Purgatory Online

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Talk about making your GM look good and yours truly look stupid...Bret Prinz threw two innings of one-hit ball against the Brewers (okay, yes, the Brewers), surrendering no runs or walks and striking out three. Jake Woods, called upon to save the game, gave up a three-run walk-off homer in the ninth.

I'm a little mystified at the acquisition of Bret Prinz for the bullpen. Though the Angels only gave up Wil Nieves, who was well down the depth chart at catcher, Prinz appears to be a real gamble:

2001: 41.0 IP, 33 H, 4 HR, 12 ER, 19 BB, 27 K, 2.63 ERA
2002: 13.1 IP, 23 H, 1 HR, 14 ER, 10 BB, 10 K, 9.45 ERA
2003: 3.0 IP, 7 H, 1 HR, 4 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 12.00 ERA
2004: 28.1 IP, 28 H, 5 HR, 16 ER, 14 BB, 22 K, 5.08 ERA
2005 (ST): 5.1 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 6 K, 8.44 ERA

Prinz's 2003 line can be excused because he missed most of that year with a groin injury. But after a terrific rookie season, he's pretty much stunk on ice in 2002 and 2004, too. And those numbers don't have anything to do with injury, they have to do with his command of the strike zone. If Bud Black can get Prinz's head screwed on straight, this could work out - but overall I'd rather have seen Woods get a shot at it. Woods has the added advantage of being a lefty, which I know isn't supposed to matter to Scioscia. But if Scioscia doesn't care about lefty-lefty matchups, then why do I still wake up at night hearing "Jarrod Washburn is coming in to face David Ortiz?"

Anyway, Prinz is scheduled to pitch in relief during the Angels' Cactus League finale against the Brewers later today. We'll see...

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

Andres Galarraga has announced his retirement after a somewhat poor spring training:

"I just wasn't playing up to the expectations that I have set for myself throughout my entire career, and I wanted to walk away on my own terms," the Venezuelan said. "I owe a lot of gratitude to the Mets organization, especially Omar Minaya, for giving me this chance.

"Playing has been a part of my life for so long, but I just felt this was the right time to give a younger guy a chance to play. I loved my time here with the Mets and I just hope in the future to come back to the organization in some capacity."

Galarraga, of course, hit his 399th home run during the Angels' 10-0 lashing of the A's on October 1. I don't know of any ballplayer more universally regarded as a class act than he; in his case, the 400 HR milestone is genuinely meaningless to how he will be regarded by history.

Monday, March 28, 2005

Blogger appears to be funked up six ways to Jesus. The comments (not that I use them, since mine is the VOICE OF GOD at Purgatory Online, and thou shalt hear no other) seem especially addled, and so I cannot post this where it should be: as a response to the most recent post at Chronicles of the Lads, attempting to identify the currently active player most similar to the Angels' starters.

M. le Chronicleur avers that the inspiration for said project is the work of Bill James, who used to publish such comparisons. Interestingly, Baseball-reference.com actually has the similarity scores based on James's formula - each player entry lists the 10 most similar players in baseball history. Let us commence to examinin'.

Bengie Molina:
Chronicles - Toby Hall.
B-R - Tony Eusebio overall, Brook Fordyce among active players. Ouch.

Erstad
Chronicles - Doug Mientkiewicz.
B-R - Unsurprisingly, none of the top 10 similar are first basemen. The most similar active player is Shannon Stewart; most similar all-time is Roberto "Don't Call Me Bobby" Kelly.

Kennedy
Chronicles - Placido Polanco
B-R - Ron Belliard. Polanco is fourth (Tony Piet 2nd, Marlon Anderson 3rd).

Cabrera
Chronicles - David Eckstein
B-R - Deivi Cruz.

McPherson
Chronicles - Garret Atkins
B-R - Insufficient data. I note in passing that McP's middle name is "Lyle."

Anderson
Chronicles - Rondell White
B-R - Jeff Conine is 3rd; Moises Alou is 10th. Top match overall: Pedro Guerrero.

Finley
Chronicles - Ruben Sierra
B-R - Marquis Grissom is highest active at 2nd; Sierra is 2nd-highest at 5th. Top all-time is Ryne Sandberg (?!?)

Guerrero
Chronicles - Lance Berkman
B-R - Brian Giles.

DaVanon
Chronicles - Brian Buchanan
B-R - Brian Buchanan is 9th, otherwise no active players in the top 10. Most similar all-time is George Alusik. You remember George Alusik, right? Me neither.

