No-Show Joe, Angels lose.

That may be a really cool picture to the left of this text (with JR in the foreground), but it was a really un-cool game on Tuesday afternoon, as the Angels took a nose dive against the second place Texas Rangers 5-9. It was the No-Show-Joe version of Saunders that showed up in Texas, as we all kind of feared, and the offense couldn't recover anywhere near enough to cancel out the Rangers potent offense. 

Big Joe Saundo (now 8-5 with a 4.24 ERA) went 3.67 really short innings this afternoon, allowing 8 runs on 6 hits. He walked five and only struck out two, as an example of how he just wasn't having it. Joey gave up a solo jack (Kinsler) and a two run bomb (Byrd) in the opening inning, and then allowed a solo homer (Cruz) and a three run jack (Byrd, again) in the third and fourth before getting pulled off the bump. What an unusually awful game for Saunders. I mean, the Colonel has been off a couple of times this year, but nothing like this. The Rangers offense was having a field day. Surprisingly, Rich "Croc Dundee" Thompson came in from the pen and pitched 2.3 innings of shutout ball, giving up just three hits while punching out three. Not surprisingly, DR native Reffy Rodriguez (6.97 ERA in 20.67 innings) gave up an extra run in his 2 innings of garbage relief. It was not a pitching night to remember for my Halos. 

The Angels offense scored 5 runs on 8 hits, and it all came in the second and ninth innings. It was a couple of temporary shining moments, with the Halos matching the Rangers first inning three spot with a three spot of their own as well as a desperate GMJ helper in the ninth. But, like I said, it was only temporary.  In the third it was a good ol' Angels hit parade in the third: Napoli singled home Morales, Abreu singled home Izzy, and T-Hunt singled home Napoli. In the ninth, it was a single by our Most Valuable Junior with a RBI single and an extra run on an error by big bopper Marlon Byrd. Now that is Angels baseball! But, when the other team scores 9 runs, it doesn't really matter. The Angels VIP Club was a lonely place for Mighty Maicer Izturis (2 for 4 with 2 runs scored). Izzy seems to only get respect on this blog, going unmentioned in most of the main stream media reports, but he is going big lately. He's hitting .291 with a .348 OBP and has 24 clutch RBI. He's only owned by 1.5% of fantasy teams on ESPN! Idiots. Honorable mentions are sent out to Torii "Big Game" Hunter (1 for 2 with a walk and 1 RBI) and Mike "That's-a Spicy Meatball" Napoli (1 for 3 with a walk and 1 RBI, as well as 2 runs). Has anyone noticed that Chone Figgins is starting to trail off here as we approach the All-Star break? With how much love he got for his solid start to the season, even here at the LSF admittedly, he has to face the facts when he starts playing a sub-par style of stick. In the last seven days, Figgy is hitting just .217/.321/.217 with no extra base hits and just 1 stolen base. Don't start dropping off now! You've converted so many of us #9 haters! Please, don't prove us all right! 

The Red Hats are now 42-33 with a 1.5 game lead on the Rangers. The lead over Seattle is 3.5 and it is 10 over Oakland. This means that this huge AL West series all comes down to the final game, an afternoon scuffle in Arlington for a moderate amount of marbles. A win, and we're 2.5 up heading into a 4-game weekend series with the Murder-More O's. A loss, and we're up by just a slim 0.5 with Texas going to match up with the current AL Champs from Tampa, Florida. The final game of the series, which just happens to be the first game of the month of July, features Angels mega-pitcher Jered "So Easy A Caveman Could Do It" Weaver (8-3, 2.65) goes toe to toe with 12 year veteran Kevin Millwood (8-5, 2.64). Both pitchers have had solid seasons, and both pitchers have been solid as of late. Milly has only allowed 5 runs in his last 34.67 innings on the mound. That is some serious stuff. Texas has gone 4-1 in his last 5 starts, and he loves going deep into games (3rd in the AL in IP, 4th in the AL in CG). He could be trouble. Let's hope his age catches up with him. Meanwhile, Jered "My Wife Thinks He's Ugly" Weaver has some rankings of his own to deal. J-Dub is 2nd in complete games (take it Milly!), 5th in WHIP, and 6th in ERA (that's all in the AL, of course). My boys are 6-1 in Weaver's last seven starts, the only loss coming to the young guy's brother in Blue. If you take that loss to the Doyers out, Big Baby has only allowed 13 runs in 65 innings. That is some solid action, if you ask me. I'm not a genius when developing my own stats, but I think that's a 1.80 ERA. Don't check my math. Hopefully we can shake off the dust of tonight's loss and get things back in the win column. 

This just in: The Angels ranked as the #1 most friendly sports franchise based on an ESPN survery. The Doyers (50), Lakers (51), and Clippers (122) came up short of the heroes of Gene Autry Way. The Halos have now owned the #1 ranking for baseball's most friendly franchise six years in a row. What a squad! 

Angels beat Rangers into submission.

This is exactly how we needed to start this huge AL West series. This is a three game set that could really set us apart as we work toward the end of the first half of the regular season. Today it was a combination of another solid Sully start and some timely come from behind offense that earned the Angels the 5-2 win against the Texas Rangers. 

Good ol' SOS. San Diego boy Sean O'Sullivan continued his dream call up season, chasing the magic of Matt Palmer, with another nice outing. The rook went up against the second best team that the AL West had to offer, and walked off the hill with 6 innings of 2 run ball, punching out 5, and allowing just 8 to reach base (6 hits and 2 walks). He nailed down 53 strikes on his 90 pitches, showing pretty nice command against the beloved Texas offense, and improved his record to 2-0 with a 3.00 ERA. The Angels have now won in all three of Sully's starts here in 2009. Who says we have a pitching problem? Well, I guess starting pitching has never been the problem. But, with Ervin Santana saying he's ready to come back, will we see SOS bolster the recently successful Halo bullpen? We'll have to wait and see. Speaking of the bullpen, the Red Hats sent Darren Oliver, Justin Speier, and Brian Fuentes out to the bump to maintain the lead, and did they even. The three relievers blanked Texas, with Fuentes earning his MLB best 22 saves. This guy has filled into the closer role pretty nicely, eh? 

The LAA offense put up nice numbers with 5 runs on 12 hits, and it was all about the gigantic four run sixth inning against Vincente Padilla. Juan Rivera (with Vlad on base) and Kendry Morales (solo job) hit back to back home runs to hand the Angels the lead after the Rangers got back to back jacks earlier in the game. The inning also featured a timely Chone Figgins sac fly, that helped push the lead even further along. The Angels VIP club was pretty packed today, with Bobby "Chupame" Abreu (2 for 4 and a walk), VAG (2 for 5 with 2 runs), "Magic Juan-D" Rivera (2 for 5 with 2 RBI), and Kendry "Cuban Cleanup" Morales (2 for 4 with 2 RBI) leading the way. Honorable mention goes out to Mike Napoli (1 for 3 with a walk) and Erick Aybar (1 for 2 with a walk). On the down side, it was an unusually tough night for All-Star hopeful Torii Hunter (1 for 5 with 3 punch outs). Hopefully this game will be a memorable one for all the Angel fans who think that we can't string hits together, hit the long ball, or come back against quality teams. Ya'll be idiots. Let's put today's spotlight on my main man Kendry Morales. K-Mo has been smacking at a .333/.429/.667 clip over the last 7 days, with 6 RBI and 5 extra base hits. He is continuing to pick up the pace, and it is nice to see it coming on the road, were he is hitting -.072 compared to at the friendly confines. 

The win is the Angels sixth in a row and they have won 13 out of their last 16. We're rolling along at a sweet 42-32 mark with a nice little +21 run differential. The big news, of course, is that we have increased our lead in the AL West to 2.5 games over the Rangers. Meanwhile, the M's are 3.5 back and Oakland are a comfortable 11 away. Isn't is nice to be back in control? We can become much more in control if the right Joe Saunders (8-4, 3.66) comes to the mound in Texas tomorrow afternoon. He'll be facing off against Hawaiian Scott Feldman (5-2, 4.06). Felds has looked pretty good this year, but he hasn't earned a win since June 3 (that's 4 times out without a win). In fact, the Rangers have only won once in the last four outings for Feldman. Are we hitting him at the right time? Man, I hope so. Add in the fact that Big Joe Saundo has found his groove recently, and we may have a guaranteed win situation. The Angels have won the last three Saunders outings, with Joe giving up just a single run in two of those outings. However, it has been well documented on the LSF that he has been inconsistent this year. Can he continue to bring the right stuff and hopefully improve on his #6 ranking in the AL wins category? I think so. 

You know I love my MiLB, so here is today's little trip. SLC grabbed a big win against Fresno last night, 3-2. CF Terry Evans seems to earn a lot of player of the game nods lately, and he kept it up with a 2 for 5 night that included a jack. Evans is now hitting .292/17/54 and is somehow begging for a call up in the Angels busy outfield. HK-47 went 1 for 2 with 2 walks and a run in his continued efforts to get called up. Are you still following the HK hat strike on the LSF Twitter page? Despite the dominating hitting from Terry, the spotlight needs to be shared in this one. Shane Loux has a nice game as the short starter. He's literally listed as on a rehab assignment, with the Angels looking forward to him swapping into the bullpen. Loux Dawg picthed 4.3 innings of 1 run ball, allowing just 3 hits in his outing. Big Moose, Robert Mosebach, was also huge with 2 shutout innings and save artist Jeremy Dee Hill earned his 16th save of the year with a good enough ninth. Despite the win, the Bees still trail division leading Colorado Springs by 4.5. AA Arkansas didn't have it as easy. The Travs dropped their game with NW Arkansas 3-7 despite the best efforts of player of the game Hank Conger. Big Hank has a sweet game, going 2 for 5 with a 2-run jack. He's hitting .286/5/32 in 65 games with the Travs, and I'm wondering if the Angels are interested in bringing him up fast with the lack of studliness from Naps or Mathis? Someone has to stand up for Barret Browning, who didn't have as bad as a start as most might think. He may be 0-7 with a 4.03 ERA this year, but he really only gave up 2 earned runs over 5 innings in the game. As we start the second half of the AA Season, the Travs are just 2.5 games back from first with their start-over 2-4 record in the second half. Single-A Rancho didn't have much better of a time against the Inland Empire, dropping the game 1-4. Player of the game Jeremy Moore had a nice outing, going 3 for 4 with a single, double, and triple. The LF is hitting .306/4/28 with the Quakes this year. Cal Poly Pomona graduate Taylor Wilding ("Wildwing?") looked good in relief, with 2.3 innings of shutout ball, punching out a big 3. Despite all the positives, it was still a loss, and the Quakes are just 1-3 since the records got reset at halftime, trailing first place Lake Elsinore by 2 games already. Low-A Cedar Rapids also dropped their game, 2-3, making SLC the only bright spot this time around. 

In hockey news: Huge ups to the Canucks for signing Rick Rypien and Stevie Bernier to 2 year extensions so far this offseason. Nice moves, boys. 

Angels complete Operation Desert Sweep.

I'm not sure what else they could have done to make it one hell of a game. The Angels scored double digit runs, had GMJ rob a run on a straight steal of home, and got more magic from a sub-par Matt Palmer outing to complete the sweep of Arizona with a 12-8 victory. What a game!

Matt "Palm Tree" Palmer made need to change his nickname to "The Magic Man." He always seems to come out and have an average/kind of weak outing and he always seems to walk away with a win. The Palm Reader went just 5 innings of 6 run ball, striking out none and allowing 12 to reach base (10 hits and 2 walks). Indeed, not a very good outing, but with the offensive outburst that the Red Hats put on, it was good enough. He left with a big lead, and good thing thanks to the absolute sucking of Kevin Jepsen. The anaheim native went 1 inning (finishing Palmer's sixth) allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, but Palmer's 6 earned runs has a lot to do with the hit parade allowed by Jepsen. After Jeps squeaked out of the inning, it was the combo of Bulger/Speier/Fuentes shutting the Diamondbacks out to hold the lead and win the game. As I said, somehow Matt Palmer continues to work his magic on the field. Despite allowing 6 runs in just 5 innings, Palm Tree has somehow climbed to 7-1 with a 5.16 ERA. He continues to get a ridiculous amount of run support in his games, and continues to work toward one of the best (not the best, that belongs to Jered Weaver) rookie pitching years in Angels history. 

The offense exploded against these guys again, earning 12 runs on 11 hits in the sweep sealing game, and it was led (oddly enough by Gary Matthews). GMJ may have only gone 1 for 4, but it was a bases loaded "triple" (a double with a throwing error) that earned him three RBI and set up what was possibly the most exciting moment of the season. The Most Valuable Junior took a large lead on Scherzer and broke for the plate. He beat the pitch and tag, scaring the at-bat Aybar in the process, and earned an Angels' stolen base for the first time since OC a couple of years ago. What a play! The Angels VIP club in this offensive burst of energy included Mighty Maicer Izturis (2 for 3 with 2 walks, 2 RBI, and 3 runs) and Kendry "I Told You So" Morales (2 for 4 with a walk and a run). Wow, how about Izzy? Let's not overlook Juan Rivera blasted a two run bomb in the fifth for his 12th of the year or Jeff "Mathis-Matician" and his second jack of the year (a solo bomb). Back to Ma$e; did you see his jack. He ripped a ball over the right center fence with a style usually reserved for the hitter formerly known as Vladimir Guerrero. Very nice. 

With the sweep, the Halos have turned the AL West upside down. At 41-32, the Red Hats now lead the AL West by 1.5 games over the Rangers. We're back on top, baby! With a +19 run differential now, I'm not sure how those idiot fans can talk about needing anything (other than a bullpen worker) to make a run to the playoffs. The Angels have the #1 batting average in the AL, the #5 OPS in the AL, and the #2 SB in the AL. This offense is so much better than you thought. Meanwhile, the Mariners are 3 games back of the division leading Angels, and the A's are now a large 10.5 away from the top mark. This afternoon my boys get back to business in a huge series against the Texas Rangers. With a three game series, my boys have a huge opportunity to make some serious distance between the AL West's first and second. In game one it will be Sean "Woot Dawg" O'Sullivan (1-0, 3.00) going head to head with Vincente Padilla (6-3, 4.48). The 10 year veteran is #8 in the AL in walks with 36, but the Rangers have found a way to win in 6 of his last 8 starts, and he only allowed 1 run in 7 innings the last time out (of course, that was against the D-Backs). He has only allowed 4 runs in his last 18 innings, and may be somewhat dangerous to face. Meanwhile, the Angels have never lost in a SOS start. Sully has only allowed 4 runs in 12 innings of mound work, and holds a nice and tidy 1.29 road ERA (in one start). Can the rookie and San Diego native pitch the game of his life against our top of the AL West rivals? I believe he can. 

