Posted 5:05 PM by Sean
Both Darin Erstad and Adam Kennedy have cleared waivers, meaning that they can be traded to anyone until the end of August. Actually, it doesn't mean all that much - most players' names are placed on the waiver wire just to keep a club's options open, and inevitably some of them go unclaimed, so don't go thinking that Ersty and AK are gone just yet. Although I did hear the Yankees were sniffing around Erstad a while ago...

Posted 1:51 PM by Sean
You know, if this keeps up, I don't think the Angels are going to win their division.

Ha, ha. A little gallows humor, there.

Anyway, the Angels start that fabled month-long stretch of games against the Central tonight in Cleveland, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they can work their way back to .500 over the course of the next 25 games or so. That's actually a pretty tall order - they're currently seven games under - but inasmuch as it took them less time than that to go from six over to their current situation...well, whatever. How about we just lower our expectations to avoiding a 100-loss season?

Posted 1:02 PM by Sean
The Kansas City Star says that Kevin Appier "appears certain to sign" with the Royals, the Associated Press goes even further, saying that Appier will sign today and start at Tampa Bay this weekend, and the L.A. Times sources Appier's Agent, Jeff Borris, as saying that Ape will start for the Royals on Friday night.

The Royals will be paying less than $100,000 for Appier - presumably the prorated Major League minimum.

Posted 12:43 PM by Sean
Scot Shields's line from yesterday's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays:

5.0 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 91 TP

Shields started and finished shaky, but in between looked great. I was actually somewhat surprised that he pitched into the sixth; I halfway expected Scioscia to have him on a five-inning restriction for his first couple of starts, just to get him used to going out for that length of time. But he was obviously cruising at the end of five, and I can't say I wouldn't have sent him out for the sixth either. In any event, Shields put the first three batters on in the sixth (giving up one run), and Frankie Rodriguez almost got him out of it. My point is that Shields looked a lot more promising than his four earned runs in five innings would indicate, and the strikeouts were a nice bonus. I'm looking forward to his next start.

Oh, and the offense still sucks. Here's a list of runs scored in the Angels' most recent 10 games:

Zero. One. Five. One. Zero. Two. Two. One. One. Two.

At this point, the Angels are tenth in the American League in runs scored, and just one run away from being eleventh. During the 2002 regular season, the Angels finished fourth in the AL in runs scored, and were eight runs away from being second. Rex Hudler and Steve Physioc were lamenting Troy Glaus's absence during yesterday's game, but let's not forget that Glaus's offensive production had dropped off very steeply since the end of May or so. His OPS in June? .618. In July? .643. From May 25 through June 21, when he went on the DL, Glaus hit five home runs. These are not the numbers of an offensive messiah.

Still, there is some reason for hope - if not for this season, then for next. David Eckstein, Darin Erstad, Tim Salmon, and Troy Glaus have all played significantly worse than their career numbers this year, and at least two or three of them should improve next year. Garret Anderson is the only Angel currently having an insanely above-average year, and he may drop a little in 2004 - but he also had an insanely above-average year last year, so maybe he really is this good. And, if Bill Stoneman is to be believed, the Angels will "probably" be active in the free agent market next year, meaning that we could be chasing after a lot of pretty attractive targets, including Vladimir Guerrero, Carlos Beltran, or Brian Giles, to strengthen the offense even further.

So I'm hopeful. I'd just appreciate it if the L.A. Times would stop mentioning how far back in the standings the Angels are after every game. It's irrelevant, and everybody knows it.