Thursday, May 31, 2012 |
Kemp Returns From And Goes Back On DL
Castellanos has the potential to be an interesting six-week pickup for fantasy purposes. On a tools level, he has average power and is a plus runner, and while a high strikeout rate will likely keep him in the .260-.270 range as a hitter, peak seasons of 15-20 home runs and an equal number of stolen bases are not out of the question. That combination makes him a valuable commodity if he can stay at second base, and early signs were encouraging.
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 |
Frank Investigated For "Criminal Financial Misconduct"
A federal grand jury is investigating possible criminal financial misconduct of the Dodgers and related entities during the ownership of Frank and Jamie McCourt, a person familiar with the matter told The Times.Authorities have requested documents from representatives of each of the McCourts, the person said. The investigation started early last year and appears to be focused on the accounting and propriety of Dodgers spending, the person said.
The Los Angeles Daily Journal first reported the investigation.
The McCourt divorce proceedings and the Dodgers' subsequent bankruptcy filing led to revelations about how team money had been diverted for the personal use of the McCourts. In a Bankruptcy Court filing, Major League Baseball alleged McCourt had "looted" $189 million from the Dodgers for personal use, a claim attorneys for McCourt called inflammatory and unsupportable.
What's That, Lassie? The Angels Took A Series From The Yankees? Angels 5, Yankees 1
The guys now we are starting to grow accustomed to getting the job done offensively — Trout and Trumbo — also had a thunderous ovation added to that list by Albert Pujols, the man paid as a Cooperstown bat but who has mostly played like a reserve all year. Yet, Pujols has homered five times since May 22, so the small sample size theater is ongoing and positive. Trumbo's homer, particularly, was a monster shot to the rockpile in center; if Andy Pettite had anything in the tank, it certainly didn't appear so.
Dan Haren was generally masterful (his third straight good outing), Scott Downs threw a scoreless inning, and while Ernesto Frieri was wobbly (loading the bases on a hit batter and a pair of walks), he escaped unscathed. Get 'em tonight, boys.
Labels: angels, recaps, yankees
Tuesday, May 29, 2012 |
Transaction Fun
- The Angels placed Jered Weaver on the 15-day DL for back spasms, and then rescinded the announcement. WTF? I expect the Angels will put him on the DL anyway.
Update: Sure enough. WTF, Angels? Garrett Richards to get the callup.
Update 2: Mike DiGiovanna has a new blog post up, and guesstimates 3-4 weeks on the DL for Weaver.
- Also, Torii Hunter was reinstated from the restricted list, with Andrew Romine sent down to AAA Salt Lake.
- The Dodgers activated Matt Kemp and sent down Jerry Sands to make room.
Labels: angels, dodgers, injuries, transactions
Trumbomb Powers Seventh Straight Win: Angels 9, Yankees 8
Minus Weaver (who didn't last long enough to even record a single out), the Angels did surprisingly well by running a chain of relievers out there. Bobby Cassevah, whom I expected would get impaled, allowed all his inherited baserunners to score, but settled down in subsequent innings to limit the Yankees to just the three runs (all charged to Weaver, unfairly) plus one more on a Curtis Granderson solo homer in the second. Cassevah should not be mistaken for a guy you want in a tight spot, but he performed adequately under the circumstances.
That opened the door to Takahashi, Carpenter, and Isringhausen, all of whom gave up at least one run, so that by the end of that line, the score was all knotted at eight. Then Cory Wade, then Mark Trumbo — who, by the way, ended the day a mere single away from hitting for the cycle. Mike Trout homered earlier in the game, against Phil Hughes, whom the Angels pretty reliably battered and must by now be running into significant questions about his longevity in the rotation. He exited the game with a 5.64 ERA, snapping a string of five straight good starts.
Good show, guys. That's seven wins in a row. I'm still not convinced this is anything but a .500 team, give or take a few wins, but it's nice to see a few rack up on the W side.
Labels: angels, recaps, woo hoo, yankees
Tuesday, May 22, 2012 |
Register Holding In-Game Tweet Promotion Contest With Prizes
The Shiny Object In God Mode
— Paco TorresIt is increasingly clear that the Angels' season is lost. With last night's loss, they are on pace for a 68-win season, meaning they have to play winning ball the balance of the year (or enough more) to even make .500. Angels fans must therefore content ourselves with knowing they have arguably the best rookie anywhere, Mike Trout, and he is in God mode:
This is a classic case of a guy ignoring a big thing to focus on a little thing. The big thing is a dinger, the little thing is an infield single, and the guy is me. But think about what we have here. Mike Trout is going to hit home runs, and in fact he's slugging .605. Mike Trout is also going to hit infield singles and steal a lot of bases. Mike Trout makes an above-average amount of contact. Mike Trout's wielding a skillset without a weakness. Mike Trout is a video game boss with no spot glowing orange, so you shoot and you shoot and you shoot until it kills you.Mark Trumbo's offense is equally golden — more of a surprise in his case — but the rest of the team is a joke, and an expensive one at that.
