Angel in New York

Live by the Ninth, Die by the Ninth

2008-04-09T15:10:38Z

Two games ago, Torri Hunter goes yard with 3 on base to win.

How about this boxcore!

LA Angels	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Figgins, 3B	2	0	0	0	3	0	0	.379
Matthews, LF	2	1	1	0	3	0	1	.344
Guerrero, RF	4	1	2	0	1	1	3	.281
Anderson, DH	4	1	0	0	1	0	4	.273
Hunter, CF	5	2	3	5	0	1	0	.333
Kotchman, 1B	4	1	1	0	0	1	1	.286
Kendrick, 2B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.429
a-Aybar, PH-SS	3	0	1	0	0	0	2	.100
Napoli, C	4	0	0	0	0	1	1	.227
Izturis, SS-2B	4	0	1	0	0	0	3	.143
Totals	33	6	9	5	8	4	15
a-Grounded out for Kendrick in the 4th.
BATTING HR: Hunter 2 (4, 8th inning off Betancourt, 0 on, 0 out; 9th inning off Borowski, 3 on, 1 out). TB: Matthews; Guerrero 2; Hunter 9; Kotchman; Aybar; Izturis. RBI: Hunter 5 (8). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Guerrero 2; Aybar; Anderson 2; Izturis. GIDP: Matthews; Izturis. Team LOB: 10. BASERUNNING SB: Hunter (1, 2nd base off Carmona/Martinez), Kotchman (1, 2nd base off Carmona/Martinez), Figgins (3, 2nd base off Carmona/Martinez), Izturis (1, 2nd base off Carmona/Martinez), Aybar (1, 2nd base off Betancourt/Martinez). CS: Matthews (1, 2nd base by Perez/Martinez). FIELDING Outfield assists: Guerrero (Peralta at 3rd base). DP: (Napoli-Izturis).

Now they lost last night, in kind of the same thing. Well, K-Rod was unavailable, so maybe 80% of us would say it wouldn't have happened if he was pitching the ninth. But take it as it comes and Cleveland's Travis Hafner pulls off a watered-down Torri Hunter to do us in.

Santana was fine for the start, and I'm sure he's upset about the loss, but here's the pitching line from last night:

LA Angels	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Santana	6.0	6	2	2	3	5	0	3.00
Oliver (H, 3)	1.2	0	0	0	1	0	0	4.91
Speier (BS, 1)(L, 0-1)	1.1	1	2	2	1	1	1	9.00

Note I never like to see a pitcher enter the 8th inning who also pitches in the 9th inning. It's just long on a closer to go more than 3 outs.

Weekend Update and Good Monday!

2008-04-07T15:26:54Z

Ok, so when you take your weekend off from work and you put the Angels high into your sight, it feels bad when they don't do so well. If they lose during the week, that's not as bad as a weekend if you're taking the kids, right?

Saturday: They won a close one 2-1 vs. Texas. The box score is useless, right? Only 2 runs. So here's the pitcher's nice line for us:

LA Angels	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Weaver (W, 1-1)	7.0	3	0	0	0	6	0	2.02
Oliver (H, 2)	0.2	1	1	1	0	1	1	9.00
Speier (H, 2)	0.1	0	0	0	1	0	0	5.40
Rodriguez, F (S, 3)	1.0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0.00

Sunday:

Well, not so good for the pitching line as John Garland got served by Texas, though you can't totally complain since he dominated the Twins in his first start.

Blah:

LA Angels	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Garland (L, 1-1)	5.0	8	7	7	2	2	2	5.54
O'Day	2.0	3	1	1	1	0	0	1.80
Shields	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
Bulger	1.0	2	2	2	0	1	1	9.00

Better luck today please!! Help us welcome Cleveland with a 10 run 3rd innning!

Tonight's the [Saddest for Me] Night!

2008-04-04T13:53:12Z

Being an Angel's fan in New York is tough enough. You get Yankees fans who begrudge you but you know you own what? The best winning record vs. the Yankees in last maybe 6 years.

