On Friday, the Los Angeles Angels will open their 2012 season against the visiting Kansas City Royals. The expectations are through the roof for the Angels following the acquisition of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson and they will hope to come out of the gate with guns blazing. They'll look to make an immediate statement as true favorites to take the American League West division title and perhaps a lot more.

Their opponents, by contrast, are not expected to set the world on fire, but the Royals have slowly been building a solid young core of players with an eye toward the future. The hitters to watch for Kansas City in this series are Alex Gordon and Billy Butler.

Here is the rundown for the series.

• Friday's game will begin at 7:05 p.m. at Angels Stadium and will air on FOX Sports West. You can listen to the radio broadcast on KLAA. The expected pitching matchup is Jered Weaver vs. Bruce Chen.
• Saturday's game will begin at 1:05 p.m.at Angels Stadium and will be televised nationally on FOX, so we may not receive this game locally. The radio broadcast will be on KLAA and KWKW. The pitching matchup will be Dan Haren vs. Luke Hochevar
• Sunday's first pitch will come at 12:35 p.m. at Angels Stadium and will be televised on FOX Sports West. This game wll be MLB.tv's free game of the day if you wanted to stream it, although it will be blacked out locally if you choose to go that route. KLAA will again have the radio broadcast. The starting pitchers will be Ervin Santana vs. Jonathan Sanchez

For more news and notes on the Angels, be sure to read Halos Heaven. For updates and perspective regarding the Kansas City Royals, head on over to Royals Review.