Labels: angels
Monday, May 21, 2012 |
Vernon Wells To Have Surgery
Update: Per the Angels press release (not yet available on the website), the injury is to the ulnar collateral ligament of the thumb. orthogate.com says rehab for this is about three months.
Update 2: Michael Kohn will go on the 60-day DL to make room for Kole Calhoun. Ryan Langerhans' separated shoulder will not require surgery, but he will go on the 15-day DL anyway.
Baseball Prospectus Day At Anaheim!
Baseball Prospectus and the Los Angeles Angels invite you to join us for a great day of baseball on Saturday, June 16 at Angel Stadium. Thanks to the fine folks in the Angels front office, we are proud to be able to offer our guests the following:Festivities begin at 4:30 PM with a game start time of 7:05.
- Admittance to a private "meet and greet" with special guests and Baseball Prospectus personalities 2 hours prior to game time (including Sam Miller, Geoff Young, John Perrotto, Stephani Bee, Jason Wojciechowski, former Dodgers GM Dan Evans, MLBDepthCharts.com Jason Martinez )
- A question and answer session with Los Angeles Angels Assistant General Manager Matt Klentak.
- Seat in the right field MVP section of Angel Stadium to watch the Angels take on the Arizona Diamondbacks with Baseball Prospectus fans and staff.
- A $15 coupon to be used toward a new Baseball Prospectus Premium subscription or your next Premium renewal.
Labels: angels, sabermetrics
Angels Call Up Cassevah
Labels: angels, transactions
Arrests Made Following Dodger Stadium Parking Lot Attacks
Labels: dodgers
Angels Call Up Kole Calhoun
Labels: angels, transactions
Keynes Meets The Angels
It is easy for people in positions like mine to invoke the Politician’s Fallacy in times like this:This, of course, is how we end up with stimulus and a lot of other fraud. Meanwhile, in Anaheim, Hatcher is gone, the Angels just lost a series to the lowly Padres, and Albert Pujols looks no closer to being a valuable member of the team than he did when Mickey Hatcher was seated in the hitting coach's spot.1. We must do something.
2. This is something.
3. Therefore, we must do this.
And of course, it is in fact possible to react rashly, to mistakenly take to action when inaction is the most prudent course. On the other hand, it is much easier to counsel inaction when one has no power to enact any action at all and suffers no consequences from what happens if inaction occurs. In this case, rather than being actively detrimental, in the worst case this seems rather innocuous. That doesn’t mean it’s the right call, necessarily, but it does make it a very understandable sort of decision.
Labels: angels
Scott Van Sweep: Dodgers 6, Cardinals 5
I am not much on "magical" and related sorts of adjectives, but it seems to me that this team is, at least, charmed. They find ways to win, improbable though that often seems to be.
Apparently there was a scuffle in the parking lot after the game that resulted in a man being hospitalized (where his pregnant wife went, too). Not a lot of details yet.
Labels: cardinals, dodgers, recaps
Sunday, May 20, 2012 |
The Angels Are A Bad Team, And Mike Scioscia, You Are Next: Padres 3, Angels 2 (13 Innings)
The Angels lost this one, predictably, in extras. I missed the ending. The Angels are back in the division cellar where, sadly, they belong. Does Mike Scioscia need firing? I can't tell, and don't immediately support it; but I wouldn't reject it out of hand, either. At this point, such a move would largely be symbolic, but if it meant the team would clean house on the idiotic offensive strategery, I would be all in favor.
Labels: angels, injuries, padres, recaps, rumors, stupid ideas, transactions
Power Struggle: Padres 3, Angels 2
The puzzler for the Angels, though, was the man on the mound, Dan Haren, who looked lost against the National League's second-worst offensive team. If you can't blank the Padres, something is terribly wrong, and last night's start was a continuation of the "Where's Haren" picture book the Angels have suffered from all year. Meanwhile, Dodgers castoff Eric Stults baffled the Angels, which isn't all that difficult these days. I haven't looked at their numbers against lefties, but it's none too surprising.
Finally, there was a perhaps significant oddment in the final out. Erick Aybar — he of the 4-for-4 night, a lone spark among a dead collection of rally killers, missing the cycle by a home run — reached on an infield single as the tying run. With two out and the winning run 90 feet away, Mike Scioscia left late inning defensive sub Ryan Langerhans in to hit — instead of sending in Vernon Wells, who had not started and remained on the bench. Scioscia used the odd justification that
"Langerhans had been swinging the bat well," Scioscia said.It's so crazy it begins to sound like an upraised middle finger to Jerry Dipoto — "I'm still in charge of the lineup!" — or maybe early onset dementia. When you have a guy who — at least theoretically — could win the game with one swing of the bat, why aren't you using him?In his last nine minor league games, Langerhans had batted .179. He had not batted since May 13.