In other news, I suck at "Streak for the ca$h." 

Weekly football post #42.

It was a weekend of disappointment as far as football was concerned for this guy, and here is a recap of the suffering. 

Just a couple of days after an amazing U.S. win against Spain to earn a trip to the Confederations Cup final, the Mighty Americans gave up a first half 2-0 lead to drop the final match against Brazil 2-3. It was a tale of two halves, with the US dominating the first 45 minutes, only to look like an AYSO team against Brazil in the final 45. Brazil could have earned more than three, if calls and balls would have gone just slightly more their way. From a questionable no goal to just an immense amount of pressure applied by the Green and Yellow, most fans around our nation had a feeling that it was just a matter of time before Brazil would overtake our underdog squad, and they did. Clint Dempsey (10th minute on an easy redirect) and Landon Donovan (a fast break goal at the 27th) opened the scoring for the Americans that prompted text messages and tweets to fly across the nation in anticipation of another unbelievable US upset. However, the Brazilians nailed home an early second half goal from Luis Fabiano in the 46th minute, and the flood gates opened. The US looked paralyzed against the opposition's striking for the entirety of the second half, and only naturally allowed goal from Fabiano again (a header in the 74th off of a crossbar rebound), and from Elano (a real easy header on a corner in the 84th). The American put tons of pressure on in the final couple of minutes, but it just wasn't meant to be. The beautiful run ended with a second place finish. Despite the disappointment after the huge start today, I'm pretty sure that all of us are proud of the effort our boys put out and are stoked on our chances at the World Cup. 

Over in Newcasatle, my "Eggies" (a new nickname thanks to their new kits) continue to sit in limbo as we start to get ready for the Championship promotion run. Alan Shearer has yet to be named as the manager for the 09/10 season, as the team continues to work toward being sold before making any big moves. 'Castle players are due back for training this Wednesday, and we still don't have a coach. I'm not a huge supporter of Alan as a manager, but we need to pick somebody! Newcastle will be matching up against the Shamrock Rovers of Ireland on July 11th as they continue to prep for the upcoming second division season. The Barcodes will also prep against Darlington, Huddersfield Town, FC Utrecht, Leeds, and Dundee before getting their promotion bid on against West Brom on August 8.

Meanwhile, Celtic has started to make some noise to make up for losing a couple of clutch players. Remember, Shunsuke "Ninja Warrior" Nakamura is off to Espanyol and Paul Hartley has been released. To counter by bringing somebody in, the Celts have brought in a Polish star to match up well with Pole stud Artur Boruc between the pipes. Lukasz Zaluska has been transfered in from Dundee United for the 09/10 season. Zaluska played 53 matches for the Crocs between 2007 and 2009. Our newest Polish keeper had a tough time with Dundee, suffering injuries and attacks from fans of Aberdeen. Hopefully he can learn from Boruc, be a solid backup, and continue the amazing luck that the Green & White have had with getting backstops from Eastern Europe. The Hoops start SPL play August 15 against that very same Aberdeen after a ton of preseason fixtures warm them up. 

Chivas USA made sure to continue to disappoint the fans of Goat Nation with another sad result in the Super Liga. This tournament is made for Chivas USA, especially the way that we opened the MLS season, and we just completely bombed. Losses to Tigres UNAL and Chicago left us with a game against San Luis that we had to win by 2 to move forward in the tournament. Guess what? We didn't. Chivas came away with a 1-1 draw against the Mexican side, despite San Luis dominating most of the game, and was promptly eliminated from this year's Super Liga tournament (which, in case you don't know, is a battle between the MLS' best and Mexican soccer's best). I guess we can at least take away the fact that the draw we earned prevented San Luis from moving on as well (big ups to John for the Fire moving on?). The first 45 was just a couple of back and fourth plays, with nobody really taking control. In the 53rd minute, however, San Luis broke through with a goal from Alfredo Martinez. Of course, the goal was scored after a questionable move by Coach Preki. Preki moved to take Zach Thorton out of the game, allowing his backup Lance Parker to take over between the pipes. Clearly, Preki was showing that he favors MLS play more than Super Liga action, and the move led to San Luis breaking the game open. It was a penalty kick that opened it up, so I don't want to blame Parker too much, but it was Parker that caused the penalty in the box, so may I should! Our main man Atiba Harris headed a ball from a corner into the net in the final seconds of the game to draw the Goats even 1-1. It didn't help us move forward in the tourney, but at least we didn't lose all three. It should be noted that San Luis had two goals disallowed due to offsides calls that were questionable. Either going into the new would have sent San Luis through, so maybe the HDC officials had some kind of beef with the Gladiadores. Heading back to MLS play, we focus on our 8-4-3 record (27 points), and the fact that we trail Houston by just a single point in the table after this long drawn out tail spin. We get back to MLS action against the hated LA Galaxy on July 11th after a little break. We'll need the break, and we'll need to play strong against a 2-3-9 Galaxy team. When the two LA squads get together, records obviously go out the door, but we are the better squad and we have to start playing like it. 

As we get back into things, let's lay out the LSF's 5 favorite Chivas USA players: 

1) Maykel "El Cubano" Galindo (2 goals on 9 shots in 10 games). He may not be the greatest guy on the team this year, but the Villa Clara, Cuba native has been my favorite player on the team ever since he burst onto the scene with a team leading 12 goals and 5 assists in 2007. That season earned him the "Budweiser Golden Boot Award," and he is finally getting back to form after a difficult 2008 season filled with injuries. 

2) Eduardo "99" Lillingston (6 goals on 27 shots in 14 games). E-Lill is one of the most underrated Chivas forwards, due to being frequently used as a sub, but the Guadalajara native is leading the team in goals, believe it or not, and is making a name for himself during his first season with this squad. 

3) Paulo "MLS Champion" Nagamura (4 goals on 13 shots in 14 games). Naga, a native of the hated Confederation Cup winners, has been totally solid as a midfielder in his third season with Chivas. He came over from (Andrew's?) Toronto FC in the 2007 season after getting traded, and has finally been coming into his own. Naga has a MLS Cup title with the LA Galaxy back in 2005, and hopes to be a part of brining the cup back to LA for Chivas USA here in 2009. 

4) Zach "The Beast" Thorton (7 shutouts in 15 games with a 0.80 GAA). Thorton came over in 2008 from New York on a trade after beloved Brad Guzan went to Europe. ZBT started just seven games for the Red & White before falling to injury, and really was an unknown factor to most Chivas fans, despite starting both playoff games last season. Thorton has been in the MLS since 1996, winning the MLS Cup and Goalkeeper of the Year in 1998 with the Chicago Fire. The 35 year old Maryland native is back to being solid this season, keeping Chivas in a ton of games with his miniscule goals against average. He's been off as of late, so hopefully the 6'3/230 giant can get back into form from here on out.

5) Atiba "Ezra" Harris (2 goals on 17 shots in 13 games). Atiba Harris has been rocking it with Chivas USA since last season. ATB played in the most games of any Chivas player in his first season with the squad (28), and shifted between being a midfielder and a striker. He had three goals and five assists in the season, and is really pushing things forward here in 2009. His favorite soccer squad, outside of his own, is Chelsea FC (appealing to Brandon?), and his cousin Micah Richards plays in the EPL for the hated Manchester City. Atiba reminds all of us Chivas fans of our former favorite Ezra Hendrickson, who now plays with Seattle, and hopefully he will continue to play like him as much as he looks like him.

Honorable Mentions) Extra love has to go to Huntington Beach native Sacha Kljestan (1 assist in 10 games), Justin "Big Country" Braun (1 goal in 7 games), Los Alamitos native Jonathan Bornstein (1 assist in 12 games), and the up and coming Wake Forest graduate and 2009 1st round pick Michael Lahoud (1 shot in 6 games).  

Man, I love Chivas.

Crapoli bombs Angels to win.

Man, we are straight dominating the Snakes. One day after a 12-3 smashing that included an eight run second inning with a Torii Hunter jack, the Angels stepped it up to win a nail biting 2-1 victory against the hated team from the state to the East. It ended up being quite the pitching duel, but it was a lovely game winning home run in the ninth that will have most of Angels Nation talking. 

Big John Lackey was able to keep his recent solid starting going with 7 innings of 1 run ball (0 earned!) while punching out 9 D-Bags in the match. This was easily Lack's best start of the year, but he ended up taking the no decision, as Sacramento native Doug Davis (3-8, 3.28) pitched the game of his life to keep the game tight. John was followed by another solid effort by our usually lackluster bullpen, as the Halos got 1 shutout inning from Darren Oliver (2-0, 3.00) and another shutout inning (with 2 Ks) from AL save leader and Merced, CA native Brian "My BFF" Fuentes. BFF leads the league with 21 saves (Joe Nathan and former Angel prospect Bobby Jenks are in second with 18; and former Angel save specialist Frankie Rodriguez trails Fuentes for the MLB save lead with 20), and hasn't blown a save since a rough outing against the Mariners back on May 30. His 21 saves come in 24 chances, and I think he's gone well underrated in this year of the down bullpen. 

The Halo offense got 2 runs on 6 hits in the game, and really got some help from some awful D-Bags defense. After falling down 0-1 on a Tony Clark sac fly in the fourth inning, the Angels got a sweet gift from Arizona. Erick Aybar laid down a bunt single, only to have Doug Davis air ball the throw. Aybar ran for second, only to have "All-Star" Jason Upton air mail his ball, which sent Aybar all the way around to home. The play seemed to crush the spirits of the 'Backs, and we would be all tied up from there on out. Then, in the top of the ninth inning, the Angels got a gift from their amazing home run hitting backstop Mike "IROC" Napoli. Craps went mega-yard on an 0-1 pitch, ripping the ball 428 feet over the center field wall. Kaboom! Now, I don't like to admit that Napoli helps the Angels in any way, but I'll step out and give him some props for the giant and well timed jack. Napoli was all alone in the VIP club for the Angels this afternoon, going a thrilling 3 for 4 with that 1 RBI in the game (his 28th of the year), and Robb "The Extra 'B' is for Boo" Quinlan earned the not-VIP award for his 0 for 4 afternoon with 3 strikeouts. It should be noted that Sean "HR-Rod" Rodriguez and Bobby Abreu also went multi-K in the game with 2 a piece. What was with Doug Davis? 

A win is a win, and this may end up being a big one. The Rangers are yet to play today, so as we sit right now my boys are 40-32 and dead tied with Texas for first place in the division. We'll either be 0.5 up or 0.5 back when Saturday is all said and done. Meanwhile, the M's trail by 3.5 and the A's trail by a big 9 spot. Tomorrow afternoon the Angels will go for the LSF predicted sweep as Matt "Palm Tree" Palmer (6-1, 4.70) tried to get back to his winning ways against Max "The Kaiser" Scherzer (5-4, 3.53). The Palm Reader may have been off in his last game, allowing 6 runs in 4.67 innings, but he has been mostly solid in the starting role for the Angels this year, only allowing 7 earned runs in his 20.3 innings prior to that loss (3-3-0-1, in order). A graduate of Missouri University, our adversary Max Scherzer (somehow 92.1% owned in ESPN fantasy leagues) has watched Arizona win in his last three starts. He has allowed just 4 earned runs in his last 24.67 innings, which has been a nice little comeback streak after allowing 8 runs in 3.67 innings to the Braves back on May 31. We may be hitting Max at the wrong time, but then again, how long can he possibly keep this streak up? Can Palmer get back to his amazingly winning ways? I sure hope so. Sweep! 

How about an update on my baby Halos? SLC dropped a 5-8 decision to Fresno in their last game, despite a three run ninth. The player of the game award from the game goes to DH Terry "Traded Straight Up for Jeff Weaver" Evans, who bopped a 3 run jack in his 1 AB and added a walk to top off a solid evening. Evans is now hitting .281 with 15 bombs this year in AAA. Unfortunately, starter David "P.S. This Is" Austen went just 1 inning of 6 run ball to drop to 2-5 with an inflated 8.12 ERA. His rough start allows us to focus on reliever Fernando Rodriguez and his 2.67 innings of shutout ball with 4 Ks. Nice stuff. HK-47 went 1 for 4 with 2 strikeouts, as he continues to work toward being recalled. AA Arkansas finally impressed with a 7-4 win against NW Arkansas thanks to a three run 10th inning. Player of the game RF Val "Venis" Majewski (.243/4/13) had a 2 for 5 game with 5 RBI on 2 homers led the offense with a jack in the first and the game winning jack in the tenth. That is the kind of game dreams are made of. Starter Jordan Walden (1-4, 3.91) had a really nice start for the Travs, going 7 innings of 2 run ball with 3 punch outs. Robert "The Moose" Mosebach had a nice piece of work with 2 innings of shutout ball to earn the win, after being demoted from AAA. Let's keep up the good news, as the RC Quakes won a 7-1 game against Lancaster. Player of the game DH Hector Estrella (who, by the way, plays the game with the size sticker under the bill of his hat) went 4 for 5 with 2 home runs and 3 RBI. The USC grad (bleck!) is hitting .268/3/22 since getting brought up to high-A. Starter and Wazzu grad Jayson Miller (3-4, 4.35) is bringing some love too, going 7 innings of 1 run ball with 3 strikeouts to really set the pace. Low-A Cedar Rapids also proved well with a 10-2 win in their last outing. 

Real quick, I hope you are all getting set to root for Chivas USA to fix their recent misfortune in their Super Liga match tonight against Mexican side San Luis. The HDC will be rocking with fans of the Red & White as they try and earn their first Super Liga 2009 win. The Goats had lost just once in their first 11 MLS games before turning the page to problems and dropping five of their last six games. A couple of clutch players (Kljestan and Bornstein) have been off with Team USA on their amazing FIFA run, but Chivas are better than their play has indicated recently. To move on in the Super Liga, Chivas will need to win by 2 goals or more tonight. If B-More native Zach "The Beast" Thorton can keep the balls out and Maykel "El Cubano" Galindo can send the balls in, we'll be in good shape. Chivas es mi vida! 

