Angels win sixth straight, claim first place - angelsbaseball.com
Kazmir helped the locked-in Angels stretch their winning streak to six and move into first place in the American League West, one-half game ahead of Texas, which lost 4-2 to Seattle. Angels manager Mike Scioscia said it's far too early to worry about the standings, but Kazmir had a different take. "I think it means a lot," Kazmir said. "Out of where we started at and now the roll that we're on, it feels good. It feels good to be back in first place. We want to stay there. We want to keep it and build a lead on it. It's good right now, but we've got to get back to business tomorrow." The Angels beat the A's for the sixth straight time in Oakland and for the ninth time in their past 10 games at the Coliseum. They improved to 7-1 on their 14-game road trip and are 8-1 since losing first baseman Kendry Morales, their leading hitter, to a fractured leg.
Through 60 games in 2009: 31-29, 3.5 Games Out
Through 60 games in 2010: 32-28, First Place
As jjackflash pointed out, when you compare the standing from this year to last, the Angels are doing much better, at least in regards to the standings, but doesn't SEEM like they're not? It wasn't until June 23rd that the Angels finally grabbed a piece of the division lead from Texas (a lead they would not give up for the rest of the season), yet this season just doesn't have the same "feel" to it. Here are some of last night's highlights: Napoli makes a nice snag in the ninth - Mike Napoli has trouble finding a fly ball in foul territory but recovers just in time to make a great catch in the ninth. Abreu blasts his seventh homer of the season - Bobby Abreu jacks a two-run shot to right to give the Angels an early 2-0 lead in the first. Aybar's triple knocks in a run in the fifth - Erick Aybar smacks a triple to center to plate Bobby Wilson, giving the Angels a 3-0 lead in the fifth
Angels-Athletics Preview - 6/8/10 - FOX Sports on MSN
With their longest win streak of the season, the Los Angeles Angels have climbed back atop the AL West. Weaver (5-2, 2.74 ERA) also has flourished against the A's lately. The right-hander has a 1.17 ERA in the past four matchups and won his previous trip to Oakland on Oct. 2, allowing three hits over five scoreless innings in a 5-2 victory. He gave up one run over six innings April 10 against the A's but did not get the decision in a 4-3 win. Losers in five of seven this month, the A's will counter with Vin Mazzaro (1-0, 6.08), who is replacing the injured Brett Anderson in the rotation. Anderson was placed on the disabled list with left elbow inflammation after leaving a 9-8 win in Boston on Thursday. Mazzaro relieved Anderson in that game and earned his first victory since Aug. 12 despite allowing three runs and nine hits in 3 1-3 innings.
Jered Weaver against Vin Mazzaro. Why am I frightened?
MORE LINKS AFTER THE BREAK...
Jeff Mathis, moving right along - ESPN Los Angeles
You can pencil in the return of catcher Jeff Mathis for Saturday at Angel Stadium. That presumes that Mathis has no further setbacks in the right wrist he fractured on April 19. He's playing in Triple-A games through Friday, then will be evaluated by Angels doctors.
Cowart is first of Angels' three first-rounders - angelsbaseball.com
Cowart, at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, is the 2010 Gatorade High School Player of the Year. His numbers this season are off the charts: .654 batting average (second highest in state history) with 11 homers, 59 RBIs and 36 steals without getting caught. A Florida State University signee, he was 10-1 with a 1.05 ERA with 116 strikeouts in 73 innings. "We are thrilled to have a player of Kaleb's caliber," Angels scouting director Eddie Bane said. "His skills are matched by his intensity for the game, and we look forward to his advancement in our system."
Nationals Tap Harper, Then Fun Begins - BaseballAmerica.com
The Angels bucked consensus even more with their supplemental first rounders. With the 37th pick, they chose Arizona prep shortstop Taylor Lindsey, who played on an Angels scout team. Most scouts in Arizona saw him as more of a fifth- to seventh-round talent. Their final supplemental pick was used on Mississippi high school outfielder Ryan Bolden, who ranked as the No. 141 player on Baseball America's Top 200 heading into the draft.
