6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: No Surprises: Blue Jays 5, Angels 1

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Monday, May 08, 2006

No Surprises: Blue Jays 5, Angels 1

In the other room, Helen is grumpily watching the Cubs self-immolate behind Greg Maddux, who back in April was their stopper. Today, he couldn't even get out of the fourth in an extreme pitcher's park, surrendering a homer to Khalil Greene on an inside fastball he left up around Greene's nipples. So, once upon a time, Weaver was Detroit's stopper, and the Yankees bought into it; fat lot of good it did them, and he left the Bronx a broken man, or at least a man with a broken reputation. His 2004 season with the Dodgers breathed some life into him, though he seemed to give much of it back the next year. So far, he's been mostly terrible with the Angels, though I don't think that's a permanent situation. Today, he gave up five earned runs — as predicted, though I got the final score wrong.

The fact is, the Angels have a lot of rookies and near-rookies who just plain have to be integrated into the team. We watch, not so much because we think the team is going to win, but to see who will develop and who will end up getting sent back down to Salt Lake because the team's run out of patience. Already, they've fired a warning shot across the bow with Jeff Mathis — who, by the way, is hitting a robust .333/.357/.417 in the thin air parks of the PCL (small sample alert: 12 AB). Darin Erstad's most recent injury prompted Will Carroll to speculate upon the nature of his replacement. Though the immediate answer is fortunately Juan Rivera, with Dallas McPherson's recent resurgence (.273/.333/.455 over the last week prior to whatever he did tonight), the temptation will be to call him up and let him flail away at major league pitching. Having tried to do this unsuccessfully to date with Howie Kendrick, by far the most advanced of the Angels' hitting prospects outside of Casey Kotchman, I would suggest this is not the brightest of ideas.

This was a subject that Sporting News fantasy columnist Mark Allen Haverty recently touched on when he mentioned that Kendrick's value is principally in the future rather than the present:

It's going to sound like a broken record, but here is yet another player "already here" who holds more value down the road than right now. Part of the Angels' middle infield of the future, along with Brandon Wood, Kendrick is up because of injuries to Macier Izturis and Juan Rivera. Although at first it looked like the Angels were going to let Kendrick sit on the bench for much of his short stay, they have been surprisingly good at getting him into the action lately. In eight appearances, Kendrick has gotten five starts, two at first and three at second. Despite an already crowded infield and DH situation, the Angels might actually be committed to giving Kendrick more time this year.
Of players covered here, only Wood has been talked about more, so most of you know what to expect from Kendrick by now - not a lot of power, some steals, next to no walks, but a high batting average. If he can stick, these skills will show with time. However, the injured Angels will be back soon, so Kendrick does not have long to make his case to stay. Because of that, he is a better pickup with 2007 in mind.

Unfortunately, Angels fans will have to contend with a half-baked team from now through the end of the season. Only a game ahead of last-place Seattle, the real possibility of the Angels much-touted rookies taking the team on an embarrassing free-fall into the cellar — and dumb front office moves designed to save current face at the expense of future wins — loom just ahead, a Scylla and Charybdis tricky for any team to navigate.

Recap

// posted by Rob @ 9:35 PM link // 0 comments