Labels: angels, ex-dodgers, padres, recaps
Thursday, May 17, 2012 |
Mickey Hatcher, Jerk And Ignoramus (Update: Or, Maybe That's Just The Author)
The Angels fired hitting coach Mickey Hatcher yesterday.If this is true — and the results certainly speak for themselves — the Angels have already upgraded at hitting coach. Too bad that's not enough. (Hat tip to Rev. Halofan.)Lots of “oh, what a great guy” stuff out there, particularly from those in the sports journalism community.
And I say … bosh!
I found Mickey Hatcher to be an aggressively ignorant clod.
I realize that he has a reputation as a fun guy, a prankster, a jokester … but I never saw that. Ever. Just heard about it, and marveled at it.
...
The measure of Mickey Hatcher was his persistently out-of-touch style as a hitting coach. Boiled down, it was this: “See a pitch … hack at it.”
It led to Angels teams that often had below-average on-base percentages. And this in an era where “everyone” pretty much had agreed that OBP is a very important statistic, because getting somebody to first base means you are far more likely to score a run. But Mickey Hatcher never coached “working the count” or “take a walk” because he didn’t believe in it.
Update: Mike Petriello reminds me that Oberjuerge has a rather checkered history at judging character, at one point calling Matt Kemp a "dolt" for his actions in a meaningless late 2009 game.
Jim Eppard, Genius: Angels 7, White Sox 2
Seriously, it's hard for me to say much about yesterday's win that sounds neither trite nor obvious, so I'll get the homers by Pujols and Wells out of the way first. Pujols in particular was interesting, not because of the home run but because of the first inning popout to second base. Any ball he hits the other way is good news, even if it results in an out. I am not yet convinced Pujols is out of his slump, but I do think the signs are more propitious than at any previous moment.
Jerome Williams pitched a wonderful game, especially good considering it came on the heels of a catastrophe outing against the Rangers in which he was called on without warning to complete a start after a lengthy rain delay.
Labels: angels, recaps, white sox
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 |
Angels Fire Mickey Hatcher
Update: Bill Shaikin mentions the significant intelligence that the move was announced by Dipoto, not Scioscia. Definitely a warning shot to Scioscia. Mike DiGiovanna thinks this was all Arte's doing.
Update 2: Angels.com story.
"We think the absolute world of Mickey as a person and thank him for all of his contributions to this organization," Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a statement.The new hitting coach will be Jim Eppard, previously AAA Salt Lake's hitting coach."Sometimes in the sports world a point is reached where perhaps a new voice is needed in order to attain the desired goals and objectives. Unfortunately, we feel this is one of those times. Offensively, we have underachieved, and everyone shares in the responsibility of what has transpired thus far."
Update 3: Mark Saxon analysis at ESPN/LA:
Under former GMs Bill Stoneman or Tony Reagins, Tuesday's move seems unlikely, certainly in May. But Dipoto has brought in his own people and has his own vision for this team, one which doesn't always align with the way Scioscia and Hatcher viewed things. He vowed back in November to increase the Angels' emphasis on on-base percentage. Scioscia and Hatcher continued to preach patience only as a means to an end -- getting a good pitch to hit -- not as an end in itself -- a walk.Of course, when you bring in guys like Pujols who are arguably approaching the end of their careers — with warning signs, to boot — it makes you question the general manager, too.Of course, the man in the middle of all this is Pujols, who so far has a cost-to-home run ratio of 240 million-to-one. Mix in one struggling superstar, one new and powerful GM and you get a manager with less ability to stand up for his own guys.
Labels: angels, coaches, firings
Robothal: Trumbo "Needs To Be In The Lineup. Every Day."
Pujols isn’t the Angels’ only problem — the distribution of playing time also remains an issue.See also Jeff Sullivan's analysis of Mark Trumbo's swing improvements.Case in point:
Left fielder Vernon Wells has made 124 plate appearances, or 26 more than infielder/outfielder Mark Trumbo.
Oops: Wells’ OPS is .666, while Trumbo’s is 1.012.
Listen, we all know Wells is owed nearly $60 million through 2014, but fans are right to be upset when their team is not putting its best players on the field (and yes, the same will apply to the Red Sox if third baseman Will Middlebrooks is still hot when Kevin Youkilis returns).
Labels: angels
Monday, May 14, 2012 |
The Catch: Dodgers 3, Diamondbacks 1
Kershaw was predictably awesome.
