6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: An Intriguing Goat: Orioles 7, Angels 6

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Sunday, May 28, 2006

An Intriguing Goat: Orioles 7, Angels 6

The Rev left it to the boys over at the Halo's Heaven watercooler to resolve just who lost today's game for the Angels, as usual; the Rev nominated the most proximate Angel to the disaster, Scot Shields, who turned a one-run Angel lead into a loss. Other partisans favored a nomination for Garret Anderson on the wholly sensible suggestion that all he needed to do with one out and a man on third was to hit a sac fly to tie the game; instead, he hit into a game-ending double play.

It's at this moment that I find myself not a little saddened by the lack of real diversity in the Angels blogosphere of late. With Sean sadly retired, the Chronicler never having been a daily kind of guy, the culprits behind the Pearly Gates more preoccupied with the abomination of soccer and — far worse — actual work to be bothered with the important stuff like figuring out what went wrong in a particular game, it gets sort of lonely in this business. So from that perspective, today's entry in Haloblog (come on, guys, get some real blogging software so's I can permalink to you, wouldja?) resonates extra-loudly. "Sconiers" blames the whole kit and kaboodle on Kelvim Escobar, and in particular, on his fraternization with the enemy before the game:

What role does fraternization play in today's game that contributed to yesterday's loss? In the first inning, Kris Benson hit Vladimir, in the elbow, with a fastball. Vlad, of course, had homered off Benson in the first inning of their last encounter. It's not a stretch, even though the book on Vlad is to bust him in, to say that Benson hit Vlad on purpose. Even if he didn't dose him on purpose, though, someone has to pay for Benson hitting the Angels' best hitter.

So, who paid? Well, Kevin Millar. Yes, Kevin Millar. Who cares about Kevin Millar? No Fucking Body. Hitting Kevin Millar is like hitting their fucking bat boy. It's useless, absolutely fucking useless.

So why does Kelvim plunk Millar instead of, say Miguel Tejada? Right, because Tejada and Vlad are chummy. Horseshit. Absolute fucking horseshit. Kelvim Esobar needs to roll Miguel Tejada, or even Javy Lopez if need be, in the dirt. Instead, he hits Millar. What a fucking pussy. And a pathetic and lonely (hat tip: Rev Halofan) pussy at that. Apparently, Kelvim is too busy fucking bimbos and wanking off to the Playboy channel to notice how the game's supposed to be played.
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So, essentially, Kelvim is caught pandering to Tejada. His teammates notice too, I guarantee it. And, at the risk of alienating some, there is another reason Millar went down instead of someone worth something; the same cliques that have formed in the Angels' clubhouse have formed throughout baseball. Some random white starter like Kris Benson hits Guerrero, and, in retaliation, Kelvim hits some random white player.

Maybe that's true and maybe it's not, but I'll agree with "Sconiers" to this extent: Kelvim's big talk about a juicy contract has raised a few eyebrows, especially with his recent wheedling to speed up the process. Regardless of whether you believe in plunking opposing batters, the fact is that just because Escobar's 3.96 ERA leads the team doesn't mean the team owes him an extension. He's got a significant injury history — missing months last year because of elbow surgery — and his K/9 is down this year, by a lot: 6.90, far from ineffective, but more than a point lower than his career averages. If Kelvim is going to bluster in anticipation of a big payday from the Angels, he'd better make sure he's worth it first. Leaving the game tied against a mediocre offensive club, even though it's a sample size of one, isn't exactly reassuring.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 11:42 PM link // 1 comments