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

I confess, thanks to lingering and intractable login problems on my main computer, I had largely stopped reading Halos Heaven, but they've got a good Halolinks piece today citing something I really think needs emphasis: Josh Hamilton is a raging jerk. He blames the Angels for a lack of an accountability partner (when he was the one to cut that cord). He didn't thank his Angels teammates, and of course there was his childish refusal to take accountability for anything.

It's ironic, perhaps, that this episode had the side effect of Mat Gleason's exiting Halos Heaven. Nobody knows this but me, him, and Tyler Bleszinski, but Blez offered me the job of running the HH blog before it started; I basically turned him down, and it went to Mat. Nobody was more surprised than me at the time, but I think Blez made the right choice. Halos Heaven is the success it is in large part because of Mat's dedication to the task; irascible, tendentious, and pugilistic, Mat was always interesting to read, and he kept going through some awful seasons. (This blog, as you know, has largely gone dormant after 2010.) I haven't spoken with Jim Gardner and don't know him; shortly after the news broke yesterday, he wrote a piece introducing himself and announcing his new position as interim ringmaster; one of the comments therein suggests Mat wrote a goodbye letter, which was subsequently yanked. I briefly spoke with Mat yesterday via e-mail, encouraging him about the situation. He was characteristically incendiary. I still think he was right, though.

Labels: angels, blogs, drugs, rangers, trades

Something about this game — this series — says 2013 and beyond will be bleak. Expensive. Bad. Like the Mets in recent years, always suffering from some key lack, and always patching over it with more useless veterans (<cough> Takahashi </cough>). It seems indelicate and stupid.

ESPN Box

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

If the Angels lose the division by one game, this is the one they'll rue. Losing leads of six runs and then three runs, the latter in extras? It reminds me that Scioscia was smarter when he had Joe Maddon as his bench coach, or maybe it's easy to be smart when you have a bullpen full of aces. Frieri showed why the Padres were willing to trade him in the first place, and now that Scott Downs has hit the 15-day DL with a strained shoulder, the Angels' bullpen looks thinner and thinner.

Sure, tell me that the Angels are now guaranteed a split in Texas, and that's not a bad thing. But with victory within reach? Not so good.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

I have a silly picture of me in a foam Trout hat, which is the only thing you can do this year. Even with the series win, the Angels ended the day five games back, which isn't insurmountable, but they'll have to sweep in the Texas series upcoming to even get to one game back and make it a race. I'm mostly focusing on Mike Trout, who's doing impossible things with pitched baseballs now that he can hit big-league fastballs and positively pwns breaking stuff, what can't he do? Eventually he'll come back to earth, but I plan on enjoying every single day he's in uniform, regardless of what else happens. Last night, he set a rookie league and franchise record for scoring runs in 14 consecutive games. That's ... amazing.

Jeff Passan yesterday on Twitter alerted me to the fact that since June 1, Josh Hamilton has been hitting .201/.290/.396, while Albert Pujols has a healthy .327/.411/.605 slash line over that same time. Endpoints matter, of course, and small sample sizes have consequences for everyone, but it was significant a few days ago that Rangers manager Ron Washington had publicly called out Hamilton for not making adjustments. Certainly, last night's game was a case where he really had a horrible time; he looked to be swinging for the fences all the time, and missed badly almost every time.

Meantime, Dan Haren had a great return game from the DL, giving the Angels better than a quality start in six innings. If Ernesto Frieri was scary in the closer role, and Scott Downs a bit tired and wheezing from overuse early in the season, you could forgive them both given the Rangers' offensive firepower. But the biggest surprise of the second half so far has to be a rejuvenated Kevin Jepsen, who cruised through the seventh, and with the seemingly effortless way he did it suggests he might take an occasional eighth inning role going forward. That's always a pleasant surprise.

The Angels two home runs, the first Bobby Wilson's improbable shot that chased starter Matt Harrison; and the second Pujols' off Alexi Ogando, whom Rangers blogger Evan Grant thinks may be somehow off — possibly hiding an injury? However they came by it, it was good to see the Halos cadge another win off the Rangers at a time when they desperately needed it.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

The incredible thing is that yesterday's start wasn't even Santana's shortest of the year; that happened two starts ago against Cleveland. One complete game shutout doesn't make up for all the other dreadful starts we've been forced to watch, and the Angels have won only four of his 18 starts this year. It's pretty much a lock that unless he figures something out in the bullpen — and given the team's paucity of pitching options in the minors, even a conversion to relief isn't a given anymore — he won't be back in 2013.

