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Best First Half In Halos History

Panther of the Game: Juan Rivera

Juanriverawin_medium

Poll
Who should be POTG?
Juan Rivera
62 votes
Reggie Willits
92 votes
Casey Kotchman
19 votes
Dustin Moseley
35 votes
Erick Aybar
5 votes
Torii Hunter
4 votes
Howie Kendrick
10 votes

227 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  177 comments

Comments

juan just earned his starting spot

but i like Kotchman—HR and some amazing defensive plays that saved runs.

And GMJ justified his benching.

Rivera: 4 AB, 28 or 29 pitches, 2 for 3 with a walk.
GMJ: 1AB, 1 pitch. GIDP

LOL, small sample size

Juan probably saw more pitches today than GMJ has all season.

That was my point
I'll take Willits

Also, we have the best record in baseball. But at least Oakland won the Pythagorean series!

tough panther call

Juan is a candidate, but I have to give it to Willits for his smart baserunning

In which case

vice-Panther for Scioscia for the pinch-running call in the first place.

This is an example where the human windmill coaching third is suddenly a genius

Had the 1st bman not double clutched, Ebel and Willits would be morons.

Willits was gonna run through that stop sign

He wants to stay in the big leagues baby. He was running through any stop sign Dino put up but he wasn’t expecting one … wow what an awesome win that was. Enjoy that one in Vegas HHers

Nice to know you're right inside Reggie's head.
Do you like to win or fucking lose?

Myself, I prefer winning.

non-sequitor. I like to win but I would say that if you're gonna take the

run game when it works, then you gotta take it when it doesn’t.

Personally, I dig the human windmill. Would we ever see Erstad take out a catcher without it?

You are forgetting that without Rivera, there is no Willits "Smart Base Running"

I give Panther to JUANCHO with a Co-Panther to Willits for running fast for Rivera.

You've got a point acuda

Rivera, hopefully, is going to make Stoneman look like a bloody fool by the end of the season for the GMJ deal. Not like he doesn’t already …

The GMJ deal was never intended to replace Rivera.

Rivera was supposed to become our new DH and occasional spot outfield starter. Rivera’s freak broken leg, plus GMJ being a not so good player anyway, meant we needed someone else, and that person turned out to be Torii Hunter.

While Stoneman was foolish (and just about everybody knew it) to make that deal, replacing Rivera was never supposed to be part of it. If he had been healthy last year, who knows where we’d be right now?

Absolutely spot on

After thinking it over that was a brilliant response zu. Zu to replace Stoneman as chief of baseball operations or whatever the hell he is now as Reagins mentor

i'll take Kotch in this one

like YWC said, homer and some GREAT picks at first

Yep.

Kotch was truly sick with the glove.

Speaking of 1B, I don’t think I’ve ever seen TWO near-collisions between a runner and a pitcher before.

i have to agree. Juan played great, but Casey just was amazing,

he was great wit hthe glove, and that HR really turned the momentum around, as it was swinging toward oakland. without it its 3-1 oakland going into the 9th.

Johnny Rivers

honorable mention Reggie for challenging home plate

Moseley was pretty Panther-worthy, too
3 days rest pretty solid outing. He gets my vote.
He sure as hell was good
I kinda like The Admiral

2 RBIs. with no hits!

wasn't that howie?
yes. thats what I meant
Sorry, too much rum & Coke during the bottom of the ninth
hahaha

no worries. i completely understand

imma go with Hunter........

leading off the ninth…..getting on base…...and pretty much shutting me up….for now

Said it in the other thread

I am incredibly anti-Reggie in general. If I’m picking him as panther, you know he has to get it.

And I am.

i say aybar

for getting down the line so fast and allowing willits to score

over at AN

LOLOLOLOLOL

“Once agian Halos prove they are
the luckiest team in baseball.”

LOLOLOL

haha yeah

smart baserunning = lucky?

i think not. they’re mad cuz they’re constantly in our shadow

Once again, the A's prove Billy Beane ain't shit
always better to be lucky than good, but we are good!

yogi and I are close! ;P

I've also heard that Luck

favors the prepared.

Ask them to look at this picture

Link to awesome ESPN pic of Reggie scoring the winning run

Then ask them at AN if we are lucky or if they just suck. That was old-school hard-nosed baseball winning over shitty defense.

