FanHouse NickAdenhart

OAKLAND -- The Angels have been just a shell of the team that was supposed to run away with the AL West, having lost five top starting pitchers and their best hitter, but general manager Tony Reagins said things are about to turn.

"There is some light at the end of the tunnel," Reagins told FanHouse before the Angels opened a two-game series against the A's on Monday night.

Reagins said that injured starters John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Dustin Moseley all could be back within weeks, and Vladimir Guerrero might be back by early June. (Kelvim Escobar has had a few setbacks and now is likely to come back a reliever sometime in June, at the earliest.)

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Jered Weaver gave the Angels a much-needed respite Tuesday night. Weaver, along with left-hander Joe Saunders, is one of the last men standing in a Los Angeles rotation ravaged by injuries and, of course, the tragic death of Nick Adenhart.

He pitched seven innings and allowed three runs as the Angels beat the Tigers, providing a quality start and taking some of the pressure off of a bullpen which entered the night with a major league-worst 8.31 ERA.

Unfortunately, it was only one night, and Los Angeles has many ahead.

The tragic death of 22-year-old starter Nick Adenhart is definitely going to be the low point of the Los Angeles Angels' season -- at least let's hope they don't have to deal with another death -- but much less significant problems are continuing to plague the defending AL West Champions. Specifically, they can't escape the injury bug.

While John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar try to fight their way back to the mound, Vladimir Guerrero has joined them on the disabled list and Dustin Moseley left Friday night's start after just three innings with an apparent elbow injury -- an elbow which was surgically repaired in 2007.

MLB Power Rankings: Where we care what you've done for us lately when we break down the who's who and the what's what in the baseball world each week.

It's been a while since a week of baseball was this sad -- we saw the tragic passings of Nick Adenhart, Harry Kalas and Mark Fidrych. And without waxing too sentimentally, it's the loss of these men that remind us exactly just how little sports matter in the grand scheme of things. RIP, gentlemen. Power rankings (that feel just a tad inconsequential, to be honest) after the jump.

In 1976, Mark Fidrych pitched his rookie season in the major leagues. He threw 250.1 innings. He led the league in ERA at 2.34. He only struck out 97 batters, but he threw 24 complete games.

He was nicknamed "The Bird." He appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated with Sesame Street's Big Bird. He would crouch down, as shown above, and perform the groundskeepers' job by covering over his own cleat marks. He held conversations with the baseball he held in his hand. He pitched his last game before I was born. He died yesterday.

This morning's Dugout is after the jump.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- A series full of drama and emotion got a little more entertaining today, when Josh Beckett whistled a ball past Bobby Abreu's head, inciting a bench-clearing incident that resulted in four Angels getting ejected.

Even after it was all over and the Angels had pulled out another dramatic 5-4 victory, taking two of three in the series, there were some unhappy folks in the winning clubhouse.

"That was as flagrant as anything I've seen in this game, and it's unfortunate," said manager Mike Scioscia, who had to watch the last eight innings of the game on television after he got the boot.

One was a young man who'd just crossed the threshold of his life's dream. The other was an older man who long ago escaped his life's nightmare.

Both had just left their places of employment after an honest day's work; the young man from his gig with a Southern California baseball team, and the older man from his job unloading cargo containers at the Port of Miami. The young man was riding in a car with friends, and the older man, who couldn't afford a car, was walking to a bus stop.

It was then when each met the same fate twisted in tragic coincidence.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Manager Mike Scioscia had a "normal" session with the media this morning, with little talk of the tragic loss of Nick Adenhart. Instead it was back to the more mundane topics of closers and injured starting pitchers.

Unfortunately, the Angels' big three injured pitchers -- John Lackey, Ervin Santana and Kelvim Escobar -- are still weeks away from returning.

"We're still looking at May for those guys," Scioscia said. "If we can get them to a plateau, then we can move forward. We've been encouraged by the last couple days."

Escobar, who is still building up his arm strength after last year's shoulder surgery, has pitched in three exhibition games. He had a setback after pitching last Friday in San Diego, but now he's getting ready to get out again in a minor league rehab assignment within the next week. Scioscia said the Angels will not have him skip his rehab assignment and go directly into the rotation to fill the void left by Adenhart.

ANAHEIM -- The Angels took the field on Friday night.

All 24 of them.

The 25th roster spot, the one that belonged to Nick Adenhart before he and two friends were killed in a car accident in the early hours of Thursday morning, remained vacant as the club returned to action. Adenhart's grieving teammates played a game against the Boston Red Sox.

The hit-and-run driver who killed Angels' pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others in the same vehicle has been arrested and charged with three counts of murder for the incident. Andrew Gallo, a 22-year-old convicted drunk driver who had a suspended license, has been denied bail and will be arraigned Monday.

Though it likely doesn't serve a ton of solace to the families who tragically and prematurely lost a loved one through no fault of his or her own, the swift justice in this case has to be a bit satisfying. It doesn't appear that Mr. Gallo is going to be seeing freedom anytime soon.