The state of the 38-32 Angels.

Back on June 12, I dropped a post on "The state of the 29-29 Angels." In that post I countered the downers feelings about the Halos, pointing out all the good things about the team and fact that I firmly still believed that my Red Hats would win the AL West when it was all said and done. Now, just two weeks after that post, I'm putting this post out to assess the state of our team here on June 26, 2009. We'll start by looking at Wednesday night's triumph. 

Much has been made of Joe "Big Joe Saundo" Saunders' ups and downs this season. He's had some great games and some horrible games, and we don't really know what to expect when he steps on the mound. Wednesday night, however, he was on point. Joey (8-4, 3.66) went 6 innings of 1 run ball against the much loved Rockies. The big 5-1 punched out 6 victims, while only allowing 5 to reach base (4 hits/1 walk). He wasn't having a crazy amazing game, but he was doing just fine. Joe was relieved by the recently solid Justin Speier (1 inning of perfect ball with 3 amazing strikeouts), the not so perfect Raffy Rodriguez (1 inning of 2 run ball), and the quite gifted D.O. (1 perfect inning with one strikeout). Can I just mention that the bullpen has been pretty solid lately? 

With the change in our pitching staff thanks to injuries, let's take a new look at that special Angels rotation. As of today, the starters are Joe Sunders (8-4, 3.66), Jered Weaver (7-3, 2.53), John Lackey (2-3, 5.83), Matt Palmer (6-1, 4.70), and Sean O'Sullivan (1-0, 3.00). The only difference in this rotation from the last "state of the Angels" post is that Ervin Santana has found his way back to the DL. With Erv out, SOS came in, and anyone would agree that he has filled the role delightfully. Jered Weaver has continued to do an amazing job, as we have documented, with the #3 AL spot in ERA, the #4 spot in WHIP in the AL, and the #2 AL spot in complete games. The squad has earned 5 wins in Jered's last six starts, the only loss coming in the battle against his brother, and he looks to get back to his solid winning ways tonight against the Diamondbacks. John Lackey has slowly started turning things around, allowing just 7 runs in his last 15 innings (going 1-1), and hopefully came keep up the winning. Matt Palmer may have suffered his first loss in his last start, but you still have to love this guy, and don't get me started on how much I have enjoyed watching Big Sean O. The bullpen is slightly different than the last post, with Esco heading to the DL, we have Bulger, Jepsen, Oliver, Raffy, Speier, and Aussie Thompson, with Brian Fuentes closing better than anyone in the American League. The bullpen seems to have turned things around here lately, getting the innings going well when they need to, and I still think that the Halos will make a move to bolster things before the break, no matter what everyone says. 

The offense was gang busters in their last game, earning 11 runs on 11 hits, with Chone Figgins doing his thing at 3 for 4 with 3 runs. He was joined in the VIP club by Bobby Abreu (2 for 3 with 3 RBI), and Vladdy (a surprising 2 for 5 with 3 RBI evening). The Angels actually went 6 for 14 with runners in scoring position, doing quite a nice job compared to that Dodgers series. I think it's funny that Vlad has a 2 for 5 night to raise his average to .277 and all of the popular sports media outlets are talking about how he is "back to Super Vlad." The Impaler is a different person than we'd like him to be, and just because he's raised his BA to .277 doesn't change the fact that he has the target on his back to be the big Angels trade bait this season. I mean, come on, we have to trade him before his contract runs out! I'm hear to talk about Chone Figgins. I've always been somewhat hard on Figgins, for having a low OBP as a leadoff hitter most seasons, but I have always like him. How can you not root for #9? This year, Figgins has been making himself known. He still seems kind of underrated around baseball despite his amazing numbers, but he is doing it at the right time with his contract expiring after the '09 season. Get this: Chone is hitting .330/.405/.422 with 1 jack and 20 RBI. He has 23 stolen bases and 19 extra base hits. Figgy has the #3 batting average in the AL, the #4 amount of swipes, the 4th most runs of any AL player, and the #4 OBP. Finally, he is one of the league's premier leadoff hitters. Even better is that his away batting average if .366, with an away .899 OPS. That is just out of control. If the Angels keep him throughout the season, which you have to imagine that they will, the question becomes: Will they put up the cash to resign him if he keeps this up? He's getting paid $5.775 million this year, and if he finishes as strong as he has started, you know he's going to get a huge raise. Will we keep him? I don't even know what I think we should do just yet. 

At 38-32, the Angels trail the first place Texas Rangers by just 0.5 games in the AL West table. My boys are rolling at a +4 run differential, and coming into a series against the last place Arizona Diamondbacks (30-43), my Red Hats are looking to get another sweep of the NL West to take over first place. Of course, we have to take into account that the Rangers are matching up against the Padres this weekend, but let's just go out on a limb and say that the Angels will lead the AL West by 0.5 games when we go to bed on Sunday night. 

In conclusion, I don't see the state of the 38-32 Angels as much different than I saw the state of the 29-29 Angels just two weeks ago. I guess back then I just knew that they had potential to blow up and be a solid team, and now they have kind of started to show it. But, not much has changed. I still think they'll win the AL West, I still think they have their true challenge in the playoffs (especially with Boston primed to make another playoff run), and I still think that they are the most exciting team in baseball. With a 2 game winning streak and a 7-3 record over their last 10 games, I'd like to see you try and argue with me. Especially you, Dodger fan. 

Let's bust Arizona. 

I'd also like to point out that in light of the US' win against Spain, this SportsPickle story is much less funny. We are a soccer nation! 

Late comeback earns Halo win.

What a damned exciting finish! The Angels were able to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth, with Bobby Abreu bringing home the go ahead runs, and the Angels capped off a thrilling comeback with a 4-3 win over the red hot Colorado Rockies. Our boys did just enough to hang around with some solid bullpen work to allow the offense the chance to make something happen, and the offense actually came through! Pair that with a fifth consecutive Rangers loss, and we had a pretty nice night. 

Sean "SOS" O'Sullivan got a hair cut and beard trim, and he was ready to rock and roll tonight with Ervin getting tossed to the DL. SOS was solid in his first career start, and didn't do much worse tonight. Outside of his start lacking length, it was pretty good. Sully finished with 5 innings of 3 run ball, giving up 6 hits. He was actually pretty golden outside of two jacks given up to Santa Clara, CA native Troy Tulowitzki. T-Squared bombed a solo shot in the fourth and a two run homer in the sixth to power the Colorado offense. Despite only going 5+ tonight, I give my tip of the hat to SOS for doing a pretty decent job in his second career start. I see big things for the big guy. Meanwhile, the bullpen what they needed to do to keep the Angels in the game (surprisingly), with Oliver, Bulger, and Jepsen shutting Colorado out after Sully's exit. Let's not understate the fun time we had watching our boy Brian Fuentes dismantling his old team in his shutout ninth. He has now worked his way to an AL best 20 saves, which is putting him well ahead of his season average of 29. 

The offense wasn't really doing much until the eighth, getting 2 runs on 5 hits prior to that, but they surely put the pressure on the Colorado starter at the right time. Juan Rivera was there to power the big squad against with a fourth inning jack that temporarily gave the Angels a 2-1 lead. JR is clipping at a nice .311/11/38 mark, and continues to lead this team like we all know he can. Not that it matters, but he has jumped up in the ESPN Fantasy Ownership stat +27.2% over the last week. People around baseball are finally starting to recognize what kind of stud this guy is. The big news, however, was the Angels loading the bases without a single hit in the eighth before getting one out, and then having Bobby Abreu come through with a two run single to make some excitement happen. Everything just kind of came together in the bottom of the Angels last offensive inning, thanks to some poor defensive play from Colorado, some purely beautiful speed by Halo base runners, and the power of the Rally Monkey (of course). Tonight's VIP Club was attended surprisingly by Jeff Mathis (2 for 2 with 2 runs and a really important walk) on the day that they gave out his road jersey to all kids 18 and under. The "Mathis-Matician" has only had one other multi-hit game this year, and he needs it, as my favorite catcher is going at just a .212 mark these days. Tonight's game just goes to show that if you give the Angels offense a chance to make a fun comeback, they can do it. Like I said in an earlier comeback post, this team is really starting to remind me of our beloved 2002 squad. 

At 37-32, the Angels are officially tied for the AL West lead with the tail spinning Texas Rangers. We all knew that the Rangers would stop playing over their head eventually, but who knew it would start happening so soon? I can't even remember the last time that the Angels were this high up in the standings. All those doubters have all of the sudden become fans. The A's dropped their game, falling to 6.5 games back of the two teams leading, and the Mariners are about to drop to 2.5 back thanks to an eventual loss at the hands of San Diego. Tomorrow night we have the thrilling conclusion to this AL/NL West series, and our boy Joey Saunders (7-4, 3.80) will try to out duel Jason Marquis (9-4, 3.71). Marquis has been straight solid this year, with the Rockies winning 6 of his last 7 games, and he has only allowed 6 runs over the last 22.3 innings. The Angels may be starting to learn how to hit home runs, but Marquis has only allowed 3 jacks in his last 8 games. He ranks first in the National League in wins. It'll be tough, but if Joe is on, we can pull off the series win. The Springfield, VA native has been hit or miss this season, but the Angels have won in his last two starts. He is hoping that he has turned the page with those two wins, including a nice 8.3 inning 1 run effort against the Padres. Will Saunders continue his recent success? All of Angels Nation hopes so. 

Remember how excited we all were about the idea of Kelvim Escobar coming off his most recent DL trip to power our bullpen? Well, the latest news is that he may be out for the rest of the season, again. Not too good in a contract year, eh? 

P.S. I'm sure you can tell this wasn't proofread, but at least it was posted well before any of the major sports news outlets had their recaps of the game up. LSF Pride! 

This is NOT Photoshop

Check out next year's NUFC away kit.

Weekly football post #41.

While the Freeway Series dominated the LSF headlines over the weekend, the rest of the world was still focused on the beautiful game. I think it's time we focus on it as well. 

Starting with my favorite relegated squad, there isn't much noise going on around Newcastle in this offseason. Of course, rumors about who is in and who is out continue to swirl. Interest in bum Michael Owen is being generated by Hull, which would be great because then Owen could lead another subpar team out of the EPL. What a joke. The fixtures are now out for next season, with August 15th the start date for Newcastle's big Championship League debut. The battle starts against Reading. 

A lot of news going around Glasgow where Celtic has a new manager in the long suspected hire Tony Mowbray. Good to have Mowbray on board, but my favorite Hoops player is moving on, and that hurts. Japanese midfielder Shunsuke "Ninja Warrior" Nakamura is set to join Spanish club Espanyol. The rumor was that Naka would go back to his homeland of Japan when his Celtic contract expired, but he went for the big deal in Spain instead. Tough loss for my Mighty Celts, but we'll make something happen to get back to the top next season. Speaking of the next season, Celtic will open their SPL fixtures against Aberdeen on August 15, which is shaping up to be a big weekend. 

Back here in the homeland, Chivas USA continued to make all of Goat Nation scratch out heads. The first Super Liga battle of the year ended in a 1-2 loss to Tigres UANL, possibly again showing the lack of competition between the FMF and the MLS. Chivas got a sweet goal in the 55th minute by rookie star Michael Lahoud, but it wasn't enough to defeat a strong and pesky Mexican club in the tournament opener. Tigres took a lead in just the 11th minute on a sweet bicycle kick, but a solid goal from Lahoud evened things up. Lahoud, a Wake Forest graduate, was drafted 9th overall in the 2009 MLS Super Draft by Chivas, and is looking like he will be a solid addition to this team. And to think, he was just a sub after the first 45. Chivas went a man down with 23 minutes remaining in the match, and our main man Eduardo Lillingston got sent off for a second caution (a yellow in the 29th and the red in the 67th). With that, Tigres was able to earn the game winning goal in the 82nd minute, fair or not, and despite a desperate Chivas attack in the final 10 minutes, our boys fell in the tourney opener. Chivas have two more matches in Super Liga play prior to getting back to MLS action, as the Boys in Bars continues tomorrow afternoon against the hated Chicago Fire. MLS play returns on July 11 against the LA Galaxy. 

Click here to see a Halo Heaven GMJ photoshop contest. Keep scrolling down, because it gets pretty funny. 

How about those LOB?

Pitiful. Just plain pitiful. The Angels dropped the final game of their series against the Dodgers 3-5, leaving 12 runners on base (including two times with the bases loaded), and dropping the series as a whole. John Lackey did well enough, in my opinion, but the Angels offense just wasn't interested in scoring runs. 

With John Lackey on the mound, coming off of a really nice outing against the Giants last week, most of Angels Nation thought that we were headed to a nice and easy series win. Not so much. John Lackey went 8 innings of 4 run ball, allowing 9 hits despite punching out 5. He also, however, gave up 4 walks, and was a little off with his big pitches. Juan Pierre got to him twice, after he went 4+ shutout innings to start the game, again making me wonder why Dodger fans hate JP so much (.337 with 24 RBI), and Loney balled a two run jack in the eighth. Anaheim native Kevin Jepsen took over in the ninth, and there wasn't really any big deal for his shotty inning of work (1 earned run after allowing 3 hits) at that point. Outside of that nice game against the Giants, the work of John Lackey just hasn't been that awesome this year. He's sitting at 2-3 with a 5.83 ERA and an 1.58 WHIP here in 2009, and one great start doesn't mean you're back to being the #1, you need consistency. Come on, baby. 

The Angels earned 3 runs on 8 hits in their 3-5 loss this afternoon. I must admit that I don't really get the Clayton Kershaw thing. Who cares about this Dallas, TX native? Is he really good? It didn't seem that way. The 21 year old may have shut the Angels out, but he went 7 innings of 4 hit ball with 4 walks. He was able to get out of some sticky situations (bases loaded twice), and Brandon has emphasized that when it could have easily been much worse, we shouldn't get so excited or worried. Right? Something like that. The Angels VIP club featured my boy Juan "Magic Juand" Rivera (2 for 4 with 1 RBI) and Mike "It Pains Me To Recognize Him" Napoli (3 for 5 for a whole lot of nothing- JD Drew style). From this game, I'd like to ask if anyone cares about Vladdy anymore. Is Reagins working on a trade to get something for this guy yet? I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved Vlad. I still do love him. However, when it comes down to business, you have to act fast and make moves. After an 0 for 5 night, VAG (Vladimir Alvino Guerrero) is hitting .288/1/10 since coming off the DL. He's 98.4% held in ESPN Fantasy Leagues, so hopefully GMs in the MLB are as dumb as ESPN Fantasy players (and I think they are). Vlad's contract is up after the season, and if the Angels let it just expire without making a move for something to help the pitching (ie, the bullpen), it would just be dumb. The Angels left 12 runners on base. 12. Oh, brother. 

