You hate me! You really, really hate me! 

Posted 11:27 AM by Sean
Absurdly low site traffic yesterday (as in, zero hits), so either SiteMeter was broken or Blogspot was. If you had trouble getting to the site yesterday, my apologies - please let me know about it if you have a spare second. Email to purgatoryonline at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

A Place Called Camelot 

Posted 10:05 AM by Sean
For one brief shining moment, the Angels' offense looked to be putting it all together. After three and two-thirds innings of lackluster performance, this happened:

• Jose Guillen singled to center. Runner on first with two out and Robb Quinlan due up.
• Robb Quinlan two-out, two-run Home Run (4) to left, scored Jose Guillen. Darin Erstad due up.
• Darin Erstad singled to left. Runner on first with two out and Tim Salmon due up.
• Tim Salmon doubled to left, scored Darin Erstad with two out. Runner on second and Josh Paul due up.

Four hitters, four hits, two for extra bases. 3-0, Angels.

And then Josh Paul grounded out, and it was back to looking at clouds and daisies. The Angels would get two more base hits in the game.

Of course, these were the Royals, so three runs were enough. And considering that Garret Anderson was out of the lineup with knee tendinitis (he should be back in the lineup today, and hitting behind Guerrero)...well, no. No excuses at this point in the season. Sure, injuries have hurt this team, but at this point the Angels need to be looking to catch fire, not shamble through the slack of the American League until being annihilated in September.

Around the league last night...

Waitaminit!

BREAKING NEWS! THIS JUST IN FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER!

Guerrero brothers dine together in Kansas City

Omigod omigod omigod! The crack Purgatory Online Investigative Squadron has been deployed to Angel Berroa's mom's house to obtain complete details of this extremely important story! Stay tuned to your computer screens and hit "refresh" a minimum of thirty times a minute to be assured of being completely up to date!

Hurm. Anyway, around the league:

The Rangers finally got what was coming to them, running all those pitchers out there that were working at the Jiffy Lube last year. The bad news is that the Orioles, who start a three-game series in Anaheim on Tuesday, seem to have woken up to the fact that they've got some pretty good bats in their lineup; they're regularly scoring between 5 and 9 runs per game these days.

The Rangers' loss allowed the A's to regain first place, after Octavio Dotel blew a save in the ninth, then nearly coughed up a 3-1 lead in the 11th. Since coming to the A's from Houston in the Carlos Beltran deal, Dotel has compiled a 5.04 ERA, has eight saves, and has blown four. But his K/9 numbers are great, so Billy Beane must be a genius!

Meanwhile, the Red Sox dropped a one-run game in Detroit, allowing the Angels to catch them for second place in the wild-card standings. David Ortiz was out of the lineup, finishing the suspension he earned for throwing an on-field hissy fit in Anaheim a few weeks back. Unlike the Angels, the Sox have no shot at their division title (shut up, A's fans! We do too!), like the Angels, however, Boston seems to be groping after whatever magic formula will let them run off a few wins in a row and take charge of the wild card race.

Finally, the White Sox lost again, this time to Cleveland. I'm going to start using the Sox' annual collapse as a reminder to change the batteries in my smoke detector. In any event, Cleveland's now tied with Chicago for second in the AL Central, so I'm dropping the White Sox from the list of teams I'm keeping close tabs on here. If either the Sox or the Indians get within four games of the wild card lead, I'll pick them up again.

So, going into today's games, the A's lead the West by half a game over the Rangers, with the Angels at 2.5 back. The Rangers lead the wild card race by 2 over the Angels and Red Sox, with the White Sox and Indians 5.5 back.

The A's play early today (1:20 ET) - in a clash of aces, Tim Hudson takes on Johan Santana. Hudson has been on the DL since June 24; Santana was the AL Pitcher of the Month for July. This should be a good, good game.

As that game should be drawing to a close, the Rangers send newly-acquired Scott Erickson to the mound to take on Rodrigo Lopez (4:35 ET). Angels fans who think the recent signing of Andres Galarraga was a sign of desperation are advised to think about those words: "The Rangers end newly-acquired Scott Erickson to the mound."

