About the Weaver deal 

Posted 5:07 PM by Sean
I am delighted that the Jered Weaver deal got done, because you can never have enough pitching. With Weaver joining Santana, Shell, Moseley, Bergman, and a couple of other live arms in the system, the Angels are really looking like a franchise that will be in it for a long time.

I am also, however, a cynical old bastard, and what I'm really interested in is when, exactly, the decision was made to accept this deal by Weaver and Scott Boras. From all appearances, the Angels moved virtually not at all from their original position, or at least from their "final offer." If the perception around the majors is that Boras and Weaver made up their minds that the offer was acceptable, but drew out the negotiations just to see how much more they could get, I believe that Boras is going to see a whole lot more hardball in his future.

Thursday night is now poker night 

Posted 4:39 PM by Sean
Kwazy scheduling fact: the Angels don't play on a Thursday again until June 30. This after last night's game was the first Thursday contest for them in four weeks; hence they're in the midst of a stretch of seven free Thursdays in eight weeks. Thursdays are often off days, of course, but that's pretty odd.

Going to the game 

Posted 1:04 PM by Sean
For just the second time ever, I'm going to attend an Angels home game in person. And then I'll turn right around and do it for the third time ever, too.

June 17 and 18, the wife and I will be in Anaheim to catch a couple of games, then rocketing up the coast to Salinas to visit some friends. If anyone has any advice on hotels and tickets, kindly drop me a line at purgatoryonline@yahoo.com.

Back to the Future 

Posted 11:19 AM by Sean
Almost exactly two years after I first posted about Ervin Santana, said youngster made his Angels Stadium debut. Up against the 8-0 Jon Garland, and with memories of a brutal shellacking at the hands of the Indians fresh in his mind, The Grinnin' Dominican coolly threw a five-hit, 115-pitch shutout against the team with the best record in baseball. Only two White Sox reached second base; most appeared utterly baffled by the up to 18 mph difference between Santana's fastball and off-speed pitches.

Was Santana perfect? No, not close. He made a couple of mistake pitches that the Sox didn't take advantage of, and I think a great deal of credit for pitch selection goes to Bengie Molina. But the resiliency, the ability to come back from a brutal first Major League appearance and make adjustments - that's all Santana's. Against Cleveland, he appeared to be almost desperate to work quickly, throwing pitch after pitch almost as soon as he got the ball in his glove. Working quickly is a good thing, of course, but above all concentration is what makes pitches. If you're focused on what you're doing on the mound, a good rhythm will follow. Last night, you could see Santana taking an extra beat or two between pitches, keeping himself in check mentally.

The article I linked to two years ago includes this bit of foreshadowing when discussing Santana and Jeff Mathis:

"Obviously, they both have great ability, but the thing that impresses me most about them," said Bobby Meacham, the ex-Yankee and former Mater Dei High shortstop who is their manager here at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, "is that they take criticism really well. They identify what they need to work on, and they try to get better."

In that sense, the Angels may have witnessed the first glimmer of the career of Ramon Ortiz's good twin; a whiplike power pitcher who can keep his emotions under control and learn from his mistakes. God, wouldn't that be something?

I also think Scioscia deserves some credit for letting Santana close the game out. Ordinarily, 115 pitches for a 22-year-old is probably right at my threshhold. But this decision was almost certainly the right one. Eight innings of shutout ball would have nicely canceled out Santana's first start, but a complete game shutout obliterates it. Even if Santana returns to the minors - as I think he must - he can have no question in his mind now that he has the talent and the mental ability to play with the big club.

Gregg optioned to Salt Lake; Frankie on the DL 

Posted 8:34 AM by Sean
Kevin Gregg, the reliever justly reviled around the Halosphere, has been optioned to AAA Salt Lake. Chris Bootcheck has been called up to take his slot in the bullpen. It would be nice to see Bootcheck, who has seemingly been an Angels prospect forever, stick with the big club - it would partially ameliorate the searing pain in my brain I get every time I see Halo discard Derrick Turnbow blow away another hitter for Milwaukee.

There are a few raised eyebrows this morning at the news that Frankie Rodriguez is on the DL, retroactive to May 15. Richard rightly notes that yesterday the Register claimed Rodriguez would be available within the next couple of days. The official explanation seems to be that the club has opted for another bullpen session to make sure everything's okay, and decided that, as long as he wasn't going to be available for four more days anyway, they might as well tack another two on there and bring up Joel Peralta until May 30. The situation bears watching, of course, but my sense is that they're on the up-and-up on this one; if the starters were struggling, or Shields ineffective, it might have been a different story, but right now I'm willing to take it at face value.