FYI, Sosh gets the non-player panther for managing the top of th 9th to perfection
Willits

That play was the definition of Panther. Gutsy and it worked.

Also great that Johnny Rivers is established into the starting lineup (if Sosh is paying attention)

The speed of Reggie Willits scored the winning run today.

Willits is the Panther of the game this match.

Reggie.

With, by god, an assist to Mike Scioscia, who did EVERYTHING right in the 9th inning.

Why did the first baseman double clutch going home?

Was Suzuki asleep?

It didn't look like he had a good grip

and it was a mental slip, since Barton is one of the worst defensive first basemen in the league.

He's got good range

but he’s prone to “mental slips” as you put it.

I think he's got potential. He'll develop

at which point he’ll be traded for minor leaguers

Hud

Thought the same thing—bad grip for the double clutch

i think he couldn't believe that willits was trying to score

the pressure our game presents was on full display there

Suzuki wasn't looking

I think. I’ll have to check Gameday replay.

Congrats to the Angels.
I thought when Cust homered off Oliver, then GMJr hit into the DP, the luck was all on the side of the Athletics.

Well, Tori Hunter’s 45 foot single proved that wrong. And, by concentrating on Hunter, then the basehit.

On the road, that was a good play by Willits. Murphy should have simply held the ball, not throw to first.

Same play came up vs Marlins for the Athletics. Ellis simply held it. A;s won eventually.

Again, very tight close game to the last pitch! Too bad it wasn’t a wild pitch.

Congrats to the LAAngels and their SBNation fans.

lol how dare you come over to the ANGELS blog and try to post on this board......

you should be banned HAHA…....like i was over at AN…......

I hope you're joking.
i was.......

im making reference to the fact that i went over to AN to discuss the game (not troll) and i got banned.

Dude, you’d be PO’d as well if an A’s fan came here and started making “points” to you after a bitter loss. Don’t do it to them. That’s pretty feeble.

You should change your name to One won lost two.

Why should we welcome AN’s when HH’ers certainly are not welcomed there? Oh well, in another week the A’ss will be in third place behind Texas and none of it will really matter.

Didn't ask you to welcome me.

I’m following the Rev Halofan’s rules.

“Be nice”.

A couple of HH fans came over and attempted to “rub it in” IMO. They got warned, then banned.

Pick your battles.

i wasnt rubbing it in at all........

people made mention of how classless Frankie was being…...i just asked them a few questions about it…..even stating that i respected their opinions but didnt agree with it…...also made mention of some not so well liked A’s in the past….....thats when I got the boot.

Don't you have some white shoes to polish?

Get on with it then.

The guy came over waving a white flag...

leave him alone, this time. We have a lot of season left, let’s not burn them until the 162nd is done.

The radio broadcast for the A's said

they thought Suzuki was at fault on the Barton delay. Suzuki wasn’t looking at Barton.

A's radio broadcasters

thought Suzuki wasn’t ready…and they also thought it might not have mattered anyway.

One final note, with the Cubs loss today the Halos

go into the AS break tied for the best record in baseball. Let’s go Angels!

Yeah! how many Angels are in the ASG starting lineup again?

Oh, that’s right. nevermind.

they should just let the red sox and yanks play the game
Thats about how it is.
reggie

that was clutch.

man..........i dont really know what A's fans are so upset over........

their team has been over-achieving all year…..........they should be the mariners this year…....

Probably because once again

a first game blowout is subsequently made meaningless by the Angels winning the next two games in close contests. This is the fourth time that has happened this year.

By the way, that game might have been a metaphor for our entire season.

Thus far.

Juan Knows Best!!!!

nice solid hit…and REGGIE for that gutsy base running….

You know what?

I change my vote to Juan. Willits was cool, but Juan is the man of the hour. If that’s Juice in there, we stone-cold lose this game.

BTW- Fangraphs says Juan by a MILE.
You know what Zu?

Juan Rivera is one damn good baseball player. It’s about time that someone in the Angels organisation realises it!

needs to work on the defense though
Yeah he's slow and he take bad routes

But he’s got a gun of an arm, and man can the guy hit.