But it's home opener for the Angels tonight, and I'd love to be there, but no way. I'll watch it on MLB.tv Premium where 800k is good for my computer and I'll try 1.2MB streaming if that works.

Plus it's headphone friendly!

But moreover, just join me in wishing the Angels a great 2008 season, and good luck tonight!

Angels get it Done!

2008-04-03T20:37:12Z

Wow just like I said, lose the first, and sweep the rest. Remind you of '02 with Yankees then (ahem) Twins?

This shows our composure as we were cruising today, and when the Twinkies got close, we pushed it again.

Vlad, not so good, but hey, he will still be a .320, 28HR, 120RBI guy for us. But great to see Hunter get off the snide with his first HR (and hit) of the season.

Napoli cranked his second one, and we went on to win 5-4!!! Niiiice!

Saunders Makes Great!

2008-04-03T13:33:34Z

If you think this boxscore doesn't look so good...

LA Angels	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Figgins, 3B	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	.333
Matthews, LF	4	0	2	0	0	1	1	.308
Guerrero, RF	4	0	0	0	0	3	4	.333
Anderson, DH	3	0	0	0	1	1	3	.250
Hunter, CF	4	0	2	0	0	0	2	.167
Kotchman, 1B	4	0	0	0	0	0	4	.385
Kendrick, 2B	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	.417
Mathis, C	3	0	1	0	0	1	0	.333
Aybar, SS	4	0	0	0	0	1	3	.000
Totals	32	1	7	0	2	7	17

Check out this pitching line:

LA Angels	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Saunders (W, 1-0)	8.0	4	0	0	1	4	0	0.00
Rodriguez, F (S, 1)	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0.00

And now just smile! We won 1-0 last night to go up 2-1 on the Twins.

Saunders on the Mound Tonight

2008-04-02T20:53:47Z

Joe Saunders (0-0) takes the mound tonight in Minnesota.

So far the Twins and Angels are 1-1 so tonight is the rubber match even though there's a fourth game. Hopefully the Halos take tonight and tomorrow and go 3-1 and prove me correct in my theory that in important series, they lose the first and then go on to win the series.

Garland Pays Dividends; Lineup Pays Respect!

2008-04-02T14:18:56Z

John Garland, our off-season pitching pickup, pitched longer (8 IP) than I thought he would, and wow, only let up 6 hits, 1 walk for only 1 earned run).

But additionally, the Angels hitters cranked 15 hits, which is impossible to "scatter". That is, 4 innings of 2 runs scored, and one inning of 1 run. They used small ball and power:

LA Angels	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Figgins, 3B	5	2	1	0	1	1	3	.333
Matthews, DH	5	1	1	0	0	2	5	.222
a-Rivera, PH-DH	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000
Guerrero, RF	4	1	3	3	1	0	0	.500
Willits, RF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Anderson, LF	5	0	3	2	0	0	3	.333
Hunter, CF	4	1	0	0	0	1	5	.000
Kotchman, 1B	5	1	2	1	0	0	2	.556
Kendrick, 2B	5	1	3	0	0	0	1	.444
Napoli, C	4	1	1	1	1	0	1	.286
Izturis, SS	5	1	1	2	0	1	3	.125
Totals	43	9	15	9	3	5	25

Kotchman and Napoli went yard, while doubles abounded for Vlad, GA, Figgins, and Kendrick.

I'm surprised at Torri Hunter who stands out as 0.000 and last night left 5 on base. He'll come around though. And no Aybar yet? Izturis at .125 should mean Aybar tonight, but we'll see.

Tonight is Garland vs. Bonser

2008-04-01T23:46:37Z

Waiting...waiting..please come around 8:10pm edt!!

I want to see on MLB.tv here in New York my Angels take on the Twins. I'm still at work so that's why I can't watch it on a tv network.

But if I can't stream that, then I like the new Gameday as up to 10 events could be highlighted there as videos (hopefully Vlad goes yard and even in gameday I could watch that).

Ok, enough hype of product; let's go Halos!!!

