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

While I was rambling on about the Dodgers split-squad games tonight, I realized I had much, much more to say about the Blue Crew than I had time to write in one roundup post tonight. It will wait until the morrow.

Our Ace And All: Brewers 8, Angels (SS) 1

It was simply a wretched game for John Lackey, who just couldn't assemble anything like a solid start against the Brewers. Corey Koskie -- Corey Fargin' Koskie! -- drilled a three-run dinger off Lackey. But Lackey says his rusty shoulder's feeling better now:

"If I was a little more economical with them, that would have been a normal start," he said. "I'll be able to go up to 100 [pitches] easy now."

...

"That one inning I was getting ground balls like I wanted to, [but] they were hoping [sic] through some holes," Lackey said. "Once we get on a different field that's not like a parking lot, hopefully we'll be able to turn a couple of those."

With Garret Anderson and Tim Salmon being taken off the field after only two turns at bat each, most likely to pack their bags and get the hell on a plane headed for LA, the offense collapsed in a big hurry. And what kind of joker plays Edgardo Alfonso at second base? Geesh.

The rest of the offense was pretty much like taking a piece of scotch tape to a dog hair-covered sweater; you get all the bits you don't want -- the unfortunate second baseman, Devin Day, a former University of Arkansas infielder who's buried so deep he could give King Tut lessons, and just-outta-rookie-league Brad Coon -- along with some you do. In that latter category I place Kendry Morales, who, like Salmon and Anderson, also got yanked early. Perhaps we may take it as a Sign, for those who like to indulge in Kremlinology.

We also saw (or in my case, heard) Michael Collins, whom Stephen Smith likened to Mike Piazza and is 2-3 on his extremely brief adventure in spring training. As well, 2005 draftee P.J. Phillips appeared, not getting an at-bat but did play the field; and former top-30 prospect Drew Toussaint. Toussaint appeared as the 27th-ranked prospect in the Angels' system in 2005, but disappeared as more prospects jumped ahead of him on the team's depth chart last year. With one or two more graduations, Toussaint might jump back onto the Angels' farm system radar, but remember that this is a system that's going to slip once guys like Mathis and Wood graduate to the Show.

The let-the-kids-play theme extended to the pitching staff as well, with Mike sending organizational filler Aaron Pullin to his doom, whereupon he indeed proceeded to blow his own brains out on the mound. Following in Lackey's execrable footsteps, Pullin surrendered three earned runs in his one inning of work, a perfect 27.00 ERA in spring training. K-Rod, Donnelly, and Gregg finished up in splendid fashion, none of the trio coughing up an earned run.

So closes the final day of real spring training, with the Angels finishing 16-13, best in the AL West. Ahead lie the bragging rights of the Freeway Series, the onramp to the regular season. Too bad I couldn't get an Angels feed for this or the evening game on MLB Gameday Audio; well, let's hope they have these troubles worked out by the start of the regular season. For those of us who couldn't be there, Brian Clevinger has a nice series of photos from this game, including one of Tim Salmon autographing a ball.

Recap

Depth Charge: Angels (SS) 1, Giants 0

Does Jered Weaver indeed feel like he's back in college, mowing them down like grass on a fine spring Friday night? Oh, the things we dare to believe! Jered hasn't cracked the team's rotation, no, not tonight. But we peek at last year's strikeout rates among starting pitchers, and observe that Jered Weaver's spring training 7.64 K/9 would land him fifth overall, directly behind Randy Johnson, and ahead of then-Ranger Chris Young. If, as I think is plausible, he has a couple more points to go on that scale, say, to Lackey-an or (here I engage the fantastic) Santanan heights of near 9.00 -- and it has, at times, seemed entirely plausible -- the Angels have a man they can count on when Bartolo Colón falters. Or Escobar. Or brother Jeff.

Nine strikeouts per nine innings seems like such a small number, after years of Randy Johnson and his 12-14 K/9 rates defining the upper limits of pitching excellence, but even he must succumb to the effects of age. Perhaps one day we'll look at another Mariner starter atop the mound, and just whistle as he blows them by, chasing Nolan Ryan and the Big Unit for the all-time strikeout title. But for now, it is enough to discern that the Angels have assembled as solid a rotation as any in the majors, and one with unrecognized depth.

Sure, the Giants failed to put Moises Alou on the field, but the team's aging starter, son of manager Felipe, wasn't really the main show, as Jered got Barry out and narrowly missed a strikeout the second time, according to the radio crew. The sense that we may be witnessing greatness blossom here is no accident, and a welcome relief after his weak AFL showing nearly had me convinced he had turned into an overpriced bust. The anticipation of seeing Jered in the Show returns, goosebumps accompanying his name as it once did on Friday nights, and on draft day.

Update: Ken Arneson writes about his impressions:

Physically, Jared Weaver looks an awful lot like his brother. He's tall and gangly, and I can imagine he'll have days where all those long appendages don't quite synch up as well as they did last night.

Stylistically, however, he reminded me not so much of his brother as of Tim Hudson. They're physical opposites--Hudson is probably about eight inches shorter than Weaver--but the way Weaver just seemed to invent new pitches out of nowhere against Bonds and Feliz was quite Hudsonesque. They both use a low-90s fastball, and mix in a bunch of other stuff--sliders, curves, changeups. Weaver, like Hudson, doesn't seem to have that dominant #1 starter stuff, like a Johan Santana, Rich Harden, or Felix Hernandez. But he has such a diverse arsenal of weapons, he's clearly capable of being a solid #2 starter for a long time to come. Look out AL West.

Recap