He just needs ABs.

And somehow every year it takes til July for us to figure that out.

zu where do u find the fangraphs

Just google fangraphs
But the point about fangraphs is they tell you NOTHING about the emotional impact on a game

Willits hard baserunning had the kind of emotional impact that lifts a team to a win. Fangraphs will never pick that up because it is purely statistical based.

Point noted,

but it’s a rough number to associate when the vote gets tight.

By the way, Rivera takes this one today and it’s not even close, as per Fangraphs.

If the rally happened after that, I'd say yes.

But in this case, it was more like the icing on the cake. The real clutch AB of that inning (and the only solid hit) was Juan’s LD putting Torii on third.

www.fangraphs.com
And I will say again, Moseley was great

He kept serving up ground ball out after ground ball out, and nothing was expected of him. He gave the Angels a huge lift. Moseley for lieutenant panther.

http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?gameid=280713111

I Love the way it swings oaklands way before coming back to us.

The 5 critical game leverage bars are also hysterical.

i still dont fully understand fangraphs.........
Bad glove this year

But luckily we have the DH – Vlad and GA have been very vocal about not wanting to play the field. They have also, for the most part, played well defensively this year. Easy solution is Johnny Rivers at DH every day, unless somebody needs a rest. Unlike the others he’ll be a happy DH and won’t complain since the alternative is to sit on the bench again.

So many luminous honourable all-stars to choose from this Angels team intelligent manager too

After my friends study the match they say:

1) Reggie Willits with seven-sea spicy sauce
2) Juan Rivera with in spicy kung po sauce
3) Dustin Moseley in mix vegetable
4) Casey Kotchman with extra bean curd get stuck in beard.

Four luminous panthers!

I too watched this match, and i think differently.

For me it goes…
1a) Casey Kotchman for being wizard with glove and hitting ball far when team needs some runs
1b) Juan for being a great all around guy who luminously helps angels win by hitting and walking slowly
3) Reggie Willits for making my joy happy and my family scream with joy
4) Dustin Moseley for being good sport and helping team out when need starter

5. Figgins were all with him and his family
Yeah

My dad died after his third stroke several years back. Dealing with a stroke is not fun.

My thoughts and prayers are with Figgy and his family.

Mine, too RF.

Get well, Papa Figgins.

Go Figgins Senior

Rally up buddy. I bet you were faster than your son in your day. xxx from hh

REG-GIE! REG-GIE! REG-GIE!

His dynamic baserunning made the win possible, otherwise we’re in extras right now. But wow, Angels pull off TWO COMEBACKS in the 9th. I’m still buzzed over that whole inning.

4 day break for the players? No. For us!

2 more wins and the angels clinch the season series against the A's
hard not to say reggie willits for the ballsiest baserunning ever
That baserunning was the epitome of balls
Grateful as I am for the win

I have to ask: how is it ballsy to be running pedal to the metal with two outs? I mean, you may as well take that chance with two out, right?

It was as ballsy as ballsy gets...
As they say on the PSA's

Speed Kills.

Or more colloquially, “The race is not always to the swift, but that’s the way to bet.”

Juan Rivera: with the rest of the team swinging and making outs early in the count he made both douche and street work. not to mention his eventual base hit setting up the GW run and willits’ play at the plate

I'll take Juan Rivera as Panther as well

His hit in the 9th was the only one really hit all that well, and he at least made Street throw strikes.

Also a huge outing by Moseley!

You're spot on on that MH

That Rivera at-bat he just kept fighting and fighting and there was no way Juancho was giving in to Street. Awesome shit.

Yeah that was a big AB

Nice to know we have faith….


Moseley to Start Sunday

Why, Sosh, WHYYYYYY??

What is it with calling minor league pitchers up on 3 DAYS REST??

Are we conceding the game before it even begins?

by Clutch

like i said in the other thread

we’re eff’d

by howiestheman on Jul 12, 2008 11:34 PM PDT


it depresses me that mose is in this game.

by retrohalo on Jul 13, 2008 1:18 PM PDT

we’re losing in the first inning with moseley pitching?

shocking

by Carl Johnson on Jul 13, 2008 1:21 PM PDT


Let the onslaught begin…

by jimmuscomp on Jul 13, 2008 1:22 PM PDT



can we just concede this game?

maybe stop the bleeding a little earlier?

