Return of the Walkin' Dude 

Posted 3:35 PM by Sean
Jeff DaVanon has returned to the lineup today, batting second and playing right field. He's drawn a walk in his first plate appearance, which is fortunate, since the Angels don't appear to have Good Bartolo on the mound today.

Behold, the power of blogs 

Posted 11:20 AM by Sean
I notice that Scioscia benched Adam Kennedy in favor of Chone Figgins against a left-handed starter last night. Has he been reading Chronicles of the Lads?

This is, for Kennedy, a rememberance of the bad old days when he was regularly platooned with Benji Gil at second, a situation of which Kennedy was not at all fond. Nevertheless, the 2004 numbers:

vs. RHP: 266 AB, .271 AVG, .336 OBP, .387 SLG, .451 Bases Obtained
vs. LHP: 92 AB, .217 AVG, .301 OBP, .304 SLG, .320 Bases Obtained

Wowsers. Those numbers against righties aren't exactly stellar, but they're certainly forgivable in a second-baseman with Kennedy's defensive skills. The lefty numbers, though, are just putrid. I have yet to see anything that indicates that this is a long-term platoon situation, but the Angels will likely face Detroit's Nate Robertson on Saturday, so we should hear more about this around then.

Here, kitty kitty... 

Posted 10:32 AM by Sean
Andres Galarraga went three-for-four yesterday to raise his average to .357 for Salt Lake. This is looking like a pretty good signing, all things considered; his performance so far as indicated that the Angels may have a serious threat as a right-handed hitter off the bench come September.

Into the Sunset 

Posted 9:59 AM by Sean
Tim Salmon will have surgery after the season is over, which may require up to 10 months to recover from. Apparently his injuries are somewhat more serious than have been thought:

The Angels announced after the All-Star break that Salmon underwent an MRI test that showed some irritation and wear and tear in the shoulder, but the 35-year-old veteran revealed Wednesday that the exam actually showed tears in three of the four muscles that make up the rotator cuff, as well as a tear in the biceps tendon.

Depending on the type of surgery involved, he may miss anywhere from a few weeks to several months of the 2005 season.

Salmon stands to make $10 million in 2005, an amount that would be awfully hard to pass up, but at this point one has to wonder if this isn't a blessing in disguise for him. It's an opportunity to retire gracefully - and maybe with a buyout, so as not to lose the full $10 million - and live forever as they guy who we'd like to remember: 1993 Rookie of the Year, impact player, and lifetime Angel who helped reverse decades of trauma in 2002.

Thank God it's only three games 

Posted 1:49 PM by Sean
Last night's evisceration of the Angels did little to quell any fears one might have had that the Angels' offense is stuck on "putter." What initially looked like a close, hard-fought game turned into a runaway rout when Scioscia returned Sele to the mound to start the fifth; I rarely question Scioscia's judgment, but in this case I'm prepared to make an exception. It seemed obvious that Sele was in trouble, putting men on base every inning, running his pitch count up. It actually looked as if he was headed to the showers after the top of the fourth, when the score was still just 4-2 (and, in fact, it was 4-3 after the home half of the fourth). No such luck. Five innings pitched is the magic number for starters, and so Sele was allowed to cough up two more. Following which were many innings of frustration for the Angels, who seem to be following the Chinese menu theory of hitting in any given inning: choose any combination of two singles or walks, or one double.

Bleah. No more discussion of this; I'm tired from having stayed up an extra half-hour so we could see people heap praise on Percival before the game. Man, that Chuck Finley is one wacky character, huh?

Armageddon? 

Posted 12:24 PM by Sean
Last night, the Angels won yet another game against the Royals that could easily have gone against them. Down 3-1 in the top of the 9th, they were the beneficiaries of a series of defensive implosions, including wild pitches, throwing errors, and mental mistakes, and ended up with a 5-3 victory. It was hardly a shining moment for the offense; although there was some timely hitting, and it's a little unfair to say they wouldn't have won without the Kansas City errors (we'll never know), the fact is that the Angels put a total of 16 earned runs on the board in four games against a team that is:

• Dead last in the league in ERA
• Last in the Majors in K/9
• 13th in the league in WHIP (28th in the Majors)
• Last in the league in BAA (29th in the Majors)

Not a single Royals starter entered the series with an ERA under 5.00; two had ERAs over 6.00.

