AAR: Aston’s Angels Report April 12, 2012
Game 4-6: More Pitching Woes Vol. 2, Issue 4
\ Series #2 (W, L, L @ Minnesota Twins), Season Record 2-4
After a disappointing series against the Royals, the Angels faced off against another American League Central team, the Twins, and unfortunately had very similar results. The start to the 2012 season has been eerily similar to the poor start to last season, primarily defined by poor pitching performances and difficult losses, but the fact remains that there are still over 150 games remaining, so panic time hasn‘t quite arrived yet.
The first game of the series on April 9 staged a matchup of starting pitchers CJ Wilson- making his first start as a member of the Angels, versus the Twins’ Nick Blackburn. While Wilson is probably one of the best (if not the very best) 4th starters in all of baseball, coming off of a stellar 2011 campaign (posting a 16-7 record, 206 striekouts, and a 2.94 ERA), Blackburn has been a below-average starter for most of his career with the Twins (posting a 7-10 record with 4.49 ERA in 2011), but he has pitched better at home over his career, which evened the matchup a little more. The Angels lineup was altered a little from the previous series, with DH Kendrys Morales moved up to the 4th position in the lineup, Bobby Abreu taking over in left field for Vernon Wells. Alberto Callaspo took the reigns at 3rd base again, instead of defensively challenged 3rd base student Mark Trumbo, with the expectation of many groundballs served up by his sinker ball throwing starter, Wilson. The Twins have a couple new faces this season, with former Athletic (and Angels nemesis from last season) Josh Willingham in left field, former Dodger Jamey Carroll as the starting shortstop, and catcher (and sometimes outfielder) Ryan Doumit, who played for the Pirates previously. They of course have the familiar M & M boys, former MVPs Joe Mauer (playing 1st base) and Justin Morneau (shifted to DH this season, due to his injury concerns), to go along with a few young players who have been there for a couple years as well, like 2B Alexi Casilla, 3B Danny Valencia, and RF Trevor Plouffe. Expectations aren’t very high for the Twins this season, but they performed well in this series.
The Angels put some runs on the scoreboard in their first at-bat, with some timely hits and tough base running. Shortstop Erick Aybar led off with a walk, showing some rare patience, and after a fly-out by Howie Kendrick, Albert Pujols hit a groundball to the 3rd baseman, Valencia, that should have been an inning ending double play. Aybar showed some great base running skills, as he slid in to 2nd base aggressively, making it impossible for Casilla to throw on to 1st to complete the double play, to keep the inning going. Morales followed with a sharp single to center, and Pujols continued the good base running trend, running to 3rd. Torii Hunter put the Angels on the board with a groundball single into left field, to score Pujols, and Abreu continued his hot hitting against Blackburn for his career (8-for-16 coming in), slicing a ground rule double the opposite way down the left field line, scoring Morales for an early 2-0 lead.
CJ Wilson was given the lead before he even took the mound, and he didn’t relinquish it, although he did have a little bit of a control issue, which seemed to be attributed to the heavy movement on his pitches, as even the catcher, Chris Iannetta, was having difficulty catching some of them. He walked the #2 hitter Carroll with one out in the 1st, but struck out Mauer and induced a groundout from Morneau. He walked the second batter he faced in the 2nd inning, Doumit, but that was sandwiched between two strikeouts and then a weak groundout to end that inning. He got the first two batters out in the 3rd, before walking Carroll- the least threatening (in terms of power) hitter in the lineup- again. He allowed his first hit of the game to the next batter, Mauer, which pushed Carroll over to 3rd. Wilson nearly pushed in a run with a wild pitch, but Iannetta made a great block on the ball in the dirt to keep the runner at 3rd (as Mauer took 2nd base). Justin Morneau couldn’t drive in the runner(s) as he ended the 3rd inning with a weak tapper back to the pitcher. Wilson made a costly mistake to the first batter in the 4th inning, throwing a below average speed (85 MPH) fastball to Willingham to start the at-bat, which was spanked deep into left field for a leadoff homerun, making the score 2-1 now. He came back to get the next three in order on easy groundouts to end the 4th.