“it’s mind-bottling.”

by retrohalo on Jul 13, 2008 1:22 PM PDT



pray for rain…

...on the road….

by Jack Kerouac on Jul 13, 2008 1:23 PM PDT t

hey you didnt post my POSITIVE comment though.........

i had faith in dustin….....

Props to you for that then.
lol now i need to translate that over to torii...........

he did a job in my eyes today though…......especially in that ninth

Wasn't much of a hit,

I have to say. Torii did what we needed him to do though, and ran the bases better today, I think.

Really, I think it’s just the nickname that was bugging me though. I don’t mind it if you get on him when he’s bad, but giving him his own bad nickname is harsh. Hell, I don’t even thing GMJ deserves a derogatory nickname. Like MT says, rooting for the team is our job as fans. Just because they are struggling or not very good isn’t a reason to hate on them, I think.

no........it wasnt a hit.......

but he got on base to start a rally when we were down…which was “clutch” in my eyes…...he doesnt have to be superhuman…..but as one of the “leaders” on this 08 team…....he needs to do what he can to try and help the team win…and today he did in a crucial point….....

wasnt much*..........stupid
Yes you did. But as a fan, having faith is doing your JOB! ;)
so what about these other guys then? LOL are they not fans?
I'd say moaning about the performance of a team that has the

best record in the AL and the best record in franchise history makes them sound like bitches.

come on...

considering the stats, i was justified in my comments

Past performance doesn't guarantee future returns.

Baseball isn’t deterministic. That’s why we watch.

Who wasn't thinking we lost that game before it started?

If you didn’t, then you are an absolute optimist to the extreme, powdered-toast-man.

Someone needs to post a poll
good idea. done
wtf...........i just got banned from AN..........

and i didnt even do anything wrong…....lol…....i was discussing the “frankie” excessive celebration thing…......and i got banned…....whatever…..sore losers

SBN blogmasters being homer, sore-losers???

No, we wouldn’t know a thing about that

lol............

someone made a comment about all angels fans being clueless…....and they got all pissy when i said color me dumb…..then jumped on me for even posting on their board

Really?

Some guy named won-one-lost-one was on here during the blowout game.

Anyway, going over there after a win like this is asking for trouble, and probably bad kharma whether you were trolling or not.

well i dont have to worry about it anymore

now do i?

I figured as long as i wasnt bashing anyone over there and tried to have civil conversation (which even some of their posters said i was doing) I would be okay….......guess not

You should have been okay.

But it just goes to show that despite how much they claim to be superior to us, they’re no better than anybody else.

true that
That's a pity

Sorry that happened to you norcali

Ask those twats why they wear white shoes

1866baseball.com is dying to know :)

These guys shouldn't be such bitches

Fuck ‘em

lol oh well.......not like i need to post over there anyways......

as long as i have you fine folks to BS with

Well, you're closer to them geographically...

so just stroll down to the Bay-bee-area and smack some of those little girls back to Fremont.

thats true.........i should score some tickets for the sep games.....

and take full battle rattle

I was almost shanked at my last trip to the McAffee disaster area

Which was the infamous “but K-Rod drops the ball!” series in early August of 2005.

I’d be game to go to some of those games.

the upcoming games there are a tues wed thurs......which are perfect....

because tue wed are my days off…..

Did you guys just hear Karl Ravech on ESPN?

“Frankie was pumped up after the game, even blowing kisses to people in the sky!”

I don’t know why, but I found it hilarious.

was this before or after they were fallating

Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis?

Even for Frankie it was an animated celebration.

He looked like he just won the Masters.

so answer me this

not directly at you bc but i was just watching the baseball tonight pregame from shea….in the “touch ‘em all” section, no kotch fly from today. in their web gems, not one of our back to back gems today made it. THEN, their first half highlight reel had only one clip involving our team….ellis’ walk off GS and even that was of just the ball hitting the foul poll. i actually got a little upset by this.

well the Angels don't have any moments like that

I mean I can’t even think of the last time they did something as dramatic as a walkoff grandslam. If they did it though I bet it would be off an actual closer and not an injured AAAA pitcher.