T.G.I. Texas losing again. The Rangers helped the Angels out in a big way by keeping pace with the losses over the weekend. After dropping 2 out of 3 at home to the evil Blue Nation, the Angels continue to hold at just 0.5 games back with their 36-31 record. Seattle has been climbing, though, now trailing my boys by just 2, with Oakland back 6.5 of the Red Hats. There is no rest for the wary. The Angels welcome another NL West franchise, the Colorado Rockies, into the stadium starting tomorrow. The three games starts with Matt "Palm Tree" Palmer (6-0, 4.13) is getting at it against 7-year veteran Aaron Cook (6-3, 4.23). Cook, like Palmer, has been getting run support in less-than-perfect games, but only the Palm Tree is undefeated thus far in 2009. The Angels have won in 8 of Palmer's 10 starts this year, and every time he takes the mound I'm expecting victory. 

Please take note: I'm not turning my back on my high praise of the Angels as of late just because of this two game losing streak. Listen: The Angels are the #1 team in the American League in terms of batting average (.281), the #2 team in stolen bases (70), and the #7 team in OPS (.772). The offense is on point. We're also 8th in quality starts with 34. Keep your pants on through the rough patches here, folks. We will win the AL West. 

Down in the MiLB, it was a so so day. Our Mighty Bees dropped a 5-8 decision to rival Sacramento. Despite scoring early and often, the Bees were outplayed down the stretch of the game. Player of the game CF Bradley Coon (.282/4/20) had a 2 for 4 night with 2 runs. Meanwhile, HK-47 went 0 for 4 with a strikeout in his continuing efforts to get called back up. Starter David Austin (2-4, 6.87) had a rough 6 innings of 6 run ball, but Jose Arredondo went 1.3 innings of shutout ball in his attempt to get back with the big club. SLC are now 38-33, trailing division leading Colorado Springs by 2.5 games. The Arkansas Travs got a rare win against Tulsa, with a 6-4 victory (scoring all 6 runs in the bottom of the eighth). Player of the game LF Brandon Florence (.280/0/1) had a big 2 for 3 game with 1 run, and starter Tim Kiely (1-0, 3.38) did enough to keep his boys in the game with 7 innings of 4 run ball. Bryan Rembisz got the win with a perfect inning of relief. What would a MiLB recap be without a Rancho loss? The Quakes dropped a 1-10 decision to Lake Elsinore, and it was as bad as it sounds. Player of the game RF Rian Kiniry (.269/0/4) went 2 for 4 in the game, and the pitching was nothing to talk about. I'll talk about it anyways, though, as reliever Steven Geltz (4-0, 3.33) was the small bright spot with his 1.67 innings of shutout ball with 5 gigantic punch outs. The ailin' Quakes are now 30-40 with a 13 game deficit. Low-A Cedar Rapids also lost 0-6. 

Am I upset about dropping the series with the Dodgers? No. It's just another series. Right, Brandon? Besides, they finished the season 3-3 against the lesser LA squad. Let's move on. 

Juan Rivera, my hero.

O ye of little faith. The Angels were down 1-4 to the hated Blue Hats, with the Dodgers "best" pitcher on the mound, only to stage an epic comeback the size of Mt. Rushmore and win the opening game of the series 5-4. 

With Joe Saunders on the hill, I had plenty of faith that we would win our seventh consecutive game. We did, but he didn't have a whole lot to do with it. Joey had trouble finding the strike zone all evening long, just doing enough to keep our boys in the game. In the end, he finished with 6.3 innings of 4 run work, punching out 4 but allowing 2 jacks. He also walked a runner in with the bases loaded. Props to Loney and "Pur-call" for ripping bombs. I'll admit, I wasn't too hopeful turning things over to the bullpen with a dramatic comeback needed. But, you can believe it or not, the bullpen was magical. The combination of Jason Bulger (0.67 innings of shutout ball), Darren Oliver (0.67 innings of shutout ball), Justin Speier (0.3 really scary innings of shutout ball to earn the win...somehow), and Brian "Who is Frankie?" Fuentes (1 inning of shutout ball for his AL League leading 19th save). "The Amazin' Billingsley," by the way, went just 6 innings of 4 run ball (3 earned). What's the big deal (he says sarcastically)?

We are watching a team, in the Angels, that remind me of the 2002 World Championship squad in this way: The offense doesn't give up. I am starting to get that feeling, and yes I know this may only be because I am in the middle of a 7 game winning streak, that the Angels are never going to lose no matter the situation. I haven't had that feeling since the regular season of 2002. It helps when Juan Rivera is just a stud. I don't care if you believe me, but when the Angels traded Jose Guillen for Maicer Izturis and Juan Rivera, I said it was one of the most underrated moves in a long time. And when you look at JR, Ma$e, and Guillen at this point, I'd have to say that I was right. Juan Rivera came up against Mota in the bottom of the eighth and did the whole, "I'm going to foul off a million pitches before hitting a jack" thing. He bombed the ball into the left field bleachers, and the entirety of Angels Nation knew that we had this one in the bag. Joining JR (.316/10/36) in the VIP club for last night were the still surprisingly incredible Chone Figgins (2 for 3 with a walk) and Vlad (2 for 4 with 1 RBI). However, I have to give huge love to Mighty Maicer for coming away with a clutch one out 2 run hit in the sixth that really opened the door for the comeback. It was simply huge. Noticeably absent was Bobby Abreu with his 0 for 3 night, but how can one complain after a night like this? 

Thanks to the San Francisco Giants, no hard feelings after the sweep, the Angels and their 36-29 record have pulled to within just 0.5 games of the AL West leading Rangers. This streak has been mighty fun. The Mariners sit 4 games back of the Halos with the A's trailing my boys by 7.5. I've followed the run differential quite a bit, as you know, and the Angels have completely turned this thing around, now running at a +9. Keep up the good work! Tonight, we have a pretty damned good chance to take over the AL West lead, wouldn't you say? This is going to be a really fun game. Jered "Big Baby" Weaver (7-2. 2.08) goes head to head with Jeff "Traded Straight Up For Terry Evans" Weaver (3-1, 3.72) in a battle of brothers that is must watch TV. Our Weaver, as has been documented on this blog repeatedly, holds the #1 spot in the AL for WHIP (1.00), the #2 spot for ERA (2.08), and is #2 in complete games (3). The Angels have come away with the win in the last 5 games pitched by Jered. He hasn't allowed more than 4 runs in a game all season, and has allowed this many in order lately: 0, 2, 1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 4, 0. That is his earned runs in all his starts this year. Are you kidding me? Is anyone besides me talking about Cy Young?  I know that Greinke is 8-3 with a 1.96 ERA, but he's from Orlando, so F him. Right, Lakers fans? 

Predictions? Angels 6, Dodges 1. 

Lackey, Angels remind Giants of '02.

Wow. Welcome to another "in game post," which I only do because I'll probably go to bed right after the game ends. We are standing up and stretching prior to the bottom of the seventh, and my Halos are busting the pretty gay little face of the San Francisco Giants 8-1 (be sure to pay attention to the italicized updates as the game roles along). A combination of an impressive outing for John Lackey, and a stellar fourth inning of offense (including Lackey's first MLB hit and RBI) was enough to push the Angels out in front in this rematch of the 2002 World Series. (Note: a pinch hit home run for the Giants just made it 8-3 Angels). 

It has been well documented on this blog and elsewhere that Angels Nation has been waiting for Enormous John Lackey to have his big breakout game. His best game of the year was a 7 inning 2 run game against the Blue Jays that ended in a no decision, and outside of that he's been a mess leading to a 1-2/5.79 record. Tonight in the cold crisp air of our state's greatest port city, Lackey was "off the chain." John had his curve ball working like most of us have never seen. His line is currently 7 innings of 3 run ball with 0 walks and 10 strikeouts. Count 'em, 10. When he punched out the side in the bottom of the fifth, it was a thing of beauty, and outside of a Rich Aurilia RBI single and a pinch hit two run jack by Andres Torres he was Cy Young quality once again. Of course, let's not blow this out of proportion. He was good. He was the best he's been all season. But, he is supposed to be our #1, and this is what he should be doing. Hopefully his bullpen won't let him down. 

To all those who disagreed with my assessment of the Angels offense a few posts ago where I said there was no problem, take that! The last four games have been more than proof that this Red Hats offense has the potential to blow the rest of the league out of the water. You want jacks? How about Juan Rivera's second inning bomb? It was his third in the last two games, and his ninth of the young year. You want rally hitting? How about the Angels seven run fourth that did more than chase the once mighty Barry Zito from the game? By the way, I predicted that one of these former #1s would have an amazing game and turn their season around. I hope I'm right. With 8 runs on 13 hits through 7 innings, you'd have to imagine that the VIP club is going to be pretty packed, and it is: Erick "Just So Ugly" Aybar (2 for 4 with a 2 run jack), Bobby El Chupacabra" Abreu (1 for 4 with his solo bomb), Juan "Good ol' JR"Rivera (2 for 4 with 1 RBI and 2 runs), Robb "The Extra B Is For Interleague Balla'" Quinlan (an amazing 3 for 4 with 2 RBI), Mike "The Beard" Napoli (2 for 3 with 1 RBI), and even John "I'm Trying To Learn To Breathe Through My Nose" Lackey (1 for 3 with 1 RBI and a run, earning his first ever major league hit). That's the biggest party the VIP club has seen the entire year. Notably abscent was HK-47's replacement for the time being, Sean "HR Rod" Rodriguez. He seems to have changed his swing since the last time he was up, and maybe it wasn't a great idea (0 for 3 with a K). Despite that, there isn't much bad we can say about the offense up north tonight. (Note: Sean Rodriguez just hit a home run into the left center seats to make it 9-3. Stud.)

One area of concern was another wild fielding move by Torii Hunter. Big Game went crashing wildly into the wall trying to flag down a gapper by Bengie Molina. It may have been some sick revenge plot by B-Mo because he still wishes he wore the red, but Torii had to be helped off the field and is currently getting x-rays under the stadium. If he's gone, you know that means GMJ, and as of now, that is not adequate. Get well quick Hunter. In other, pregame news, Kelv Escobar was placed on the DL and is expected to be ready to return to the bullpen in one week. Anyone else have the feeling that this may be the beginning of the end for Esco? In addition to that, the Angels called up Sean "SOS" O'Sullivan (always a blog favorite) to make his major league debut in place of Ervin Santana, who has been scratched from tomorrow night's game against the Giants. Erv is said to have "discomfort in his right elbow," and SOS will get the game ball in game 2 against SF. O'Sullivan was going at 5-2 with a 6.02 ERA at Salt Lake this year, but we have seen plenty of potential with this guy over the Spring. Ervin said, "I'll be okay, nothing too bad." He didn't drop a F-bomb, so hopefully he's being honest and he'll be ready for his next time up because SOS will head back down once Kelv returns next Monday. It'll be fun to watch SOS get his major league debut. (Note: The Angels just brought in Justin Speier for the 8th and he promptly gave up a first pitch jack to Sandoval, 9-4. So predictable).

Even with the bullpen working hard to blow this one, we are going to presuppose the Angels return to their San Fran hotel with a win tonight. At 33-29, the Angels will pull within 2 games of the idle first place Rangers, and will increase their lead to 6 over the M's and 8.5 over the A's. Very nice. As we said, the Angels will toss Sean O'Sullivan to the sharks tomorrow night in Nor Cal (0-0, 0.00) to take on Puerto Rican Jonathan Sanchez (2-6, 4.84). Sanchez has dropped two straight decisions, including a heart breaker against Arizona in his last outing where he gave up just 1 run in 5.67 innings. However, he has only made it further than 5.67 innings in one start this year (a 6 inning 2 run loss to the Padres). I can't really think of a better situation for Sully to make his MLB debut. The offense is red hot, and he'll be matching up with kind of a subpar third year player. Can you smell a perfect career mark starting to develop? 

Down in AAA, it was a tough night last night as SLC dropped a big one to the Reno Aces, 6-14. It was a rough loss that saw Terry Evans earn the player of the game with a 1 for 4 night, including a 2 run home run. Also notable was Howie Kendrick, boosting his BA to .375 since getting relegated with a 2 for 5 evening in addition to 1 RBI. The pitching, though, was the problem, with starter and Camden, ME native Mike MacDonald (4-6, 5.59) allowing 6 runs in his 5 innings, and the bullpen combo of Daniel Davidson, Fernando Rodriguez, and Buddy "Best Name Ever" Boshers allowing 8 more in their 3 innings. Salt Lake still holds onto their division lead by 0.5 games over Colorado Springs. Meanwhile, the Arkansas Travs actually won a game! The "Greatest Game On Dirt" triumphed against Springfield with a 7-3 decision. Player of the game honors go to LF Branden Florence (2 for 2 with 2 runs and a walk to improve to .298). The pitching was solid for the Travs as well, with starter Tommy Mendoza (4-2, 3.21) keeping up the good work with 7 innings of 3 run ball (6 punch outs) and the relievers Bobby Cassevah and Robert "The Moose" Mosebach holding tight for the final two innings. The Travs remain deeply in last place, nine games back at 25-37. Out off the 91, Rancho smoked the Blaze for a large 2-0 shutout win. For the first time ever, a starting pitcher became player of the game. Venezuelan Alexander Torres (4-2, 3.03) went 8 innings of shutout ball, allowing just 4 hits while striking out 8 to lead the way. Add in a timely RBI by CF and Hollywood, FL native (friend of Napoli?) Rian Kiniry. That is not a cool way to spell Ryan. The Tremors still have a long way to go, sitting 15 back of the division lead at 26-37. Finally, low-A Cedar Rapids got blanked by Kane County 2-0. 

