Take some time to think this one out Angels.

Before you design another master plan to bring home a world championship to Los Angeles/Anaheim, consider long and hard about cutting out one of the strengths of your franchise.

Do you really want to jettison Frankie Rodriguez?

Still one of the young cornerstones to an organization that has dominated the American League West during K-Rod's incredible run as one of the best closers in baseball, has Rodriguez become expendable since the Angels did not win the 2008 World Series?

Is the man who smashed the major league record for saves in a season not worth the investment of $5 million per year?

Are you going to use that money, instead, to buy a free-agent middle infielder?

Are you going, with a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the ninth against a division rival, hand over the ball to an unproven closer (Jose Arredondo, for instance)? Even scarier, wave in from the bullpen a veteran reliever with the weight of rocky performances?

I am sure any justification in the not re-signing column will underline a less-than-stellar postseason performance. On that same whiteboard, you might put down that K-Rod blew a few saves. Or scared the dickens out of the manager and pitching coach by placing himself and the team into late-inning jams. You might include that he also pitched out of those jams.

Could part of that blame be assessed on the management.

Was K-Rod overused throughout the season, especially in September when the Angels had already wrapped up the division title? There were two- and three-week stretches when K-Rod was called upon an average of every other day (22 appearances in a 44-game stretch and 12 in 22 games).

It seems to me that if you want to be in the hunt for division championships, pennants and world titles, you want to have in your backpocket a reliever who has unshakable confidence and energy.

At the top of the re-sign K-Rod column is the confidence and energy that he directly and indirectly passes on to his teammates.

One has to believe having the Angels' setup men and K-Rod in the bullpen has a positive effect on starters like John Lackey, Jered Weaver and Ervin Santana.

— Derry Eads is a staff writer for The Star. His e-mail address is deads@VenturaCountyStar.com.