After the rough 1st inning by Blackburn, he went on to retire 15 straight Angel batters, through the 6th inning. He wasn’t overpowering, but he kept the opposing hitters off balance, inducing mostly groundouts along with three strikeouts. The streak ended with two outs in the 6th, when Morales hit a grounder to 1st, that went off of Mauer’s glove, ricocheting to Casilla, who then threw the ball away. The rare two-base, double error enabled Morales to go to 2nd base, but Hunter couldn’t capitalize on the opportunity as he hit a (rare) fly out to center to end the inning.
Wilson had his first 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 6th, striking out Mauer again, and getting another groundout from Morneau, before facing the dangerous Willingham again. He nearly hit another homerun, but it drifted into foul territory at the end of its flight, and then he hit a grounder up the middle that Kendrick made a great play on, running it down as he went deep behind 2nd base to snag it, and then made a great off- balance throw to 1st to record the final out. The Angels capitalized on the momentum from the quick inning and stellar defense, as the offense finally added some insurance runs in the next half inning, to back up the strong pitching performance of Wilson.
Abreu led off the 7th with another trademark solid at-bat, working the count full before drawing the dreaded lead off walk. Callaspo followed by hitting the first pitch he saw back up the middle, just past the diving shortstop, so what looked like a potential base clearing double play ball turned into a single and two runners on with no outs. The Twins looked like they thought the next batter, Iannetta, was up to bunt with runners at 1st and 2nd, but he hit the first pitch he saw into left center field, for a 2-RBI double, to give the Angels a 4-1 lead. The Twins changed pitchers and Bourjos hit a seemingly harmless grounder to 3rd but Iannetta continued the good base running theme, advancing to 3rd as Valencia charged the ball to make the play at 1st. With one out and a runner at 3rd, the Twins changed pitchers again, bringing in the left- hander Glen Perkins the Angels resorted to their familiar small ball tactics with Erick Aybar up to bat. After taking the first two for balls, the Angels put the squeeze play on, so Iannetta started for home as Perkins pitched, and Aybar laid down the bunt to allow him to score easily and give the Halos a commanding 5-1 lead. The move to bring in the lefty made it a little easier to make the squeeze play work, since his back was to the runner at 3rd and with a right-handed batter at the plate, he wouldn’t be able to pitch out towards the runner even if he did realize the runner was going at the last second, like a pitcher would be able to do with the batter in the other batter’s box. All the variables worked in the Angels favor and resulted in the final run of the game, on a well-timed common Mike Scioscia tactic.
Wilson took the mound again in the bottom of the 7th, with a new four run lead, and faced the minimum thanks to a double play grounder by Valencia, following a lead off single from Doumit. Scott Downs came in to pitch the 8th and allowed just one base runner on a broken bat “seeing eye” dribbler down the 3rd base line that turned into an infield hit, but he retired Carroll and Mauer to end the inning. The Angels offense was held in check for their last couple at-bats, so when Kevin Jepsen came in to pitch the 9th, they still had a 5-1 lead, and proceeded to add a little drama to the finishing touches. He hit the first batter he faced, Morneau, in the back foot, and then allowed a line drive single up the middle by Willingham. Doumit followed with another line drive up the middle, but Aybar made a great diving catch going to his left, and then flipped the ball over to Kendrick covering 2nd base, for a well- timed double play. Valencia ended the game with a groundout to Aybar, and the Angels were victorious again. Strong pitching and defense along with good base running and a little timely hitting (when they weren’t making 15 consecutive outs that is) produced the win, but unfortunately the pitching aspect of that combination would be missing in the next two contests.
FANTASY IMPACT
The Angels’ CJ Wilson (7 innings, 3 hits, one run, 5 strikeouts, quality start) and catcher Chris Iannetta (1-for-4, with double and 2 RBI) were the fantasy stat standouts for the Angels. Josh Willingham was the lone offensive contributor for the Twins, posting a 2-for-4 game with a HR and only RBI for the team, and he should be in your lineup whenever he plays against the Angels, it seems.