Hold onto your hats, folks. Anaheim native Kevin Jepsen just allowed a 2 out 3 run bomb to Sandoval to allow the Giants back in the game, 9-7. Brian Fuentes is ready to come in for the save. Was this all a set up to pad BFF's stats? Fuentes got Aurillia to pop out, and 9-7 Angels will be our final. Big up yourselves, Red Hats. 

www.twitter.com/THE_REAL_SHAQ

Here's the timeline of Shaq's tweets from last night, following the Lakers' NBA Title (in raw form):

Congratualtions kobe, u deserve it. You played great . Enjoy it my man enjoy it. And I know what yur sayin rt now "Shaq how my ass taste "

Congrats to you to phil jackson. When the general doesn't panic the troops don't panic. You are the greatest now.

Congrats to u to d fish, big shots the other day. Enjoy my man enjoy

Congrats in spanish pau gasol, muchas gracias pappacito

"Congratulations to the orlando magic, a worthy and respectable eastern conference champion" David stern

Congrats to you to, mbengaaaaaaaa

Its nice to see the greatest big man ever on stage, smilin havin a good time. I love bill russell

"When you're together, you can withstand adversity" Kobe bryant

O yea congrats to u to adam morrison

O yea congrats to sun yue, nee how

Everybody sing my new favorite song " Shaq, tell me how ass taste"

If you can't laugh at yourself, check your sense of humor levels. Have fun, laugh, dnt be so serious Shaq oneal

Weekly football post #40.

Can you, the loyal LSF reader, believe that we are in the 40th week of the LSF football post? What a heartthrob! 

The latest news coming out of Glasgow regarding my boys from Celtic is about a possible move to get a quite expensive striker. The Hoops have been told that they would need to pull 3 million pounds out of their deep Scottish pockets to get 27 year old Marc-Antoine Fortune. The French Guiana native currently plays with West Brom as he is on loan from some squad called AS Nancy. With 5 goals on loan this season, Fortune has been pretty solid, with his best stretch getting 18 goals in 57 appearances with Angouleme from 1998-2002. Most recently, however, he earned 10 goals with Nancy in just a couple of years. Could he bring just another special striking power to the Hoops of the SPL. Meanwhile, the rumors are that Tony Mowbray is getting closer to being confirmed as the new coach for Celtic. The current manager of West Brom, which may be why Fortune is rumored to be moving as well, played for the Celts back in the day, and could make a triumphant return if he could march up back to the SPL title. 

Over at my Championship League team from Newcastle, some key players are going a couple of different way. The lovable Obafemi "Oba Oba" Martins has made it clear that he wants to stay with the Magpies to help them get back to the EPL after just 1 season of relegation. Of course, Oba hoping to stay may not be enough, as the Mag brass may want to deal him to a team like Arsenal and keep the cash (about 10 million pounds). Let's do the right thing and keep this stud, especially since he is willing to turn this ship around. A much less beloved striker, Michael Owen, is actually trying to shop himself around. His agents have reportedly put together a brochure that they are sending out to try and gain some interest from an EPL team. That's right, you come to our team with huge hype and hopes, play pretty horribly for your entire Bar Code career, and now you want out because you deserve the EPL glory? Hit the road, you loser. 

With all of this going on, I'm mostly worried about my guys at Chivas USA. The Red & White have suddenly started sliding, and no longer own first place in the West by their lonesome. What is going on? This weekend, the Goats dropped a tough 1-2 decision to Columbus, earning consecutive loss #2. The most underrated Chivas player here in 2009, Eduardo Lillingston got the sweet game opening goal against Columbus. He fought for the ball outside the box, dribbled toward the net and slid an easy ball past the Columbus keeper for the game opening goal. It was EL's sixth goal on the year, leading the team. The Crew stole a couple of goals in the second half, one in the 61st minute and a game winner in the 87th. Zach "The Beast" Thorton has been having some tough times lately since the game against Seattle that we watched live at the HDC, but you'd have to believe that he is going to turn it around based on his season opening amazingness. Chivas continued to have to do their best, with clutch players Jonathan Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan still being with team USA for the FIFA Confederations Cup. This loss has dropped us to 8-4-3 (27 points) now tied with Houston (27 points) atop the Western Conference. Seattle is holding tight in third place at 20 points. Next week we will see Chivas starting three weeks off of MLS play to get into the Super Liga against Los Tigres, and hopefully they can get a boost and make a solid run against the rest of their Super Liga opponents, Chicago and San Luis. MLS action returns on July 11 against the LA Galaxy, and what a way to get back into things. The run down of the best goal scorers on this Chivas squad is Eduardo Lillingston (6), Paulo "Naka" Nagamura (4 goals), Maykel "Shhhh" Galindo (2 goals), and Atiba "A-Team" Harris (2 goals). Can these guys continue to run this squad to the top in the absence of clutch money players like Bornsteirn, Kljestan, and the still injured Razov? Let's hope so. By the way, just to further point out how underrated Lillingston is, because you've never heard of his, he also leads the team with 3 of his 6 goals being game winners on the '09 year. Chivas es mi vida! 

In random other LSF soccer news: 1) How about Jose Mourinho trying to sign Carvalho and Deco from the Blues?  2) Was is smart of Everton to release seven players, including Andy van der Meyde and Nuno Valente? 3) Can Hull take Man U's under-21 sensation Fraizer Campbell? 4) Is Brandon crazy proud of "his" KC Wiz just beating the hell out of New England 3-1 this weekend? 

Weaver & Rivera dandies in win.

Sweep! Now, I know that the Padres aren't really a good team, but still: a sweep is a sweep. And, what better way to complete a sweep than to earn a thrilling complete game shutout 6-0 victory against the boys who play down south on the 5? Juan Rivera was just one jack away from tying a record from Babe & Lou, and the fans of the Red Hats were mighty pleased with a gratifying 9 innings of work from their boys. 

Consistency has been a big problem with the Angels this year. Most media critics and coaches have pointed out that the Angels have been so up and down this year, and that has led to the largest problems. However, if anyone has been consistent (on the pitching staff, of course) it has been Jered "Big Baby" Weaver. This afternoon, the Caveman finished 9 strong innings of 5 hit shutout ball. Weav punched out 5 Padres and allowed just 1 walk in the CG/SO, and is continuing to earn his place as the #1 supreme ace on this contender. The Angels have won in Weaver's last 5 starts, and he has only allowed 5 runs in those starts. Are you kidding me? He holds tight with his new record of 7-2 and a miniscule 2.08 ERA, and that is keeping in mind his amazing home BAA of .161. Again, are you kidding me? .161?! Can we all give Weaver some extra love? He's 5th in the AL in wins, 2nd in WHIP, and 2nd in ERA. This may his year to be the main man on this staff. 

Meanwhile, the offense was Bronx Bomber-esque for the second straight day. Juan Rivera handled the majority of the jack damage, getting two over the fence to finish with a 2 for 4 afternoon (2 RBI). If JR would have hit a home run in his final at bats (to get to 3 on the day) he and Torii Hunter (who hit three jacks last night) would become the first teammates to hit three homers in consecutive games since Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. How intense it that? Today's Angels VIP Club also features Chone Figgins (2 for 3 with 2 runs to raise his average to .326), and Torii Hunter 1 for 4 with 2 RBI to raise his average to .319). Maicer Izturis also gets love for walking with the bases loaded in the second to push a run home and earn quite the enjoyable RBI by BB. Notable turds to GMJ, who went 0 for 4 filling in for the extremely solid Bobby Abreu. When are we going to send GMJ down to AAA? Oh yeah, his contract is too hefty for a move like that. 

Have you been on Twitter following my Angels cap strike until the call up of Howie Kendrick? I'm still wearing my SLC Bees hat, and I won't stop until HK-47 is back where he belongs. Another big issue facing the Angels is the new prognosis for Karen's favorite reliever, Scot Shields. Scot has been out with knee problems, and he now is opting for surgery on the knee. This knocks Scot out for the rest of the season. After making the decision, the 1-3/6.62 reliever said, "The way I was pitching this year wasn't fair to me and wasn't fair to the team and wasn't doing us any good. Hopefully I get back to 100% and pitch the way I know I can pitch and help this team." The surgery will be this Tuesday. If Escobar can avoid the DL again, he would be primed to take over the set up role for this squad. Also keep in mind that if Esco does go back to the DL, the Angels are looking at the following players in trade talks: Huston Street (yuck), Jose Valverde (5.40 ERA?), LaTroy Hawkins (old), and Chad Qualls (maybe the top choice out of the list). 

What a relief that sweep was after difficulties with Tampa Bay. The Angels are 32-29, trailing the Rangers by just 2.5 games. Seattle continues to sit 5 back of the AL West lead and Oakland trails by 8 full games. This sweep also did another thing to improve our standing, as the Angels have got their run differential at just -2. If you read the July 12 post about "The State of the 29-29 Angels," you would know that at that point they held a -21 run differential. What a change in one weekend! The battle for the state continues tomorrow night as the Angels and Giants get a big rematch from the 2002 World Series. The opening game of the series features John Lackey (1-2, 6.61) and Barry Zito (3-6, 4.09) throwing down. Two "#1" starters who have not been performing that way match up. Hopefully the winner will be able to completely turn that whole season around. And, hopefully that winner will be Lackey. The Angels are 2-4 in starts by Lackey, and his road ERA of 6.75 (1-1) doesn't bode very well. However, Lackey allowed just 2 runs in a no decision against Toronto after 7 innings of pitching two starts ago (let's just all forget about the 5 inning 9 run debacle against the Rays last week), and hopefully is ready to bust out. Not that this helps, but Barry Zito has a 1-2 record with a minor 2.15 ERA against the Angels over the last 3 years. His BAA during that time against our boys is just .236, meaning that my Red Hats are going to need to overcome the zany left hander in addition to getting a solid Big John outing to keep the winning streak alive. 

Down in the MiLB, the Salt Lake Stingers turned things around with a nice win against the Fresno Aces. CF Big Brad Coon earned the player of the game nod with a 2 for 4 night (2 doubles and 1 RBI) in the 5-3 win, and my boy Howie Kendrick went 1 for 3 with a double as well (that's a .333 AAA season average!). Starter and Antioch, CA native Dan Denham had a nice start, going 5.67 innings of 3 run ball, but the bullpen was even better. Jose "Did You Remember That I Also Got Demoted?" Arredondo went 1.3 innings of no hit/shutout ball (despite allowing 3 walks) and Raffy Rodriguez earned his second save of the year with 2 innings of 1 hit/shutout ball. Do you think 'Dondo will be brought back up quicker with Shields being out for the season? Meanwhile, the troubles for AA Arkansas continued with a 6-16 loss to rivals NW Arkansas. The Travs didn't have much going on, but player of the game nod goes to the future of our shortstop position, Hainley Statia. The Netherlands Antilles native had a 4 for 5 game with 2 runs scored to finally turn things around after a tough start to the season (.199 average). 3B Wilberto Ortiz also had a nice game with 2 RBI on a 1 for 5 effort. Pitching is not worth mentioning, as the starter Michael Anton (1-6, 4.30) gave up 7 runs and the bullpen did not do much better. Finally, Rancho suffered "just another Quakes loss," dropping a 3-4 decision to the Bakersfield Blaze. RC scored 1 run in the bottom of the ninth, but fell just short in the comeback effort. CF Clay Fuller earned player of the game with his 2 for 4 game, including a solo jack. The pitching was adequate, with 5.3 innings of 3 earned run ball from starter and Wazzu grad Jayson Miller (1-4, 5.01), but the bullpen was much better getting 3.67 innings of shutout ball from Jeremy Haynes and Pasadena native Eddie McKiernan. Low-A Cedar Rapids earned a 5-0 shutout win thanks to Manaurys Corra (what kind of first name is that?) and his five hit shutout. Who cares how you pronounce his name, the kid is 2-1 with a 1.75 ERA in his last six starts and is primed and ready to save Rancho someday soon. 

Just two questions to ask on the way out: 1) Has New York changed the usually cool headed Frankie Rodriguez? 2) Can the Lakers win tonight's game, change the LSF sidebar, and give Brandon the top spot in the LSF Rankings? 

Angels break Friars, demote Howie.

Like I said, the offense is not the problem. The Angels finally got back home last night and just completely "effed up" the Padres in a battle between the AL & NL West. Matt Palmer improved to 6-0 in his triumphant return to the rotation, the Halos scored 11 runs on 18 hits (with just 2 home runs!), and my guys beat the Padres by a resounding score of 11-6. 

Move over history. Matt Palmer became the second starting pitcher in franchise history to win his first six decisions with the club, following the lead of Jered Weaver. Sorry Bo Belinsky, but these guys are the legends now. Palmer was just himself, going 6 innings of 4 run ball (3 earned) with 3 punch outs and 3 free passes. Okay, so a lot of people think Palm Tree is a fluke because of wins in games like this. I mean, he gave up 10 hits and 3 walks in six innings and come away with the win. Can you blame the guy for getting run support? Have you actually watched him pitch? This guy seems to dominate at times, and I'm not really sure how anyone isn't a fan of MP. The bullpen of Darren Oliver (2 runs allowed in his inning), Justin Speier (1 shutout inning), and Jason Bulger (struck out the side in his perfect inning) did enough to keep the game squarely in the Angels hands, and Matt Palmer earned win number 6. One more and he breaks the Angels all-time record! His big chance comes Wednesday against the Giants. 

Let's focus on the mega-sweet offense that my boys brought to the table. First off, thanks to the Padres for starting former Oakland A's hurler Chad Gaudin. We killed him when he was in the AL West, and we killed him last night. Let's start with the VIP club: Chone Figgins (3 for 5 with 3 runs), Bobby Abreu (3 for 4 with 3 RBI), Kendry Morales (2 for 4 and a bomb), Mighty Maicer (4 for 4 with 2 runs and a RBI), and even Erick Aybar (2 for 4 with 2 RBI). That is far and away the largest Angels VIP club of the season! Not a single starter went 0'fer in the game, and the bats were just hot. How about Ma$e's triple? How about Torii's first inning bomb? How about the five runs in the fourth inning with seemingly a hit after a hit after a hit? It just couldn't get any better. Gaudin only made it 3 innings of 8 run ball, and the squad ousted him off the hill. However, the bigger news about the offense was what happened after the game, and I'm questioning the call. 

