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.