At 7:05 ET, the Red Sox and Tigers get underway in Detroit, a game that features older and unimproved Pedro Martinez versus Jeremy Bonderman. Much is being made of Martinez' over-4.00 ERA this year, which is all very interesting, but utterly irrelevant tonight. Bonderman's ERA is worse this year than it was in 2003, when he lost 19 games. He's only lost 8 so far in 2004, which I suppose is a testament to the Tigers' improved offense, but a 6.06 ERA in Comerica National Park has to sting.

Five minutes later, at 7:10, you can forget all those undercard matchups and focus on what matters. Bartolo Colon goes for the Angels, and Colon has been studly as hell in this last five starts, all of them quality start wins. Best of all, three of those five were against good hitting teams (one versus Boston, two versus Texas). If Colon continues to challenge hitters like he's been doing recently, and not backslide into trying to get guys to swing at bad pitches, he'll be fine; the movement on his fastball is good enough to deal with the Royals' lineup.

Meanwhile, Kansas City starts Jimmy Serrano, whose nickname just has to be "Pepper." Serrano is making his Major League debut after performing pretty well at all levels of the minors. Serrano compiled a 2.39 ERA in 49 innings while striking out 47, walking 19, and giving up just two home runs in the first half of 2003 for Norfolk in the International League, then got traded to Kansas City and closed out his year in Omaha in the Pacific Coast League. His Omaha stats were pretty good too, considering the PCL is hitter-friendly: a 3.21 ERA in 28 IP, 28 Ks, 11 BBs, 2 HRs. Serrano had a rough time of it in the PCL at the beginning of 2004, however, posting a 5.01 ERA in 32 IP, and seeing his hit and walk rate rise sharply. Although his strikeout rate also improved (41 in 32.1 IP), the Royals sent him down to Double-A Wichita, where he utterly dominated. His Wichita numbers: 1.96 ERA, 64.1 IP, 42 H, 74 K, 18 BB, 6 HR. He comes to Kansas City tonight directly from Wichita. Given the fact that the Angels have made a few rookies look pretty good this year, I would not be surprised to see another low-scoring game tonight.

Work Interfering with Blogging 

Posted 3:28 PM by Sean
Busy busy today - tonight's games of interest:

Boston at Detroit (Lowe at Maroth)

Texas at Baltimore (Regilio at Bedard)

Cleveland at Chicago (Sabathia at Buehrle)

Anaheim at Kansas City (Escobar at May)

Oakland at Minnesota (Redman at Radke)

This will be the Angels' first game of the year against the Royals, the start of a four-game set in which the Royals will start three pitchers with ERAs of 5.00 or higher and one who will make his Major League debut. If the Angels can't score some runs this weekend, we'll start talking about 2005.

Junkyard Wars 

Posted 5:06 PM by Sean
So the Halos hopped all over old man Mulholland today, cranking out an 8-3 victory that wasn't in much doubt after the fourth inning or so. All in all, it's been a good few days to be a Rangers fan, with the Texas club taking care of business in a sweep of the Tigers while watching the Angels and A's both drop two out of three to...slightly better nines. The Rangers now trot off to Baltimore, and, while the Angels can't expect to gain too much ground whilst the division leaders are in Charm City, they do get a little bit of a breather in the form of a wraparound series in Kansas City. Three out of four at a minimum, guys, okay?

Meanwhile, the Angels have acquired Andres Galarraga and assigned him to Salt Lake, in addition to calling up catcher Wil Nieves. When I first heard this I could have sworn that the Angels had actually had Galarraga on their roster for a couple of months or so before, but I checked and discovered my understandable mistake: it was Cecil Fielder, in 1998.

Both Rob and Chronicles mention the possibility that Galarraga's signing may herald the return of Darin Erstad to center field. Gentlemen, I am skeptical. Scioscia's shown no propensity to even entertain the notion so far; I expect that if Galarraga looks good in Salt Lake he'll be promoted to get time at DH, not first base.

Day at the Races - August 4, 2004 

Posted 3:21 PM by Sean
Today's look at games of relevance to the Angels:

Red Sox at Devil Rays (Arroyo at Halama), 7:05 ET - The Red Sox look to sweep the Rays, an accomplishment that would leave them feeling pretty good, considering these two teams play each other ten more times after tonight.

A's at Yankees (Harden at Loaiza), 7:05 ET - Jose Contreras, whom the Yankees traded to Chicago for Loaiza, had a pretty good game for the White Sox last night. It would almost be worth seeing the A's win a second game against New York just to get Steinbrenner's reaction to a Loaiza meltdown.

