Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’
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Teixeira for Kotchman? I Just Don’t Know.July 31st, 2008
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19th in runs scored. 19th in hits. 22nd in home runs. 19th in RBIs. 24th in total bases. 22nd in on base percentage. And 22nd in slugging.
On paper, this doesn’t really sound like a division contending team, let alone the best team in baseball by a fair margin. But when you factor in 8th in ERA, 7th in shutouts, 1st in saves (by ten saves, between first and second), 25th in earned runs against (yes, that’s a good thing), a winning starting rotation, a solid bullpen, a slid defense, a consistent running game, and you get the Angels.
Up until last night at about 5-something eastern time, the Angels were not the media’s favorite team to look at. In fact, the Angels crept slowly into first place without so much as a sneeze. It wasn’t until about three weeks after the Angels took first place that ESPN even took notice on their power rankings. The Angels were clearly the underdogs of 2008, who’s game was so much more old-school than any other teams, besides maybe the Minnesota Twins and a more distant example in the Baltimore Orioles.
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Red Sox Roadkill: Boston Flattened Away From Fenway … Again and Again (Part 1 of 3)July 23rd, 2008
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Inherent in the game of baseball are streaks of both good and bad luck. The everyday aspect of the sport often blinds us from these small sample size flukes that ebb and flow throughout the course of a long, marathon season.
And even though, at the zenith or nadir of these streaks, it doesn’t seem like anything will ever change, a trend in baseball can take a sharp turn in the opposite direction after just one at-bat, one start, or one game.
As such, also inherent in the game, due to these streaks of fortune, is irrationality.
A week or two of poor plate appearances from an overmatched rookie will leave us speculating on whether he’s ready for the major leagues. A series of grotesque pitching lines from a past-his-prime starter will cause us to look for greener pastures down on the farm. That is, until, said young, stud hitter or wily, veteran pitcher finds a groove, leaving our week-ago doubts long forgotten in the dust of today’s success.
You know, sort of like Alan Greenspan’s forewarning of irrational exuberance, only on a baseball scale instead of an economical one.
The same, of course, applies to teams. There are those seemingly unstoppable winning streaks where everything goes right. And then, conversely, there are those dreaded spate of L’s bunched closely together across the schedule—games in which everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.
But, as the saying goes, things are never as good or bad as they seem. And in baseball, a team’s record—despite all the highest of highs and lowest of lows—more often than not ends up where it should based on the talent level of an organization and the year-end total performance of that talent. Or, in simpler phrasing, how many runs a team scores and allows over the course of a season.
There are, as always, exceptions. After all, games are played in ballparks, not in computer simulations. Sometimes the end results simply don’t match all the components. And sometimes that goes well beyond good and bad luck. Often, in these cases, it may just come down to poor roster construction—or, rather, a team with very strong strengths offset by very weak weaknesses.
With this in mind, meet the 2008 Boston Red Sox—a very talented club that plays nearly unbeatable baseball at home, yet a bipolar bunch on the road that usually finds a way to lose despite component numbers suggesting better outcomes.
Following yet another road sweep—their sixth on the season in totality—at the hands of baseball’s best in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Red Sox own the worst road record among American League playoff hopefuls at 21-32—a winning percentage of .396 away from Fenway, an inexplicable mark placing the team closer to the Seattle Mariners’ level of (in)competence on the road.
Of course, it’s been a strange baseball year overall. Runs are down, the AL is out-pitching the pitcher-friendly NL, and the Tampa Bay Rays are still in first place as the baseball season inches its way towards August.
The oddity that is the ’08 season continues when looking at home and road records across the board. No team in the AL, outside of the Angels, is excelling on the road—in fact, the Halos possess the only above-.500 road record in the AL as of July 21.
But, in Red Sox land, that’s not an excuse nor should it be. After finishing as the AL’s best team on the road a season ago, the Sox, given their talent level, shouldn’t be mirroring the Mariners’ road winning percentage.
The question, then, is why? Although a simple query, the answer appears to be far more complex and multifarious.
