The Angels horrible play against Baltimore over the weekend sparked such headlines as "Angels Hit Rock Bottom" and "Angels Have Worst Weekend Ever." And that's just from the OC Register! I decided to join the drama with my headline, and credit the Lego Jesus website with the image of the Angels fighting the seven headed dragon from Revelation. We've been swept by the Orioles for the second time this year! The end is nigh!
The facts are hard to de-nigh, the Halos flat out sucked over the weekend (substitue weekend for season, if you wish). We lost all three games of the series by the combined score of 9-1. We were shutout in the final two games 5-0 and 1-0. We had tons of chances, which makes it even worse. In the ninth inning of yesterday's 1-0 loss, I watched Bobby Abreu and Torii Hunter come up to the plate with the tying run just 90 feet away. Strikeout, pop out, end of game. The Halo post game tried to get us to believe that Jeremy Guthrie is just that good. How about Brad Bergesen? How about Kevin Millwood? Are they just that good, too? I'm afraid not (they have a combined ERA of 4.94, with Guthrie being the only sub-5 guy). By the way, in case you're waiting for me to say it, our lone run in the series came on a balk. Suckers.
In nice news, we helped the Orioles pull off their first winning month since June of 2008. We're so generous! June 2008 was also the last time the Angels were bounced in back to back shutouts. It's funny how those things work out. It's becoming commonplace for Jered Weaver, as his offense produced zero runs for the third straight Caveman start. It's just absurd. After the game, Torii Hunter said, "It's the worst ever. Offensively, this might be rock bottom." At least Weaver was able to bust Julio Lugo in the head with a pickoff attempt and send him to the hospital. I'm not condoning violence, I'm just looking at anything to keep me entertained over these three games.
While the offensive was pathetic, I'm most worried about Jered Weaver and Mike Scioscia having a "Lackey Moment" after the eighth inning of this one. After giving up nothing more than a sacrifice fly in the 7th inning, Scioscia decided to pull Weaver after 8 innings of work (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K) and just 109 pitches. On the way to the dugout after getting the final out in the 8th (an inning where he only needed 6 pitches to get all 3 outs), you could see The Caveman shaking his head and barking at the dugout. Once he got back, he and Scioscia had heated words about Weaver coming out, and defeated in the argument, Weaver walked away huffing and puffing. Clearly, Jered wanted to stay out to try and keep pitching until his team could give him a win. His wish was not granted, especially because they didn't come back anyway, and he fell to 11-10 on the year. I've openly speculated all year about Weaver not wanting to return once his contract expires at the end of this year. This argument, much like Lackey's last year in (granted) a much more important game with Boston, may tip the scales for Big Baby. If he leaves, we may have to dub Mike Scioscia, "The Ace Killer."
Meanwhile, the waiver wire was lighting up this weekend for the Angels. Mike Napoli was claimed by the Red Sox, although most reports say a deal is unlikely and he'll stay an Angel, and Brian Fuentes was claimed and dealt to the Minnesota Twins. The Twinkies gave us the always exciting "player to be named later," so we'll have to wait and see. But, as I reminded my wife, Sean "HR-Rod" Rodriguez was a "player to be named later" once, so we might get somebody pretty cool. Tito leaving the squad, although not unexpected, was a little surprising. We now have a giant hole at closer, not that it matters this year, that the organization wants to fill with Fernando Rodney. You can see it with the way the TV guys talked about Sweat-nando in his 9th inning outing over the weekend, "His movement is so amazing." Whatever. He's been pretty good, as I have noted, outside of that Red Sox grand slam, but he's not the kind of closer that gets you out of your seat. Rumors are also floating around that young fireballer Jordan Walden migh get his shot in the role, but I think that's just MiLB nerds like me being hopeful. I'll just point out that until this year, Waldo was a starter in the minors. Let's not jump to annointing him a RP just yet.
Back to BFF going to Minnie, though. Guess what our dear former closer decided to do prior to picking up his first Twinkie save? You guessed it! Tito pulled a Lackey. Another in a long line of departing Angel players who took a shot at us fans. Here is Fuentes' comments in all their glory, and much like Lackey's, I doubt they'll be forgotten quickly (if ever) around here:
"It was funny. I felt like I was pitching on the road quite a bit. I came in to a lot of boos, but the fans here come out in droves. They're here to be entertained. They're entertained one way or another, through my frustration or through my success. I felt like I've given them a lot more success than failure."
Now, I know that Halo Nation never quite seemed to warm to Fuentes, especially compared to the borners we got for Frankie before him. If you read this blog, you know that I have always tried to give him his credit when it was due. But, come on, why is he going to go out this way? If the fan base was always kind of iffy on you, why give them a reason to completely hate you on your way out? We turned on Lackey, and he was our boy. What chance do you have?
Just to help you keep score at home, Fuentes blew three out of eight save chances earlier this year in one stretch, enough to make any fan nervous. Despite giving us "more success than failure," he never really presented that explosive closer presence on the mound. It should be noted that his K/9 was nearly a 1, which isn't really exciting closer stuff. He also had that stupid mustache going for a while, which took him down a couple of pegs in my book. And I'm pretty sure we all remember the A-Rod AB in last year's ALCS. You don't really bounce back from stuff like that, even if you did lead the bigs in saves last year. His 48 saves last year is the second most in franchise history (behind, guess who?), and his 71 total are good enough to rank fourth all-time as an Angel. In the end, though, it's not about how you start but how you finish, and when you talk shit on the fans on your way out, you'll always be a loser in our books.
It's funny to spend all this time talking about pitching when our offense is such a problem.
At 63-68, the Halos are now 10.5 games back of Texas with 31 games left until hockey season starts. Even worse, we now trail the comeback kids in Oakland by 3. 3! We continue with the dregs part of our schedule tonight, as we start a series with Seattle, but playing horrible teams obviously isn't helping. In case you are curious, at 51-79, ESPN's 2009 AND 2010 AL West Champs are an even 22 back of the division lead. Does ESPN ever hold themselves accountable for their ridiculous preseason predictions?
Of course, if we suck tonight, history might be made before our very eyes. Currently, the Red Hats haven't scored a run in the last 26 innings. The Angels all-time record is 33 (established in 1963 and again in 2004). So, if Mariners starter David Pauley (2-5, 4.02) can shut us down for 7.3 innings, a record will be born! Pauley, who in 2004 was involved in the trade that brought Dave Roberts (a nugget for the Doyer fans!) to the San Diego Padres, sucks. And that's great, because he's going up against a team that has the amazing ability to make crap pitchers look awesome. However, maybe Pauley would fit in better with us. He's 0-3 at home this year, despite posting a 2.86 ERA. In four home starts, he's received 2 total runs of support. Did I just find Jered Weaver's relacement? The Angels counter with Ervin Santana (13-9, 4.13), who is somehow walking away with the Angels wins race this year. El Rosario is 6-2 in his career against Seattle with a 3.34 ERA, and has allowed just one run in each of his last two outings against them. Unfortunately, allowing just one run in a start hasn't been good enough for the Angels as of late.
At least we'll get to watch Figgins and Kotchman!
Does anyone think any of our players will want to step up with the bat in this series? Maybe I'll just wait for the final game of the series, when the Halos will be able to expand the roster with eager young talent looking to get a chance to shine.
Trumbo, anyone?
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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