Figgins
Chronicles - Ryan Freel
B-R - Tike Redman at 9th and Sean Burroughs at 10th are the only ones in the top 10 who played a game after 1927! Figgins's list reads like a roll call of the great nicknames of baseball history: Tex McDonald, Piggy Ward, Doc Prothro, Jocko Halligan...awesome. But the Redman/Burroughs similarities demonstrate how the system tends to break down for guys with low career ABs...

Anyway, as supplementary bonus material, here are the top active and all-time matches for the starting rotation:

Colon
Active - Jason Schmidt
All-Time - Jason Schmidt

Escobar
Active - Julian Tavarez, the ugliest man in baseball
All-time - Mark Leiter

Lackey
Active - Rodrigo Lopez
All-Time - Rodrigo Lopez

Washburn
Active - Mark Buehrle
All-Time - Mark Buehrle

Byrd
Active - Cory Lidle
All-Time - Cory Lidle

Saturday, March 26, 2005

I originally compiled this on a whim as part of a longer entry, but it looks like it's something I might want to occasionally revisit, so I'm giving it it's own entry and updating it as warranted. Perm link here.

Most recent update: buried Purgatory Online, resurrected Bjoern's Baseball Blog.

Pre-history: Before the dawn of the Angels blogs, there was (and, I think, still is) an online journal of an Angels fan dating back into the 90's. I only saw it once and didn't save the hyperlink, so if anyone has it, let me know and I'll update. While not a blog, precisely, as it contained no links and didn't read as if it were written for the public, it was pretty well updated, mostly with game recaps.

May, 2002 - October, 2002: Purgatory Online, the beta version. Originally conceived as a general purpose blog that would talk a lot, but not exclusively, about baseball, I published a mixed-bag of stuff that I eventually wiped out when I decided to focus on the Angels.

October 10, 2002: First "real" Purgatory Online entry is posted.

January 27, 2003: "Halodan" begins publishing Halos Hardball. In what is probably a bad karmic decision, his first entry is about football.

April 12, 2003: Karma catches up. Halos Hardball ceases to be.

July 10, 2003: The late, lamented The Monkey's Paw publishes its first entry.

September 8, 2003: The late, lamented The Monkey's Paw publishes its last entry.

October 16, 2003: Halofan begins publishing at the Anaheim Angels Blog.

February 3, 2004: Rob's 6-4-2, doing double duty as an Angels/Dodgers blog, debuts.

February 15, 2004: Richard jumps into the mix with The Pearly Gates, a blend of five parts Angels blogging to one part right-leaning politics.

March 15, 2004: Chronicles of the Lads becomes the third Angels blog to start up in the space of 40 days. Chronicles will eventually find a niche as "the one who does actual statistical research."

March 25, 2004, 2:47 a.m.: ESPN correspondent Matt Allen moves from the Expos beat to the Angels beat, and converts his Expos blog to an Angels blog called Inside the Halo. ItH's focus is on analysis for fantasy baseball purposes.

March 25, 2004, 9:43 p.m.: Yet another new Angels blog, League of Angels, arrives on the scene. Technically, I suppose this was the first collaborative Angels blog, but the ratio of Jeff to Joe has been something like 9:1, so decide for yourself. Until Halofan's decampment, League of Angels was the sole Angels blog to be affiliated with a bloglomerate, in their case the Most Valuable Network.

June 7, 2004: Watching Jeff DaVanon becomes the first Angels blog to single out a particular player for worship. Inexplicably, that player is Jeff DaVanon, a servicable but unspectacular reserve outfielder.

September 11, 2004: Dawn of The Acerbic Alchemist.

October 6, 2004: As the ill-fated 2004 postseason begins, so too does the Haloblog.

December 29, 2004: The Halo Herald is born.

March 1, 2005: Stephen Smith, whose invaluable Future Angels site has been keeping track of Angels prospects for years, adds a blog.

March 17, 2005: The Acerbic Alchemist joins The Pearly Gates.

March 22, 2005: Halofan enfrocked, ensconces self in SportsBlogs.

March 26, 2005: The Halosphere gets its first international member, Bjoern's Baseball Blog.

April 24, 2005: L.A. Seitz of Chicago takes another stab. After abortive attempts at Angels blogging in January, April, and June, 2003 and February and July 2004, this one appears to stick.

August 5, 2005: Inside the Halo grinds to a halt.

August 19, 2005: Bjoern's Baseball Blog buys the farm.