This season has had its blessings, most notably the meteoric rise of Mike Trout, and the revelation of Mark Trumbo as a middle-of-the-order thumper the Angels have needed for years. But almost everything else, especially the pitching, has disappointed.

ESPN Box • MLB Recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

The Angels had the prospect of ending this series nine games back of the Rangers, so to say that every game in this series is a must-win is only slightly hyperbolic. But the Angels pulled ace Jered Weaver in the first game, with a better than average chance of winning.

So it was, and they did. Elvis Andrus' first inning solo homer was the extent of the Rangers' offense, while the Angels pounded Derek Holland for six runs, all earned, including homers by Trumbo and Trout. Keep it going.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

The win Friday — glorious and fully unexpected as it was, given the Angels' wretched futility earlier in the year — was nothing compared to the insanity of yesterday's game. If there has been a game — not just this season, but at any time in my Angels fandom — where the Angels capitalized on such a combination of bad defense and umpire blown calls, I cannot recall it.

The headline bill was one of a star pitching matchup, with the Rangers' young ace Yu Darvish pitted against their former ace and current Angel C.J. Wilson. (I once harbored hopes that the Angels or Dodgers might sign Darvish as a Japanese amateur. Fat chance.) For the first five innings this held true, but things took a weird turn in the sixth, when leadoff man Albert Pujols hit what looked for the world like a routine pop out to first baseman Mike Napoli. Only, Napoli lost the ball in the lights, or something, because the ball dropped untouched by either him or right fielder Nelson Cruz, only a dozen or two feet away. Pujols then alertly ran to second, converting the break into a two-base error. Two batters later, Mark Trumbo bounced to third, and Adrian Beltre dropped the ball out of his glove, giving Trumbo the base, allowing Pujols to score.

The Rangers got that gift run back in the top of the seventh in a fairly conventional way, with Jordan Walden loading the bases, and Bobby Cassevah allowing Nelson Cruz to score on David Murphy's sac fly with one out. Walden really begins to call for a AAA stint except for the fact that the Angels have few better options right now.

But then to the truly weird parts of this game. In the bottom of the seventh, Erick Aybar reached on what was judged a bunt single to Darvish, but IMO could have equally have been an error; it seemed to me Darvish just utterly failed to field his position. Either way, it sparked a rally that Bobby Wilson did his best to squelch immediately by striking out bunting to give up an out for no reason.

But that brought up Mike Trout. In case you missed Jeff Nelson's excellent piece in SB Nation recently, Mike Trout is like a video game in "god mode", i.e. the state where you can do anything to your opponent and he can do nothing in response. Trout reached in the most Mike Trout possible way — an infield single to shortstop Elvis Andrus, but really, it was more like

Trout: bounces out to short
Andrus: Wow, that Trout guy is really fast. Say, what's this white, round thing in my hand?

Because you know, Mike Trout is just so good he warps the nature of time and space around him. This, as it turns out, is a helpful property to have if you are a baseball player, because it also works on umpires. As it happens, Andrus thought there was a runner's interference call on Aybar, and so held on to the ball instead of throwing to first. "I learned something tonight," Andrus said, but after it was too late.

Trouty eventually made it to third on Alberto Callaspo's unexpected RBI single, and then Kendrys Morales hit a liner to medium right. Cruz fielded the ball, threw a dart back to home plate — and Trout tagged and scored. At least, that's the official version of events, because Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba was quite certain he had tagged out Trout in a close play at the plate. Home plate umpire Tim McClelland almost immediately ejected him for arguing, which led to a fairly laughable situation because Torrealba didn't realize he had been tossed. So Torrealba continued to vent, Donald Duck-like, with Ron Washington coming over to plead his case in vain.

The Angels gave one back in the eighth thanks in part to a dumb throw by Torii Hunter that ended up in the dugout and scored Elvis Andrus, but outside of a nail-biting ninth (the Rangers loaded the bases for the second time, but failed to score), that was the game — which ended on Josh Hamilton's swinging strikeout. The radio guys mentioned that Hamilton was holding his elbow in the dugout after his prior at bat; perhaps a check swing took something out of him? If he's injured to affect his swing in today's game, I wouldn't object...