A good portion of this article talks about the Angels draft.
2010 MLB Draft Selections - FanGraphs Baseball
FanGraphs has a short write-up of most of the draft picks.
The 2010 Draft Class: Giving the Game a Whitebread, Nerdy and Suburban Name - Bugs & Cranks
Despite knowing nothing about the incoming draft class, I decided to tune in for Monday’s broadcast of the MLB Draft’s first round. Besides learning that 17-year-olds are apparently very bad at applying eye black and also being reminded that Delino Deshields exists (and procreated!), I was struck with one staggering revelation. Within the next five years, baseball will be chock full of players with wussified baby book names and, as a direct result, the reputation of the game will be forever tarnished.
Kinda funny. Unless your name is Skylar, Connor or Drake.
Here's the "Feel Good" section of today's Halolinks...
Pujols gives his bat to kid after hitting him with home run ball - FOXSportsMidwest.com
After Pujols homered to left-center in the Cardinals’ eventual 4-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, television replays showed the ball hitting a kid, who appeared to be about 10 years old, as he attempted to catch the ball. Pujols’ saw the same replay when he went into the video room to watch his at-bat a few minutes later, so he autographed a bat and had it delivered to the kid at his seat.
Here's video of Pujols being a nice guy (By the way kid, that big hunk of leather on your hand is called a "glove". Typically it's used to catch baseballs, not for hiding your face when the ball caves in your chest.) - Young fan is hit by Pujols' homer - Albert Pujols hits a solo home run in the sixth inning, but the home run hits a young boy in the front row, causing him to cry
All's well that ends well in David Wright baseball mixup - Big League Stew - Yahoo! Sports
Such was the case at Citi Field on Sunday when a grown man named Mike Terry saw New York Mets star David Wright throwing a ball into the stands and instinctively leaned over the railing to catch the offering for his 3-year-old son, Mackey. A nice day at the ballpark for father and son. End of story, right? Well, not quite.
Check out the look on the lady wearing the brown visor. Classic. (This post has over 900 comments).
How Jim Joyce went from Toledo to the bigs to national scrutiny - Detroit Free Press
He had told reporters that he hadn't realized his mistake until he saw the replay in the umpires locker room. But as he began to relive the heated moments after the game, the details became clearer to him. For example, when he walked into the door of the umpires room at Comerica Park that night and asked his crew, "Did I kick that call?" he knew he was asking a rhetorical question. And so when Derryl Cousins, his crew chief, told him: "Yeah, it looked like you did," all Joyce could do was let out a string of profanity. Actually, he just repeated one word, over and over and over. "You can imagine what it is," Joyce told the Free Press.
Nice story.
Dollars per WAR - The Baseball Analysts
To objectively evaluate others, you need a whole lot of context. I'd like to provide a bit of that context using the informative and interactive Google Motion Charts. (If you want to view the charts, you need Flash, and if you're using Chrome, you need to open them in a new tab or incognito. For some reason, Google doesn't want its browser to have access to its apps.)
Did you hear that? That explosion you heard was the the sound of a 1000 zippers simultaneously bursting open now that the entire sabermetric community realizes they can have ANIMATED CHARTS!! The Simpson's just lost half of their viewers.
When a pitcher meets a hitter - The Hardball TImes
So how often will Lidge throw each pitch? Remember that Lidge wants the hitter to be indifferent between looking for a fastball or a slider (otherwise, the hitter can "cheat"). If Lidge throws his fastball with some probability, p, and his slider therefore with the probability, 1 – p, then hitter’s payoff from looking for a fastball will be: 3*p + -3*(1 – p)
See. You will need that stuff you learned in your 10th grade calculus class.