So it's a mite disconcerting to think that, in some bizarro world in which the Royals were as good as, say, the Detroit Tigers or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Angels might have dropped a couple of those games, and not sit atop the wild-card standings today. At the same time, however, let me offer the following riposte: screw bizarro world. Because we're about to find out exactly what the Angels are made of, courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles come in to Anaheim riding a seven game win streak, compiled against Texas and Seattle (thanks, guys!). Let's consider their key offensive and defensive statistics so far in 2004:

• Runs: 573 (7th in the American League)
• HR: 117 (9th)
• BA: .280 (3rd)
• OPS: .776 (8th)
• Runs Created per 27 Outs: 5.27 (6th)

• ERA: 4.90 (11th)
• WHIP: 1.54 (14th)
• K/9: 6.71 (5th)
• BAA: .270 (11th)
• OPSA: .763 (8th)

"Um, yeah?" I hear you saying. "Mediocre offense, bad pitching. What's the problem?" And, looking at those numbers, you'd be right.

But wait! Look at those same numbers after the All-Star Break:

• Runs: 138 (2nd in the American League)
• HR: 32 (7th)
• BA: .281 (3rd)
• OPS: .807 (2nd)
• Runs Created per 27 Outs: 5.61 (2nd)

• ERA: 4.23 (5th)
• WHIP: 1.48 (12th)
• K/9: 6.70 (6th)
• BAA: .270 (8th)
• OPSA: .764 (6th)

A little bit better, pitching-wise - light-years beyond Kansas City - but the offense has absolutely caught fire. The Angels are in the midst of some pretty good pitching performances, so I don't expect the Orioles to manhandle them the way they did Texas, but they will score runs. And that means that the Angels' offense is going to have to keep pace; they can't expect to go meekly for eight and still have a chance at the end of the game.

Now, the good news: I've seen some discussion of how the Angels are in a bad way, schedule-wise, particularly vis-a-vis Oakland and Boston. Such analysis is based on the premise that the "good" teams in the AL are Oakland, Texas, Anaheim, New York, Boston, Minnesota, and Chicago. In reality, however, the teams that are currently hot are Baltimore and Cleveland - a fact that works to mitigate some of the schedule for the Angels. Through the rest of the season, we see the following:

• Angels - 3 games with Baltimore, 3 games with Cleveland
• A's - 7 games with Baltimore, 3 games with Cleveland
• Rangers - 3 games with Baltimore, 3 games with Cleveland
• Boston - 7 games with Baltimore, 0 games with Cleveland

The real advantage here is obviously in the division race. Including Chicago, Cleveland, and Baltimore, the Angels play 31 more games against the so-called "good teams." Oakland plays 29. Texas plays 37. Boston plays 28. The Rangers are clearly toast. We'll start to find out about the Angels tonight.

Mixed results 

Posted 3:33 PM by Sean
Update #1: Baltimore 7, Texas 3. Mike Bacsik (apologies for calling him "Joe" earlier; I've fixed it in the previous post) pitched 4 and 2/3rds, gave up 5 earned runs on 5 hits and a walk, and surrendered two home runs.

And Oakland 8, Minnesota 2. The A's have 2 games on the Angels and 2.5 on the Rangers, pending tonight's Anaheim-Kansas City contest.

Is this guy for real? 

Posted 1:28 PM by Sean
Everybody's been surprised by the sudden emergence of Robb Quinlan as an offensive force at third base. After a couple of years of riding the Salt-Lake-to-Anaheim shuttle, Quinlan seems determined to stay up with the big club. So far, his 2004 numbers with the Angels:

.336 BA, .391 OBP, .518 SLG, 137 AB, 46 H, 13 2B, 0 3B, 4 HR, 22 K, 3 SB, 1 CS.

That's some pretty fair hitting, albeit in just 137 at-bats. Quinlan is a right-handed hitter who simply murders lefties (.380/.448/.620 in 50 AB), but is pretty good against righties, too (.310/.355/.460 in 87 AB). His contributions have taken some (but not nearly all) of the sting out of Glaus's season-ending injury. Among regular AL third basemen (which he isn't, really, but never mind that for right now), Quinlan ranks second in batting average (to Melvin Mora), is tied with Kevin Youkilis for third in OBP (behind Mora and Eric Chavez), and is fourth in SLG (behind Mora, Chavez, and Alex Rodriguez). In the first two statistics, Quinlan is actually performing better than Glaus did before he went down (Glaus was .296/.387/.694 in 108 AB).

The obvious question, of course, is "how long can he keep this up?"

Well, let's see. Quinlan is 27 years old, and won't be 28 until March. Statistically, he's about to enter the most productive phase of his career. He also has a history of progressing through the Angels' farm system at a remarkably stable pace:

1999 - Boise (Northwest League - Rookie) - .322/.394/.488
2000 - Lake Elsinore (California League - High-A) - .317/.401/.442
2001 - Arkansas (Texas League - AA) - .295/.363/.476
2002 - Salt Lake (PCL - AAA) - .333/.381/.555
2003 - Salt Lake (PCL - AAA) - .310/.328/.445
2003 - Anaheim (AL) - .287/.330/.372

Looking at those numbers, it's hard to say that Quinlan's performance thus far isn't a little out of line with what one would expect. Not way, way out of line, you understand, but some.

