When you have a game like last night, there are usually too many stars to mention. Vinny Castilla whacked a timely run scoring double. Nick Johnson got 3 more hits. Gary Barnett? Well, all Barnett did was hit a homer and a double and drive in 5. Esteban Loiaza pitched 6 innings of 2 run ball. See? They were all stars.

However, my star was Jose Guillen.

Guillen gets my vote for two reasons: one very tangible and one intangible.

First: The tangible. Of course, the guy can hit, but Jose Guillen was the star, the hero, last night in the field. In the 8th inning, with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out, and a HUGE inning in the making, Braves 1st baseman Adam LaRoche launched a long blast to right. Jose Guillen raced -- no, it was more of a glide -- back towards the right field fence, leaped and snared LaRoche's drive just inches from disaster. Guillen stopped, twirled and fired the ball back into the infield keeping the runner at first and allowing only one run to score. Who knows how many more runs would have scored without that out being recorded. In the 9th, with the Braves trying to claw back into the game, Chipper Jones launched a deep drive to the fence at right. Jose circled under it and leaped as high as hit 5"11" frame would allow, catching the ball just off the top of the fence. It might have been a homer. It might have been a double. Either way, it might have ignited yet another Braves comeback. However, it ended up being an out, and the Braves went out meekly from that point to end the game.

Now to the intangible. Coming in of the field after that horrid top half of the 8th inning, with heads hanging and souls numb, Jose Guillen raced into the dugout and began to shout. "C'mon, let's show them we can come back! Let's take back this game!" Said diminutive infielder Jamie Carroll, "Man, that guy charges me up!" Jose Guillen is the type of player who fires up his fellow team members. He wants to win. Very badly. His personality is the type that, when contained is fiery in a positive way. It's when it's not contained that problems arise [just ask the Angels]. So far, however, he's shown to be a leader, the guy who's going to [hopefully] lead the team to the promised land.

Thank you, Jose. You won that game for us last night, and hardly anybody noticed. And that's just the way that Jose likes it.

And, do you think that maybe, just maybe, the Angels might be regretting their decision to trade Guillen for basically nothing?