The Dodgers' bizarre 2012 cruise seems to continue without any hitches, or at least, until now, when Matt Kemp went on the 15-day DL for a strained left hamstring; Jerry Sands got the callup from Albuquerque.
Labels: diamondbacks, dodgers, injuries, recaps, transactions
Juan Uribe To DL With Sore Wrist
Update: Trent Oeltjen will be DFA'd to make room.
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Torii Hunter Placed On Restricted List For "Personal Reasons"
Update: Hunter's 17-year-old son was arrested in Dallas on sexual assault charges.
Labels: angels, transactions
Medicine: Rangers 13, Angels 6
- Vernon Wells needs to be cut. Wells has been a .220 hitter since 2010 and provides no actual value defensively (in fact, negative value); last night, he misplayed a ball into a double.
- Bench Pujols. I don't pretend here that Pujols is over, only that this remains within the realm of possibility given the very real decline in unintentional walk rate, a canary in his coal mine of recent suck. Mark Trumbo should be getting more starts in his stead, and this should not be controversial. Trumbo, at least, sounded the right note when he called on the team to play with some attitude, which I esteem to mean better relief pitching, and more offense.
Labels: angels, rangers, recaps, suck
Friday, May 11, 2012 |
Dodgers Disable Hairston, Call Up Sellers
Related: Juan Rivera's tendon is ruptured, which speaks to a longer-term injury.
Labels: dodgers, injuries, transactions
Holy Mother Of Uh-Oh: Sam Miller's List Of Things With More Walks Than Albert Pujols
Update: You should really read this older Sam Miller article first. He means unintentional walk rate, and yes, that has plummeted since last year's ASB. By my math:
- 1st half 2011: (35 BB - 4 IBB)/342 PA = .0906 unintentional BB/PA
- 2nd half 2011: (26 BB - 11 IBB)/309 PA = .0485 unintentional BB/PA
Update: Good article suggested by commenter binkster at SB Nation by J.P. Starkey about Pujols' term as an Angel.
He's not that bad, but he'll never be 2009-good again. He'll never be one of the best hitters of all-time again. Father Time has caught up to Pujols. The decreased walk percentage could very well correlate to a drop in bat speed -- Pujols could have to start his swing earlier to compensate for the loss of bat speed, meaning, he has to expand his zone a bit more than he's used to.The intro suggests "[t]he Albert Pujols of the past has yet to show up in Los Angeles, and there's little to suggest that he ever will." Fair point, but will at least a pretty good simulation of that guy show up?
Labels: angels
Thursday, May 10, 2012 |
Chris Iannetta To Miss 6-8 Weeks Following Wrist Surgery
Hank Conger would have been the obvious choice, but the switch-hitter has been on the triple-A disabled list because of a strained elbow. He hasn’t played since mid-April and hasn't begun throwing yet during rehabilitation. Robinzon Diaz and John Hester have been catching at Salt Lake.Update: The Angels will call up C John Hester from AAA Salt Lake for the weekend series in Texas, may God have mercy on his soul.Diaz is the better hitter of the two triple-A catchers, but opponents have been successful on 13 of 14 stolen-base attempts against him. Hester has been with Salt Lake for only a week after being released by Baltimore's triple-A club. He's the better defender but is unfamiliar with the Angels' big league pitchers.
Labels: angels, injuries, rumors, transactions
Lincecum's Fastball: Dodgers 6, Giants 2
So, no, seven starts into 2012, Lincecum hasn't been the same guy. He's giving up more than a hit per inning. His walks are up. There's something desperate in the way he pitches, more desperate than he usually looks with that fantastically unique delivery. Like he's searching for the right pitch and the right moment, for another inch or two on the fastball, for the next epiphany that leads him into the eighth inning with the ballgame in his back pocket.Sad, actually.
Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps
Wednesday, May 09, 2012 |
Juan Rivera To Hit The DL With A Leg Injury
Jay Jaffe, you are an evil man (LOL).
Various unconfirmed rumors (here's one now!) that Scott Van Slyke will get the callup.
Update: Tony Jackson confirms it's Van Slyke.
Related update: Jerry Hairston, Jr. will undergo an MRI for his left hamstring. Nice.
How The Dodgers Bankruptcy Provided A Template For Sports Franchises Looking For Top Dollar
By filing in bankruptcy court, the Dodgers were able to thwart efforts by the league to control the sale process, they say, and to increase the price they likely would have gotten if the league had assumed its traditional role of handpicking the winning bid.Whether those valuations will hold up in the long run is another matter entirely, and I would bet they don't....
"Chapter 11 is a place where you can neutralize league issues to allow auctions to go forward," said [Texas Rangers attorney Martin] Sosland.