AccuScore: Rangers take Texas-sized leap - Yahoo! Sports
Texas led the American League with a 10.6 percentage-point improvement in playoff probability after going 4-2 including taking two of three over Tampa Bay. It is surprising to see Texas with such a solid 64 percent lead in the AL West race considering they are just 0.5 a game ahead of the Angels.
Did you hear that? While not as impressive as the the sabergeeks boner-thon, that sound was the 12 Rangers fans who can count to 16 realizing that they still have a chance to win the AL west division.
Standing room only for Strasburg's Nationals debut - SI.com
The anticipation is nearly over. The 21-year-old with the fastball that approaches 100 mph and the curve that freezes batters is about to take the mound in the nation's capital. Stephen Strasburg is set to make his Washington Nationals debut Tuesday night. Standing room only tickets went on sale Monday, all part of a rare Nationals Park sellout. The Internet is humming with offers for good seats. More than 200 requests for media credentials have been submitted, forcing officials to turn a dining area into a work space to accommodate all those reporters with laptops.
Just in case you haven't heard, some guy is making his first start for the Washington Nationals tonight.
Selig will look into expanding replay but this season is unlikely - CBSSports.com Baseball
Bud Selig will continue to look at expanding the use of instant replay in baseball, but doesn't think it will happen this year -- if at all. "I doubt it, but I wouldn't ever say never," the baseball commissioner said Monday night at the site of the draft at MLB Network studios. "It's worked out well. Look, I am a traditionalist, but I also want to do what I think is best for the sport."
He's waiting for his stock options in "Robo-Ump" to vest.
American League All-Star Fan Voting - MLB News - FOX Sports on MSN
To Be Held: Tuesday, July 13 At Angel Stadium, Anaheim, Calif.
Whatever.
Joe Posnanski " Posts My Least Favorite Move of 2010 "
"He said he wanted to hit, and then I knew I had to run for him. I didn’t want to see a grown man go to the bathroom in his pants on the field."
Bob Geren knows more about Morneau than Morneau knows, and Morneau knows it.
June 8 - BR Bullpen
1955 - The Los Angeles Dodgers option left handed pitcher Tommy Lasorda to Montreal Royals to make room on the roster for "bonus baby" Sandy Koufax, who has been on the disabled list.
1965 - Arizona State star sophomore Rick Monday, selected by the Oakland Athletics, is the first player chosen in the initial major league free-agent draft of high school, college, and sandlot players. Picking second, the Mets take pitcher Les Rohr. In the tenth round, they finally take Nolan Ryan. Cincinnati picks Johnny Bench in the second round.
1977 - Nolan Ryan notches his fourth career 19-strikeout game, pitching the first 10 innings of a game against Toronto. He only went 10 innings? Slacker. (Seriously though, vintage Nolan Ryan. Check out the boxscore from that game. Bobby Grich, playing shortstop, won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 13th)
Happy b-day:
1925 - Eddie Gaedel, pinch hitter (d. 1961)
R.I.P.:
1950 - Cannonball Titcomb, pitcher (b. 1866) I love, I mean LOVE this guy's name.
1982 - Satchel Paige, pitcher; All-Star, Hall of Famer (b. 1906)
First place, baby!:
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| Game Information |
| Attendance - 10071 |
| Game Time - 2:37 |
| Temperature - 61 |
| Umpires - Home - Eric Cooper, First Base - Bill Miller, Second Base - Mike Reilly, Third Base - Chad Fairchild |
0 recs | 54 comments
You think those names are bad for baseball?
Just think. Someday we’ll have a President named Skylar or Dakota, etc. Gonna be kind of difficult to sound powerful with a name like that.
Monkeyspanked - June 8, 2010
The Dakota Indians may have disagreed with you on that.
44FAN - June 8, 2010
But weren't the all Indians wiped out by George W. Bush?
Higz - June 8, 2010
Nope, those are called Iraqis
The Limey - June 8, 2010
Dakota pre-2000 = tough badass Sioux...
