Posted 5:43 PM by Sean
Okay, here's my two-minute take on why trading Scott Schoeneweis was a good thing for the Angels.

You know what economists mean when they talk about "creating wealth?" They mean that wealth increases when you exchange something you value less for something you value more. And since value is relative, two parties can make an exchange in which both come away wealthier, having both "traded up" from their individual points of view. Hence I can trade cash, which is just sitting there in my pocket, for beer, which enables me to sit through another Angels game. And the liquor store can trade beer, which is just sitting there in the cooler using up BTUs, for cash, so Mehdi the liquor store guy can feed his family. Colloquially, this is known as a "win-win situation."

Well, the Angels got wealthy with the Schoeneweis trade. I'm not saying they rooked the White Sox out of any potential superstars, mind you, but rather that they gave up in the trade a pitcher that they valued very little. Despite spending no time on the DL and being the Angels' only lefty in the bullpen, Schoeneweis pitched just 38.2 innings this year, generally - as I mentioned a few weeks ago - in games in which the outcome had already been determined. That's easily the fewest innings of any of the bullpen regulars, with the exception of Troy Percival, who hasn't been getting into games because there haven't been a lot of leads to protect just lately. Given his eye-popping lefty-right splits - lefties have a .499 OPS against him in 79 at-bats, righties have .813 in 74 - there's simply no chance Scioscia was going to convert him into a starter, so he just plain wasn't of much use in a 162-game season. That's in contrast to last year's post-season, of course, when having a lefty in the pen was an essential resource in the late innings.

So in exchange for Schoeneweis and Doug Nickle, about whom more in a moment, the Angels get Gary Glover and a pair of minor league prospects, also about whom more in a moment.

Glover is the bizarro Schoeneweis. He's thrown about as many innings, but his lefty-righty splits are, of course, in the other direction (Glover is right-handed). How this helps the Angels on the field, I don't know, but I do know that they'll pay him a fraction of what they were paying Schoeneweis, and maybe get a chance to look him over to see if Bud Black thinks he can teach him anything useful. The smart money says Glover is basically a placeholder, and will probably not be re-signed after the season's over.

So the real value for the Angels here is in what they pick up for their minor league system. The guy they traded away, Doug Nickle, has a tiny amount of experience in the majors with Philadelphia and San Diego, during which he compiled a 7.84 ERA in 20.2 innings scattered over the 2000, 2001, and 2002 seasons. Nickle was having a very nice season in Salt Lake, with a 1.48 ERA in 48.2 innings of relief, but wasn't exactly overpowering anyone - he was averaging less than one strikeout every two innings. With an ERA like that, it's not all that necessary to have a high strikeout total, of course, but what a low strikeout rate indicates is that here's a guy who has a good chance of allowing inherited runners to score on the sacrifice fly, which wouldn't show up in his ERA (and also, conversely, a good chance of getting guys to ground into double plays - his major league performance showed him to have a propensity to be a ground-ball pitcher, but the sample size is so small it's hard to tell much from that. Also, a lot of those ground balls went for hits, which have also been known to score inherited runners.). And, let's face it, the Angels have plenty of good right-handed relief in Anaheim.

So in Schoeneweis and Nickle, the Angels lose a couple of guys who weren't going to do them much good to begin with. Glover is a warm body. What of the kids the White Sox send our way?

Well, that will have to wait for tomorrow, when we'll also take a look at the deadline deals.

Posted 9:19 AM by Sean
So how's that for being responsive to the fans? Mere hours after yesterday's post, the Angels announced that they're releasing Kevin Appier, and will replace him in the rotation with Scot Shields. I guess I'm really on the hook now if Shields blows chunks, huh? Releasing Appier means that the Angels will still be responsible for the remaining $15.67 million of his salary, which is a record, but Arte Moreno apparently feels the same way I do - that keeping him would just be throwing good money after bad. Or, to be more accurate, throwing good starting opportunities after bad.

The Angels acquired Appier from the New York Mets in a December 2001 trade for Mo Vaughn. He went 14-12 with a 3.92 ERA last season. Moreno saluted him for helping to deliver the first World Series title in club history but said it was time to move on, noting the Angels would not save any money by keeping Appier.

"We're trying to take a long-term view and not put Band-Aids on things," Moreno said.

You know, I'm really starting to like that guy.

Posted 12:59 PM by Sean
I stopped watching last night's loss to the Yankees after Hideki Matsui's home run in the seventh made it 6-1. Apparently, I missed a Garret Anderson home run. Whatever.