Dammit! 

Posted 3:37 PM by Sean
The A's have placed Octavio "Quote, Closer, Unquote" on the DL with a strained right elbow, depriving me of some much-needed entertainment in the late innings of close A's games. Rookie Huston Street is expected to take over the duties of demonstrating that teams actually do need guys who can pitch effectively in the ninth inning.

Apparently, someone still thinks about DaVanon 

Posted 12:54 PM by Sean
Mara is posting again at Watching Jeff DaVanon, although I suspect she may soon need to change the name of her blog to Watching Jeff DaVanon Sit on the Bench and Pick his Nose.

"June 12 - Jeff flicked a greenie at Juan Rivera while the rest of the Angels were on the field today. Missed by a mile."

Let the next countdown commence 

Posted 2:42 PM by Sean
After all the yapping I did about Garret Anderson's approach to the Angels' career total bases record, I let the actual even pass in silence a couple of weeks ago. But the next milestone is nearly upon us now - Anderson has 979 career RBI, just 10 shy of Tim Salmon's mark.

Anderson currently holds the career records for at-bats, hits, total bases, doubles, and singles.

He is likely to break the following records before the end of his walk year, 2008:

RBI
1. Salmon - 989
2. Anderson - 979
Projected record date - May, 2005

Games Played
1. Brian Downing - 1661
2. Salmon - 1596
3. Anderson - 1516
Projected record date - June/July, 2006

Extra-base Hits
1. Salmon - 643
2. Anderson - 616
Projected record date - August, 2005

Runs
1. Salmon - 956
2. Downing - 889
3. Anderson - 778
Projected record date - July, 2007

Home Runs
1. Salmon - 290
2. Downing - 222
3. Anderson - 211
Projected record date - September, 2008

He's also top 5 on the following lists, though unlikely to break the records:

Triples
1. Jim Fregosi - 70
2. Mickey Rivers - 32
3. Anderson - 28

Batting Average
1. Rod Carew - .314
2. Anderson - .300

Slugging Percentage
1. Salmon - .500
2. Jim Edmonds - .498
3. Troy Glaus - .497
4. Anderson - .477

Revenge of the Monkey 

Posted 2:28 PM by Sean
The Angels actually rallied to win a game today, after 8.1 innings of worthlessness at the plate. It looked for all the world like Bartolo Colon - who threw eight innings of four-hit, one run ball - was going to throw his second complete game as an Angel, and his second complete game loss as an Angel, to boot. And then?

Down 0-2, Adam Kennedy fouled one off, took three balls, fouled off another, and singled to left.

Chone Figgins lined the first pitch to right, moving Kennedy to second.

Darin Erstad grouned the first pitch through the right side of the infield, scoring Kennedy from second and allowing Figgins to move to third on the throw.

Bengie Molina flew out to right, deep enough to allow Figgins to score with the go-ahead run.

And you know what I was doing? Eating lunch, watching on the computer, and reading a novel narrated by a sock monkey.

Thus do the Angels return home having somewhat avenged their lackluster performances against Detroit and Cleveland last week by taking both road series 2-1.

Rodriguez diagnosis confirmed 

Posted 4:05 PM by Sean
According to the media notes for today's game, the MRI performed on Frankie Rodriguez confirmed the initial diagnosis of a mildly strained right forearm muscle. Rodriguez will continue to be listed as day-to-day, and be re-examined on Thursday by Angels team doctor Lewis Yocum. I would imagine this means he will be unavailable today and tomorrow for precautionary reasons.

I know what you did last winter 

Posted 11:34 AM by Sean
Frankie Rodriguez is sidelined for a few games, the victim of some forearm stiffness that is "not serious." While Scot Shields is more than capable of closing, the Angels need Rodriguez to come back soon given the so-so performances they've gotten out of Esteban Yan. I also hope - though I'm not holding my breath - that this may put a little scare into Frankie, and get him to sit out a winter instead of playing Venezuelan League ball, like he's done for the past two off-seasons.

Here goes nothing 

Posted 11:21 AM by Sean
Ervin Santana makes his Angels debut tonight against the Indians, a result of Kelvim Escobar's worrisome visit to the DL. Santana has been considered the Angels' top pitching prospect for for years now, and so will rightly be watched closely over the next week (he's expected to get two starts). I think the small, fluttering hope of some fans is that Santana will pull a Frankie, demonstrating such talent and poise that the team will be forced to keep him in the rotation.