November 26, 2005: Bjoern's Baseball Blog thrusts its mottled arm from its still-fresh grave and drags its lively corpse back into the sunlight. "Braaaaains," it croaks, re-entering the Halosphere. "Braaaaaains..."

December 27, 2005: Purgatory Online blows out the candles, turns out the lamps, and lights its pyre with its trading stamps.

Friday, March 25, 2005

Apparently, the Angels have been scouting around for relievers, most recently taking a look at Detroit's Gary Knotts. As in, 5.45 lifetime ERA, .795 lifetime OPSA (.900 versus righties!) Gary Knotts. Now, a look's just a look, and lookin's free. But it seems to me that if Chris Bootcheck (10 scoreless innings this spring) is showing signs of living up to the hype he used to get a couple of years ago, a smart feller might want him in the bullpen to see what develops.

In the same article, by the way, we note that Kelvim Escobar and Carlos Zambrano, the starters for today's Angels-Cubs game, are described as "a matchup of burly Venezuelans." I am, of course, delighted to see that the Register has found a way to transport a writer away from covering bare-knuckle boxing in the 1890's and put him on the Angels beat.

I think this is new: video clips on the Angels front page that load and play automatically. At the moment, the video is of Bill Stoneman discussing the Angels' off-season moves; he's fairly candid about the fact that their first choice was to pursue a starting pitcher (names aren't mentioned, but we all know he's mostly talking about Matt Clement), and that they decided to upgrade at shortstop only after they found out that the best they were going to do at SP was Paul Byrd. Of course, Byrd seems to be providing some cause for optimism this spring, whereas Clement has struggled a bit with the Red Sox.

In other video-related news, Arte - marketing genius that he is - has apparently figured out a way to have the pictures and descriptions of Angels games beamed through the air to receiver boxes in Southern Californians' living rooms on 158 of the 162 occasions the team is scheduled to play. The downside of this is that I'll have to listen to Rex Hudler that much more. Hey, Rex - the heat's off, man. Start toking again! Seriously. You used to be better.

Adam Kennedy "on course to return to the Angels in late April?" Wow. Looks like Figgins is going to have to have a pretty hot start if he wants to play every day...

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Directly contradicting my previous post, the Angels packed the lineup with reserves today but nevertheless waxed San Diego. Most encouraging: Paul Byrd threw six scoreless innings. He apparently had his sinker working, as well, as the infield turned three double plays and had a chance at a fourth.

If we could just get the motors going in the regular lineup...

The serious bidness of spring training has commenced for the Angels. In addition to all five starters getting more or less in shape and taking their regular starts, it now appears that Scioscia has decided on Jeff DaVanon as his DH and 2-spot hitter, and that the regulars will be getting most of the at-bats from here on in. Well, good. In the former case, I might argue that Kotchman should be the regular DH, but I suspect that he'll be getting plenty of at-bats anyway, and the important thing is that the team be allowed to find its routine.

The Times keeps tabs on Tim Salmon, who seems to be shooting for a return in August or September.
If he's confident enough to play in 2006, he'd probably be willing to sign a contract for something near the major league minimum of $316,000, preferably with the Angels.

If the only offers he gets are from East Coast or Midwest teams that would force him to uproot his family, Salmon will strongly consider retirement.
There's no quote from Salmon to back up this "major league minimum" business, but it might be an interesting option to have. I strongly suspect, however, that it will be difficult to find room on the roster for a DH-only guy, since Erstad will still be under contract in 2006 and there's just no way Kotchman won't be playing every day by then (barring injury or trade).

Alan Schwartz reviews the Red Sox-Angels-Cardinals shortstop-go-round. The verdict, predictably, seems to be that the Bostons improved considerably, the Angels improved a little, and the Cardinals got David Eckstein. To his credit, Schwartz looks deeply enough to see that the defensive upgrade the Angels get is particularly important, since they'll have either McPherson or Quinlan at third. I'm not sure I buy that Cabrera accounted for "60 extra outs" over Eckstein last year (particularly when adjusted for playing behind Derek Lowe on several occasions), but he's certainly going to take at least a little pressure off the hot corner.

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

I'm not exactly sure what the reason is behind my (more than usually) elongated blogging funk, but I know this blog ain't dead yet. Truth be told, I've always thought that my proper focus should be on what happens on the field, rather than what happens off the field, so talking about games I can't watch sort of bores me. That should all change come opening day.