I thought during the game, "Hm, I wonder why Ma$e is playing second base?" Then he got 4 hits in 4 at bats, and I forgot all about my pre game question. Then it came to me. The Angels demoted my favorite player to AAA. That's right, the HK-47 Howie Kendrick has been optioned to the Salt Lake Bees. Mike "Lorri" Scioscia explained the move, "We feel it's time for Howie to go down and just take a little pressure off of him, let him exhale a little bit, get some at bats and find his swing. Hopefully it's going to be a big turnaround, but it's tough to search for it up here. I know he's pressing." My boy responded with, "We're trying to win games here, and if they need to make a move, I'm okay with that. You never want to hear this type of news, but it could be positive. I'll go down and try to find myself, start attacking balls in the zone and be the same hitter I was. Hopefully, this well be a reality check for me. Sometimes we make the game harder than it is, and that's what I'm doing right now." At least my man HK is maintaining the right attitude about the move. However, is this really the answer? I've always questioned if sending someone down to "find their swing" actually works. I mean, he's not a minor leaguer trying to make it big and having a tough time, he's a big time hitter who is off to a slow start. Did we send Steve Finley down to AAA when he was having a tough time? Or GMJ? No. Interesting. Of course, everyone around Angels Nation thinks that Brandon Wood is going to get the call up, but who knows. B Wood could play short stop with Aybar and Izzy trading off second base duties until Howie comes back from his demotion. However, Wood is hitting .299/14/35 (only 36 strikeouts in 44 games!), and my main man Sean "HR-Rod" Rodriguez is hitting .273/21/60 (with 68 strikeouts in 57 games). HR-Rod plays second base naturally and could trade time with Izzy while Izzy and Aybar could trade off at SS. Then again, the Angels brass could shock all of us and go with Terry Evans (.293/14/41), who continues to be the best part of the straight up trade for Jeff Weaver a while ago. Who knows, but let's all pray that Howie gets called back up right quick. 

Once again above .500, the 30-29 Angels have taken second place over again. Trailing the Rangers by 4.5 games, the Halos now lead Seattle by 1 and Oakland by 3.5. Tonight is the big Saturday night game between Joey Saunders (6-4, 3.94) and Rusty Greer. Oh wait, I mean Josh Geer (1-1, 5.60) This is the second graduate of Rice University that the Halos will face this week, and hopefully it goes better than the Rays debacle. In his last three starts, Geer has allowed 13 runs, and he hasn't tasted victory since May 23 against the Cubbies. Meanwhile, our very own Mr. Hokie has been having a well documented rough time as of late as well. Joey hasn't smelled a win since May 21 against Seattle, and has allowed 13 runs in his last 3 starts as well. The Angels are 1-4 in Saunder's last 5 starts, and the Angels went 4-1 in his starts prior to that. Can he right the ship? His ERA dips to 3.15 at home here in 2009, but he's going to have to overcome his 7.94 June ERA to work his way toward a victory. Luckily, we're playing against the Padres. 

Let's take a quick minor league stroll here on this beautiful Saturday afternoon. The Salt Lake Bees dropped an exciting 11 inning bash against the Reno Aces last night, with 6 runs scored between the two teams in the 11th. The Bees thought they had pulled out the win scoring 2 runs in the top half only to see reliever Jeremy Hill blow it by allowing 4 in the eleventh, which is pretty uncharacteristic for him (1-2, 2.89). Playing first base, Brandon Wood gets player of the game with a 2 for 5 night with 2 RBI to raise his average to an aforementioned .299. Respect to Brad Knox, the Bees starter, who lasted 5 innings of 1 run ball despite walking 5 and only punching out 2. The Bees are now 35-27 (1 game back of the lead). Meanwhile, the AA Travs got defeated in both games of a double header against NW Arkansas. The scored zero runs in the first game, but earned a couple in the second, with Anaheim native 1B Mark Trumbo getting player of the game with a 2 RBI pinch hit. Tough luck loss to Amalio Diaz, who pitched 5 innings of 2 run ball, punching out 4 to drop to 1-4 with a 5.44 ERA. Out east, Rancho completed the triple loss for our major minor league clubs. The single-A Quakes dropped a 3-6 decision to the Bakersfield Blaze (which I believe is a reference to all of the meth being smoked out there). Player of the game honors go to USC graduate Hector Estrella and his sacrifice ground out RBI. Starter Robert "Reel Big" Fish didn't have a great game, dropping to 1-5 after 7 innings of 4 run ball, but reliever Ryan Brasier was big time going 2 innings of shutout ball. He allowed just 1 hit and punched out 4 to make Wichita Falls, TX proud. Low- Cedar Rapids lost as well, so it's a good thing the Angels big boys won. 

470 blog posts, 35 tweets, and an Andrew/Jon/Brandon post strike of just 3 days? The LSF is in full swing, baby. 

The state of the 29-29 Angels.

As you know, I am an unconscious supporter of the Angels. Win or loss, first or last, World Championship or hitting the golf course early. However, after a tough series against Tampa Bay and a resulting .500 record, I think it's important to address the state of this team. I was listening to the radio, and heard that the opinion is that the Angels will be sellers toward the trade deadline as they get ready for 2010. Are we really willing to pull up the anchor and sail through this year after just 58 games? We'll start by looking at last night's latest debacle. 

Much was made of the need for Ervin to turn things around quickly after starting poorly once he returned from the DL. In answer to that, Black Magic pitched a hell of a game last week against the Tigers (8.67 innings of 1 run ball and a F bomb in a post game interview, as documented on the blog). So, not very many in Angels Nation were worried that the win was an aberration and the continued poor play could be expected. Far from it, I think most Angel fans were thinking Erv would cruise in this game. He ended up finishing just 4.67 innings of 6 run ball, giving up 8 hits and walking 2 while recording only 14 outs. This is his current earned run count since returning from the DL in order: 3, 1, 7, 8, 1, 6. There are three really good games in there and 3 really bad games. He's been either flat out good or flat out bad thus far. It should be noted that he earned a loss in a 0-1 defeat at the hands of the Mariners despite pitching 6.67 innings of 1 run ball. So, my point would be that he isn't pitching as bad as most Red Hat fans think, but he certainly isn't pitching consistently. I guess you'd have to imagine that he going to be nails in his next start after this bad one, but who knows? The bad news in this one is that neither the bullpen nor the offense bailed El Rosario out. The bullpen rundown was: Oliver (1 inning, 1 run), Jepsen (1.3 innings of shutout ball in his return to the big club), Rich "The Mad Aussie Thompson (0.67 innings of 4 run ball, and just not having it), and Bulger (0.3 innings of shutout ball to stop the bleeding). A further blow to our pitching woes is that Kelvim Escobar is being relegated to the bullpen after his first start since 2007. Now, let's be sure that this has nothing to do with Esco's only start. He lost, but he pitched 5 innings of 2 run ball, including 4 shutout innings. Evidently, Esco just doesn't have the strength or stamina to get it done on the starting bump. That, and a) our bullpen sucks and b) Matt Palmer may be able to hold it down for the rest of '09. But, Esco is going to be shutdown until next week. The big question when looking at this move is: Is Esco just being sent to the pen instead of the DL to make things look better than they are? Or, is Esco actually being sent to the pen to bolster what has been the worst relief pitching in the majors, as he has done in the past? Keep in mind that Scot Shields is out indefinitely wtih an injured left knee, and Esco could be out set up guy, because we know he can pitch at least one perfect inning. Meanwhile, Memphis, TN native Matty P will bring his 5-0, 4.06 mark to the mound as he reenters the starting rotation for the foreseeable future against the Padres. 

Before we get to last night's offense, let's decide what we think is the focus on the Angels pitching from here to 162. Here is our rotation: Joe Saunders (6-4, 3.94), Jered Weaver (6-2, 2.31), John Lackey (1-2, 6.61), Ervin Santana (1-3, 7.47), and Matt Palmer (5-0, 4.06). This rotation obviously has the potential to be solid, but when we look at things we're having a couple of problems. Jered Weaver is currently the best thing we have going lately, with Palmer pulling a close second. Joe Saunders has been soft lately, but you'd have to hope that he'll pull things together. I guess Lackey and Ervin are the two current wild cards. We all know that they are great Cy Young potential pitchers, but will they pull things together? I'm going to say Lackey yes, and Ervin maybe. Overall, the rotation is really going to be the thing that holds us together while everything else fluctuates. In the pen right now we have Jason Bulger (2-1, 5.33), Eco (0-1, 3.80), Kevin Jepsen (0-2, 15.00 but on the way down), Darren Oliver (1-0, 3.04), Justin Speier (2-1, 4.84), Rich Thompson (0-0, 5.87), and Brian Fuentes (0-2, 4.71, 16 saves in 19 chances). The bullpen DL features Shane Loux (maybe coming back at the end of the mont), Dustin Moseley (probably out for the season, and Scot Shields (could be just a week or two away). So let's decide what we think about this pen. Well, Bulger and Oliver are kind of the old standbys right now, with big hopes pinned down on the relief resurgence of Kelvim, Jepsen, and Rich Thompson. None of us are going to hope Speier is going to get any better. Meanwhile, Brian Fuentes has been better than most people want to point out. Just in case you want to know, Francisco Rodriguez has a 1-0, 0.61 ERA mark for the New York Mets, earning a Fuentes-esque 16 saves (only he's done it in 16 chances). Obviously Fat-Cisco is having a better year than Fuentes, but I don't think we should complain as much as most fans are complaining. I think the bullpen has much better potential than most think, and a lot that hinges on Escobar's new role and Shield's return from the DL. No matter what happens, Halos fans are going to be holding their breath every time a starter walks into the dugout, but I think the fear is slightly overblown. 

I know the Angels lost 1-11 to the Rays last night, but I'd like to suggest that the offense has to take a ton of the blame for the loss. The magic number is 8. 8 walks were given to the Angels from the Rays pitching staff (6 alone from the "amazing" & ESPN overrated David Price). Can anyone answer why David Price has been anointed king of baseball rookies? I've looked at his game log, and it's good, but ESPN has to be overblowing this guy on Sports Center every week, right? He's 94.0% owned in fantasy baseball leagues, and I just think this Vandy grad isn't as solid as we all are being told. Sure he gave up just a single run last night, but he pitched poorly in my opinion. Wow, that was a rant. Sorry. So, the Angels were handed 8 walks and only scored 1 run on 4 hits. There is another magic 8 that you should be aware of. 8 was also the number of runners left on base. Ha! 8 walks and 8 runners left on base? Pathetic. The lone Angel run was on a Torii Hunter single in the fifth, but a lack of timely hitting really made the Halo offense look anemic in St. Pete last night. Vlad Guerrero was kind of the goat of the game, along with my main man Howie Kendrick (both going 0 for 4), but what is the real state of the Angels offense here after 58 games? 

Well, I can tell you who isn't the problem this year. BFA (aka, Bobby F'n Abreu) is hitting .297/.398/.415 this year, including 17 extra base hits and 28 RBI in his 54 games of action. How about Torii Hunter? Big Game is hitting .313/.394/.572. Are you kidding me? And this guy isn't in the top 3 outfielders for All-Star voting? Hunter has also smashed 12 jacks, leading the team as the only double digit bomber. His 44 RBI are leading the team by far. Kendry Morales is #2 in the RBI department with 32, but his .261/.313/.454 leaves a little to be desired currently. Chone Figgins is also a player I have to give some love to. I often come down hard on Figgy, so I'll point out that he's going at .316/.391/.396, leading the team in average. His 89 total bases is also second on the team to Kendry. Let's skip over to Juan Rivera and his .306/.348/.462 numbers. JR has really shown why he was brought back this year, and hopes to improve on his 6 jacks and 27 RBI. Erick Aybar may have made a couple of big mistake here in the '09 season ("best bunter the Angels have!"), but you really can't come down to hard on the guy's .281/.307/.392 numbers. Maybe he could take a couple more pitches (just 6 walks in 43 games) to raise his OBP, but he's doing adequately. So, why does everyone hate our offense? I'm not sure. I mean, we're the #3 hitting team (in terms of average). #3 team batting average in the AL!!! What the hell is wrong with that? The OBP slides down to 7, which is an issue of not taking walks (please don't pay attention to the 8 walks we earned in yesterday's game), but we also hold the fourth lowest strikeouts by any AL team. Most idiots love to point out how the Angels are in last place in terms of home runs (44 is 4 less than the 13th place A's), but we are #2 in triples. Look, this team isn't made to hit jacks, I get that. When you aren't made to hit jack, you need to come away with a ton of timely hits to get runs. We're ninth in the AL in runs, and that is a problems, but since we have the third highest batting average, you'd have to have hope that things will come around. 

Let me just unequivocally state: The offense is not the problem with this team. The problem, if we have one, is pitching, and even then, I have hopes that the pitching will be able to complement the offense to the point of getting the Angels "just another" AL West Championship (I'm not delusional, am I?). 

The Halos (29-29) are 4.5 games back of the Texas Rangers (34-25), "tied" with the Seattle Mariners (30-30), and 2.5 games ahead of the A's (27-32). Some people don't like run differential, but I do. The Angels have a -21 run differential and it was -5 not too long ago, so this is an issue that needs to be resolved. Tonight, the Angels will try and to just that. Our southern boy Matt Palmer (5-0, 4.06) will take his spot in the rotation back, and his fellow Red Hats have to be happy about that (the Angels are 6-1 in games started by the Palm Tree). San Diego counters with New Orleans native Chad Gaudin (2-4, 5.01), who pitched 2 innings of relief in his last outing against the D-Back last Sunday. So, Gaudin will have rest, but so will Palmer, and it should be a solid battle on our home turf. 

T- minus seven games until the Freeway series. Keep the tweets coming, dog. 

With the Last Pick of the 10th Round ...

... in the 2009 MLB Amateur Draft, the Angels select Jake Locker. Yes, this Jake Locker.

Angels bust Rays on draft day.

The Angels traveled to the Trop on Tuesday afternoon, getting started moments before they picked their opening round draft picks, and the came away with a really solid 4-3 victory. Joe Maddon and Tampa pulled a little switch-a-roo on us, starting James Shields instead of Rice graduate Jeff Nieman (who will start tomorrow), but the Red Hats were up to the task. With Jered Weaver leading the charge, the Angels earned a big win against the defending American League Champions. 

