We hardly knew ye. As in, "not at all." 

Posted 5:05 PM by Sean
Rob emails to tell me of a heretofore unknown but long-defunct Angels blog, Halos Hardball, now encased in the amber of the Internet. Running from January 27, 2003 to April 7, 2003, it was actually the second Angels blog ever, at least as far as I know. I have dutifully updated the Brief History of the Halosphere.

End of an era 

Posted 8:41 AM by Sean
The Cardinals' radio broadcast is leaving KMOX after more than 50 years. One of the few things you've been able to count on for that long has been finding the Cards at 1120 AM as long as you're within a few hundred miles of St. Louis; in some ways, this is more of a shock than the Red Sox winning the World Series.

Noted 

Posted 4:28 PM by Sean
Bengie Molina, as a DH (2005): .563/.571/.813 (16 AB). Bengie is in his walk year, and one of the more interesting questions of the postseason will be to what extent he will accept offers from teams that primarily want him to DH, with a little catching thrown in.

Meanwhile, with various folks atwitter about how well moving Orlando Cabrera to the two slot in the lineup appears to be working over the last few days, the following bears keeping in mind:

Cabrera, batting second (2005): .214/.333/.286 (28 AB)
Cabrera, batting eighth (2005): .292/.327/.385 (96 AB)

Cabrera's not better batting second, he's better lately:

Cabrera, 2005: .248/.303/.348
Cabrera, July 2005: .280/.333/.320
Cabrera, August 2005: .286/.444/.429

However, moving him up in the lineup does accomplish the eminently sensible aim of moving Guerrero to the cleanup spot in the order. I've blogged about this before; Guerrero's combination of hitting for average and hitting for power make the number three spot a bad place for him to hit, since that spot sees more than it's share of two-out, nobody on situations in the first inning. The end result - lots of solo homers, lots of wasted base hits. The number four hitter, meanwhile, either comes up with men on base in the first or leads off the second - both good situations to see #27 at the plate. Now if they'd only ship Cabrera to the eight slot and bat Anderson third, so that he can benefit from being protected by Guerrero (who needs less protection because he's such a good bad-ball hitter), we'd be cooking with gas.

Anderson milestone update 

Posted 3:36 PM by Sean
Garret Anderson now stands just two extra-base hits away from Tim Salmon's all-time mark:

XBH
Salmon - 643
Anderson - 641

After this, he'll not break another Angels record (that I know of) until next year, when he stands to eclipse Brian Downing's games played number:

Games
Downing - 1661
Salmon - 1596
Anderson - 1580 (including today's game)

Also of note is the fact that Anderson is two homers away from moving into second place on the Angels' career homers list:

HR
Salmon - 290
Downing - 222
Anderson - 220

Washburn to DL 

Posted 9:48 AM by Sean
Jarrod Washburn has been placed on the 15-day DL, retroactive to July 25. This isn't a particularly big deal, it seems - he'll miss one additional start, but appears to be progressing well enough.

Chris Bootcheck will make Washburn's start on Saturday against the Devil Rays. Bootcheck, of course, looked pretty decent against the Yankees in his most recent start; let's hope that carries over against less storied opponents.

Thus far, no announcement has been forthcoming about who will take Washburn's roster spot for the next few days. Jake Woods would seem the obvious possibility, depressing as that might be for those of us who would prefer not to see him again just yet after last Saturday's upchuck of a performance.

Update: nope, it's Kotchman. Kotch's line at Salt Lake this year is .289/.372/.441, though his abysmal start means that he's actually performed better than that lately.

Ever fallen in love with a blog post you shouldn't have fallen in love with? 

Posted 1:37 PM by Sean
I've just spent a bunch of time researching a post that isn't close to done yet, so, in the interest of posting something today, here are the first couple of paragraphs:

I've rarely seen a team more in need of a day off than the Angels after their
second consecutive extra-innings loss on Sunday, and last night's 10-1 pasting
of Baltimore seems to confirm that they made the most of their time off.
Guerrero in particular was much more his old self at the plate, both in terms of
belting a pair of homers and in just plain making better contact.

Additionally, as Rob notes, the blowout gave most of the bullpen another
night off, which hopefully will wash away any lingering effects of the
disastrous 18-inning
loss to Toronto Thursday. Starting tonight, we should have a recharged and
ready Donnelly, Shields, Peralta, and Rodriguez, which still figures to be as
solid a core as exists in this game right now.

After which the post veered into entirely different territory, about which more tomorrow...

At this rate... 

Posted 3:31 PM by Sean
The Mariners' Ryan Franklin has tested positive for steroids. Maybe the Angels' best strategy is to just wait until all the other teams are unable to field nine players due to suspensions.