Ain't gonna happen.

Santana, by all accounts, is a fantastic pitcher. But even if he tosses a pair of gems, which of these guys gets the axe?

Colon: 52.2 IP, 2.91 ERA
Escobar: 25.1 IP, 3.91 ERA
Washburn: 49.0 IP, 4.04 ERA
Byrd: 52.0 IP, 4.15 ERA
Lackey: 47.0 IP, 4.40 ERA

Particularly considering the May numbers for Byrd and Lackey:

Byrd: 19.2 IP, 2.29 ERA
Lackey: 21.1 IP, 2.95 ERA

If Santana pitches well, it's possible the Angels would consider prepping him further by putting him in the bullpen, a la Johan Santana, but I doubt it. He's probably better served by pitching regularly at Arkansas rather than getting innings on the unpredictable schedule of a long reliever.

Catch as catch can 

Posted 1:22 PM by Sean
Josh Paul took a ball of the base of his (throwing hand) thumb during yesterday's win over the Mariners, and it's looking like he'll be out for several days, possibly even long enough to warrant a trip to the DL. With Bengie Molina just recently beginning the kabuki routine known as "running the bases aggressively" during his rehab stint, this leaves Jose Molina as the Angels' only remaining catcher. Theoretically - and this was news to me, believe me - Chone Figgins is now the Angels' backup catcher.

The Angels are therefore expected to promote Ryan Budde from Salt Lake until Molina or Paul is ready; Jeff Mathis would obviously be in front of Budde on the depth chart, but is suffering from a thigh bruise himself. Budde is hitting .289/.333/.467 with 9 strikeouts in 45 at-bats, and has three walks; obviously, he'd see little if any time on the field. One suspects that the Angels are evaluating exactly how serious this bruise of Mathis's is.

Pitch-Til-U-Win 

Posted 11:44 AM by Sean
One of the more remarkable aspects of last night's 5-0 victory over the Mariners was the performance turned in by Jarrod Washburn. Oh, it's not especially remarkable that he had a good game - after all, Wash has had occasional flashes of greatness for years - but rather his uncharacteristic tendency to induce ground balls. Washburn has a career 0.72 grounder:flyball ratio, making him one of the most extreme flyball pitchers in the American League. Last night, however, Washburn got the Mariners to hit the ball on the ground 13 times against just four flies.

Obviously, the more ground balls you get, the fewer home runs you give up, and the round-tripper has long been one of Washburn's weak spots. Interestingly, however, last night's performance seems to be part of a season-long trend. Coming into the game, Washburn's ratio had been 49:44 - not as extreme as last night, but certainly a huge difference from his career numbers. Some hint of why this might be could be in the ESPN writeup of the game:

"I feel real good on the mound," he said. "My fastball definitely has lost a little velocity over the years, but I've learned how to pitch a lot more. I've got that split-finger now that's a real big weapon for me and my changeup just keeps getting better. And I can throw my slider to both sides of the plate and I've got a sinker to go along with the four-seamer I used to always throw."

Washburn has traditionally relied upon his fastball quite a bit. If he's truly mixing in more splitters, sliders, and sinkers - pitches that all break down to some extent - he's definitely going to be getting more grounders, which should take advantage of the fact that the Angels have a better-than-average infield defense. Certainly, Washburn's 2.72 ERA thus far has been a nice surprise; hopefully this marks a maturity to his approach that will continue into the future.

I should also note that the infield defense really did shine last night, making several plays that might not make SportsCenter but were still pretty nice. Although Adam Kennedy did look a bit like he's still getting his sea legs (he DH'ed during his rehab stint), he saved a run on the last play of the game with a nice diving stop. And Dallas McPherson made no less than three good plays, in particular doing an excellent job of picking a Bret Boone bouncer off his shoetops in the seventh; McP nabbed it on the short hop and made a strong, accurate throw on the run. He's looking more comfortable both at the plate and on the field, which is very good news indeed.

Meanwhile, Garret Anderson cut the number of total bases he needs to catch Tim Salmon on the all-time Angels career list in half with a homer in the fifth, and very nearly homered again in the seventh until Ichiro made a fantastic catch, climbing the right field wall and backhanding a sure homer out of the air. If you haven't seen the highlight, I'd advise you to get over to the Mariners web site and check out their video highlights.

One final piece of good news: Steve Finley, who escaped April with a batting average of .149, went two for three with a home run. Finley traditionally has slow Aprils (but not that slow) and good Mays, so hopefully he's getting on track.