CATCHER’S CORNER
Catchers seem to get very little recognition for the difficult work they do, and it is my goal to highlight some of the game-saving plays they make. The Angels Chris Iannetta did produce the big hit of the game, with his two-run double in the 7th to give the Angels a cushion in the scoring column, but he made one of the more important defensive plays as well. With runners on 1st and 3rd in the 3rd, he made a great block on a ball in the dirt on a pitch to Justin Morneau, preventing the runner from being able to score. Although the runner at 1st did advance, he allowed Wilson to keep the 2-0 lead, as he went on to throw a sidearm fastball and induce a weak groundout to end the inning. If that run had scored, it would have been 2-1 with another run in scoring position, and there is no telling what may have happened next, not to mention that the homerun from Willingham later in the game would have tied the score, and could have changed the game completely.
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This series was an odd one, with a very rare scheduled day off in between the first and second games, so game two took place on Wednesday April 11, and the scheduling seemed to favor the Angels, as they skipped over what would have been the 5th starter, so their ace Jared Weaver was the starting pitcher. He was facing off against the Twins veteran right-hander Carl Pavano, an average pitcher who tends to pitch deep into games and usually keeps the games close. The Angels altered the lineup a little, putting Vernon Wells back in left field, instead of Abreu. The Twins made a few changes, moving Doumit to right field and Mauer over to his familiar spot behind the plate, while inserting another youngster Chris Parmalee at the 1st base position.
The first three innings were rather uneventful, as Pavano was perfect in the first three innings, retiring the Angels in order, and Jared Weaver was almost his equal.. Weaver walked the first batter he faced, Denard Span, but he was erased by a double play grounder off the bat of Joe Mauer. The first hit of the game came in the 3rd inning when Parmalee singled off the end of his bat into center field, but Weaver retired the next two hitters to finish the inning. The Angels got their first base runner on in the top of the 4th, and capitalized with the first run of the game soon thereafter. Aybar singled up the middle to lead off, for their first hit of the game, but Kendrick hit an easy grounder to force Aybar out at 2nd. Kendrick stole 2nd base, which was the Angels first stolen base of the season (in five games), and then Albert Pujols came through with a line drive single to left, to score Kendrick and give the Angels a 1-0 lead. Pujols was thrown out trying to go to 2nd on the throw home from the outfield, and Morales ended the inning with an easy fly ball to left.
The Angels’ momentum didn’t last long at all, as the Twins came right back with some runs of their own in the bottom half of the 4th. Carroll led off the inning with a double down the left field line, and Mauer followed with an RBI single to left center, tying the game at 1-1, in a matter of seconds. Morneau struck out for out #2, but Willingham continued his torment of the Angels, clobbering another homerun deep into left field on the first pitch fastball from Weaver (a mistake), for 2 RBI to give the Twins a 3-1 lead. Weaver settled down to retire Doumit and Valencia but the damage had been done, so the Angels had some work to do if they were going to get back in it.
The offense came right back in the top of the 5th, starting with a one-out single by Wells, who lined the first pitch he saw into left field. Callaspo hit a fly ball to right for the second out, and it looked like another lost inning. Iannetta managed to get a single into right field on a broken bat looper over the infield, putting runners at 1st and 3rd with two outs for CF Peter Bourjos. Bourjos whacked a deep fly ball into left, that ended up going over Willingham’s head, and then he crashed into the wall and fell down. Bourjos started off running at about half speed going to 1st and then he kicked it into hyper drive as he flew around the bases and went all the way around the bases in no time flat for the always exciting inside-the-park homerun. Usually these take place on a ball that bounces around the wall bounds around a corner away from an outfielder, but this one went to straight away left field, and the play was backed up by the center fielder who fielded the ball and threw it in to the cut off man. By that time, Bourjos was flying around 3rd and he slid in about a second ahead of the throw, for a relatively easy inside-the-parker, proving once again that he is probably the fastest base runner in baseball. More importantly it gave the Angels back the lead, who were now up 4-3 after that awe-inspiring play, after the inning looked to be almost over just two batters earlier.