However, the CliffsNotes version breaks it down into three distinct problem areas: a difficult road schedule, inefficiency on offense, and a bullpen bursting with arsonists.
O’Fer Southern California, Canada, and Florida
As mentioned, if the majority of the AL is struggling on the road, it goes without saying that most of the contenders are playing exceptional baseball at home. In turn, the Sox have played most of those contenders on the road.
If we separate the Sox road opposition thus far into two groups—above and below .500 teams—here’s how things shape up:
Against above .500 teams away from the friendly confines of Fenway Park, the Sox sit at 9-20—a lackluster standing that includes two winless trips through Tampa Bay and the aforementioned Mickey Mouse weekend in SoCal to kick off the second-half of the season.
Versus below or at .500 teams on the road, Boston fares a bit better with a 12-12 record—a tally worsened, and somewhat deceiving, due to an early April sweep by the Toronto Blue Jays, which came on the heels of the opening-season jaunt through Japan.
Now, this isn’t groundbreaking news. A good team will outplay the bad ones more often than the equally talented clubs. Then again, even Boston’s end results against the lesser road teams haven’t been all that inspiring, either.
Nonetheless, a possible silver lining may exist in the form of weaker road opponents the rest of the way. With 28 away games left—equating to nine series in all—the Sox will face off against only three teams with records significantly above .500 (Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, and the Rays).
What then remains on the away schedule includes a single tilt against the Texas Rangers and a pile of sub-.500 teams in the Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, Blue Jays, and the heavily picked upon Mariners.
As a result of, literally, an easier road ahead, ground can be made up away from home. But getting to 40 road wins will require a 19-9 run, which, at this point, seems like an unattainable goal for the Sox unless two specific road trends—offense efficiency and late-inning lead protection—take that sharp turn in the opposite direction.
In part two of this three-part breakdown of Boston’s wayward ways on the road, a deeper look at an otherwise productive offense reveals its warts when hitting away from Fenway.
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End of the Road for Boston Woes OR Just the Beginning of Boston’s Road WoesJuly 20th, 2008
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A few short months ago a la October, the Angels were basically running away from Fenway’s bombers with their proverbial tails between their legs. After losing two series ending in sweeps to the Red Sox on two separate post-season occasions since the turn of the millennium, the Angels seemed to have their work cut out for them again in 08 if they wanted any chance at another World Series run.
The Angels have been, in their career, weak against the formidable Boston lineup. It is because of this that so many sports writers have criticized the Angels’ management for not acquiring a more fear-inducing bat for the middle of the lineup to back Big Daddy Vladdy. In fact, despite a successful first half, power rankings on ESPN still give little credence to the team and still stress this same overly-repetitive theme: “The Angels are the clear favorites in the AL West despite an offense that ranks 23rd in the majors in OPS and runs scored. Will they make a run at Mark Teixeira or Matt Holliday, or cling to the hope that starting pitching, a great closer and a flair for one-run victories can propel them deep into October?” (Crasnik’s “Starting 9” on ESPN.com). Though that last little statement, ending in a rhetorical question, seems to be rather connotative of a negative sentiment, I beg to differ, and offer up a definite YES. Great pitching > great hitting. Almost always. Read more
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Angels Pitching Gets Some CreditJuly 7th, 2008
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Aside from the fact that seven Red Sox will be driving across a couple states for their popular-vote trip to the All-Star game, three Angels pitchers got the vote of confidence to join in the midsummer classic at Yankee Stadium, cross-country.
Though not a single position player has made the popularity contest, which is both understandable, and not at the same time. The Angels lead the West by a good six games, and are the second best team record-wise under an extremely surprising Tampa Bay surge. If you base this contest on ability and talent, players like Casey Kotchman should have had no problem making the All-Star roster. However, I will concede to understanding the absence of Vlad Guerrero who, though a historically amazing player, has had a rough start. But I have to argue, Alex Rodriguez is in no way the best third basemen in the league, despite his incredible hitting. Nor is Derek Jeter anywhere near the best short stop, either. But I’ll refrain from speaking my mind on this issue any further than this.