Labels: dodgers
Now, Bunt! Giants 2, Dodgers 1
- In the seventh, with men on first and second, Juan Uribe dropped a bunt that stopped rolling two feet in front of the plate. Buster Posey easily completed a 1-6-3 double play to end the inning.
- In the eighth, Bobby Abreu got a pinch hit walk, and then Dee Gordon issued a bunt single to put men on first and second. That one, surprisingly, worked. But then...
- Mark Ellis sac bunted them to second and third with Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier coming up. What to do if you're Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong? Why, the answer is obvious: take the bat out of Kemp's hand with an intentional pass, and take your chances with Ethier. Ethier grounded into a double play, and that was that.
The best we can say about this game is that Vogelsong was on his game, but Kershaw's was a little less good. The Dodgers generally failed to cash in with runners in scoring position, getting only one hit in eight tries. Kershaw's winning streak comes to an end at five. Bleh.
Update: Chad Moriyama has more, including animated GIFs of the carnage and play-by-play win expectation percentages. Just ugly.
Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps
Tuesday, May 08, 2012 |
Remember When We Thought Pujols' First Homer Would Break His Slump? Twins 5, Angels 0
Dan Haren had his ass handed to him on a night when the Angels 1-4 batters were 1-for-15, with the only hit among them coming from Mike Trout, unsurprisingly. Haren apparently had lower back stiffness, which got progressively worse through the night. Haren hasn't been Haren this year, which makes me wonder if there isn't something more than just "stiffness" at play here.
Update 5/9: Brilliant observation at Halos Heaven: "For the record, as of this writing Albert Pujols has fewer HITS OF ANY KIND for the entire month of May than Josh Hamilton hit as home runs in today's game alone." Ouch.
Scott Downs To Return To Closing
Update: Mike DiGiovanna says it'll be tomorrow at the earliest.
Casey Blake Retires
Labels: dodgers, ex-dodgers, indians, retirements
Researcher: 25% Gains In Revenue On Declining Cable TV Subscriber Base
The Cambridge, Mass. market researcher Pyramid Research says pay-TV revenue in North America is expected to grow by 25% in five years to $125 billion. The research company says all this comes despite a declining number of cable and other TV distribution pay TV subscribers.So, wait a minute: per the earlier projections from Convergence Consulting, pay TV subscribers were expected to decline by 3.58M in 2012. That's a reduction of about 3.5% on top of a 5% real decline in 2011. If you posit a 2% annual cord-cutting in cable TV rolls, that means a 9.6% decline in subscribers in five years, and you need an 11% price hike across the board in your remaining customers just to keep up with attrition so you can pay your content providers. To make those numbers, cable TV revenue has to go up across the board by 39%, more than a third, and probably more than that if you're imagining the difference will be made up by pay channels like HBO. While I won't say this is impossible, I do think it's assuming an awful lot that flies in the face of recent trends.Pyramid says the total pay TV market was $99 billion at the end of 2011.
Nielsen recently noted there were 103.5 million cable, satellite, and telco subscribers in the U.S. at the end of 2011. At the end of 2010 there were 105 million. This decline was mostly due to a decrease in cable subscribers -– down 5% to 60.5 million. Telco subscribers were up, while satellite subscribers were flat.
Labels: tv
Beat — Nay, Crush — The Giants: Dodgers 9, Giants 1
Barry Zito delivered a quality start (just) for the Giants, but it was enough for the win by the Dodgers, who then proceeded to pound on an assortment of relievers thereafter. Ted Lilly managed a good outing against a depleted lineup, and in his support, the Dodgers hammered away. Matt Kemp went 3-for-3 with a walk, and earned chants of "M-V-P", which, yes, he is playing like that, but then Giants beat writer and infamous gourmand Hank Schulman took offense to in one of the silliest columns ever. The fat is congealing in his brain, apparently.
Labels: dodgers, giants, recaps
The Twins? The Twins. Angels 8, Twins 3
As it was, Weaver gutted his way through six innings of work, with the bullpen holding down the Twins the rest of the way. Hisanori Takahashi pitched surprisingly well in the seventh, but David Carpenter was obviously overmatched in the eighth, making only one out while facing four batters and giving up two runs. It was not the sort of thing you hope to see, especially with the relief pitching as bad as it has been this year.
Offensively, the Angels did a good job against Francisco Liriano, whose comeback appears to at least have stalled if not reversed. The top of the order, for a change, did well, with leadoff man Maicer Izturis and number two Alberto Callaspo both collecting a pair of hits. Albert Pujols, on the other hand, only went one-for-five, and wasn't all that convincing when he made his outs, either. If hitting a home run was supposed to cure us of talking about Pujols' offensive slump, it doesn't appear to have gotten him on track even afterwards.