Big Baby Weaver has just been absolutely hot as a branding iron lately, as has been documented on this website, and he did not disappoint in this series opener. J Weav went 6 innings of 2 run ball, punching out 6, and allowing just 5 hits. He pitched a shutout effort through the first five innings, and just frustrated the hell out of the Rays. Even the two runs he allowed were given up on a) a RBI ground out and b) a sac fly. What are you going to do? Weaver has now only allowed 4 runs in the last 21 innings of play, and he pulled it off in this game despite mad sweat. "I was sweating. It probably got to me a little bit. I changed by shirt and jersey in about the third or fourth inning." Turn on the AC Maddon! The bullpen came out strong, with Darren Oliver going 1 inning of shutout ball, Jason Bulger semi redeeming himself with 1 inning of 1 run ball (an eighth inning jack to Zorbist), and a final inning of shutout ball by Brian Fuentes. Fuentes earned his 16th save on the year, after walking the leadoff hitter, and doubled up Carl Crawford to end the game (Crawford's first GIDP of the season!). 

It was nice to get Torii Hunter back from his mild groin injury (although he'll take tomorrow off and come back Thursday), but he wasn't Mr. Action in this win. The Halos opened the first inning with runs again, getting two on a Vlad RBI single and JR RBI fielder's choice. Chone Figgins got into things with a sac fly in the fifth, and Abreu doubled home Figgins in the seventh to earn the fourth and final run. Figgins finished with a 2 for 4 night with 1 RBI and 2 runs, and was joined in the pancake club by BA (2 for 5, RBI), The Return of Vlad (2 for 4, RBI), good ol' JR (2 for 4, RBI), and Mr. Surprise Howie Kendrick (2 for 4). Interestingly enough, not a single Angel drew a walk, which has me slightly worried, but what are you going to do? I'm not really a fan of big criticisms after a win. By the way, two errors on the Rays in the opening frame helped us plate those opening runs. Jeff Mathis and Kendry Morales were the only Red Hats without a hit, but Kendry more than made up for that. With runners on first second late in the game, Kendry Morales snagged a crazy line drive hugging the first base line and doubled up the Rays runner to save the game. Take that Carlos Pena! And please, stand up against idiot Angel fans saying that Kendry has no glove skills; his fielding percentage is 99.4% with just 3 errors in 54 games. 

Interesting news that the Angels recalled Kevin Jespen from the Bees and sent Jose Arredondo down. I guess JA Rule hasn't been in his 2008 form, going 1-3 with a 5.55 ERA in 24.3 innings. Hopefully he can get it back. Good thing the Angels didn't follow the advice of moronic Angel fans and make him the closer. Check back on LSF, I said he needed to have at least one more solid year to prove he was up to the task. So far, I'm right, but he'll be back in shape soon. Meanwhile, the Anaheim native Jeps is good enough, just don't pay attention to his 0-2/19.29 mark here in '09. 

At 29-27, the Angels have crept up to just 3 games shy of the mighty Rangers. Seattle trails the Angels by 2, and the A's trail by 3. We're maintaining the -5 run differential, but that is going to need to get better for us to be an elite team. We have a damned good chance tomorrow afternoon. Big Daddy John Lackey (1-1, 5.13) will be looking to get back to his #1 status against T. Bay. John has given up 16 runs in his 5 starts this year, but was much improved in his last outing against Toronto (7 innings of 2 run ball in a 6-5 win). Still, he knows just like we do, that he needs to pick up the pace here to earn his $10 million. Houston, TX native Jeff Niemann (5-4, 3.77) will be facing off against Lackey, and we chronicled Niemann in the last Angel post, if you're interested. With Torii taking the day off tomorrow, we'll need an unusually hot day from Gary Matthews Jr. 

Before I go, we're going to have to check out the Angels draft picks. They started with picks #24 and #25, and tried to address a power problem that fans constantly complain about. The first pick was compensation for losing Frankie Rodriguez to the Mets, and the Halos snagged outfielder Randal Grichuk from Rosenberg, TX. At 25, compensation for losing Teixiera to the other New York team, the Angels picked New Jersey outfielder Mike Trout (going for the same kind of love as Tim Salmon?). Grichuk is a 6-foot 185 pound corner outfielder with an impressive bat and speed. He ripped three jacks for Team USA to win the gold medal against Venezuela in the 2007 World Youth Championship, and will hopefully grow into a MLB slugger. Meanwhile, Trout it the total package. He was a shortstop and pitcher in high school, but is reported to be "an athlete" who can play any position. Trout hit .520 this season with 17 jacks in high school, and even went 5-1 with a 1.71 ERA on the mound. The Angels also picked up a pitcher named Tyler Skaggs, who you'd have to hope will make it all the way with a name like that. While high school talent doesn't mean even MiLB performance, one has to think of Hank Conger in 2006 and how quickly he's moving up the Angels ranks, and hope for big things for these first two guys. Fun stuff. 

Two Blown Saves Later

It was inevitable ... Brad Lidge placed on the 15-day DL.

I Had to Say ...

Thanks Ervin. He must have been a Booker T fan back in the day.

Oh, that wacky bullpen.

Props to Andrew for keeping us on updated his Boo Jays through the brand new LSF Twitter page. Meanwhile, the Angels took a golden opportunity to win against the Tigers and completely blew the thing in dramatic fashion. Are you kidding me? After getting a free pass to a 5-4 win, Jose Arredondo and Jason Bulger promptly blew the game in a crazy bottom of the ninth that landed the Angels a 6-9 loss. 

What is the deal with Joe Saunders lately? Maybe it is the fact that Rex Hudler called him "Big Joe Saundo" twice on the radio. Despite being handed a three run lead before he even got out on the mound, Saunders promptly began allowing the Tigers across the plate. However, he finished with an okay kind of day, going 6 innings of 4 run ball. He punched out five, but also walked five in the no decision. He left down 3-4, and hoped that the offense and bullpen would be able to rally the Red Hats to victory. Arredondo looked good in relief, but got involved in the shaky eighth inning after the Angels took the lead. 'Dondo gave up a walk, and then it begun. Jose was taken out before any runs crossed the plate, and gave way to the recently hot Bulger. The Lawrenceville, GA native was walk happy as well. With the bases loaded, Bulger induced a pop out that ended in a Tiger run after a highly blamed Kendry error on the throw in. Then Bulger walked another, and allowed a gigantic grand slam to Clete Thomas (pinch hit superstar). Despite a minor comeback effort in the ninth, that was that. Awful. Back to Saunders: the Angels have gone 1-4 over Joe's last 5 starts, and he has allowed 20 runs in that span. After starting the season with a 4-1 record in his starts, this slip has not gone unnoticed. I know we have a completely health rotation now, but without "Big Joe Saundo" pitching well, we may be in a pinch. This was also an unusually bad outing for Bulger, who hadn't given up a run since May 25 (5 straight outings) before getting shelled in Michigan this afternoon. 

What can the offense do when the bullpen gives it up like that? Not much. They tried, though. Chone Figgins blasted his sixth career game opening home run into right field, and that was followed up by a two run bomb from Juan Rivera four batters later. What a start! After falling behind, Erick Aybar stepped it up with a clutch two out single to score Kendry Morales (who lead the innings off with a double). As the game worked toward the end, all tied up as it had been the entire series, the Angels caught a huge break. The Chula Vista, CA flame throwing native Joel Zumaya (and his 103 MPH fastball) was throwing fast, but not really aiming very well. Only 16 of Zumaya's 31 pitches were for strikes. For some reason, his squad decided to intentionally walk Maicer Izturis with runners on second and third. Despite having two outs, the Tigers decided to take their chances against Howie Kendrick with the bases loaded. Howie didn't have to do much, though, as Zumaya walked the HK-47 , which I hoped would be the game winning run. As you've read, though, the Angels blew their chance to win with some bad bullpen work. At least Howie got the RBI on the bases loaded walk. Juan Rivera was the underrated champion in the game, going 3 for 5 with 3 RBI, raising his average to .303 on the year. I knew it was a good idea to resign the Magic Juan-d. Joining JR on pancake patrol was Chone Figgins (2 for 5) and Erick Aybar (2 for 4). It was a day for the little man. Also, I'd like to give respect to my main man Jeff "The Mathematician" Mathis and his 0 for 1 afternoon with 2 walks. Talk about underrated, his average may just be .218 but his on base percentage is a striking .319. Keep it up, boy. 

The loss has my boys at 28-27 on the year, still struggling to keep their head above the .500 mark. Now 4.5 games back, we see Seattle charging hard in the rear view (1 games back of the Angels), and even the A's charging all of the sudden (3 games back of the Angels). This wicked long road trip continues on Tuesday, as the Halos fly down to Tampa Bay to battle Joe Maddon and his Amazin' Rays. The series opening game may present the best chance for the Angels to win as Jered Weaver (5-2, 2.26) faces off against Jeff Niemann (5-4, 3.77). Big Baby Weaver has allowed just 1 run in three consecutive starts, striking out 21 along the way (20 innings). Weaver ranks 3rd overall in the American League in ERA, 2nd overall in complete games, and third in the entire AL in the WHIP category. Face it, the caveman is hot. Meanwhile, Niemann is a graduate of Rice University. Need I say more? Angel win. 

Please send your prayers to my Manitoba Moose. You may not know it, but the Baby 'Nucks are knee deep in some AHL Calder Cup (the minor league version of Lord Stanley). The Moose may be down 1-3 in the series heading into June 9th's game 5, but we must keep the faith, because it's all the hockey I have. 

Weekly football post #39.

Would you believe that the LSF Twitter page has 3 followers, and I've only ever heard of one of them? I knew it would help our blog fanship expand. First off, Esco pitched pretty darned well for the Angels last night. I know they lost, but he has a sweet outing for his first start since 2007. Second off, huge thanks to Chris Holmes for hooking up 3 of the LSF writers with tickets to an amazing Chivas game last night. Let's get this party started. 

With Newcastle dropping to the Championship Division, you might expect that the owners are trying to sell the club. Evidently, there is a great deal of interest in the for sale sign. The word is that there is, "Real and decent interest in the club from a number of parties." The indications are that two or three different parties are ready to toss out some cash for my recently relegated Bar Codes. Hopefully the new owner takes some pride in the fact that he/she/they will be starting from the bottom and getting this club back to the EPL. 

Meanwhile, the coaching rumors continue to fly around Celtic, as the latest word West Brom manager Tony Mowbray in line to become the next boss of the Hoops. Mowbray players for Celtic as a center back way back in the day, and has led the Hibs in the SPL. It gets even better. The famous huddle that Celtic does before each game is actually a tribute to Mowbray's wife, who died during his playing years with the team. How great would it be to have Tony on the sidelines for us? Fingers crossed. 

Meanwhile, at the HDC, we had a grand ol' time watching Chivas USA beat up on Seattle. Of course, thanks to traffic on the 405 we showed up just as the crowd was cheering the only goal of the game (just barely missing it), but we were able to enjoy that solid excitment that finished in a 1-0 Chivas win. And that doesn't even call into account "The Underground 202," probably the most divine "secret club" in all of professional sports (they have really expensive beer). It was a goal by Eeduardo Lillingston in the 38th minute that sealed the deal. It was the second time that Chivas beat up on Seattle at the HDC this season. It was an even more important win, keeping in mind that Jesse Marsch (suspended), Jonathan Bornstein (w/ team USA), and Sacha Kljestan (w/ team USA) was not playing for our boys. The goal featured Tommy's favorite Maykel Galindo sending a pass to Brandon's favorite Paulo Nagamura, who blasted a shot that ended with a fat rebound that was buried by Lillingston (Andrew's favorite?). Meanwhile, at the other end of the pitch, Zach "The Beast" Thorton was just amazing. He stopped chance after chance from the Sounders. Seattle finished with 11 shots (3 on goal), and Thorton was better on each shot going forward. The crowd went nuts when Claudio Suarez came in as a sub in the 70th minute, and he helped to bolster the defense to hold fast to a 1-0 Chivas win. How about those streamers? The win has pulled our boys to 8-2-3 (27 points), now leading second place Houston (as Seattle has dropped down) by 6 points. It's another #1 vs #2 matchup on Wednesday when the Goats take on Houston (formerly of San Jose) on ESPN2. It promises to be a solid matchup, with Zach Thorton looking to improve on his 7 shutouts and 0.69 GAA. Can't wait. 

We're less than one hour away from Joe Saunders beating Rick Porcello (who almost have identical stats) to lead the Angels to a series win against Detroit. 

Don't forget to keep reading (and contributing to) the LSF Twitter page.  

Ervin finally pitches a hell of a game.

I know that Erv really should have earned the picture on this post, by the image of Juan Rivera was just too classic. We've been waiting for Santana to show up this season, and he finally did against the Detroit Tigers. The Halos came away with a slim 2-1 win against the Comerica sponsored team, and it was mostly thanks to the amazing hurling of Karen's most hated Angel. 

Santa's (new nickname?) early season sucking has been well documented. E has allowed 15 earned runs in his last 2 starts, and going up against Justin Velander, most fans didn't give him a chance. If I told you that Verlander pitched 8 innings of 4 hit shutout ball with 7 strikeouts, you probably would have bet your life savings that the Tigers killed the Angels. What if I told you that Ervin went 8.3 innings of 1 run ball with 7 strikeouts? He did. Black Magic was just 1 out away from a complete game shutout after pitching a masterful game when he allowed an RBI base knock to Magglio Ordonez. After giving up the run, which cut the lead to 2-1, Ervin was taken out of the game, giving way to Brian Fuentes to earn his 15th save in 18 chances with a nice pop out. Props to Chone Figgins for falling into the stands with the game ending catch. So much for Ervin pitching his way out of the starting rotation. Way to go, El Rosario!

With just 2 runs on 7 hits, and none of the runs crossing the plate until the top of the ninth, there isn't much to talk about when it comes to the bats. A clutch money JR single and a Howie sac groundout in the ninth gave the Halos their 2 runs, and that was all they would need. Torii Hunter, who scored the first run on the Latino Heat RBI single was the only Angel with a multi-hit game, going 2 for 4 to raise his average to .316. Despite going 1 for 4 with the "game winning run," my main man Kendry has to get the dump award for getting 3 strikeouts in the game. I still don't really get the lineup having a 7/8/9 of Aybar/Mathis/Kendrick. Doesn't anyone else think it should go Kendrick/Mathis/Aybar? Yeah, I'm pretty sure you agree with me. By the way, Torii is the only Red Hat in the starting lineup with a +.300 average (JR and Abreu are close at .299 and .295). We're really going to need Kelv to come on strong tomorrow night in Detroit Rock City. 