It is very nice to see the Angels getting recognized as having obviously the best pitching staff in baseball. Two starters have made the roster, including Joe Saunders who has the best win record at 12 in the AL (tied for first with NL’s Brandon Webb at 12-4 as well) as well as a healthy 3.04 ERA, and Ervin Santana who has been an incredibly welcomed surprise to Angels fans who remember his 2007 woes, who has a record of 9-3 with an ERA of 3.28 and 106 strikeouts. The Angels closer, Frankie Rodriguez has also made the roster again, after saving the game last year after Mariano Rivera nearly lost it for the AL (maybe this time they’ll actually start him as the closer). We won’t know until later who will actually get the nod as starting pitcher. I’d put my money on Saunders, but the Angels are so poorly recognized as a credible force that I doubt it really will. I’m sure it’ll be Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee.
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Halfway Point: BoSox Sit Atop The East … BarelyJune 30th, 2008
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Eighty-one games down, eighty-one more to go. Only the Red Sox can say they have played half their regular season schedule as of June 26—just one of the several perks of starting a season a week earlier than the rest of major league baseball.
So faux halfway points be damned. There’s no need to wait until July 15 when the Midsummer Classic bids adieu to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium. The Sox have reached the epicenter of the Marathon, and the battle for American League East supremacy hangs in the balance, with a familiar rival Empire stealthily drawing nearer from the flank, while a new and unforeseen usurper continues to flex their muscle as they seek to dethrone last year’s victor.
Overdramatic much? Hell, yeah! But it’s our natural right, as both writers and baseball enthusiasts, to allegorize and sensationalize this glorified little game of stickball.
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Luck? No, It’s Physics.June 5th, 2008
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I bet none of those guys - Newton, Einstein, etc - knew they were talkin’ ’bout baseball when they came up with all their theories. But oh! Look how nicely it all fits:
First Law of Motion: Once something is in motion, it usually stays that way until something really messes up its course.
Baseball is a game of patterns, and streaks. Seattle knows all about streaks, since it basically is the streakiest team in baseball. But it’s true, in essence, of every team. It’s also a game of contagion. Errors or mistakes (that may not be counted officially as errors, though you KNOW your players could’ve done better on that ground ball…) often come in pairs or series. The Angels are definitely a team of contagion, where most of their runs come in packages of two or three, and if one strikes out, the next two outs tend to follow shortly.
As far as streaks go, the Angels just finally ended a 13-game streak in which they only earned four or less runs per game. It took beating a division rival team stuck 13.5 games back to snap the streak. Luckily for the Angels, they were also 9-4 in that period, so it very little affected them, thanks to the great pitching as of late. They also had a streak of about a week where nearly every game ended in a walk-off. First, it was Anderson’s walk-off walk. Talk about the most exciting ending to a baseball game… zZzZz… and then it was Rivera’s walk-off single, Junior’s walk-off single, and my personal favorite, Kendrick’s getting beaned and Maicer’s subsequent walk-off single. Really, that’s all Kendrick is good for – getting beaned. Sure, it makes for very exciting baseball – to win by a run, or to win in the bottom of the ninth with two out and the bases loaded. But after a week of the same thing every game, it starts getting to my stress levels. STOP IT ALREADY!
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The Problem with MatthewsMay 26th, 2008
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Because I spend countless hours between driving to work and driving to school and driving to the gym and driving home (and with gas prices over four dollars, God help me), I listen to a fair amount of talk radio. Recently I’ve become an addict of AM 830, which has gotten me involved in discussions of the economy, politics, and of course, baseball. Both the morning broadcasts and the two hours prior to an Angels’ game are devoted to sports and baseball talk, and so I’ve heard a little bit about this topic between listening and reading.