Eh.

To be fair, it’s hard to define Joe Borrowski as a real closer.

he got em to the ALCS somehow last year..........

i would say that makes him pretty good

He had a 6 ERA last year.

Betancourt got them to the ALCS. Borowski got the credit.

You can't?

The Angels first homestand of 2008, Torii Hunter hit a grand slam walkoff to cap it.

You don’;t remember just a couple months ago?

Sarcasm, my friend

Sarcasm.

goatman not recognize luminous achievements in serious-sounding funny statement.
Actually they showed us three times.

They also showed the walk-off homer by Hamilton and the walkoff homer by Quentin.

But not the Torii GS. Not even the Weaver no-hit loss. And certainly not K-Rod breaking the ASB saves record.

POLL ATTACHED

vote for the POTG above

good call
highlandhalo's idea, and a good one, imo
kudos my european friend.......
I'm an OC boy who happens to live in Europe

but thanks. Nice job yeswecan you the man!

Wow, anybody just see the Baseball tonight "first half of MLB 2008" montage?

Two Angels were shown:

-John Lackey giving up a walk-off homerun to Carlos Quentin.
-Last week’s K-Rod melt-down against the Rangers.

That’s it.

God damn you, ESPN. The best team in the AL and tied for best in the bigs getting two “shown-up” clips.

sorry shifty

i posted something similar above. could you believe it? i forgot the other clips you mentioned though.

I'm still fuming.

It’s absolutely ridiculous that we could be shown up that badly.

Granted, the Angels don’t play highlight reel offense, but the defense is spectacular and at least deserved a “winner’s clip” in that some where.

I despise the producers of ESPN.

and thats the way the cookie crumbles...............

douchebaggery at its finest!

Don't watch non-Angels broadcasts...
They also showed the GS walk-off against Speier
let's just win the World Series

and forget the ESPN fools

Won't help.

We won in ‘02, and all you heard was “Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds”.

Now that's not fair.

They also talked non-stop about “what went wrong for the Yankees in 2002?”

True dat

At least we didn’t have to hear about the Bosux that year

ESPN must have Halo Hate

The year we won the World Series, B4 the playoff started ESPN had a little animated commercial that had animated monsters wearing team uniforms from every team in the playoffs but the Halos.

I recall this

They were the only team left off… until the ALCS

Props to Moseley!
we are tied with the Cubbies!
Screw the Graph JUAN RIVERA IS THE PANTHER OF THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. If he would not have got that hit, Reggie would have never been able to go in.
2. Reggie wouldnt even be in the game if it were not for Mike Scioscia.
3. Reggie didnt even score because of “Agressive Base Running or Smart Base Running” He scored because DINO EBEL sent him home, not because he wanted to.
4. Fan Graphs agrees (just pointing out what others stated but I dont really know much about those graphs.)

So either Dino gets the POTG for sending Reggie or Juan Rivera gets the POTG. Dino cant be POTG because of REV’s RULES so its JUAN RIVERA FOR PANTHER OF THE GAME.

DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I ment "Screw the POLL" not graph........
Dick Pole would like to speak to you...
That's not what Reggie himself said in the OC and LA papers.
What a frigg'n game...

Hat tip to Frankie for the heart attack. Keep ‘em come’n baby!
Hat tip to Hitman Howie

POTG has to be Willits. He didn’t have to go, but the Bulldog in him just couldn’t resist.

I'm pretty sure Dino was waving him home all the way from second

Not that I wasn’t thrilled as all hell

I think you're stating the obvious...

of course that was the case. That’s the job of any base coach. But it’s also the job of the runner to follow the instructions of the base coach.. What I was trying to say is that it’s one thing to give the order (Ebel), it’s a whole other thing to executute successfully (Willits). I think this is what most people (including myself) tend to forget or take for granted. Just because Ebel gives the go ahead, doesn’t mean that scoring is guaranteed.

Imagine if it was Vlad or some other player with not-so-great wheels at third instead of Willits. What do you think might of happend?

Panther = Rivera

Only Angel to reach base 3 times tonight. Let’s reward a multiple non-out maker and maybe others will attempt to follow in his footsteps.

And Rivers got jacked from his other POTG because of Frankies Meltdown in Texas

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