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.