Monday, May 07, 2012 |
Kenley Jansen Is The Dodgers' Closer
Labels: dodgers
Pujols Finally Gets His First Home Run, So Can We Talk About The Awful Bullpen Now? Angels 4, Blue Jays 3
As it happened in this game, Pujols two-run jack was the game winner, one which the Jays did plenty to erode late, getting single runs in the sixth and seventh innings in scratch-it-out fashion. Too pooped from not sleeping last night to write more.
Update: I forgot to mention that yesterday's game ended with injuries to Scott Downs (knee) and LaTroy Hawkins (broken right pinky). There was a corresponding move made today, with Hawkins sent to the (15-day?) DL and reliever David Pauley getting the callup from AAA Salt Lake. Alden Gonzalez has more.
Update 2: It looks like there will be no DL time for Downs according to Mike DiGiovanna. He is day-to-day.
Update 3: Mike Scioscia will go with a "closer by committee" between Ernesto Frieri and Jordan Walden.
Labels: angels, blue jays, recaps
Saturday, May 05, 2012 |
Bench Boohols, Win: Angels 6, Blue Jays 2
So if your "last time this happened" story is set against one of the darkest seasons your franchise has ever seen, that's pretty bad indeed. The Angels needed to make a change, and it has seemed to me that Albert Pujols is probably the first thing that needed changing — as in, benching him, something that happened only after the boos started up last night.
So, just as well he was left out of the lineup. The Angels basically didn't miss him, with his substitute, Mark Trumbo, hitting a home run in the sixth, and Mike Trout going yard in the inning before. Kendrys Morales went 3-for-5, all singles but no less impressive for it given the offensive famine previously on display. The defense was equally good, as Torii Hunter showed in the seventh to haul in Rajai Davis' liner, or Trout's handling of Colby Rasmus' long fly ball to center in the fifth.
Most of the beating up took place against Kyle Drabek, who generally has pitched creditably for Toronto this year, and as proof, left the game with a 3.34 ERA despite only pitching five innings while pitching to four batters in the sixth and getting none of them out. For the Angels, C.J. Wilson was, if not perfect, very good, and better than Drabek on this evening. Even better, we got to see the Angels debut of Ernesto Frieri, who walked the first batter and then struck out the side. Nice job, Ernesto, and if that's a bid for the closer's role, you keep on doing that and we may yet see you in the ninth inning in tighter situations.
I am not going to claim that Pujols is responsible for the team's deer-in-the-headlights offense, but it does seem like getting him out has loosened things up.
As an aside, I got to spend some time on the sidelines watching batting practice at field level. It was pretty awesome.
Friday, May 04, 2012 |
It's A Myth That Home Runs Come In Bunches — But Don't Tell Pujols
Using a statistical concept called binomial distribution, we determined the theoretical rates of zero-, one-, two-, three- and four-homer games for the average major league batter. By comparing those predicted rates to how often those games actually occurred, we could see whether there was anything to the idea that home runs are hit in bunches. If players actually alternate between home run hot streaks and dry spells, their long balls would be bunched together, and we would see higher rates of two- and zero-homer games and lower rates of one-homer games than predicted.Cutting to the chase, the net result of this is that for prolific home run hitters (we don't worry about guys hitting in single digits annually), there may be a "slight tendency to be 'bunched'" (as for Vladimir Guerrero), "but even in his case, it's likely that the difference was due to chance."
So why do Pujols and so many other players mistakenly believe that they're hitting home runs in bunches? A cognitive bias called the "availability heuristic" might be to blame. According to Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, the psychologists who coined the term, the availability heuristic is our "tendency to make a judgment about the frequency of an event based on how easy it is to recall similar instances."But, Lindbergh concludes, it's probably best not to tell Pujols about this. "One of the most important qualities for a hitter to have is confidence, and the "bunches" belief provides a confidence boost for any occasion." And at this point, having changed leagues and in the first weeks of a very, very long-term contract, it's certain that Pujols needs all the confidence he can muster.
Related: Interesting post about how Pujols' drought mirrors Dave Winfield's in the Bronx. Arte Moreno isn't a jerk, which should at least make the whole process easier.
Labels: angels, sabermetrics
Angels Demote Kevin Jepsen To Make Room For Ernesto Frieri
Update: Yup, I was right, he was optioned, per a post at Alden Gonzalez's blog. It seems to me astonishing that a guy who has been around as long as Jepsen still has options, but I guess the Angels have only infrequently exercised them. I can't imagine he'll be with the team next year (or maybe even later this year if he ends up a throw-in for something else).