Rangers at Tigers (Bacsik at Johnson), 7:05 ET - You know your pitching staff is in trouble when your choices are (a) a guy with a 6.12 ERA in 19 Major League games and (b) Joaquin Benoit. Showalter's going with (a).

Angels at Twins (Ortiz at Lohse), 8:10 ET - Scioscia flipped Ortiz and Sele this time through the rotation, so Ramon "I Swear to God, This Time Will Be Different" Ortiz continues his quest to woo his way back into the rotation against Kyle Lohse. Good news for the Angels: Lohse gives up lots of tasty hits. Even better news for the Angels: he's a flyball pitcher.

White Sox at Royals (Schoeneweis at Anderson), 8:10 ET - A clash of former Angels. I was stunned to discover that this is Brian Anderson's twelfth season in the Majors. I seem to recall a time when he was about a year away from being the next great pitching superstar; I guess that lasted awhile, huh? His career year in 2003 is being followed by an abysmal 2004 in which he's 1-9 with a 6.94 ERA. Schoeneweis has been adequate for the Sox, and adequate's about all they should need tonight.

Mr. Angel 

Posted 12:45 PM by Sean
I had the Twins' feed on last night, so I don't know if Hudler and Physioc mentioned this, but I don't see any coverage of it in the papers today: last night, Garret Anderson got his 5695th at-bat as an Angel, giving him one more than Tim Salmon. Salmon does not figure to pass Anderson ever again, meaning he came within 161 at-bats of breaking Brian Downing's record for ABs with the Angels and earning the title, however briefly, of "Mr. Angel." Assuming Salmon plays out his contract and returns in 2005, he'll certainly pass Downing - but Anderson will do it sooner.

B.D. had 5854 at-bats for the Angels; Anderson should get there in late September.

Update: It came to me that one might reasonably argue that "Mr. Angel" is a title that should belong to the player with the most games played, rather than the most at-bats. In that case, Brian Downing is still the current champeen, with 1661, but he will likely be dethroned by Salmon next year, who will be overtaken by Anderson a year or two thereafter. The current top four:

1. Downing - 1661
2. Salmon - 1586
3. Jim Fregosi - 1429
4. Anderson - 1425

Game? What game? 

Posted 12:11 PM by Sean
Well, that sure was disgusting, wasn't it?

For something like the second time all season, I actually turned last night's game off well before its end. Four double plays in the first four innings? Eleven hits and no runs, while giving up ten runs on eleven hits? You have got to be kidding me.

I thought Lackey looked a little ragged. He's been working quickly over his last few starts, which is a good thing, but his pace seemed to be bordering on frantic last night. Silva, in contrast, has to be the luckiest bastard on two feet. Wishful puffery from Batgirl aside, I sincerely doubt that Silva's "put 'em on to get 'em out" strategy is going to win a whole lot of ballgames in the future.

Still, while the fact that luck and bad timing played a major part in this one may make getting thwacked 10-0 slightly easier to swallow, it does nothing to ameliorate the damage done in the standings. Every one of the teams competing with the Angels for a playoff spot won last night:

Oakland pummeled the Yankees, 13-4
Texas slipped past Detroit, 5-4
Boston took care of business against Tampa, 5-2
Chicago redefined pain for Kansas City, 12-4

...all of which leaves the Angels 3.5 games out of first in the West, and two games out of the wild card. Ow. It hurts so much I'm reduced to cliches.

And now, to quote Richard, "let us never speak of this again."

Quinlan named AL ROTM 

Posted 12:47 PM by Sean
Robb Quinlan is the American League Rookie of the Month for July.

Day at the Races - August 3, 2004 

Posted 11:41 AM by Sean
The Red Sox beat Tampa 6-3 last night, moving out of a tie with the Angels and closing to within a half-game of Texas in the wild-card race.

Tonight's relevant games for the Angels:

A's at Yankees, 7:05 ET. Mulder (3.43 ERA, 6.21 K/9, 2.28 K/BB, .241 BAA, .661 OPSA) at Lieber (4.75 ERA, 4.49 K/9, 5.67 K/BB, .308 BAA, .767 OPSA). The A's have never seen Lieber, a circumstance that ordinarily favors the pitcher. Lieber might also have an advantage in that he rarely surrenders walks, so the A's will need to rely more on their contact skills than they're used to. He'll need all the advantages he can get against Mulder.