Speaking of which, due to various circumstances, I'm thinking of not subscribing to the "Extra Innings" package this year, but rather to the streaming broadcasts through MLB.com. I'll be clear on this - it's not my first choice. The only advantage to mlb.com that I can see is that I should be able to access the games even when I'm not at home. However, the games I miss during the year because I'm away from home are generally games I'd miss even if I had Web access to them, so I suspect that realistically I'd only catch five or so more games. And the downside seems pretty big - blurry video, dropped connections, watching at my computer desk rather than on the couch, etc. But on the other other hand, I suppose it is about half the cost...anyway, if anyone still reads this blog, and has any experience with MLB.com's video, drop me a line at purgatoryonline@yahoo.com, willya?

All that said, let me make note of a couple of changes in the lives of some of my fellow Angels bloggers. Josh has folded the tent on Acerbic Alchemist and shacked up (metaphorically, as far as I know) with Richard at The Pearly Gates. I believe this makes TPG the first collaborative Angels blog.

Halofan, meanwhile, has ported himself to the SportsBlogs conglomerate, a maneuver that's garnered him a snazzy new site and, apparently, the ReverendPersona plugin. I'm nonplussed about this one. To be honest, I'm not really on board with the whole sports blog conglomeration idea; generally when I'm approached by one my first reaction is to say "but what will you do when I decide to take two weeks off?" Beyond mere slothfulness on my part, though, I think that what I value most about this blog - and most of the ones I read - is the sense that it's an individual effort. Sure, the formatting is crap, and the content grows at the speed of Dutch Elm Disease - but that's what I like about it. It's mine. I don't have to promote anybody; I can call Athletics Nation a sack of mewling crybabies if I want to and nobody cares (or, indeed, knows).

Don't get me wrong - I think Halo Heaven is going to be a must-read. It's just weird to see the guy who was pretty much the exemplar of that iconoclastic spirit join in any enterprise that involves working with fans of the Oakland Green Weenies.

In honor of these changes, I commit to posterity my brief history of Angels blogdom:

Pre-history: Before the dawn of the Angels blogs, there was (and, I think, still is) an online journal of an Angels fan dating back into the 90's. I only saw it once and didn't save the hyperlink, so if anyone has it, let me know and I'll update. While not a blog, precisely, as it contained no links and didn't read as if it were written for the public, it was pretty well updated, mostly with game recaps.

May, 2002 - October, 2002: Purgatory Online, the beta version. Originally conceived as a general purpose blog that would talk a lot, but not exclusively, about baseball, I published a mixed-bag of stuff that I eventually wiped out when I decided to focus on the Angels.

October 10, 2002: First "real" Purgatory Online entry is posted.

July 10, 2003: The late, lamented The Monkey's Paw publishes its first entry.

September 8, 2003: The late, lamented The Monkey's Paw publishes its last entry.

October 16, 2003: Halofan begins publishing at the Anaheim Angels Blog.

February 3, 2004: Rob's 6-4-2, doing double duty as an Angels/Dodgers blog, debuts.

February 15, 2004: Richard jumps into the mix with The Pearly Gates, a blend of five parts Angels blogging to one part right-leaning politics.

March 15, 2004: Chronicles of the Lads becomes the third Angels blog to start up in the space of 40 days. Chronicles will eventually find a niche as "the one who does actual statistical research."

March 25, 2004: Yet another new Angels blog, League of Angels, arrives on the scene. Technically, I suppose this was the first collaborative Angels blog, but the ratio of Jeff to Joe has been something like 9:1, so decide for yourself. Until Halofan's decampment, League of Angels was the sole Angels blog to be affiliated with a bloglomerate, in their case the Most Valuable Network.

June 7, 2004: Watching Jeff DaVanon becomes the first Angels blog to single out a particular player for worship. Inexplicably, that player is Jeff DaVanon, a servicable but unspectacular reserve outfielder.

September 11, 2004: Dawn of The Acerbic Alchemist.

December 29, 2004: The Halo Herald is born.

March 1, 2005: Stephen Smith, whose invaluable Future Angels site has been keeping track of Angels prospects for years, adds a blog.

March 17, 2005: The Acerbic Alchemist joins The Pearly Gates.

March 22, 2005: Halofan enfrocked, ensconces self in SportsBlogs.

And that's it, as far as I know. If I'm missing something, email me.

What strikes me most about this, really, is the fact that there have been a total of eleven Angels bloggers (counting League of Angels as one), and ten are still going at it. That's a pretty remarkable rate, I think - though it would be interesting to see how things worked out in a parallel universe where the Halos were stinky in 2004. Back when I started, I remember there being about 40 Mariners blogs...now, not so much.