Weaver capitalized on the newfound momentum from his offense, and retired the Twins in order in the bottom of the 5th, and allowed just one hit-to Morneau- in the 6th, holding the lead for his team. The Angels offense went down in order in the 6th , and then they tacked on another run in the top half of the 7th. Hunter led off by hitting a line drive into center that Span nearly caught as he charged forward, but he could only stop it on a short hop. The ball got away from Span, so Hunter hustled his way on to 2nd to try and stretch it into a double, and his aggression was rewarded as the throw from Span luckily scooted past the 2nd baseman. It would have been an out if the throw had been caught, but the hustle from Hunter resulted in a runner in scoring position with no one out. Wells failed to move him over to 3rd, hitting a fly ball to left (when you want to hit it to right to move the runner over), and Callaspo failed to do anything once again with an easy ground out, setting the stage for Iannetta with two outs. He came through with a clutch hit on the first pitch he saw, slicing a double into right center that fell in and rolled to the wall, scoring Hunter to give the Angels a 5-3 lead.
The next half inning turned out to be the most important one in the game, as Weaver came back out to pitch the bottom of the 7th. That may have been the first mistake, as he gave up back-to-back singles to Doumit and Valencia to start the inning, and then he was pulled from the game (at least one batter too late in my opinion). Hisanori Takahashi was called upon to pitch to the left-hand hitting Chris Parmalee and he got ahead in the count no balls, two strikes, but he made an absolutely horrible pitch, leaving a slow spinner down and in ( the worst spot to throw to a left hand hitter) and Parmalee capitalized by driving one down the right field line. Hunter made matters worse as he crashed into the right field wall trying to cut the ball off, allowing the ball to roll past him, so both runners scored to tie the game and Parmalee made it all the way to 3rd with a triple. It looked like Takahashi was trying to throw a slider down and away, but he left it hanging in the happy hitting zone for Parmalee that probably cost the Angels the game (with an assist from the poor defense by Hunter), as it turns out. The Angels replaced him with LaTroy Hawkins, who inherited an unenviable position with the go-ahead run at 3rd with no outs. He forced Casilla to hit a shallow fly out to left, that wasn’t deep enough to score the run, and then struck out Span for the second out, but he couldn’t get that elusive final out of the inning. Carroll came through again for the Twins, going with the outside pitch, lining the ball into right field to score Parmalee and give the Twins the unexpected 6-5 lead.
The Twins brought in left handed fireballer Glen Perkins to pitch the 8th and he retired the Angels in order easily, getting a groundball back to him from Aybar and then striking out Kendrick and Pujols. The Twins went down in order in their half of the 8th, setting the table for their closer Matt Capps, in the 9th , with the one-run lead. Morales led off with a sharp grounder right to the 2nd baseman for out #1, and Hunter turned another hit to shallow center into another double with another hustle play, breaking his bat on a soft grounder up the middle, and hustling from the get-go to slide in safely ahead of the accurate throw from Span. The Angels had the tying run at 3rd, but once again Wells couldn’t do anything, as he weakly pulled another grounder to the SS. I thought that Scioscia would pinch hit Abreu, given his good performance in game one of the series, along with Wells’ overall struggles vs. right handed pitching and in general, but it was not to be. Callaspo came up as the Angels last hope, but he failed again as well, weakly popping it up to the 3rd baseman, Valencia, in foul territory to end the game. I thought there would certainly be a pinch-hitter there as well, with Abreu and Trumbo still available on the bench, but manager Mike Scioscia chose to stick with his starters, and it didn’t pay off. Most losses are never good, but this was a terrible loss, considering the situation they were in after the 7th inning stretch, and the way their offense came through initially to retake the lead in the 5th inning. As bad as this loss seemed at the time, game 3 would be even worse, and the panic button was starting to flash.
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Game 3 of the series was probably one of the most disheartening games of the past few seasons, so much so that I didn’t want to watch my recording because I knew what the outcome was going to be, as I saw the updates and final score on the game on other channels without watching any of it. I know it’s still early, but this season is starting to look like a replay of last season, with the pitching issues and poor play costing them vital games. A lot of fans look at games in April as being somewhat meaningless, but some of the losses you get early in the year really come back to hurt you late in the year, when you’re fighting up hill to make up for some of those games you should have won that turned into losses many months prior.