Rangers at Tigers, 7:05 ET. Rogers (4.20 ERA, 5.19 K/9, 2.32 K/BB, .280 BAA, .766 OPSA) at Robertson (4.18 ERA, 7.42 K/9, 2.02 K/BB, .246 BAA, .693 OPSA). The resurgent Rogers of May is a distant memory; one or two more dismal starts from him and the Rangers can kiss October goodbye.

Red Sox at Devil Rays, 7:05 ET. Schilling (3.46 ERA, 8.03 K/9, 5.65 K/BB, .257 BAA, .687 OPSA) at Bell (4.59 ERA, 4.73 K/9, 1.46 K/BB, .244 BAA, .743 OPSA). Welcome to the bigs, B.J. Upton. Hope you like losing.

Angels at Twins, 8:10 ET. Lackey (4.52 ERA, 5.30 K/9, 2.42 K/BB, .267 BAA, .730 OPSA) at Silva (4.52 ERA, 3.43 K/9, 2.38 K/BB, .314 BAA, .814 OPSA). The Angels have to be gunning for two from the Twins, and winning tonight will be important since - despite some superficial similarities in their season-long ERAs, wins, and innings pitched - the Angels have the better pitcher on the mound tonight. Lackey's last several starts have been very encouraging - he had a 3.06 ERA in July, and a 3.50 ERA in June. Silva's ERA in June was 3.76, but this appears to be misleading; his WHIP in that month was 1.38 and his BAA was .296. Those peripheral numbers just got worse in July - his WHIP went to nearly 1.50, and his BAA was .313 - and his ERA for that month was 5.46.

White Sox at Royals, 8:10 ET. Contreras (5.64 ERA, 7.71 K/9, 1.95 K/BB, .250 BAA, .794 OPSA) at Wood (4.08 ERA, 4.59 K/9, 1.80 K/BB, .302 BAA, .819 OPSA). The Sox get their first look at what they traded Esteban Loaiza for. Wood is a groundball pitcher who gives up hits but induces double plays (5 in 35.1 innings pitched this year), while the Sox hit more fly balls than any team in the majors except Texas.

The manager protests too much, methinks 

Posted 9:20 AM by Sean
Okay, how many articles have I seen recently in which Mike Scioscia denies that Jose Molina is Bartolo Colon's "personal catcher?" Let's say three or four, shall we? Jose's caught all five of Colon's wins in his current streak, and eight of his ten wins for the season. After a few days of flat-out denial that J-Mo is the man on Colon's days, Scioscia is quoted as follows today:

"With our catching situation, all three guys are terrific, so [a personal catcher] shouldn't be an issue," Scioscia said. "But at the same time, some guys feel more comfortable with some catchers. The bottom line is production. If a pitcher is executing his pitches better with some catchers, it's going to reflect in performance, and you have to look at that."

My question would be something along the lines of "what's the big damn deal, anyway?" Let us consult Bull Durham:

Crash Davis: I never told him to stay out of your bed.
Annie Savoy: You most certainly did.
Crash Davis: I never told him to stay out of your bed.
Annie Savoy: Yes you did.
Crash Davis: I told him that a player on a streak has to respect the streak.
Annie Savoy: Oh fine.
Crash Davis: You know why? Because they don't---they don't happen very often.
Annie Savoy: Right.
Crash Davis: If you believe you're playing well because you're getting laid, or because you're not getting laid, or because you wear women's underwear, then you ARE! And you should know that!

At this point, after all the yapping about personal catchers, I'd be surprised if Colon didn't screw up throwing to anyone else from the sheer psychological effect it would have on him. So let's just keep writing Jose's name in the lineup card on those days until - inevitably - Colon gets knocked around and can go back to throwing to anyone.

Oh, and let's hang on to the red glove for awhile, too.

Funny, ESPN doesn't show this under "Probables." 

Posted 2:55 PM by Sean
I suppose this is a compliment:

The A's have set their rotation for the season's final series Oct. 1-3 at the Coliseum against the Anaheim Angels. Barring injury or other unforeseen circumstances, Hudson will start the first game, followed by Rich Harden and Mark Mulder.

Memo to the Baseball Gods: sounds like hubris, doesn't it?

Ready for the Stretch Run 

Posted 1:14 PM by Sean
Just got back from Birmingham, where the wife and I went to her cousin's wedding. So I missed all four Seattle games, though I was able to keep up pretty well thanks to cellular Web access (and yes, I did manage to keep from checking the score of Saturday's game during the ceremony itself).

