RealGM

TyCobb wrote:I played hockey as well and my brother (in his late 30's) still plays roller hockey today at a high level in Orange County, but it's hard for me to get as invested in professional hockey because I don't know the players like I do in baseball and basketball. Such a foreign presence in hockey.

As if the pitching-thin Angels need another reminder of what might have been, there it is, on the cover of this week's Sports Illustrated, New York Mets ace Matt Harvey, the one who got away.

The Angels picked Harvey in the third round in 2007 knowing it would take first-round money to sign him out of high school, but when owner Arte Moreno authorized an offer of only $1 million — half of what Harvey wanted — the right-hander went to the University of North Carolina.

Harvey signed for $2.6 million with the Mets in 2010 and, armed with a 97-mph fastball and devastating curve, has emerged as a Cy Young Award candidate this season, going 5-0 with a 1.55 earned-run average in his first nine starts.

Think Harvey, 24, would look good in the Angels' rotation today? So would former Angels prospect Patrick Corbin, who was sent to Arizona in the 2010 Dan Haren deal and is now 6-0 with a 1.52 ERA for the Diamondbacks.