The Angels sent out another one of their pitching stars, Dan Haren to try and salvage the series in the rubber game of the series, as he faced off against the Twins left handed slinger, Francisco Liriano. Both pitchers were coming off of poor initial starts in their 2012 season, each allowing 5 earned runs in a handful of innings. Haren was making his 50th start as a member of the Angels, and he has been impressive for most of them, while Liriano has been a ‘pitcher on the rise’ for a few years now, but he hasn’t been able to break through and become a winning pitcher yet, despite the fact he did throw a no-hitter last season (he finished with an unimpressive 9-10 record and 5.09 ERA).
The Angels changed up their lineup, replacing Aybar with Maicer Izturis as both the leadoff man and shortstop (Aybar tends to struggle against left-handed pitchers so this may become something of a trend in the near future). Mark Trumbo got the start as the team’s DH after taking a couple games off (mainly because of his defense, I’m sure) and Bobby Wilson took over the catching duties, as Mike Scioscia loves to keep his catchers fresh with a platoon situation. The Twins only made one change to their successful game 2 lineup, changing their right fielder for the third game in a row, with the speedy Ben Revere, instead of Ryan Doumit (and Trevor Plouffe in game 1)
Both teams had leadoff hits in their first inning at bat, but both were stranded as the next three batters were retired for each team. The Angels’ offense exploded with an unexpected outburst in the top of the 2nd inning, ignited by a mammoth leadoff homerun by Mark Trumbo, who launched one into the upper deck in left field. Vernon Wells tried to hit one back up the middle, but Casilla made a good defensive play to throw him out at 1st, but the Angels followed that up with four straight hits. Callaspo singled up the middle, Wilson followed with another hit to center, and then the offensive star in the last game, Peter Bourjos hit a deep fly into left for an RBI double. Bourjos gave his team a 2-0 lead, and helped put runners at 1st and 2nd for Maicer Izturis, who added another hit (to his leadoff single to start the game), smacking another one back up the middle, to score two more, for a 4-0 lead. Izturis stole 2nd and Kendrick followed that by drawing a walk, putting two base runners on for Pujols, but he continued his early season slump and just missed a pitch down the middle, popping it up to the first baseman for an easy out. With Torii Hunter up to bat, the Angels tried a double steal, and the Twins’ catcher Joe Mauer made a poor throw to 2nd, that bounced into center field, allowing Izturis to score easily after his attempt to steal 3rd. In Mauer’s defense, the fielder at 2nd should have at least stopped the ball to keep the runner at 3rd from scoring, and because the ball went into center allowing the runners to advance, the error was charged, and the Angels were up 5-0. Hunter hit a deep fly out to right to end the inning, but it looked like the game would be in the Angels’ bad after that scoring outburst,… but things aren’t always as they seem, especially in sports, and with this team.
Dan Haren pitched much better than in his first outing, with improved control for the most part, and he held the Twins scoreless for the first four innings, despite allowing a few base runners in the process. He set them down in order in the 2nd following the Angels offensive outburst in the top half of the inning, but got into some trouble in the 3rd. Revere led off the inning with a base hit up the middle, and Casilla followed with a single into right, on a mistake slider that hung up in the middle of the plate, on a 1 ball-2 strike count. Span made the first out on an easy fly out to left, that didn’t advance the runners, but Haren dug the hole a little deeper, walking Jamey Carroll to load the bases, with the Twins’ big hitters coming up. He threw three quality pitches to Mauer, finishing with a good slider on the inner half to get a pop up on the infield, and then forced Morneau to hit a shallow fly out to right to end the inning and keep the score 5-0. The Twins only managed one hit in the 4th to remain scoreless, and the Angels offense only produced one base runner, on a walk, in their two innings following their big 2nd inning, but they did attain their 4th stolen base of the game, which is a welcomed sight for Angels fans. They added one more run in the top of the 5th, started by Trumbo who drew a two-out walk, and then stole 2nd (the Angels 5th of the game), catching the Twins defense by surprise. Wells drove him in with a 2-out double down the left field line, lunging for a 1-2 outside slider and getting enough of it this time to place it away from the left fielder, and score the 6th run for the Angels.