Anyway, if - for some Godforsaken reason - you haven't been reading the other nine, start. They all work harder than me.

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Add Bartolo Colon to the list of sufferin' Angels; Colon's back is hurting, which he blames on a two-hour bus ride from Tempe to Tucson before his start yesterday (Rockies 4, Angels 2). But wait! I thought Colon used to ride a burro all 'round the hills of the Dominican!

Well, he was probably smaller then.

In the same article, we hear that Kendry "Ghost Runner" Morales is delayed yet again, and that Bengie Molina is "running the bases, but not at full speed." I think I've heard that one before.

We get a little good news from the other voices making up the celestial choir today; Colon remains on track to start on opening day, sez the Register, and the official site notes that Darin Erstad may play today and Dallas McPherson may hit off a tee on Saturday.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Kelvim Escobar did indeed make his first spring training start yesterday, bringing the Angels rotation up to full strength. Escobar threw 34 pitches in two innings, giving up three runs (all in the first inning) on six hits, with no home runs, no walks, and one strikeout.

ESPN broadcast the game, so I've been able to watch the first inning. The Escobar/Scioscia line on his performance was that Escobar's arm strength was good, with no lingering tightness, he just left the ball up in the zone too much because he wasn't concentrating on command this time out. It's clear from the video that this was the case; although he had decent movement on a couple of pitches, by and large he was serving them up to be hit. So, while this wasn't much of an outing numbers-wise, the important thing is that the last piece of the rotation took a big step towards being ready by the time he's needed.

The rest of the team, meanwhile...well, let's recap:

Finley, Guerrero, Anderson, and Cabrera have been getting their at-bats so far, though Cabrera will be in Colombia for a couple of days to finalize his change of citizenship and Anderson will be out a few days with knee tendinitis.

Catcher Bengie Molina has been sidelined for most of the spring with some mysteriously worsening calf ailment. We've seen injuries to Molina drag on and on before, of course. Primary backup catcher Jose Molina is also out, leaving emergency backup catcher Josh Paul the spring training ABs leader at the catcher position (13; Bengie has 5; not counting minor-leaguers).

First baseman Darin Erstad, who briefly decided to play this year without a knee brace only to reconsider when advised that his leg might, in fact, explode in a bright shower of gore and synovial fluid, has had bronchitis for several days. At-bats this spring: 7. Casey Kotchman, meanwhile, has decided he no longer wishes to play in Salt Lake City and is 12 for 34 (.353) with 11 RBI.

Second baseman Adam Kennedy is working out, but still a couple months away from returning. Chone Figgins is having an unremarkable spring, but at least he's having one.

Third baseman Dallas McPherson had a grand total of one at-bat before going down; it's looking extremely likely that Robb Quinlan will start the season at third. Quinlan has 23 at-bats thus far.

As if all that weren't enough, the bullpen is taking hits too. Scot Shields? Out with shin splints. Matt Hensley? Gone at least a month with shoulder and rib cage strain. Dustin Moseley? Strained right forearm.

A lot of this is just spring soreness; every team has their share of guys who don't get going until late. So I'm not exactly pressing the panic button here, just observing that the Angels' 10-5 record has largely been due to guys who probably won't be around when the season starts.

Tuesday, March 15, 2005

I've been keeping a weather eye on spring training so far, but we're starting to get to the point where we can begin to take note of some trends. Mostly, I've been encouraged, particularly by the performance of the guys expected to start:

Colon - 6.2 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 7 K
Escobar - N/A
Washburn - 6.0 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0 HR, 1 BB, 4 K
Lackey - 4.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 0 HR, 2 BB, 2 K
Byrd - 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 HR, 1 BB, 2 K

Keeping in mind the fact that it's still way too early to draw any conclusions, that's still a pretty good starting point. It's obviously a concern that Escobar hasn't been able to make a start yet, but that will hopefully be rectified later today, when he's scheduled to throw 30 pitches against the White Sox.

By way of comparison, at this time last year I was beginning the Aaron Sele vs. Ramon Ortiz Death Watch. I already like 2005 better.

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Rick Ankiel is giving up his pitching "career," and looking to make the Cardinals as an outfielder.

Ankiel's career hitting stats: 87 AB, .207/.258/.310, 2 HR, 6 BB, 29 K.

Good luck, dude.

Friday, March 04, 2005

Toronto's Globe and Mail identifies the Angels as one of the six teams most likely to win the World Series, and profiles them today.

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

The Nats beat the Mets 5-3 in the first spring training game of 2005.

Jose Guillen? Two-run jack.

Home