Dakota post 2000 = pussified girly boy (or girl for that matter)
Monkeyspanked - June 8, 2010
blame the casinos
Moondoggy - June 8, 2010
No respect.
The Fangraphs draft link refers to the Halos as the “Anaheim Angels”.
red floyd - June 8, 2010
Good, that's what we should be known as
Gorbachav5 - June 8, 2010
I'd rather be known as the "Los Angeles Angels" (no "of Anaheim") or the "California Angels".
And since the official name of the team is “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim”, commonly shortened to “The Los Angeles Angels”, anything else is disrespectful.
Or maybe Fangraphs should have reported the Doyers drafts as “Brooklyn Dodgers”, or the A’s drafts as either the “Kansas City Athletics” or “Philadelphia Athletics”.
red floyd - June 8, 2010
I'd rather be known as the Anaheim Angels because that's where they play
The Angels were the Los Angeles Angels when they played in Los Angeles. Then they were the California Angels when they moved to Anaheim. Then they changed to the Anaheim Angels, which makes perfect sense.
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sounds stupid and is just a marketing ploy. Arte can do whatever he wants, and kudos to him for making a ton of cash on it. I don’t begrudge him that. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t sound or look ridiculous.
Gorbachav5 - June 8, 2010
contract
remember, the only reason “of Anaheim” is there is because of the lease provision. Otherwise, it would simply be LAA, which makes sense because they play in the L.A. market as the Los Angeles franchise of the American League. Lots of teams throughout professional sports don’t play in the cities (or even states) after which they are named. For several decades, nobody cared that the Lakers didn’t play in Los Angeles.
jjackflash - June 8, 2010
Why not ...
The Angels of Anaheim?
Barca - June 8, 2010
Alternatively, I think you should be known as "Brezhnev5".
So that’s what I’m going to call you.
What? That’s what one of your predecessors was called.
red floyd - June 8, 2010
Except I'm not a baseball team using the name of a city they don't play in
But otherwise, your analogy is right on.
Gorbachav5 - June 8, 2010
Trotsky5 then?
Commander_Nate - June 8, 2010
Oh God no
I had the Trotkys in Mexico. I don’t wish that on anybody
Moondoggy - June 8, 2010
Odd. That's where Stalin got rid of the Trotsky
red floyd - June 9, 2010
Correct
Maybe he’s still in the water?
Commander_Nate - June 9, 2010
after that week in Mexico
I was ready to use an ice pick on myself
Moondoggy - June 9, 2010
Who cares
The Giant & Jets don’t even play in the same state they claim. Get over it or start bitching about their names too
Seik1177 - June 8, 2010
people in NY bitch about that all the time
but they’re resigned to it. For a while in the mid-late 1990’s, it looked like the Yankees were moving to New Jersey. That would have been fun.
Moondoggy - June 8, 2010
I love your logic!
agent_99 - June 8, 2010
Or lack thereof!
Gorbachav5 - June 8, 2010
I just read your latest comment
and if you had posted that with your original one, I’d have loved your logic first. If that makes sense. (cut me some slack- I’ve been up since 3:00am!)
agent_99 - June 8, 2010
No problem
I’m just being snarky. My only point is that the current name sounds silly compared to the old one, so it always makes me happy when people call them the Anaheim Angels.
Gorbachav5 - June 8, 2010
lol @ the kid getting hit in the chest.
norcaliangelsfan - June 8, 2010
that was exactly what i thought
the video is funny enough, but WiHaloFan’s brilliant description of a glove really was a nice cherry on top.
daze - June 8, 2010
My friend's little bro got drafted 24th overall by the Giants
I picked the wrong career.
Commander_Nate - June 8, 2010
you picked the wrong lfe
Moondoggy - June 8, 2010
Comparing this year's record to last years...
at this point in the season is interesting. But I wonder what the run differential was last year.
Nashdiesel - June 8, 2010
Kendry
Does anyone know why they are still waiting to do his surgery?