It looked like a commanding 6-0 lead for the Angels, more than half way through, but the tides turned, starting in the bottom of the 5th. Span and Carroll each hit soft line drive singles to the opposite field, with one out, to give Mauer another chance with runners on base. This time he came through, and it looked like he was waiting for the inside slider this time, as he turned on it and deposited it into the right field seats for a 3-run homer, cutting the Angels lead in half just that quickly. Haren retired Morneau on a groundout, but faced more danger in the inning when Willingham got an infield single on a weakly hit dribbler along the 3rd base line, and Parmalee followed with a bloop hit into right. He avoided more damage, striking out Valencia swinging at a full count slider that cut away off the plate at the last second, to finally retire the side.
The Angels failed to score in the 6h, despite a lead off infield single from Wilson, and a sacrifice bunt from Bourjos to move him into scoring position, as Izturis and Kendrick both struck out looking, against the new Twins pitcher Alex Burnett. The Angels removed Haren from the game, in what looked like a premature pitching change, and brought in Takahashi to pitch the bottom of the 6th. He retired the first two hitters he faced but then things got a little dicey, as he wasn’t able to put hitters away with two strikes against them. He had Denard Span down 1 ball- 2 strikes, but allowed a single to left on a hanging, hittable slider, and then got ahead of Jamey Carroll, but tried to nibble too much with his pitches and ended up walking him to put two runners on for Mauer again, with two outs. Mauer hit what looked like a routine grounder to the shortstop Izturis, but for some reason he double clutched and threw the ball late to 1st, allowing Mauer to beat the throw and loading the bases for the Twins’ Justin Morneau once again. Manager Mike Scioscia went with the right-handed hard throwing Kevin Jepsen (instead of the soft-tossing lefty) against the left handed slugger, and the move paid off as Morneau hit a weak fly out to left to end the threat.
The Angels went down in order in the 7th against Burnett, setting the stage for the Twins to complete the comeback after the 7th inning stretch, with another three- run inning. Willingham led off with a homerun to left on a full count 96 MPH fastball, to continue his battering of the Angels pitching, cutting the lead to 6-4. Parmalee followed that with a line drive double to left center, going with another 96 MPH pitch, then Valencia grounded one into right field for their third straight hit. The Angels defense then let them down, first because it looked like Kendrick was in position to field the grounder that was just a couple feet to his left, but for some reason he didn’t see the ball well and made his first move to his right, so the ball went to the right fielder. To make matters worse RF Torii Hunter made a terrible mistake, throwing the ball over all the infielders all the way to the catcher, even though the runner at 3rd wasn’t coming home, which allowed Valencia to go to 2nd base, and eliminate the double play possibility, not to mention allow a second runner into scoring position. Ben Revere batted with the tying runs at 2nd and 3rd and no outs, but he couldn’t manage to drive them in, hitting a medium depth fly ball to left, and Parmalee didn’t even attempt to tag up and test Wells’ arm. Scioscia replaced Jepsen with lefty Scott Downs, and the Twins countered by pinch-hitting Luke Hughes for Alexi Casilla. He hit the first pitch from Downs into deep left center field, that nearly resulted in a collision by the two Angels outfielders, but still allowed the runner to come in on the sacrifice fly (moving up both runners), to make the score 6-5. Span batted with two outs and the runner at 3rd, and hit a grounder towards Pujols at 1st, who underhanded it to Downs covering the base, but Span is a fast runner, so they tried to hurry the play, and in their haste Downs wasn’t able to catch the ball cleanly. To make matters worse, he got stepped on as he tried to reach back with his foot to touch the base as he covered 1st, and it looked like he twisted his ankle, so he had to be pulled from the game. It was a brand new game as the Twins tied the score with that infield hit, that was a tough play but a play that should have been made, and now the Angels had to go back to their bullpen, bringing in Rich Thompson. He allowed a stolen base to Span, but struck out Carroll to end the inning, so the game headed into the 8th as a 6-6 tie.
The Twins brought in Jared Burton to start the top of the 8th, and he allowed a lead off single back up the middle by Vernon Wells, and any time he doesn’t try to pull the ball it’s a good thing, so that was a positive sight. Callaspo hit a fly out to right on the first pitch he saw, and as the Angels called up Kendrys Morales to pinch-hit for Wilson, the Twins countered by bringing in a left-hander, Brian Duensing, into the game, to turn the switch-hitter around to hit from his weaker right side. Morales hit an easy fly out to left for the second out, bringing up the offensive hero from the last game, Peter Bourjos. Duensing made a big mistake, throwing a wild pitch which allowed Wells to advance to 2nd, and Bourjos made them pay as he grounded one through the hole on the left side, into left field, to score Wells, giving the Angels the lead again, 7-6. They failed to tack on any more despite a walk to Izturis to put two on, as Kendrick grounded out to end the inning.