The best part is that the sports talk idiots on AM 830 said that the Angels would hit a lot of trouble in the next six days (3 with Detroit and 3 with Tampa) because the opposing pitching. So far, so wrong, experts. The Angels are 28-25 with the win, still 3.5 back of Texas, 2.5 up on Seattle, and 5 up on Oakland. The run differential, although some people don't think it matters, is finally down to -4! Getting better. Tomorrow afternoon is the much anticipated debut of Kelvim Escobar. Esco is hopefully primed to make his triumphant return on the road tomorrow night, as he goes up against Edwin "Even Tommy Knew It Was Dumb Of The Dodgers To Let Him Go" Jackson (5-3, 2.30). The German native (can you believe that?) has gone 4-1 over his last 5 games, but he holds a ghastly 5.40 ERA against the Angels here in 2009. He was tagged for 6 runs (3 earned) in 5 innings the last time they met, and hopefully the Reds Hats can get to him again. 

This just in: I'll be at the Chivas USA/Seattle game tomorrow night. Bring it! 

Angels squeak out series win.

After a LSF predicted 8-1 win on Wednesday afternoon (LSF only predicted the win, not the amazing win!), the Angels got some sweet action with the bats, on the base paths, and on the mound to eek out the 6-5 win and the 2-1 series victory against Andrew's Beast from the East. 

It was billed as battle between Angels hopeful to be #1 John Lackey and Toronto's Midwest City, OK native Brian Tallet. Tallet didn't do his part, going 6 innings of 5 run ball (despite punching out 6), but Lackey pretty much did. Giant John finished 7 innings of 2 run ball, getting 6 Ks himself. The bullpen would come in and choke up the win, but that doesn't diminish his strong outing north of the boarder. Darren Oliver, who I've made sure to recognize for his solid hurling this season, had quite the unusually bad inning. Officially he pitched 0 innings, allowing 3 runs. The KC native gave up a huge double to Overbay for two runs, and then his helper Justin Speier allowed another run in relief on a sac fly with the bases loaded. Just like that, a solid outing my Lackey was spoiled and the game was tied at 5 after 8 innings. Man, were those Canucks pumped or what? Well, as you will see in the rest of the post, their excitement was all for not. Skipping slightly ahead, Brian "The Big Bad Wolf" Fuentes came in and got through a tough ninth, striking out the side, to earn his 14th save in 17 chances. See? Look beyond that 5.03 ERA to find that our BFF is doing better than you think.

Man, did this game start off well, or what? With Chone Figgins on, he stole second, and was banged home by Vlad. Then Vlad stole second, and was banged home by Torii. Then Torii stole second, and was doubled home by Juan "Latino Heat" Rivera. A 3-0 opening to start the game was pretty promising. Chonie would single home Quinlan in the fourth, and Mike Napoli would add a jack to left field in the sixth. That's how we got the first 5, but the sixth was the most exciting. I'd like to point out that I usually hate when Scioscia has the contact play on because it doesn't end well. This time, however, the baserunner observed the situation prior to making his move, and it paid off. With HK-47 on third base, Erick Aybar grounded into a double play that plated the go ahead run. It was a pretty exciting dash to the plate that sealed the deal. Of course, Jays coach Cito Gaston was bitter, "It was bad base running. He made it look interesting because he didn't break right away. He's got to go right away. I'm pretty sure if you guys go talk to Scioscia, he's probably wondering what the hell that kid was doing." Well, Cito, the media went and asked Mike, "Howie reacted and made a great read." F Gaston. The Angels had Chone Figgins (2 for 4), Vladdy (2 for 5), and Torii (2 for 4) earning the pancakes in the match. Nice to see Vlad back into things, and nice to see Bobby Abreu get a much earned day off. Mostly, I just loved the first inning base running. I didn't get to watch the game because I was at work, but I'm sure the announcers pointed out how that is totally Angels "small ball."

A steaming pile of poop to "superstar" Alex Rios. AR went 0 for 5 with 5 strikeouts in the game. Tough. Please also note that he had just 1 hit in the entire series. He's hitting .272. What's the big deal? 

Also, I'd like to point out my desire for baseball to change the rules of the game. Why should Justin Speier get the "Win" in this game after giving up the sac fly that led to the game tying run being scored? That's really frustrating that a sucka' gets the benefit of a timely run by Howie Kendrick and a nice save by Fuentes. 

The Angels are now 27-25 (with just a -5 run differential) and trail the Rangers by just 3.5 games. Don't look now, here we come! Seattle trails the Angels by 2, with Oakland back of the Angels by 3. Up tomorrow we have Ervin "The Year Before Last" Santana (0-2, 9.50) who just hasn't been very good since he came off the DL. There is really no way to get around it. Even the LA Times (and the beautiful writing of Bill Shaikin...sarcastic?) ran with the article, "Ervin isn't out of the rotation...yet." The story points out that Erv won't be yanked no matter what happens against Detroit tomorrow night, but he may be sent to the pen if he performs poorly tomorrow and in 6 days against Tampa Bay. Matt Palmer is always an option to get back into things, but the Angels also have Kelvim Escobar on track to start this Saturday against the Tigers. Hopefully Kelv will be nails (as I'm realizing that I don't even remember what he looks like!), but we also need Erv-Daddy to get on track after that huge contact we gave him. He'll be facing the Tiger's Justin Verlander (6-2, 3.63). At home this year, 'Lander is 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA, and he holds our leadoff man Figgins to a career .091 BA. The key just might be Figgy breaking out of that. 

From the SportsPickle: "Overzealous French Open fans behead King of Clay Rafael Nadal." 

Jays have Angels singing the Blues.

How do you spell dive bomb? A-N-G-E-L-S. A 4-6 loss to the Blues Jays (that I only recently realized it was a replay from earlier in the day, that I was watching) is just the latest in a 3-6 stretch for my boys in the Red Hats. I guess Roy Halladay is kind of a throw away game, but Joe Saunders would have had a quality outing if it wasn't for a couple of bad pitches and a costly error. No matter how you make excuses for it, though, the Halos need to figure something out quick. 

Torii Hunter kind of summed up the pitching battle pretty well, "He was a doctor today. You have got to give it to him. He had surgery on all of us." If only Big Game would have thrown a literally into that quote it would have been priceless. The 32 year old Denver, CO native (who is actually named Harry Leroy Halladay...I think Harry Halladay is way better) was straight dominant against my boys. Roy, as he is known to all of you, was madness with an extra day of rest, going 9 full and complete innings of 4 run ball with 14 strikeouts (career high). Are you kidding me? 14!? Elvis!? That's a Fountain Valley reference, that I hope at least Andrew enjoys. Halladay was most pleased facing Torii Hunter, oddly enough, who got punched in the face 3 times, and the Most Valuable Junior north of the boarder (who would also finish with 3 strikeouts on an 0 for 3 afternoon). He was just pure magic. Meanwhile, Joe Saunders was just trying to keep his head above water. He would end up with the loss, going 5.3 innings of 6 run ball (initially they ruled that only 3 runs were earned, but they recently changed that, idiots). Joey socked out 4 and gave up a jack to Alex Rios. The Jays were up 3-0 after four innings, and were able to double that production in the sixth with three more runs (thanks in part to a two out error by Gary Matthews Jr. that kind of opened the doors against Saunders). The bullpen was tough as it gets tonight, which would really be the lone bright spot (outside of the too little too late offensive burst). Hornsby, Australia native Rich Thompson did his best to keep his stats fresh since his call up with 1.67 innings of shutout ball (he's holding down a 1.80 ERA here in '09). He was followed by the increasingly impressive Jason Bulger and his perfect relief inning. 

The 54.1% full Rogers Centre didn't get to see much offensive punch from the road team. As stated, the Angels finished with 14 strikeouts, with nary a player escaping without getting 3 strikes. That's pretty unusual, right? The largest offenders in the game were Torii (pretty weird, eh?) and GMJ. In the seventh, the Angels finally got to "Doc." Kendry "Nurse Practitioner" Morales came up with the bases loaded and no outs and nailed a single to open the scoring. Vlad would score from third on a wild pitch with Izzy at the plate, and that was followed up by sac flies from Ma$e and Napoli to give us all hope by pulling the California crew within two. That's all we would get, though. The only hitter to get more than one hit in the game for the Angels was Kendry (2 for 4 with a RBI to raise his BA to .285), and hopefully that helps fans to realize that he's legit. I know he made an error at first base in the fifth, but that didn't end up hurting the team. Two questions about the lineup that you won't be able to answer for me. First, why is Maicer Izturis hitting behind Kendry (in the #6 spot) with "home run hitting" Napoli and GMJ going behind him? That doesn't really make sense. Second, why is Howie hitting 9th? I've already complained about him hitting eighth, and now this? Can we flip HK and Ma$e in this order? I'd surely hope so. 

As I foreshadowed bluntly, the Angels are in the middle of a little tail spin. Back at .500 with the 25-25 record, my boys are now running at a -13 run differential. That's not a good sign, boys. Thanks to a Yankee blowout against the Rangers, we maintain a 4.5 game gap in second place, but Seattle is close at 2 back of the Angels and Oakland is still interesting just 5 back from the Angels. I think my reference to "Elvis?!" may bring the Angels luck against another Fountain Valley product in tomorrow's game. FVHS class of 2000 pitcher Casey Jansen (1-1, 4.15) will be on the mound for Andrew's Blue Jays. He'll be facing another local product, Northridge native Jered "Big Baby" Weaver. Weav is going at a 4-2, 2.36 clip here in 2009 and had a solid outing last time against the White Sox with 8 strong innings of 1 run ball. Over the last three years, Jered holds a 3-1 record against the Blue Jays with a 4.30 ERA, giving up just 2 jacks in 23 innings against Toronto. In that three year period, he has somehow managed to avoid pitching in Toronto, which is always a difficult place for the Halos to win, so tomorrow may be a different beast. However, recent history, and the unpredictable nature of Jansen has to has us somewhat hopeful. Loss stopper!

Today's underrated Angels minor leaguer of the day goes to my Rancho love affair 2B Sean Rodriguez. The Miami, FL native has been wowing fans ever since he was swinging the bats out there on the 91. Now, moving up one level per year, he is bashing the SLC with his .279/18/55 numbers. He's made a couple of plays with the big club (remember '08?), but 55 RBI in 50 games at AAA? That is really solid. Just to put it in perspective. Brandon Wood (the guy who every Angel fan thinks should be playing with the big club right now...right??) is hitting .297/10/23 in his 34 games with the Bees. Forget calling up Wood, can I start the HR-Rod campaign? Ah, it's nice to bring back that nickname. 

Weekly football post #38.

Welcome to the month of June! How about we try and set a monthly post record here in 6 of '09? The all time record is 30 posts in the month of February of 2008, and I think it's about time we bust that record to pieces. 

Here with football post #38, we kind of slide into the weekly Chivas post, as most other footballers are off for the summer. First we'll briefly see what's happening across the pond. 

Celtic, who are now searching for a new boss after losing their chance at 4 straight titles, have possibly turned their sights on Roberto Martinez. The boss of Swanesa would probably be a positive Spanish influence on the Scottish squad. Swanesa finished 8th in the English Championship League (see the Newcastle connection?) with a 16-10-20 record (68 points in 46 games). Martinez has a history with Wigan on the pitch in his playing days, and he earned a managing award for helping to get Swanesa City promoted to the Championship Division after the 2007 season. As manager, he holds a 63-25-37 record, and one has to be filled with at least mild excitement when thinking about what he could do with the talent of the Celts. 

Newcastle isn't doing much as they prepare for relegation. The latest rumors are that Alan Shearer is making demands to the 'Castle brass about what he needs to sign on as manager for the Championship Division season of '09/'10. He denies that he has been making demands, and he really shouldn't. I mean, I know he shouldn't have saved the team in the eight games that they gave him to turn things around, but still, give me a break. You probably aren't a good manager, so let it go, and let's move on. Eh, Barcodes?

Meanwhile, the only squad of mine still rolling on the pitch these days is Chivas USA. And damn, did they blow their match against Chicago, or what? Despite controlling the game for the majority of the 90, a ten man Chivas side was unable to fight off the charge from Chicago, ending in a 3-2 Fire win at the HDC. That rat bastard Blanco scored the game winning goal for Chi-Town in the sixth minute of stoppage time (now I'm with Karen; stoppage time sucks). My amazing boy Maykel Galindo and the almost equally cool Paulo Nagamura scored two first half goals for the Red & White, but it wasn't enough for a crazy second half onslaught by Chicago. Nagamura's goal was cool, too, burying a 40 yard bomb into the net for his fourth of the season. The Goats went into the second 45 with a 2-1 lead, but it just wouldn't last thanks to 89 and 96 minute goals by the Beast from the East. It just hurts when you blow things so late. Chivas put 10 shots on goal, but it was Jon Busch between the pipes turning it all away. Props to the tall and lanky Atiba Harris put 3 of his own shots on goal with no results. With a loss like this, you have to be wondering what the heck happened to Zach "The Bear" Thorton? Well, two of the Chicago goals were scored on penalty kicks, including the game winner, so he can hardly be trashed for that. Tough calls from the refs, and a brutal loss for my boys in bars. We get back to business on Saturday, as Chivas lines up against the West's #2 Seattle. At 7-2-3, Chivas are looking to get a huge win against the Sounders. With Seattle in second place, sitting -6 from Chivas, my boys really need to make things happen. Can they turn the thing back around? I hope so. 

How are things going in the Davis brotherhood with Chelsea winner the big FA Cup match? 

Just to finish with some American football. Joe Paterno recently said that he does not want Notre Dame to join the Big Ten, basically because he doesn't like them. Hey Joe, we don't want to be in the Big Ten anyway. It's a joke of a conference, and we're bigger than any conference out here in Irish Nation. Let's match up Paterno and Obama (following his negative remarks toward the Fighting Irish) and have Zbikowski box them up!