It’s been 10 days since he broke it, and they initially planned to do the surgery the next day.
I understand they were waiting for the swelling to go down, but this seems like too long for that.
Maybe it’s healing fine without surgery??!!!!!???
raskul - June 8, 2010
probably still waiting.
It’s not uncommon at all for the swelling to take 2 or 3 weeks to go down. It was two weeks after I broke my ankle before they were able to do surgery. What worries me is not the date of the surgery, but the recovery. Granted, I’m not athlete, but it was a year before i quit limping and sometimes I still do and when it gets cold that ankle can hurt.
firebird81 - June 8, 2010
I think the Angels are playing a game right now....
I don’t feel like Morales will be back this year. I will be surprised if he is. I feel like the Halos are waiting to announce that he is going to miss the season after they figure out what they are going to do for the season.
I say let Naps play everyday and Mathis and Wilson share catching duties. Problem solved!
pendletonmike - June 8, 2010
I agree. I really have my doubts he will return this year.
Even if he does, how effective will he be? I recall Howie floundering in the ’08 playoffs after returning from his 2nd hammy problem that year. It just takes time to return to the highest level of competition.
sothball - June 8, 2010
I agree as well.
I pretty much wrote off Kowbell for the rest of the season given the severity of the injury. Here’s to Kendry coming back stronger and healthy in ’11.
halofolife - June 8, 2010
He's walking it off
righteous halo - June 8, 2010
I hope he rubbed some dirt on it first!
thetooth - June 8, 2010
or some Tussin.........
norcaliangelsfan - June 8, 2010
Thanks, good to know
it’s not outside the realm of ‘normal’ waiting on the swelling.
I don’t think anyone on the Angels seriously expects him back this year in any significant capacity.
Hopefully he can be really ready for next year.
raskul - June 8, 2010
He's going to have the best therapists and dieticians the team can buy
So I wouldn’t count out a late-season return yet. Once the immediate wounds from surgery are healed, he could probably start swimming and doing other low-impact workouts to keep his conditioning up. I know that’s a somewhat common practice with leg injuries. He’ll also probably be sucking down a lot of calcium and whatnot.
1st base is probably the least physically demanding position on the field, so there’s that to consider as well.
Commander_Nate - June 8, 2010
No worries
Q is starting to heat up
First base is in good hands
Raaddad - June 8, 2010
On Thursday, May 6th after losing their 7th straight game...
…the Angels record was a dismal 12-18. Today, their record is 32-28. Over their last 30 games, they have gone 20-10.
It doesn’t fell like they’re playing well because – at times – they aren’t. A couple of things add to the lack of good chillin’;
1) They played many early games against the top teams in the league (Boston, New York, Toronto, Detriot, Minnehaha, and Texas). Lately, we have played some struggling teams (Royals, Mariners, and to a lesser extent, the A’s).
2) We got lucky in the most recent Seattle series by not having to face any of their top 3 pitchers (and their bullpen imploded for a change). Looks like similar fate with the A’s for the balance of this series.
Also, there remains some big questions;
- 3B – B. Wood currently seems too screwed up to be of any help for the short term. We seem to have lucked out with Frandsen, just as we lucked out last year with Palmer. Frandsen and Izzy at 3B is better than what B. Wood was contributing.
- 1B – It looks like Scioscia will be content with a 3-4 player platoon of Ryan, Quinlan, Napoli, and possibly Frandsen. I don’t see Kendry returning this year, so, I hope it holds up.
- Bullpen – SP’s going later into games, coupled with some stability from Rodriguez seems to have settled the bullpen. I l don’t have a lot of trust in most of our relievers, though most are showing modest improvement.
One way or the other, Scioscia seems to will wins out of this team that I doubt could be matched by most MLB managers.
sothball - June 8, 2010
On the other hand
Despite the recent upticks in performance, Aybar, Kendrick, Rivera, Izturis and Abreu are all performing below expectations. They can all do better.