It's getting hard to write about this team, particularly when the game you just saw is just another in a string that look exactly alike. Starting pitching bad. Relief pitching good. Offense incapable of the timely hit. Loss. So, in the words of Bill Hicks, excuse me while I slap a fake smile on my face and plow through this shit one more time.

Kevin "Velveeta" Appier lasted a magical 0.2 innings last night. In fairness, he might have had a 1-2-3 inning except for (a) a pitch that may or may not have been strike three to the #2 hitter, Derek Jeter, but was, in any event, called a ball, that kept Jeter alive long enough to (b) hit a bloop single to center that Darin Erstad got an uncharacteristically late break on and couldn't get to in time to make a play on. That was the first of six two-strike hits Appier allowed in the course of his 42 pitch outing, the last five coming with two outs. And three of those hits were by guys who were down 0-2 in the count. So, on second thought, screw "in fairness." If you can't get an out with two strikes five straight times, that's not the umpire's fault. It's true what they say: nothing melts like Velveeta.

And then Scot Shields came along, got that third out, and proceeded to pitch a total of 4.1 innings while giving up one run. Which actually raised his ERA slightly, from 1.77 to 1.79. Shields has pretty much made his living by pitching long relief for craptacular starters this year, and has done a damn good job of it. Here are his innings pitched and earned runs in 2003:

April - 23.1 IP, 2 ER
May - 20.1 IP, 5 ER
June - 16.2 IP, 4 ER
July - 20.1 IP, 5 ER

Got that? Scot Shields is actually giving up fewer runs per month than Kevin Appier does per nine innings. Shields is used to pitching a lot of innings at a stretch, and, in fact, made two starts early in the year in which he gave up three earned runs in 11.0 innings. The bullpen is the Angels' greatest strength; the starting pitching a glaring weakness. Appier has had rough starts before and bounced back, it's true, but this is three of his last five that have been absolutely atrocious, and 35-year-old pitchers aren't known for their sudden resurgences. As a practical matter, Appier is probably wedged into the rotation for the rest of the year, since he makes 11.5 million dollars, but in a sense that's just throwing good money after bad. Hopefully Shields will get another audition as a starter in the next couple of months, and earn a chance to compete for a rotation slot next spring. Of course, I don't even know if Shields wants to start. But right now, I know that I want Appier to stop.

Just a couple of other quick notes: Robb Quinlan, after looking silly against Barry Zito's twelve-to-six curveball during his debut Monday, got three solid base hits in last night's game. The look of sheer giddiness on his face after he came around to score following his first hit was nice to see. Good job, rook.

As I mentioned, the Angels want to get a good look at Quinlan to see how he fits into their 2004 plans. They also may have no choice over the next few days; Tim Salmon, a late scratch last night due to a strained lower back, is scheduled for an MRI today.

Finally, the Angels traded Scott Schoeneweis to the White Sox yesterday for reliever Gary Glover and a pair of minor-leaguers. Everyone seems to think that this is a pretty meaningless trade that did neither side any particular good or harm. I disagree; I think that it actually did everyone some good, and no one more so than Schoeneweis himself. Schoeney made no secret of the fact that he wanted to start, and it would certainly be understandable that someone watching the current crop of Angels starters would get frustrated if he didn't get a chance to break in. But, though obviously itching to get out there, Schoeneweis always treated the issue with class, and pitched very well in relief. An a squad full of team players, he may have been the one who most sacrificed his own ego. Good luck in Chicago, Scott.

Tomorrow: why this deal is good for the Angels. See you then.

Posted 1:29 PM by Sean
Last night the Angels gave their fans a little window into what could have been, beating the A's 2-1 in a well-played pitchers' duel. Jarrod Washburn and Barry Zito both put zeroes on the board through seven, then turned it over to the bullpens. And - despite everything else going wrong - the Angels still have the best pen in baseball. The offense may have needed a couple of lucky breaks to score their runs, and Percival may have surrendered a leadoff homer in the ninth, and it may just be one game out of four, but I'll take it.

Washburn was incredibly shaky in the first couple of innings. He looked a little like he was having trouble placing his front foot during his delivery, which would explain why he was outside a lot to right-handers. Once he settled in, though, he looked a lot better. Hopefully he won't require 29 pitches in the first inning of every game to get reacquainted with the mound.

Posted 2:59 PM by Sean
Maybe the Orange County Register's Cheryl Neubert knows something I don't.

