What else is new? 

Posted 1:11 PM by Sean
So the Angels pulled Jarrod Washburn's nuts out of the fire again last night, after he surrendered five runs in the first two innings to a team that hadn't put a crooked number on the board since approximately the reign of Hadrian. If baseball were like Subway, I'm pretty sure the Angels would have enough holes punched in their "Bail Washburn Out" cards to get free twelve-inch combo meals. With chips AND cookies.

To his credit, Wash did settle down and pitch three reasonably competent innings thereafter; also to his credit, he walked no one and never seemd to lose it mentally. But dude is 30 years old now, and it's starting to get a little moldy, this "flashes of brilliance followed by implosions" crap. When's he gonna settle down and get respectibble, huh?

In any event, the offense looked like it was destined to put up another one of those "almost had 'em" efforts similar to the little comeback that wasn't a few days ago, when Byrd got lit up for six runs in six innings and a late inning comeback fizzled with the tying man at the plate in the ninth. Last night, the Angels bounced back fairly quickly, making it 5-3 in the fourth, but then:

Fourth inning - runners on second and third, one out, but DaVanon K's looking and Vlad grounds out;

Fifth inning - Finley on second with one out, but Cabrera grounds out and McPherson K's;

Sixth inning - Figgins on second with two out, but Rivera K's;

Seventh inning - Down without a fight;

Eighth inning - Izturis scores on a Jose Molina single, but Figgins grounds into a double play to end the inning.

Fortunately, that whole "game of inches" thing worked in the Angels' favor in the ninth, as Anderson blooped one into left-center, scoring Erstad from second with two outs. He didn't exactly hit it, as Eric Cartman would say, "with authori-tay," but it worked for me.

And I'm pretty sure I want Orlando Cabrera leading off the tenth from now on if at all possible. Last night marked the second time he's gone deep in that situation, the other being a - wait for it - bail-out job in Texas, in which Washburn gave up six runs in 5.1 innings, after which the relief corps held the line and the bats clawed back into it. Cabrera - whose new nickname is "Cabfare," incidentally - is eligible to upgrade to the steak and cheese or zesty chicken ranch sub, with unlimited toppings and free drink refills.

In other news, Dallas McPherson finally got his first hit of the season, an opposite-field single. Hopefully this will clear his head a little bit, as he had clearly been pressing at the plate. Meanwhile, Adam Kennedy starts his rehab assignment this weekend, well ahead of schedule, and looks to return to the team in about two weeks. Scioscia has said that the team will find a place for Figgins in the lineup, which means there's a realistic possiblity that the 5'7" Figgins will be the team's designated hitter. Good lord.

Dementia 

Posted 9:21 AM by Sean
The Times:

Colon threw eight shutout innings, giving up four hits and striking out six, to lead the Angels to a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians, and as the burly right-hander departed after completing the top of the eighth, he basked in the glow of an Angel Stadium crowd of 42,531.

At this point, I'm almost positive that they have a "burly right-hander" macro defined. So I give. Bartolo, ad tuam dono nomine Burly in perpetuam. Use it in good health.

No pop 

Posted 1:12 PM by Sean
Back on January 18, I posited that, if Steve Finley and Orlando Cabrera performed at their normal levels, Dallas McPherson would need to have a Rookie 0f the Year kind of season to get the Angels back to their 2004 production. In a nutshell:

Ultimately, therefore, I think the Angels' offensive fortunes are going to depend heavily on the contributions they can get from third base and DH. They must get a solid year out of McPherson (or Quinlan, or whomever comes out of spring training with the job), and they must significantly improve at DH.

DH, of course, was a terrible position for the Angels last year, producing just a .240/.323/.401 line - unacceptable from anyone who contributes exactly zero to the defensive side of the game.

So far this year, however, just about every possible trend in the above analysis has gone the wrong way. For starters, there's Finley and Cabrera:

Finley, 2004: .271/.333/.490
Finley, 2005: .159/.275/.273
Cabrera, 2004: .264/.306/.383
Cabrera, 2005: .233/.327/.419

Cabrera has arguably come pretty close to what was expected, but Finley has been comically bad at the plate for the first twelve games of the season. This isn't exactly time to push the panic button - going back to 2002, Finley has a .229/.302/.454 line in April, with a substantial improvement in May - but it's certainly not helping in the moment.

As for the situation at designated hitter...look, I know some people like Jeff DaVanon. I mean, some people really, really like Jeff DaVanon. But Jeff DaVanon is a fourth outfielder. Competent, sure. But a DH he is not.

DaVanon, 2005: .194/.257/.226
Angels DHes, 2005: .234/.288/.255 (which goes to show you that Juan Rivera isn't helping much, either).

Completing the suckitude triangle, we have the third base situation:

Angels 3Bs, 2005: .163/.213/.326

Word on the street is that Dallas McPherson will be in the lineup as early as tonight, which will likely mean the end of Lou Merloni's career as an Angel. Even more than anticipated, however, McPherson will be thrust into a situation in which he will need to produce at a very high level, at least until Finley heats up or the Angels can find a real DH.

Back in January, I also said:

Of course, it's possible that the Angels could get increased offensive production from other places. Garret Anderson could bounce back and put up a .301/.345/.500 year for a full season; Bengie Molina could drop 40 pounds and go .280/.320/.410. But let's also remember that Vlad Guerrero had an MVP-caliber season in 2004, and the possibility of increased production from Anderson and Molina has to be balanced by the possiblity of a slight regression by Vlad.

Finally, some good news: Guerrero is putting up the same kind of numbers he did last year, and both Anderson and Molina are looking good at the plate (at least until Molina had to leave the game with thigh problems yesterday). So if, in fact, Finley is merely in his usual April doldrums and McPherson represents a substantial upgrade, the Angels offense is likely to get better soon.

Which would leave only the question of Chone Figgins, who is currently posting a .200/.260/.356 line. Frankly, considering the production from 2B, DH, CF, and 3B, it's a minor miracle that the Angels are even at .500. Figgins may be pressing a little too hard, hearing Adam Kennedy's footsteps as AK draws closer to an anticipated May return to the lineup. Certainly Figgins has looked overmatched at the plate in a way that he hasn't before.

Overall, I do think that there is some cause for cautious optimism in the next few weeks. The real question, however, is how well the Angels will do in the next few days: after a pair of games with Seattle, the Angels have series with Cleveland, Oakland, New York, and Minnesota.

Anderson milestone update 

Posted 10:32 AM by Sean
Garret Anderson is closing in on a couple of franchise records. Tim Salmon's career RBI total of 989 should fall in a few weeks; The Tustin Rhino presently sits on 958. Salmon's career total bases record, 2863, should fall even sooner: Anderson now has 2836. GA is already in possession of the all-time franchise records for at-bats, hits, and doubles, and, assuming he plays out the length of his current contract for the Angels and is reasonably healthy, will likely end up with the games played, plate appearances, and runs scored records, and has a shot at the home runs, too.