Plus, in the last two seasons, Tony Reagins has demonstrated a willingness to make mid-summer trades, so there could be some more help along the way at some point.
jjackflash - June 8, 2010
I don't think we disagree.
The hitting was going to improve sooner or later. I’d guess the players you mentioned above will continue to improve. There are other questions,like how much play time Mathis will get upon return (I’d guess he will be primary catcher with Wilson as the regular back-up) and whether he picks up where he left off with the bat.
I believe trades will be a little harder this year, with our relative dearth of expendable talent. The only position I see a backlog is at catcher with Napoli, Mathis, Wilson, Conger. With Naps spending time at 1B, I don’t foresee a trade of any of these 4. I also doubt any of the top prospects from last year will be traded either. Finally, I don’t see much marketability for our AAA guys (O’Sullivan, Bell, Trumbo, Statia, etc).
This may be W6G, version 2.0.
sothball - June 8, 2010
10th grade calculus class?
What prep school did you go to? I didn’t take calculus until 12th grade, and I went on to a bachelor’s in math.
But seriously, I realized the other day that the 2010 Angels have a (slightly) better record at this point of the season than the 2009 Angels did. The run differential is nearly identical as well. That just doesn’t sound right, even though last season they were staring down Texas for first place until the second half.
I guess the difference is that last year the Angels started off on a roll, then crashed in late-May/early-June, culminating with an embarrassing 11-1 pounding in Tampa Bay on June 11. Then they came home, murdered the Padres over three games, aced their interleague schedule, and never looked back. At the time it seemed like a good team that just had some issues, a lot of them inflicted by injuries and, unfortunately, death.
Meanwhile, the 2010 Angels have flirted with mediocrity in their best moments until just the last week and a half. They haven’t really been able to blame anything other than their own lousy pitching, lacking defense, and poor plate discipline (and possibly some bad luck on balls in play). Is this the turning point? Which is the real Angels team this year, the one we’re seeing now or the one we’ve been seeing for months? I imagine the answer is somewhere in the middle, and that might just be good enough to win the division
Suboptimal - June 8, 2010
Now that we're in first place...
GET YOUR ALL STAR VOTES IN! Torri, Matsui, Abreu, and Nap NEEDS OUR VOTES! go vote like crazy!!
Tony Hui - June 8, 2010
No one on this team deserves to be on the All Star team
besides Weaver and possibly Santana depending on how he pitches between here and next month
PhiSlamma - June 8, 2010
At this point I'm hoping Weaver starts
With Torii and maybe a few others getting selected. Torii or Napoli in the HR Derby would be sick!
Commander_Nate - June 8, 2010
Meh.
I’d be happy to have our guys avoid the derby. Off the top of my head, I can think of 4 guys that had modest to severe power reductions after participating, Abreu, Vladdy, GA, and Hamilton.
I can’t think of why the HR derby would contribute to power decline, but why take the risk? Let someone else have the bragging rights.
sothball - June 8, 2010
You got to be kidding me!
“shakes hands with his advisor Ba’al Zebûb”
Is that how he got to be good?
Barca - June 8, 2010
7th straight win today would be awesome
If only for the very reason that the Angels are 2-7 on Tuesday games this season.
Maybe those giveaways aren’t helping the mojo in the clubhouse?
blast21dave - June 8, 2010
The way Bryce Harper wears that eye black is sooo douchey.
I realize he is very young and kids do stuff like that but it is so WWE drama makeup. I hope he lives up to the hype when he faces major league pitching. If he doesn’t he is going to look even dummer later on. Those photos are going to be around forever.
44FAN - June 8, 2010
F yeah it is
Thankfully, the Nats have told him he can’t do that anymore. I would have hazed the shit out of him if he joined a team I played on looking like that, and I imagine most other ballplayers would too.
Commander_Nate - June 8, 2010
A riddle for you...
Isn’t it a bummer that we all get dumber over the summer?
Downing Rules - June 9, 2010
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