitter with a career slash line of .293/.334/.438, so you can see that even his massively improved May is still way below career norm levels for Crawford.

Still, with Mathis being among the easiest outs in the majors, most observers believe it’s just a matter of time until the Halos anoint Conger as the full-time catcher, so we still think that prudent owners should grab the rookie as a roster stash at this point. It’s a move that could very well pay off in the second half or sooner.

However, Weaver has suddenly looks quite human and on Wednesday against the Mariners he dropped his fourth straight start. It’s not as if he’s been pounded during this stretch – he’s gone six innings in each outing, surrendering six or seven hits and three or four runs each time – but when compared to his first half-dozen starts of the season, it looks like a slump. He’s given up a total of 14 runs in his last four starts combined – like I said, he’s not getting bitch slapped or anything like that.

Where’s the pop, dude? One homer every 35.5 at-bats? That isn’t going to cut it for Fantasy owners, so it isn’t a great surprise that he’s begun to wind up on the waiver wire in some shallow leagues.

“If there’s one thing that stands out from what I’ve seen,” Piniella said, “it’s that there are no great teams in baseball. There are a few good teams but even they have serious flaws and all the others have a lot of flaws.”