6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

In Boston, The Joy Of (Nomarless) Sox

"Sure," said Millar. "You start with the guy who said, `Hey, we want Alex Rodriguez!' . . . Actually, only time is going to tell on this deal. We hadn't played so great before the trade happened. Now we're playing better. I don't know what the reason is. It would be unfair to say that trading Nomar is the reason, but is it part of it?

"I think so, yeah."

Team       Games  Record
========================
Minnesota    1      0-1
Tampa Bay    7      5-2
Detroit      7      6-1
Toronto      6      5-1
Chicago      6      4-2

(The article was written on the 27th, which explains the discrepancy between the win-loss record in the article and their current situation.) The Devil Rays and Detroit are improved, no doubt, but they're not the A's, either; and the Chisox are minus Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordoñez, without whom, their offense is decidedly sunk.

Tuesday's probables -- Lackey vs. Schilling -- don't even look close on paper. Schilling has settled down in his recent starts (1.69 ERA last three starts), while Lackey's reverted to his old, bad gascan ways. Here's hoping he can calm down some, and that Glaus in the lineup equals the kind of bat we need, rather than a prayer in the batting order.

Some Love For The Angels At BP

The Angels are once again executing an unreliable plan as well as it can be executed. If you live and die by batting average, you can win when you hit .280. Be a little bit worse--as they were in 2003, when they hit .268, or in 2001, when they hit .261--and you can't score enough runs to win because you don't have enough runners on base. They don't walk; only the Royals have fewer than the Halos' 344 bases on balls. Their isolated power of .145 is just 10th in the league, and by far the worst of any good AL team. They hit singles better than anyone else, though, and in '04, they're doing it well enough to have a winning lineup.

... As important to the Angels' success as their offense is their bullpen, which has been lights-out for the fourth year under Mike Scioscia. While no starting pitcher has an ERA under 4.11, every single reliever with at least 20 appearances is under than figure.

... Watching Scioscia handle Percival has been interesting, because it's the one decision in his tenure in which he's allowed performance issues to take a back seat to other concerns. Whereas Scioscia has consistently allowed no-name pitchers to win important roles in his bullpen, and to show a similar lack of concern for reputation in doling out playing time to hitters, in Percival's case, he's shown a strange tendency to protect the player. Yes, Rodriguez has 10 saves this season, but almost all of them have come while Percival was unavailable. Percival has never been treated as anything but the closer, a fact evident in his usage pattern.

The sabermetric guys don't give the Angels much love -- and I confess, they don't deserve it -- but this is about as close to grudging respect as you'll get from any writer at Baseball Prospectus:

We know that in five weeks, anything can happen--the Devil Rays' June should have convinced even the most stubborn of that--so making a prediction is a bad idea. I can say, however, that the Angels are more likely to catch the A's and Red Sox than the Rangers are. Moreover, I think the Angels have enough of an edge on offense and in the bullpen to make them a favorite, a small one, over the Sox. I don't think they're better than the A's right now, although I could see the two teams finishing on the last weekend having both clinched playoff spots.

Giants 9, Braves 5

That's about where I came into this game, just before a piece of Brazilian eucalyptus went flying into my gut. It must have felt about the same way for ex-Giant Russ Ortiz, whose "pitch-to-Bonds" strategy came badly unglued last night. In fact, Bobby Cox made two key errors: pitching to Bonds with men on base, and bringing in -- then removing -- Tom Martin before Bonds came up. Martin has given up no home runs against Bonds in his career, and in fact Bonds is only hitting .214/.267/.214 against him. If ever you were going to use Martin in a tight spot, that one was it. Chicken or no, Tracy's walking Bonds looks like a good strategy, especially with nobody on.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 5:09 AM link  //  5 comments