6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: Sloppy Mathis, Shields Down Angels: Rays 4, Angels 2

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Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Sloppy Mathis, Shields Down Angels: Rays 4, Angels 2

I was thinking about the Angels' alleged calls-a-good-game guy, Jeff Mathis, whose principle reason for being seems to be his hyperinflated value behind the dish. He made his major league leading twelfth error today in a crucial situation with a perilous one-run lead, throwing away a routine bunt. (The fact that he's managed to do this in 32% fewers innings than the next worst catcher, the Dodgers' Russell Martin, is in itself staggering.) That led to a three-run implosion, but the bunt wouldn't have been necessary had Scot Shields been on his game in the first place; it was pretty obvious that he had exactly nothing, walking the first batter he faced on four straight pitches.

It seems to me that it's about time to revisit Jeff Mathis' errors, it being he has so damned many:

April 2 @ MIN: 6th inning, Nick Punto at first, two outs; Punto stole second and advanced to third on the overthrow. Brendan Harris flied out to end the inning. The Angels won a tight one 1-0 despite a two-out error by Erick Aybar in the fourth.
May 2 vs. BAL: 3rd inning, Melvin Mora at first, two outs. Mora steals second, Mathis sailed the throw, Mora took third, but with no consequence as Jered Weaver then got Aubrey Huff to ground out to first unassisted. Weaver gave up a crucial two runs in that inning already, and the Angels lost 4-3.
May 11 @ TBA: 4th inning, Carl Crawford on first, B.J. Upton at the plate. Crawford stole second, Mathis overthrew, Crawford took third. Ervin Santana got Upton to strike out to end the frame. The Angels lost 8-5.
June 16 vs NYM: 1st inning, one out, Jose Reyes on second, David Wright at the plate. Reyes stole third and scored on a bad throw. Wright struck out, but Carlos Betran lofted a solo homer to make it 2-0 in a game the Angels eventually lost 9-6.
June 18 vs NYM: 1st inning, no outs, Jose Reyes on first from a leadoff single. With Marlon Anderson batting, Reyes stole second and took third on a bad throw; Reyes later scored on David Wright's groundout. The Angels eventually rallied to a 4-3 lead in the fifth, but Francisco Rodriguez' blown save (featuring a two-out wild pitch that allowed Jose Reyes to reach scoring position) got the Mets into extras, and they eventually beat the Angels 5-4 on Damion Easley's solo homer.
June 20 @ PHI: 1st inning, Shane Victorino on first; Victorino stole second and reached third on the bad throw, but did not score. In the 6th inning, Jimmy Rollins reached on a Casey Kotchman error, reached third on the usual bad throw by Mathis, and scored on Chase Utley's sac fly for the only run of the game for Philadelphia. The Angels won 7-1.
June 28 @ LAN: 5th inning, no outs, and Matt Kemp on first thanks to Jered Weaver's misplay of a swinging bunt on the first base side. Kemp tried for a steal of second, Mathis sailed the throw, and scored on a sac fly by Blake DeWitt. The Angels lost 1-0, and this was obviously the crucial play in the game.
July 12 @ OAK: 2nd inning, two outs, Daric Barton on first. Barton reached second after a botched snap throw to first; Jack Hannahan struck out swinging. The Angels won 4-1.
August 3 @ NYY: 8th inning, Angels leading 9-8, men on first and second (one due to an earlier Eric Aybar error). Pinch-runner Justin Christian steals third and then scores on Mathis' wild throw to tie the game. The Yanks would score five times that inning and beat the Angels 14-9.

I'm missing one or two here, but you get the drift; for the most part, Mathis' errors haven't been game-changers, but he's definitely been in the middle of some real doozies (the Dodgers and Yankees games in particular). In all but two cases, the Angels lost those games he appeared in. Mathis in fact is on pace to at least tie the franchise lead in single-season errors by a catcher, made in 1983 by Bob Boone with 13, and might just break it in substantially fewer appearances; Boone did it in 142, but Mathis has appeared in only 78 of the team's 124 games to date. If Scioscia's usage patterns continue, he'll get about 19 of the remaining 38 games in which to stretch for that level of excellence. Incidentally, he has a ways to go before he really hits the depths of catching suck: for that, we recall Oscar Stanage's 1911 season with Detroit in the modern (1900 and beyond) era, with 41 errors in 141 games; the all-time record belongs to Nat Hicks with the 1876 National Association New York Mutuals, with a staggering 94 errors over 45 games.

Back to this one. Shields clearly had nothing from the start of his outing; why didn't Scioscia yank him? I guess next time Ervin Santana pitches this well, he'll have to think about how he can get a complete game out of it, too.

The Angels had a winning record against the 2005 White Sox, too, remember. It ain't over, but the Angels need to address the sloppiness. If Scioscia starts talking about how home field advantage doesn't matter, he's crazy.

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