Labels: angels, transactions
Cable TV Subscriber Numbers Continue To Fall, Terrestrial Broadcasters Take Up The Slack
While traditional TV viewing declined 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2011 -- or by roughly 46 minutes per month -- "the fact remains that Americans are not turning off," Nielsen said in a blog post Thursday. "They are shifting to new technologies and devices that make it easier for them to watch the video they want, whenever and wherever they want."Earlier, Convergence Consulting projected losses of 3.58M from the combined cable and satellite rolls. What's interesting to me (and why this isn't just a different retelling of that earlier story) is that it seems consumers are largely reverting to the old over-the-air model rather than spending all their time online as I supposed earlier. This would bode well for the networks, and for the future of TV deals with local terrestrial broadcasters. But it's still not a good sign for the regional sports networks, who make their coin on the backs of cable operators.Cable's share of pay-TV subscribers dropped to 58.4% in the fourth quarter of 2011 (versus 60.4% a year prior), with 60.47 million video customers. Satellite TV had 34.55 million customers and telco TV operators had 8.45 million in Q4 2011, Nielsen said.
Related: Earlier in the week, streaming TV service Hulu announced an initiative to force viewers to validate that they have a cable TV account. This strikes me as suicidal; if they were losing viewers before, this will just accelerate the process. Todd Spangler, writing at multichannel.com, thinks this is designed to add pressure to cable TV operators:
Indeed, News Corp. decided to retain its stake in Hulu precisely because the Internet TV site is adopting a TV Everywhere strategy, according to Miller: “So you now have an authenticated version where you get more programs sooner if you are an authenticated subscriber. If not, you have to wait and you may not have the full season” free on Hulu.Why is Fox doing this? So that when the time comes for it to negotiate retrans fees with pay-TV operators, it has another carrot to offer them — in addition to the stick of pulling it signal. (It also helps answer this question from the MVPDs: Why should I pay you guys anything if you’re giving all your best stuff away for free online?)
Labels: tv
Tell Your Audience: What Victor Rojas Got Wrong
"Some people say jinxes have no place in sports, but that's just how I am," Rojas said. "I didn't move from my position after the third inning, I didn't move any paper. I put my pens back in the same spot. That's just who I am."I actually agree with Charley Steiner, and, unsurprisingly, the Giants' great broadcaster Jon Miller here:
"Why are you keeping that a secret from your audience?" Steiner said. "In the 21st century we have this thing called the Internet. People in Swaziland know a no-hitter is going on. If you have those baseball superstitions from 40 years ago, OK, but do you not have some obligation to inform the audience?"Weaver, of course, couldn't be bothered with one superstition about no-hitters, and that is returning to the same spot on the bench. I'll leave that bit to the story, but it's got a funny ending.Jon Miller, another Hall of Fame baseball broadcaster, said he has no problem calling a no-hitter a no-hitter. "I feel like I have a responsibility to my audience, to the station, to the network, to say what's going on," Miller said.
"Plus, I want to maximize my audience. If someone hears from me about a no-hitter, he might call others or text or email and that helps my audience get larger. Some guys use all kinds of euphemisms, talking about 'no runs, nothing at all,' they make a game of it. I just think, if it's a big story, mention it. But it's a quaint old baseball thing. I don't blame anybody for doing a game any way they want."
Labels: angels, broadcasters
Kicking Frank On The Way Out
"Frank McCourt is not involved in any shape and fashion," Johnson said. "Frank is not here. He's not a part of the Dodgers any more. We should be clapping just for that."Just so. Goodbye, Frank, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Ex-Dirtbag Danny Espinosa Worried (Rightly) About Demotion
Labels: ex-dirtbags, nationals, rumors, transactions
Live By The Sword, Die By The CG SHO: Blue Jays 5, Angels 0
Labels: angels, blue jays, recaps
Abreu Signs With Dodgers
Update: INF Justin Sellers was optioned to AAA Albuquerque. Sellers was hitting an anemic .150/.261/.250, largely as spot starter on the infield.
Labels: dodgers, ex-angels, transactions
Thursday, May 03, 2012 |
Angels Get Reliever Ernesto Frieri From San Diego For Two Minor Leaguers
Labels: angels, padres, trades, transactions
Dodgers DFA Mike MacDougal, Reinstate Ronald Belisario
Weaver Spins A No-Hitter: Angels 9, Twins 0
For all that this was an awesome game, it also illustrated the same troubling issues with the offense that have hamstrung the team since the start of the year. The one-through-three hitters went a collective 3-for-15, with both Albert Pujols and Vernon Wells only collecting a single apiece. As seems to be the case generally, it was the rest of the lineup doing the honors, with Kendrys Morales owning a 3-for-5 night in cleanup, and Howie Kendrick going 4-for-4 with a home run in the six hole.
