"No more Yankie my wankie. The Conger needs food!"
There are so many nicknames and references you can attach to catcher-of-the-future Hank Conger (Hankie Pankie, The Conger Needs Food, and King Conger to name three). I'm just proud this guy can hit! Conger crushed a two run single over the shortstop in the first inning against the Indians last night, as the Halos finally backed up a solid Jered Weaver outing for a 7-0 win. Big Baby was nearly perfect in the game, and finally got the help he needed to actually get that W. Not enough love is given to Conger for being on the catching end of this game, as well as for his stick work, but both were equally impressive (Hank even has a better CERA than Bobby Wilson!).
The pluses:
+The offense! 7 runs on 7 hits...fantastic.
+Weaver ended up with 7 innings of 1 hit shutout ball, punching out 7. He now leads Queen Felix by 4 Ks in the MLB strikeout race.
+Mattie Palmer continued to prove he's back to his work horse/solid self, going 2 innings of 1 hit shutout ball on the back end.
+Hideki Matsui only had one hit...BUT IT WAS A TRIPLE! It was the 12th three bagger in Godzilla's career.
+Juan Rivera was the only multi-hit man AND had 2 RBI. I'm not joking. No, really. Check the box score.
+Hank Conger got the start, and raked in 2 RBI.
The minuses:
-Man, Alberto Callaspo sucks as a leadoff guy (0 for 4).
-Brandon Wood pinch hit...and struck out. He's now hitting .159/.184/.212 and has 57 strikeouts in 189 ABs (that's a K in over 30% of his at bats). Guess what? He's going to the Arizona Fall League when the season's over to "work out some stuff." I still, for some reason, think Scioscia pencils him in as starting 3B next year.
-Erick Aybar continues to die a slow 0'fer death in the middle of the order. EA is hitting .190 over the last 4 weeks, .136 in the month of September (ie, it's getting worse), and .184 combined as a 6 or 7 hitter. And yet, Scioscia seems content to let him rot down there. Keep in mind that he hits .279 as a leadoff hitter, while Callaspo (who is getting leadoff duty constantly now) hits just .159 there (and .327 as a #3 hitter). God, Mike, don't you have access to the stats?
-Peter Bourjos had four meaningless ABs and is now just 14 ABs away from ruining his 2011 AL ROY chances.
-The last 21 Angels failed to reach base.
The win got me closer to my two revised late season goals for the Angels. 1) We're closer to my goal of finishing .500 or better and 2) We're closer to being better than Oakland. At 71-74, the Halos still trail Texas by 11 games with 17 to play, but now trail the hated A's by just a game. Tonight we get our third 4:05 start at Progressive Field, as the Angels try to take the series in Cleveland. Ervin "Lucky" Santana (16-9, 4.00) looks to continue his somehow fantastic season against Fausto Carmona (12-14, 3.86). Carmona put a complete game shutout on the Twins his last time out, punching out 7 in the process, while only allowing 3 hits. Yeah, he's underrated, and that's dangerous for us. Meanwhile, El Roasrio is coming off of a 3 run, 7.3 inning performance against the M's. Not as great as Fausto, but Erv seems to get runs, and he'll be looking for that same support tonight. With a win, Ervin would keep his unlikely bid for a 20-win season alive (although he'll have to win out). Wouldn't that be completely insane?
Last night on the AM830 Angels radio broadcast, a fan emailed in to ask about the Angels plans at catcher for 2011. The only answers provided by José Mota were A) They have some big decisions to make, B) They'll probably only carry 2 catchers on the roster, and C) I can guarantee that Hank Conger will not be the starter in 2011. While those are answers, it never really attempts to explain what IS going to happen. So, I thought we'd try and figure it out.
First, José's statement about the Angels only carrying two catchers is interesting. He pointed out that we carried three catchers this year because Bobby Wilson was out of options and couldn't go back down. However, when Wilson was hurt earlier in the season, we had Ryan Budde stay up with Nap and Mathis. He also pointed out that the only other time we carried three was when we had the Molina brothers and Josh Paul and we only did it because of Bengie's bad needs. It's interesting because I feel like the Halos seem to always carry 3 dishmen, no matter what Mota tries to get me to believe.
