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Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Really, I Didn't Want To Be An Oracle: Mariners 5, Angels 3

In my Hardball Times Angels preview, I speculated that the pen would fall apart this year.

I really, really didn't want for that to happen, but here we are with Gregg and his 9.00 ERA in 9.0 IP. (At least Yan, Bootcheck, and Shields put up okay numbers for the day.)

Oh, and look, there's Figgins failing to get on base, and Erstad OBPing at a rate of .324.

Tell you what, I'm gonna start throwing things if they haven't gotten this straightened out by the end of the month.

Update: ... although, it's always instructive to check out the other team's blogs and see what they have to say. For some reason, words like "candyass" -- something I would just about never apply to one of the opposition's players -- flow freely when attacking your own. (Though that's about how I feel right now when applied to Kevin Gregg's pitch stylings.)

Recap


Comments:
Technically, Gregg has only come out of the pen once this year. It takes different preparation to start, and you are expected to pitch a lot more innings. When he gets back to regular relieving duties, it is very possible he will recover solidly.
 
Went to the game yesterday, and Gregg was even more unimpressive than his pitching line. Bootcheck did an outstanding job, as did the rest of the pen yesterday.

I'm with you on Figgins, but Erstad, as much as I still don't think the guy hits enough to play first, seems to have found his stroke the last couple of days. The ball is starting to jump off his bat like I haven't seen in years. Hopefully that will continue.

Is this team as good as 2004 or 2002? Probably not. But get Escobar and Kennedy back in the lineup, get Gregg back to the bullpen, and let McPherson start swinging... well, it's a little early to start talking about throwing in the towel on the season already.
 
I'm not throwing in the towel by any means. But what I object to is the tone taken by a lot of analysts implying the AL West is the Angels' to lose. It's a long, long ways away from that. As Sean recently reminded us, D-Mac must step up and have a Rookie-of-the-Year kind of season or the Angels are in a world of hurt. His increasing strikeouts at each level are not very encouraging, and whether he can translate his success at lower levels to the majors is an open question.
 
Any division with the A's, Rangers and Mariners is never any one team's to lose.

I totally agree with you on the predictions... it should be a great season, but one in which the Angels are going to have to be a lot better in a good many areas than they've shown thus far. And that includes Mike not giving eternal chances to guys like Lackey.
 

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