17 April 2010

thoughts: week two

Some thoughts/observations from Week Two:

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Two outings by Saundo bookended this week. The first, against the A's was encouraging after he struggled against Minnesota. Cruising into the 7th inning, the wheels just came off and Saundo was stuck with the loss. Today, against the Blue Jays, he was fantastic. Beyond the great game and the win, I think his performance was critical in bringing some consistancy to the quality of starting pitching and some encouragement to the players and fans. I'm definitely more optimistic after Saunders followed Weaver's great outing with one of his own.

Overall, the rotation seems to be on its way to working itself out. Pineiro gave some life to the Halos with his 7IP 1ER performance on Wednesday and (:::crosses fingers:::) seems on his way to proving he's not a one-season wonder, but a Reagins steal. Weaver delievered once again and (:::crosses fingers:::) seems on his way to solidifying himself atop the rotation. As for those talented-but-erratic members of the rotation I have such high hopes for - they're still a work in progress. Ervin did okay on Tuesday, but he didn't get much luck in wiggling out of jams. He ended up complaining about the umps in the media, which gets a big thumbs down from me. Get your head into your game, Ervin and have some fun. I'm not quite sure what to make of him yet. Kaz is even more of a mystery since he's only had one start. Naps raved about his slider in warmups, but it completely abandoned Kaz once he was on the mound. I'm not sure what to make of that. At times he seemed to be uncomfortable with his footing in the first inning. His pace was also noticably slower than in spring training. Nevertheless, he seemed to be in control for the first three innings, but then his mechanics appeared to explode and disaster followed. For Kaz to be successful, he needs his slider, but more importantly, he needs to stay within his mechanics and locate his fastball. He has plenty of time to turn it around, but he needs to trust himself.

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The bullpen wasn't quite as bad as the end of Week One, but wasn't as good as the beginning of that week. It's perplexing. Case in point: Jepsen comes in on Friday to shut the door on the Blue Jays and clean up Bulger's mess. Then on Saturday, struggles and cracks open the door, which prompts Sosh to go to Rodney for the save. For a bullpen that was stretched thin for the first week, it'd be nice for them to complete their jobs so that Sosh wouldn't need to use more relievers and exacerbate the problem.

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Brandon Wood was running hot and cold this week. After some upbeat words to Lyle Spencer, he hit some balls hard in New York and made some good plays. Well, he became unravelled today in Toronto with two errors (in the same inning) which lead to two runs. Thankfully, he didn't flail too much at the plate, despite his 0-for-4 line. He hit two balls hard, just right at people. That got me wondering and so I looked up his BABIP (batting average on balls in play) and lo and behold, it's a dismal .150. Compare that to his projections and career, and you have to believe that his BABIP will rise and his hits will start falling. So keep faith Angel fans!

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The Napoli-Mathis debate has another dimension. Trade rumors and speculation are swirling since it was reported that Naps is unhappy over playing time. It even made it to the national press, with Buster Olney speculating that the BoSox could be a match. Besides the fact that it makes absolutely no sense that Sosh would give up Mathis (to a playoff rival!), it makes even less sense that the Halos would want Lowell and Boston would need Mathis (they have defensive catcher options in the minors, and would they even want to hold onto three catchers??). Fans have also been wondering what possible returns Napoli can bring. But you know, it's only two weeks into the season. Mathis probably will cool down as a hitter, Napoli will probably improve as a catcher (great block of the plate today), and things will revert to the same platoon Halo fans are used to (and they'll still get to lament the lack of Napoli playing time). Why would the FO and fans want to trade away a catcher when there isn't any certainty in either performance? I think the FO would be crazy to trade away Naps or Mathis at this time. Sure, if Mathis keeps hitting for the whole season, then maybe it is time to hand him a full-time gig. Or if Naps can improve his defense and prove he can uphold it for the season, then maybe he should stay. But none of these are sure things and while so much uncertainty exists, why not have a backup plan? Relax Halo fans, Naps can handle reduced playing time while this all runs its course.

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It must be weird for Halo fans to look up the Angels' stats and find that, for batting average, in place two and three are Jeff Mathis and Reggie Willits. Sample size issues of course, but how about this for blow-your-mind: Reggie is slugging .500 and Mathis is at .481, which is good for fourth and sixth on the team.

Don't worry the world isn't going to end. In total bases, it goes Matsui, Torii, Rivera, Kendry, Abreu, Howie, Aybar, and then Mathis.

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If the team can continue to string together some good performances, things will start looking a lot better. The problem the first week and into the second was that there were too many parts that weren't working the way they were supposed to. As the rotation starts to show some life, the lineup is beginning to produce. If/when the bullpen tightens up, the Angels can get back to playing their complete brand of baseball.

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I was guilty of procrastination tonight and ended up watching some games. Firstly, I saw the ending of the Rays-BoSox suspended game and I had to love the Rays and Joe Maddon. Maddon used a 5-man infield in the bottom of the 11th with the bases loaded and no outs. The Rays managed to wriggle out of it with a force out at home and a double play at third. Like any Halo fan, you gotta love the total Boston fail. Then the top of the 12th featured a 2-run home run by Pat Burrell.

After Soriano closed out the game I switched to the Colorado-Atlanta game and was able to watch 8 innings of Jimenez's no-hitter. Amazing, really. I was half expecting a meltdown after I saw how many walks Ubaldo had given up, and I didn't really believe that the no-hitter was so close until after the 7th and it was very clear that Jimenez was in firm control. Seriously, amazing. And Fowler's play in the bottom of the 7th was absolutely incredible.

By then, I knew about the epic game going on in St. Louis. Boo to blackouts (I couldn't watch). But still, following it on gameday and radio feed, I could see it was a crazy game. Not only did it go 20 innings but it featured quirky managerial decisions (double switch for Matt Holliday, sacrifice bunt against a position player pitching), weird pitching substitution decisions, position players pitching, baserunners stranded, a blown save by K-Rod, an ill-timed caught stealing, and complete emptying of benches. Epic game, no doubt.

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