Quinlan's recall does not mean the Angels are done adding to their roster. Owner Arte Moreno will allow them to add payroll. The Angels need a bat. Since they will not deal top prospects or core players, they would like to take a young player from a team that needs to dump salary.

No source on where she gets her information that Moreno will allow them to add payroll this year. Maybe it came to her in a dream.

An outfielder such as the Pittsburgh Pirates' Brian Giles, who is owed $17 million over the next two seasons, would be a good fit. So would St. Louis Cardinals outfielder J.D. Drew, though he might not be available because Jim Edmonds is not healthy. Texas Rangers right fielder Juan Gonzalez is available and likely would waive his no-trade to come to Anaheim, but he is making slow progress from his calf injury and might not be ready to play for awhile.

An outfielder essentially replaces Jeff DaVanon, who is hitting .310/.364/.523. Giles would actually be a significant upgrade over DaVanon, even if you ignore the fact that DaVanon's numbers have been falling for a while now. But apparently the smart money lately is on Giles going to San Diego.

And the rumor is that J.D. Drew is going to Seattle, possibly for Freddy Garcia. In the long term, that's probably a pretty bad deal for the Cardinals, but right now they're so desperate for pitching that Garcia's 5.17 ERA (including a 4.70 ERA at Safeco, where the overall cumulative ERA is 3.92) looks good. I should also point out that the cumulative ERA at Busch Stadium is 4.85. Good luck, Freddy!

As for Juan Gonzalez, who makes $13,000,000 per year and is on the disabled list...give me a break, okay, Ms. Neubert?

Posted 12:48 PM by Sean
Oh, and one other thing: yesterday's loss dropped the Angels below .500 for the first time since June 27. The Angels have finished above .500 in back-to-back seasons only three times in their 42-year history, and have never had three consecutive winning seasons. Anaheim made a lot of new fans in 2002. The hard part will be keeping them.

Posted 11:29 AM by Sean
Of course, by "barnburner," what I meant was that the A's would burn down the Angels' barn, make off with their horses, hear the lamentations of their women, and sow their fields with salt.

And by "wandering into a buzzsaw," I meant...uh...Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Angels' hopes of making the playoffs expired this past weekend, as those three losses to the A's dropped them 11.5 games in back of Seattle for the A.L. West lead and 10.5 behind Boston for the wildcard. Perhaps not insurmountable leads, but in both cases there are teams far better positioned to take advantage if the leaders stumble. I suspect that Seattle will pull away down the stretch, simply because I don't think that Oakland's offensive explosion against the Angels is all that indicative of what they'll do in the future. In any event, though, it won't be a three-team race.

Parenthetically, I managed to catch part or all of each of the Yankees-Red Sox games over the weekend, and watching the Bostons rally to win on Saturday and Sunday reminded me quite a bit of last year's Angels. There are huge differences, of course - the Boston bullpen resembles the Angels' bullpen in the same way a chihuahua resembles a Great Dane - but the offense is really quite incredible, leading the league in OBP and slugging and batting average, while also hitting 145 home runs - second in the league - without striking out very much (591, well below the league average). Having added Scott Sauerbeck and Byung-Hyun Kim to their Godawful bullpen, the Sox are still one decent starting pitcher away from being in position to beat the Yankees, I think, but have to be considered the favorites to win the wild card.

At any rate, I think we can be fairly confident that the Angels will stand relatively pat as the trading deadline approaches. It's a pretty good bet that new owner Arte Moreno - who has expressed a reluctance to make any big deals in his first year - won't authorize any major additions to the team, and General Manager Bill Stoneman has a history of making only minor deadline deals even during seasons in which the Angels are legitimate contenders. There's always a chance that one or two of the relief corps could be shipped somewhere for prospects, but I'd put the odds on that to be somewhere around 4-1.

The combination of also-ran status, injuries, and expanded rosters in September means that the rest of the Angels' season will be a prolonged look at some of the guys on the minor-league rosters. In addition to calling up Alfredo Amezaga on Thursday to play shortstop and second (though not at the same time), the Halos have also brought Robb Quinlan up to the big club. Quinlan, who primarily plays first base but can also take a corner outfield position, may debut tonight, particularly as a late-inning replacement if the game isn't very close. The Angels don't have a particular shortage of guys who can play those positions, but will want to get him some at-bats as the season winds down in order to make some decisions about next year's team. Both Scott Spiezio and Brad Fullmer are signed to one-year deals; if Quinlan performs well, the Angels are not likely to re-sign at least one of those two.