Opening Day Loss sours Decent Pitching

2008-04-01T15:51:02Z

Opening on the road is always tough, right? You'd rather have the Home Opener be the Opening Day game for your team, so Los Angeles traveled to Minnesota for their Home Opener, and lost 3-2 behind pretty good pitching from Jared Weaver.

Remember that the opening day pitcher won't make it 9 innings. Because in Spring Training they (all pitchers) build up arm strength to go from 1-2 innings, to 3-4 to maybe 6 innings in final Spring Training start.

Jared Weaver last night:

6.1 IP, 8H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 5K

That's not too bad on the endurance (6 1/3 innings) and 3ER isn't the worst we've seen. But 10 basemen over 6.1 is a WHIP (walks + hits / innings) of 1.58 which is not-so-bad, but not stellar.

What was disappointing was scattering 9 hits (none more than a double) with leaving men on bases by our best hitters. Maybe it was Hunter's return to Minnesota, but Vlad didn't shine either.

Figgins went 2-4 but what caught me was no one tried to steal a base; even in top of the ninth, Willits came in, but didn't try.

Oh well, if there's one thing I can think of for the Angels, it's they usually lose the first game and then take control (think 2002 playoffs).

Weaver to Start the Season...

2008-03-30T20:27:24Z

It's official: Jared Weaver will start the season for the Halos at Minnesota Monday night.

New Life in the New MLBLogs.com...

2008-03-30T15:11:46Z

A lot of things went crazy yesterday including the mlblogs here. But as sure as you look for a new sign of things to come, the Angels won against San Diego last night, and all things look right in the world.

I guess the Angels and MLBlogs world united this weekend and all I can say is I hope the Angels win @ Minnesota and the MLBLogs world succeeds!

Let this be a sign of 2008 Season!

2008-03-26T13:21:50Z

With the Angels running away in the Cactus League, I hope -- ney, pray -- that this is a prelude to 2008.

So seyeth in the latest recap of Angels click here that the Angels are 18-7-3 in Cactus League play. Nice.

Looks like these are good performances (e.g., who will be in the Angels roster):

My predictions for opening day roster:

1B - Kotchman
2B - Kendrick
SS - Aybar
3B - Figgins
LF - Anderson
CG - Hunter
RF - Guerrero
DH - Rivera
C - -Napolia / Mathis (depends on pitcher)
Bench: Morales, Itzuris Matthews Jr., Willits, Quinlan, Budde, ??? (Whoa who else is tough to figure)

Pitching is kind of nailed down anyway with Garland joining the only question is Saunders in while Escobar is out. Think Lackey, Weaver, Garland, Escobar, Santana as the normal rotation.

What think?

Angels in your Fantasy team?

2008-03-19T11:43:07Z

Tough going if you're such a fan of the game (e.g. a big fan of a team) and you then play Fantasy Baseball.

The toughness is "hmm...I shouldn't let my heart decide I need my team's players on my fantasy squad". But that's tough, right?

I grabbed Chone Figgins for SB, AVG, Runs, and his versatility on OF/3B. Also added Casey Kotchman as my backup 1B (I grabbed Ryan Howard, so no way was Casey gonna start for me).

But what did you do for Angels fans + Fantasy player picks?

And check out the Free MLB.com Fantasy Baseball here...you could even win $10,000! (Or as we say in New York: "Ten Large"): MLB.com 2008 Open

2008 MLB Preview - Angels

2008-03-12T14:28:17Z

Lets hear it for Bourjos

2008-03-12T13:56:39Z

So if I was a minor leaguer in the Angels, say AAA Edmonton, how would I feel? They Angels have what, 5 outfielders (Vlad, Hunter, GA, Rivera, Matthews Jr.) vying for the 3 OF spots plus a DH depending on their health, rest, etc.

So I would feel like "get me outta here and trade me!" I think.

Enter: Peter Bourjos. Who? Yeah, he's a CF who yesterday showed what playing for a reason is.

He comes in late to fill in Morales' spot in the lineup, and goes 2-2 with a 3 run Home Run in the 9th, but earlier he stole 2 bases after he singled.

Gotta love a player whose situation is less than desirable as a virtual unknown and no room to come to the majors, but plays like there's no tomorrow!