Sunday, April 10, 2005 |
Lima Time, Lousy Time: Angels 8, Royals 3
In other words, there was no rational reason to re-sign him whatsoever; his effectiveness comes and goes mercurially. Lima, who now sports a 10.80 ERA on the season after two starts, has only had two years in his career with an ERA under 4.00, both of those in the Astrodome, a notorious pitcher's park. He's entirely dependent on whether he can get his fastball past hitters to set them up for his change, and all too often, he can't. Last night he couldn't, and so the Angels beat the snot out of the Royals last night, feasting mainly on Lima, who gave up all but one of the Angels' eight runs.
Aside from Lima's all-too-predictable meltdown, there were two other interesting stories. The first is about Jim Hendry, GM of the Cubs, and how he came to let Andy Sisco go. I've had my eye on Sisco since last year, when I proposed an Eckstein-for-Sisco trade. Subsequently, Sisco went unprotected on the Cubs' 40-man roster and the Cubs left him exposed to the Rule 5 draft. As Baseball Prospectus wrote in their annual, "most clubs are going to take one look at him, think Randy Johnson, and look for the sharpie to sign the contract." Given the Angels released Eckstein, given he was about to hit his peak production at short about that time (as of July 14 when I proposed the trade, his line was .298/.353/.354, about as high as it would get that year), it was an ideal time to make the trade. I still think it would have been worth it.
Back to the game. The 6'10" Sisco pitched a nearly perfect 3.0 innings, surrendering only a single hit, unlike the 2 ER/1.2 IP shelling he took against Detroit. Helen watched through her fingers, getting increasingly steamed as Sisco continued to mow down Angels. Of course, some of this stems from inexperience against a rookie, but Sisco has talent, for sure, talent that he still needs some help harnessing, but nothing I saw yesterday dissuaded me from my earlier assessment that he could be something special.
The other non-Lima story was Kevin Gregg, who managed a shaky five innings, giving up three runs. It's early in the season yet, but it's altogether possible Gregg's moment to shine was April and May of 2004; he hasn't had a sub-4.00 ERA month since, and he just doesn't look like he has an idea of what he wants to do on the mound. He also has control problems that come and go; as ESPN's scouting report puts it, he has often has no idea where his split-fingered fastball will go. I'm hoping Scioscia or Bud Black will get him straightened out, and soon.
Esteban Yan surprised the hell out of me by actually pitching well in his three innings of work. Of course, it's against the Royals; put him up there against teams with actual hitting talent, and fire, meet gasoline. But for now, he escapes my barbs with a very good performance.
Elseways, Angels hitting continues to worry; DaVanon, the designated "hitter", went 0-4, Finley 0-3, and Izturis 1-4. The number of guys with averages (allowances made for small sample size, naturally) under .250 is really pretty awful. The lads need to pick it up with the bats, and soon.
Newer› ‹Older
 |
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.