Update: As 60ft6in mentions in the comments, Pujols swiped third in the sixth, which proved critical, as Beltre's double-clutch allowed him to score. The Rangers now have allowed 26 unearned runs in their last 29 games; as Buster Olney tweeted, the 1998 Yankees allowed 37 all year.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

I was somewhat surprised to see that this was the fourth time in his career Jered Weaver had given up eight runs, though it does tie a personal worst for innings pitched, getting chased as he did in the fourth after only one out and giving up two runs on a Josh Hamilton double. Let's face it: this is a bad team, though there are things that can be done to rectify it.

• 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.

I have little else to contribute here; the bullpen is unlikely to get fixed anytime soon, as last night's outing showed. So far, the team seems fixated on leaving both situations as is, and so the trend of losing two of every three games will likely continue into 162. The Angels just stink, management doesn't seem to care especially, and there's little that can be done. Another long, dull season awaits.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps, suck

So, these were things that happened yesterday:

• 49-year-old Jamie Moyer made the Rockies' rotation
• 38-year-old Todd Helton and 41-year-old Jason Giambi respectively doubled and homered off Yu Darvish. Giambi's home run was the first against him all spring, by any major leaguer.

Labels: funny, rangers, rockies, transactions

It's probably beyond silly to try and pull anything of significance out of this game, other than Trevor Bell's surprisingly positive outing (4.1 IP, 3 K, 3 H, 1 BB), which even then failed to meet the minimum for a winning game (or a game of record). For myself, I found it impressive that I managed to make all but one of the substitutions based on the stadium announcer's calls, which at Hohokam amount to guttoral grunts.

One guy expected to win a role on the Rangers' 25-man roster (Michael Kirkman) stumbled badly and in fact took the loss, improbably on a Randall Grichuk RBI single. I could go on about Grichuk — a victim of unfortunate and star-crossed injuries — but I have my own burdens tonight, and so bid all of you a premature goodnight.

Update 3/26: For reasons I cannot entirely grasp myself (though "comedy" figures heavily), I must add that our experience at Tempe Diablo was one of the most annoying I have ever endured in any spring training game, ever, and that was due to the noticeably drunk Phillies fan sitting to Helen's right. He was so loud and grating that Helen got up in the third or so and wandered around the heavily populated stadium for much of the rest of the game. One of the many joys of spring training is the enhanced quality of the fans, in general; one does not make an extended vacation of baseball without being something of an epicurean. Fittingly, this dork was a local, using the day as an excuse to get blotto, I would gather, long before the game started, a first for us.

That brings to mind something else, something I am loathe to add, given this is the principal team I follow and write big annual checks to: Tempe Diablo is old. It is cramped. It lacks a complete outfield, cutting off a couple thousand paying customers. It has almost no shade in the sun. The food choices seem outdated and inadequate. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's just Helen, but it really feels like this is a park accommodating the Angels as they were before Mike Scioscia, a second-rate team without a history or a following.

I'm not sure I want them to move, and in fact I have a real moral reservation against it. Moving, after all, implies Arizona taxpayers will almost certainly be on the hook for whatever glossy stadium comes up. But it does seem to me as though you can see the end for this stadium.

MLB Gameday

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

Per Buster Olney of ESPN, the Rangers signed Japanese import Yu Darvish to a 6-year/$60M deal. Favorite Twitter gag about this so far:

Props to Angels GM Dipoto. Angels sign Wilson for 75 mil, force the Rangers to spend 120 mil to back fill his spot in the rotation #genius

I'm not so sure about that; word so far is that Darvish may be the best Japanese pitcher to hit the US in approximately ever, and is quite a bit younger than the Angels' C.J. Wilson. On the other hand, Texas paid a "record" $51.7 million posting bid. That's a lot of money to have sunk into a guy nobody's ever seen pitch in the majors. We'll see how this plays out.

Update: Supposedly — and this is unconfirmed — Darvish has an opt out clause after five years.

Update 1/20: No, not on the weed.

Labels: angels, hot stove, rangers, transactions

Can we fire Tony Reagins again? It would really feel good.

Labels: angels, blue jays, rangers, stupid ideas, trades

Continuing the general changing of the guard in Anaheim, Rangers farm director Scott Servais will take over in that same role in Anaheim as the team's assistant general manager. No comment yet from the Rangers.

Updated to fix his new title, which indeed represents a step up.