Molina to return at some point in the future 

Posted 11:28 AM by Sean
The Times:

Bengie Molina went through an aggressive catching workout, squatting, throwing to second base, blocking balls in the dirt and fielding bunts, and said he experienced no pain or discomfort in his strained right thigh.

Molina is eligible to come off the disabled list Wednesday but probably won't be activated until Friday or Saturday because he still hasn't tested the leg by running the bases at full speed.

"That will be the ultimate test," said Molina, who plans to run the bases today, but not at full speed. "It's not 100% yet, but it's getting close. I need a couple more days of running."

Okay, who here remembers the last time we heard about Molina running the bases aggressively...

Counting down 

Posted 4:17 PM by Sean
Garret Anderson is now within striking distance of the Angels' career total bases record:

1. Salmon - 2863
2. Anderson - 2855

It could, in other words, happen tonight, and will certainly happen within a week.

Keeping tabs on the alumni 

Posted 4:00 PM by Sean
This article at the Times reminded me to check on the progress of our dearly departed:

Eckstein (St. Louis) - .268/.368/.317, 0 HR. Is hitting just .143 versus lefties.

Glaus (Arizona) - .274/.346/.611, 7 HR. Is slugging 110 points over his career average. Hitting only .204 on the road.

Guillen (Washington) - .315/.346/.576, 6 HR. Just plain killing the ball.

Ortiz (Cincinnati) - 0-1, 9.00 ERA, 7.0 IP. Having injury problems.

Sele (Seattle) - 2-2, 4.71 ERA, 28.2 IP.

Percival (Detroit) - 1-1, 2 saves, 2 blown saves, 4.35 ERA, 10.1 IP.

As for the substance of the article itself...well, it sounds awfully familiar to Angels fans, who were asked to welcome a misunderstood Jose Guillen at the beginning of last year. Guillen is off to a hotter start than he had for the Angels, but we'll see what happens to that sunny personality when he hits a slump. Jose never seemed to have an attitude problem when things were breaking his way, curiously enough.

I was also amused to see the old Guillen/Washburn feud rekindled:

Over a 15-minute interview in a dank hallway that connects the Nationals' dugout to their clubhouse, Guillen says he is unburdened by his Angel crash and burn, and that he remains "hurt" by it. He says he holds no grudges, and that former teammate Jarrod Washburn is "two-faced," because he believes Washburn sold him out to management. "The only guy I got a problem with," he said, "is Washburn." He says he has no problem with Scioscia, and that Scioscia could have saved the relationship had he simply asked him into his office, rather than air him out in a crowded clubhouse.

You may recall that Washburn chewed Guillen out early last year when Guillen got a little too vocal about his belief that Angels pitchers weren't "protecting" him enough by hitting opposing batters, and that, a few months later, Washburn was quoted in the papers as approving of Erstad's calling a team meeting to deal with Guillen missing a team photo session.

Wash's response to Guillen now:

"I have no idea what put that idea in his head, but I never said a word [to upper management] and obviously, something didn't need to be said by a player," Washburn said. "I wasn't afraid to speak my mind about it, though, and maybe that gave him that idea, but it's not true.

"He's an incredibly talented player, and most of the time he was a very positive aspect of our team. He played hard, he put up numbers, he did his job. But there were a few negative things."

The Nats come to Anaheim June 13-15. I'm sure all parties involved will act like the professionals they are.

Colon okay? 

Posted 7:20 PM by Sean
Burly left today's game after landing awkwardly on his ankle while attempting to field an infield chopper. Cruising after 7.1 innings, he looked like a lock to make his first complete game in an Angels uniform, but was in obvious difficulty as he left the field. The Associated Press, however, is reporting that he "expects to make his next start."

The Angels, meanwhile, managed to scrape out a 2-1 win over Johan Santana and the Twins, the first loss Santana has taken well nigh unto a year. Shields looked depressingly shaky in relief of Colon, and was pulled after allowing two to reach base while retiring no one. But Frankie came on and got the double play ball on his third pitch, then hung on in the ninth despite surrendering a homer to leadoff batter Shannon Stewart.

All in all, despite the 1-2 record in the Metrodome, the Angels can feel pretty good on the flight to Seattle (assuming Burly's ankle is, in fact, okay). They beat the reigning Cy Young winner, and played .500 ball on the road against New York and Minnesota. Plus, Adam Kennedy is expected to rejoin the team in the next few days, with Bengie Molina close behind. The job now, of course, is to take care of the Mariners and head home with some momentum.