While I sympathize with the view that one-run victories over a team like the Mariners aren't inspiring, precisely, let us note that these were preferable to losses, okay? Let us further note that, having played seven of their last ten against Seattle, the Angels went 5-2, winning those five by margins of 6, 4, 1, 1, and 1. Oakland, meanwhile, took on Seattle from July 21-22 and July 26-28, and compiled a 3-2 record, with margins of victory of 9, 2, and 1. Which of those two experiences would you prefer?

There seems little question that each of the teams currently in the hunt for the A.L. West and/or the wild card have their flaws. But the Angels seem to be in a decent position compared to at least Texas, which isn't going to play better than they have to this point (and in fact is in the middle of a starting pitching implosion), or Chicago, which has lost both Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez for the season. I think the principal competition down the stretch will come from the A's and the Red Sox, neither of which is a dominant team this year.

And the Seattle series was encouraging anyway. Four straight comebacks? Before the All-Star break, this team almost never came back; if they didn't score early they were pretty routinely out of it. Another good outing for Colon? A walk-off dinger in extra innings? Hey, you can tell how little that's happened; the Angels went out for one o' them pogo-bounce group hugs at home plate and most of them looked like they were trying to follow printed instructions.

And now comes August, that blistering anvil on which so many seasons have been hammered thin. Except for Boston, all of the contenders for a playoff spot that the Angels might grab have the day off (sorry, Indians fans - maybe next year); herewith a look at their next opponents:

Oakland (59-45, 1st in A.L. West) is at the New York Yankees for three games beginning tomorrow night. Mark Mulder will start the first game, opposed by Jon Leiber. These should be three tight games - the A's with an advantage in game 1, the Yankees with an advantage in game three (Zito vs. Brown), and a scrum in game 2 (Harden vs. Loaiza).

Texas (57-46, 1.5 games out in A.L. West, 1st in wildcard) is at Detroit for three games beginning tomorrow night. The Rangers picked up Scott Erickson at the trading deadline, a move that should help them approximately not at all. Kenny Rogers has regressed nicely over his last few starts, posting a 7.52 ERA in July even after holding the Angels to one run over seven innings in his last start. Ryan Drese is pitching well, but that's about it for the Texas rotation. Rogers and Drese will start against Detroit on Tuesday and Thursday; the Rangers haven't announced a Wednesday starter.

Anaheim (57-48, 2.5 games out in A.L. West, 1 game out in wildcard) visits Minnesota for three games beginning tomorrow night. John Lackey takes on Carlos Silva in game 1 - these two are virtual twins, statistically, but Lackey's been stronger recently. It's Aaron Sele vs. Kyle Lohse in game 2, in which Sele may be pitching for his spot in the rotation, and Ramon Ortiz vs. Brad Radke in game 3.

Boston (56-47, 1 game out of the wildcard) is in Tampa Bay for three games beginning tonight. The Red Sox were 29-17 after the games of May 26. Since then, the Sox have actually played sub-.500 baseball, going from wildcard front-runner to pack-thickener. They'll need to lunch on Tampa to get some momentum going for the stretch run, or risk the same late-season fade that happened to them the last time the Angels were in contention, in 2002. Tonight it's Wakefield vs. Hendrickson.

Chicago (53-49, 3.5 games out of the wildcard) is at Kansas City for three games beginning tomorrow night, meaning that all of the contenders here are on the road. Odd. Anyway, the wheels have more or less fallen off the White Sox; with Thomas and Ordonez gone, the Sox just don't have the punch to make up for their pitching, which ranks 21st in the majors in ERA - behind every other contender except Texas. Swapping Loaiza for Jose Contreras, whose ERA is close to 6.00, won't help. Contreras pitches tomorrow, followed by former Angel Scott Shoeneweis on Wednesday and Jon Garland on Thursday.

From here on in, it's series-to-series, game-to-game, inning-to-inning fun.

Owie update 

Posted 11:11 AM by Sean
Jarrod Washburn will miss at least one more start as a result of an inflamed tendon near his sternum. Ramon Ortiz will continue to start in his place, meaning Thursday's game will feature Ortiz vs. Brad Radke in the Metrodome.

The over-under on home runs for that game is currently being tabulated by NASA.