Interestingly, however, Quinlan's numbers over his career compare fairly well with Dallas McPherson's, with the exception of the phenomenal slugging stats McPherson is posting in Salt Lake this year. McPherson, of course, just turned 24 a month or so ago, and so is rightly considered a better prospect than Quinlan - but certainly the Angels do not seem to be in a situation in which they have to rush McPherson up in a desperate bid to stay in the pennant race. And, while McPherson continues to improve in the minors, Quinlan can be given a chance to show that he's having a breakthrough season, instead of just having an unusually productive stretch.

Get to the "workin' overtime" part! 

Posted 10:41 AM by Sean
Three games with Kansas City, three nail-biters, three wins. They may not be winning "with authority" (a statistic that is not yet a tiebreaker in MLB), but they're takin' care of business. And now it's all tied up at the top of the wild-card race:

Boston: 60-49
Texas: 60-49
Anaheim: 61-50

Hoo, baby.

Some interesting stuff going on in the other games of note this weekend:

The A's and Twins have been clawing each others' eyes out. Yesterday they went 18 innings, and the game was only decided when the Minnesotas were forced to run Old Man Mulholland out to the mound, who promptly surrendered three runs. Word is that Mulholland wanted to tell his grandchildren he'd pitched in an 18-inning game, and was worried because they were supposed to be driving back to college that night.

But wait! Even so, the Twins were able to make a game of it, since the A's plopped Octavio "Quote, Closer, Unquote" Dotel onto the mound for the bottom half of the eighth. Minnesota got two of those runs back, but ultimately dropped the ball game. This was triply-bad news for Mulholland, who (1) lost the game, (2) missed his grandkids, and (3) was too late for the 4:30 seating at Old Country Buffet.

Speaking of those fleeing the flinty-eyed spectre of Death, Andres Galarragagagaga had another good day at Salt Lake, going 1 for 2 with three walks. Thus far, his lines have looked like this:

8/5 - 0-4
8/6 - 3-4, HR
8/7 - 2-5, 2B
8/8 - 1-2, 3 BB

Small sample size? No way! Bring his lymphoma-beating ass up! Hell, make that the undercard at Tuesday's game! "The Angels take on Miguel Tejada and the Baltimore Orioles...but first, it's Andres Galarraga versus cancer on the pitcher's mound!"

Sorry, sorry. Don't know what's come over me.

Anyway, the other event of note this weekend was Texas getting absolutely, mercilessly pounded by those selfsame Orioles on Friday and Sunday, and dropping a 3-1 contest on Saturday. This is bad freakin' news for the Rangers, who continue to have one decent starter in the bunch. If the Braves used to have "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," and the Diamondbacks had "Johnson and Schilling and take a drilling," the Rangers currently sport a rotation along the lines of "Drese and...oh, we are so fucked."

The Angels, A's, and Rangers all complete wraparound series today, while the Red Sox return to Boston.

Right about now, in fact, the Orioles and Rangers are getting underway (Bacsik v. Borkowski). Some damn fool wrote last week that "...the Angels can't expect to gain too much ground whilst the division leaders are in Charm City...," but apparently the Orioles are a bit better than advertised. The exact same damn fool wrote, before Bacsik's last start, "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." Bacsik, of course, went on to shut out the Tigers for seven innings, giving up four hits. So let me merely say this: MIKE BACSIK! WOO! BEST PITCHER I EVER SAW! EVERYONE SHOULD SNAP UP MIKE BACSIK IN THEIR FANTASY LEAGUES! Thank you.

At 1:10 ET, it's the A's and Twins (Harden v. Lohse). Harden is in the process of supplanting Zito in the "big three" rotation, which is a pretty revoltin' development, as it were. The A's have already taken two of three in Minnesota; three of four looks like a pretty decent proposition.

At 7:05 ET, the Devil Rays visit Fenway for the next in a series of several painful (for Angels fans) opportunities for the Red Sox to mulch and spread lower-tier opponents between now and the end of the season. John Halama goes for the Rays, Curt Schilling for the Sox.

So the Angels have their work cut out for them at 8:10 ET. Ramon Ortiz, who has a little bit of security in the starting rotation now that it looks like Jarrod Washburn may not be back until September, will need to show that the six runs he gave up against Minnesota the last time out was a fluke, and not a return to the bad old days when he was scored upon more often than an assistant groupie after a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. The Royals' pin their sweep-avoidance hopes on former Angel Brian Anderson, who's actually having a nice little stretch of games - a 3.86 ERA in his last six starts, coinciding with the arrival of new KC pitching coach Mike Mason.