All this offense — regardless of origin — chased Twins starter Liam Hendriks in the third, and from there, it got scarcely better for Minnesota. Ron Gardenhire proceeded to launch a broadside into his team in a postgame interview:
Asked if Liam Hendriks’ performance (2.1 IP, 9 H, 6 ER) made it tougher on the offense, Gardenhire said, “He just didn’t pitch well. The kid didn’t get anything done. We didn’t hold runners. They ran all over the place on us. All the little things that a baseball team’s supposed to do, we didn’t do.(H/t BTF.) Whether that does anything for the Twins remains to be seen. David Pinto seems to think Gardenhire is trying to shame them into producing, but it may be that this is Gardy's last year running that franchise. In the meantime, Simi Valley, represent!“Letting guys steal second, letting guys steal third. You go to the mound, you bring a pitcher in, tell him, ‘You’ve got to slide step. He’s going to steal third if we don’t.’ And and what do we do? The first pitch, pick your leg up and they take off running. If the guy hadn’t swung, he was standing up.
“That’s not acceptable. That’s not good baseball by any team. So we have to do a lot better. Running all over us. Looked like Little Leaguers out there, and that’s a bunch of bull.
Wednesday, May 02, 2012 |
Two Games
Jerome Williams' CG SHO: Angels 4, Twins 0
Watching the Angels bullpen over the opening of the season, I reckon that Jerome Williams decided that the only way to get a win is if he went all the way. Sure enough: CG shutout, with a pretty economical 109 pitches. Granted, it is the Twins, one of the worst offensive clubs in the majors (though not yet so bad as the Angels), but still, you get your wins how you come by them. As it happened, it was Williams' first CG SHO since 2003, which is kind of amazing, really.Torii Hunter homered again for the third time in four games, and the fifth time in six. Mike Trout reached base twice, doing what he's supposed to do at the top of the order. Howie Kendrick likewise homered, and came within a double of hitting for the cycle. A good offensive night for the Halos.
Laugher Turns Nail-Biter, Dodgers Roll Anyway: Dodgers 7, Rockies 6
The Dodgers got to Jhoulys Chacin immediately, putting up four runs in the first on home runs by Dee Gordon (an unexpectedly monster blast to right that touched the second deck) and Andre Ethier; later, the Dodgers tacked on more on A.J. Ellis' third inning double and a fifth-inning two-run homer. Chacin didn't make it through five, and by the time he left the game, was charged with all seven Dodger runs and owned a 7.30 ERA. Jim Tracy is considering a possible demotion, either to the bullpen or AAA I reckon, but neither would surprise.Ted Lilly was masterful through five, but gave up a pair on a two-run homer to Carlos Gonzalez in the sixth. It wasn't until Josh Lindblom entered the game in the seventh that the Rockies started to make a game of it, so that by the ninth, the tying run was on base for CarGo to hit a walkoff home run — except he dinnent, swinging wildly over Javy Guerra's slider to end the game. Really a nice end to what was becoming a real contest late.
Labels: angels, dodgers, recaps, rockies, twins
Tuesday, May 01, 2012 |
MLB To End Or Limit "Natural Rivals" Interleague Scheduling
Labels: angels, dodgers, stupid ideas
Dodgers Sale Closes
Update: Maury Brown at Baseball Prospectus has the long form piece you expect.
(Almost) Eight Inning Man: Angels 4, Twins 3
Offensively, much more of what you might have hoped you would be seeing from the 2012 club, homers from Torii Hunter and Chris Iannetta, and a multi-hit game from Kendrys Morales, too. Even Albert Pujols managed to avoid another 0-fer night, so perhaps the little spat between him and Mickey Hatcher (h/t BTF) launched yesterday will be quieted. Apparently, Hatcher told reporters some insignificant details of a closed-door meeting to reporters, and Pujols took exception to it:
Hatcher told a couple of Angels beat reporters before the game that Pujols essentially stood up and told his teammates that he won't be flailing as he is all season, and that he's got first-hand experience with clubs that have conquered losing streaks and hitting slumps to win in the end.I get that Pujols is feeling vulnerable right now, so he's liable to get touchy. Expect a story in the press shortly about him snapping at a member of the media. His numbers in St. Louis and his general reputation gave him a pass from much scrutiny in that city, but his rough start in Anaheim may yet yield more contentious press relations.Not exactly overly sexy stuff. Nevertheless, Pujols was not happy after Monday's game when he learned that secrets were shared.
"Mickey should have never told you guys that," Pujols said. "That stuff needs to be private. He should have never told the media.
"What we talked about at the meeting, not disrespecting Mickey, but that stuff should stay behind closed doors."
Update: A minor coda on the Angels' worst April in franchise history, tied with 1976. Farewell, April, you were not loved.
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