Labels: angels, front office, rangers

A lot of other people are going to write about this game, and everything that was wrong with it; for starters, the five errors (three by the Cards, two by the Rangers) that, to my mind, set some kind of recent record for single game screwups. Then, Tony LaRussa's mangling of pinch hitters: getting Edwin Jackson announced but not used in the 10th was about as egregious a misuse of players as I have ever seen, save for the now-infamous screwup in Game 5 in which he used Lance Lynn to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler.

Forget all that.

Tonight might have been Texas' best shot at a title. The last team to win a World Series as an away team in Game 7 was the 1979 Pirates. And it slipped away from them, multiple times, with the Cards twice tying two-run deficits to force bonus baseball.

Damn, it's moments like this that I just love this game.

Update: Nice article at Yahoo's Big League Stew about the fan who grabbed Freese's walkoff homer.

ESPN Box

Labels: cardinals, rangers, recaps

”I think we’re going to look at who we can get from the Angels next year.”

Whoever is the Angels' GM needs to be his own man, by which I mean the Angels better not pick a flunky to ratify Mike Scioscia's frequently fatuous player assessments, something T.J. Simers wrote about yesterday. The ugly throw-the-front-office-under-the-bus quote about the Vernon Wells trade by Scioscia probably hasn't helped cohesiveness, or made that long-term deal any more comfortable:

"We needed to get better in the outfield," Scioscia told reporters, "so some decisions were made by Tony and Arte as to what the team would look like."

That quote stunned some people in the Angels' front office. A manager who takes great care not to publicly criticize his players appeared to be pointing a public finger at his bosses.

Labels: angels, haha, rangers

This came very close to being an object lesson on the team's gross inability to properly understand offensive prowess, what with Mike Napoli getting the only run on a solo blast off starter Jered Weaver in the seventh. It would have been awesome, but no, baseball has a way of interfering with clean narratives in a way that just annoys everyone. In this case, it turned out to be a two-run, no-outs blast from Mark Trumbo that was the difference.

The Angels are done for the season, give or take a game. If you lose a four-game set at home to your chief rival, you get what you deserve.

(Parenthetical note: I see that after a Halos Heaven beatdown of Lyle Spencer, MLB.com has seen fit to send someone named David Ely to handle the late Angels recap. Meh.)

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

At this point, the scores almost don't matter. What matters, instead, is a universe in which Mike Napoli can be jettisoned because of some nonsense about "bad hands" from Mike Scioscia, who for some reason still holds a reputation as having the ability to make baseball judgments. Between that and the trade that sent the worst contract in baseball to the Angels, that of Vernon Wells, the Angels front office is long on excuses and exceptionally short on accountability. It's time Arte fired everyone.

Oh, yeah, and Tyler Chatwood left in the third last night. Whatever. It's about time somebody rubbed Scioscia's nose in the fact that pitching can't win if the team can't score runs.

ESPN Box • Angels recap

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps, stupid ideas, suck

I was pretty damned sure that the Angels were going to lose this series, and they very nearly did last night — but thanks to a positively inspirational six-run rally in the sixth and Jordan Walden's 22nd save, they held it together for the win.

Today's story — the Angels won on an unearned run, reminding me of the weird game on June 28, 2008 where he lost despite giving up no hits (the Dodgers would get none, either) — except that this time, they won. C.J. Wilson was, save for an error that allowed the winning run to cross the plate (Endy Chavez' throwing error that allowed Mike Trout to reach, and Howie Kendrick to score). Weaver's most nail-biting moment came in the sixth, when the Rangers managed to load the bases, but he finally got Mitch Moreland to strike out, ending the threat.

Is the season over? Not any more. Are the Angels still contenders? Possibly, but I'm still not quite sold. Let's see the division lead trade places down the stretch.

ESPN Box

Labels: angels, rangers, recaps

In the wake of the late series loss to Oakland, I have to say -- the division is about to be decided, and the Angels are not going to prove equal to the task. I had some hope before the All-Star break, but after that performance? No way.

Labels: angels, predictions, rangers

I didn't even know he was on the DL, but apparently he was, and for knee surgery. I assume the fact that the Rangers gave him an outright release is a move to prevent him from occupying space on the 40-man. It's unlikely he'll be claimed, given he is owed an additional $7.1M through 2012.

Labels: injuries, rangers, transactions