It’s no news that Gary Matthews Jr. has had a slow start. It’s no news that MANY players have had a slow start. Between Vlad Guererro’s .254 batting average after 48 games, the lowest of his career in that amount of time and Torii Hunter’s bit of a recent slump, the Angels have had to rely on different players for productivity, including a very hot Casey Kotchman and Mike Napoli. It also doesn’t help that their consistency man is out day to day, Chone Figgins, and the middle infield is basically in shambles, as Sean Rodriguez has taken to Howie Kendrick’s position, Maicer Izturis back to short while Erick Aybar nurses a dislocated pinky finger.
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Surprising Effectiveness in ‘08May 5th, 2008
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John Lackey. Kelvim Escobar. Howie Kendrick. Maicer Izturis. Dustin Moseley. Chone Figgins.
There are some pretty big names in there. Lackey has been out since the start of the season with a strained right tricep, and has been making decent strides so far in his rehab assignment. Kelvim Escobar, co-ace to Lackey, who both combined for 37 wins in 2007, has also been out since spring with a tear in his labrum which may need surgery, though he’s been attempting to avoid it, learning to live for now with the discomfort in his throwing arm. Howie Kendrick has been an off-and-on DL regular, this time with a strained left hamstring that has limited him to only ten games and 36 total at-bats so far this season. Izturis and Moseley have only recently joined the DL, with a stiff lower back and right forearm stiffness, respectively. Figgins has yet to formally join the list, being instead day-to-day with a slight strain to his hamstring as well from a more than magnificent slide home in yesterday’s victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
For as much as I can remember, this may very well be the third start of the season in a row where the Angels have had significant starters on the disabled list. But this year, the list of injuries should be something fierce – two starters, several from the bullpen have gone off and on, one of baseball’s most sought after second basemen (though I still personally cannot figure out why), and arguably the league’s most effective lead-off hitter/the team’s stolen-base king.
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Sickly Sox Regress To The MeanApril 28th, 2008
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Five days. That’s all it takes. From a six-game winning streak filled with memorable late-inning heroics to a five game nose-dive the Red Sox would like to soon forget as the team heads into its first off-day since April 7, a span covering 20 straight games played in between.
But with a run differential that didn’t match their spiffy 15-7 record heading into Wednesday’s contest against the Angels, the Sox were due for a little regression towards the mean—though, ideally, not in the span of 120 hours. Of course, a team-wide bout with the influenza epidemic of 2008 hasn’t helped matters.
Ravaged by a nefarious flu bug, the Sox were forced to dip into the depths of their system when ace Josh Beckett and the so-far-undefeated Daisuke Matsuzaka fell victim to the pervasive virus last week during a three game set with the Angels.
As a result of the unexpected scratches, Boston called up two starters from the minors—Triple-A Pawtucket right-hander David Pauley, a middling young arm who had previously made his debut in 2006, and fellow righty Justin Masterson, a top five prospect in the Sox system making the jump from Double-A Portland. In addition, Jon Lester took to the hill on three days rest in the middle game of the series.
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First Time Since… When???April 26th, 2008
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Boston vs. Angels. Angels AT Boston. Angels at FENWAY. None of that sounds good, at least to anyone who is an Angels fan.
Historically, the Angels have more than SUCKED against Boston’s power-house of offense, the one-two Papi-Manny assault, and even with Drew, Lugo, and YOOOOOOOOOUK… but put it AT Fenway, and it’s twice the horrific scene of brutality.
The best instance? Oh, maybe the playoff sweep in 2007? Oh, maybe the same playoff sweep in 2004? It has been a common plague of the Angels organization for several several years – and the fear for this season was that if something drastic didn’t happen in the off-season, that it would continue… something of a plague maybe?
So it has been the Angels staff’s epic journey to find a way to get passed Boston’s hitter’s game. By acquiring Torii Hunter to fill a bit of the power-bat gap they’ve complained about for the past few years, they looked to match wits, so to speak. I think Garland may have been a bit of a risk, in terms of playing Boston, since Garland’s pitching style lends itself to being hit, which is something Boston does exceedingly well. At least, however, he is a sinkerball pitcher, and can get the balls to stay in the park for the most part. But let’s not forget that Fenway is very much a hitter’s park, with a barely over 300-feet away left field “monster.”
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