Here is the problem: We have Mathis, Napoli, Wilson, Budde, and Conger who are all kind of here right now. If Conger is definitely not going to be our starter next year, as Mota suggests, what is going to happen? It's clear that Conger is a AAA or better player, so there is no way he would go lower than Salt Lake. That means that one of the other catchers would have to back him up in AAA, because Conger will be the main man seeing action for the Bees, if he isn't up with us. So, if we carry two catchers in the bigs and two at SLC, that leaves one catcher as the odd man out. So, let's look at the stats along with some subjective feelings and make some crazy predictions!
Mike Napoli: .244/24/65 this year with the Angels. Napoli is kind of an interesting figure here in 2010. The Itallian Stallion has a low average (despite a .318 OBP), which has made it tough to defend how good he is. However, he's been blasting the ball out of the ballpark, leading the Angels in jacks. The interesting fact is that he only has 65 RBI despite all those bombs. His WAR this year is 2.0, simply to show you his value. The question is: What are the Angels plans with Naps? Was he actually nearly dealt to the Red Sox this waiver season, or was it all fluff? Will he be dealt in the offseason? Surely his trade value is high, but it'd be tough to see off our best long ball hitter this season, wouldn't it? I'll just say that if he stays all the way to the start of the year, he's the starter, hands down.
Jeff Mathis: .191/3/17 this year with the Angels. His futility has been chronicalled not only on this website, but all over the internet. He clearly is a horrible hitter, and really not all that great of a fielder, either. He has a -1.3 WAR this season. Look, I like Mathis as a person, but he has no business being on this squad in 2011. It'll be tough for Scioscia to come to terms with that, I understand, but it has to happen. Now I doubt that Mathis is going to be in AAA as Hank Conger's backup, which only leads to the conclusion that either A) Jeff Mathis will be traded for a bag of balls and some sunflower seeds, or B) He'll simply be released. It's tough, but it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Bobby Wilson: .211/4/15 with the Angels this year and he went 5 for 12 in the minors (A and AAA) thanks to his injury from Mark Teixeira. Look, I'm not as high as everyone else on Bobby Wilson. Everyone around Angels Nation loves to talk up his CERA, but his WAR is just 0.3 (aka, barely above a crappy replacement player). I'm not sure "Booby" is as solid as some of us like to pretend he is. Is this guy set to be Napoli's backup in my scenario? I'm not quite sure yet.
Ryan Budde: .400/1/3 in the small sample size of 6 games with the Angels this season (11 PAs). He hit just .244 with 1 HR and 13 RBI in 53 games at Salt Lake this year. Now I know he probably wouldn't have kept up his .400 hitting if he stayed in the bigs, but if you project his WAR based on his play over those six games, you get 2.7, which would be the best on the team for a catcher (although, realistically, he probably would have finished around Wilson's 0.3). So, it comes down to this: If Mike Napoli is our starter, and Hank Conger is definitely in AAA, we have to pick between Wilson and Budde as both Nap and Conger's backup. It's a toss up, but either is an upgrade (although minor) over Mathis.
Hank Conger: .300/11/49 over 108 games with the Bees this year (and let's not forget what he's done so far in Anaheim). I'm pretty certain that Hank Conger is the catcher of the very near future for the Angels, much like I was certain Dallas McPherson was the future of the Angels at third base. I think I'll agree with José Mota that Conger will get another season at AAA (although he's likely to come up a la Peter Bourjos next year) to get ready, unless Napoli is traded. If Napoli is gone for some reason, Conger needs to start with Budde or Wilson as backup. Either way, this'll be fun to see.
Maybe I didn't answer the question of the Angels 2011 catching situation any more than José Mota, but this is my point: Something has to happen for the Angels catching spot for next year, because we have reached that breaking point within the organization. We'll just have to wait and find out once the offseason fun begins.
Now, let's go win us this series and tie up with the A's.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
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