The Angels continued their trend of bad pitching and poor defense at the end of this game, as they surrendered the lead, and a whole lot more, in the bottom of the 8th. Mauer led off the inning and took advantage of a very bad pitch from Thompson, who left a hanging curveball down the middle of the plate on a 1 ball-2 strike count, and it was lined into right for a single. He tried to continue the trend of offering the next batter, Morneau, outside fastballs, but Morneau was ready this time, and launched the 90 MPH pitch deep into the right field seats, to give the Twins a 8-7 lead. I guess Scioscia didn’t want to use any of his other relievers because he left Thompson in the game, and he proceeded to allow more runs to the Twins. Willingham followed the homer with a line drive, that went off of the 3B Callaspo’s glove as he leapt up to catch it. He did strike out Parmalee, but fell behind Valencia 3 balls-0 strikes so he threw a fastball right down the middle, and Valencia whacked a double down the left field line, to score another run and make it 9-7 Twins. After Revere grounded out for the 2nd out, Luke Hughes took advantage of another bad pitch from Thompson, knocking another hanging curve (on a 0-2 count) into left field, to score the Twins 10th run, and they eventually took 10-7 lead into the top of the 9th inning.
Now the Angels were down for the first time in the game after another multiple run inning by the Twins, just as their last at bat of the game approached. The Twins brought in their closer Matt Capps to finish the game, but the Angels were still fighting. Pujols led off the inning with his first hit of the game, a sharp single into left, and then the Angels got a lucky bounce to help make things interesting. Hunter hit a a slow groundball up the middle that looked like an easy double play ball, but the ball bounced right off of 2nd base as the fielders closed in on it, and ricocheted away, allowing Pujols to take 3rd, and start the Angels last attempt at a rally. With runners at 1st and 3rd and no outs, Mark Trumbo lined an RBI single into left, to make it 10-8. Vernon Wells was also helped out by a little luck, as he hit another potential double play grounder to the shortstop, who tossed it to the 2nd baseman, but they were unable to get complete the double play as Wells was called safe at 1st. First. Wells was lucky that the 2nd baseman double clutched slightly before throwing and then even luckier that the umpire called him safe, as replays appeared to show that he was safe. Callaspo batted with runners at 1st and 3rd, and grounded out to 1st, scoring Hunter from 3rd to make the score 10-9, while moving Wells with the potential tying run over to 2nd base. Iannetta was next, with his first at-bat of the game after coming in as defensive replacement (when Wilson was pinch-hit for), but he couldn’t take advantage of the lucky bounces in the inning to complete the rally, hitting a weak grounder to 3rd base, as Valencia made a great running throw to 1st for the final out of the game.
Minnesota came into the series with one of the lowest scoring offenses in the game, but they beat down the Angels pitching in the final two games, compiling an astounding total of 20 hits in this game. Haren allowed 9 hits and just 3 runs (along with 7 strikeouts) in his 5 innings, but the bullpen allowed 11 more hits, and more importantly, 7 more runs, in their 4 innings of work. It looked just like the start to the 2011 season, as the bullpen failed to hold the lead early in that season too, so hopefully they can pull it together soon, before they fall too far back in the standings. The bright side is that their offense is scoring fairly often, despite a lack of production from their main offensive cogs (namely Pujols) and they have started to play their small tactics (squeeze bunts, stolen bases), which is their typical modus operandi but their record is what counts, and that isn’t too positive. Things don’t get any easier for the Halos, as they have to travel to New York to take on one of the eastern division power houses, the Yankees. As I write this, they have already lost the first game of that series, getting shut out, so things aren’t looking very positive so far…. but it‘s still just a week into the season.
FANTASY WATCH
The Twins’ Joe Mauer had 3 hits, including a 3-run homer, despite getting off to a slow start in the game, but many Twins batters contributed to their fantasy stat line, given the fact the team had 20 hits and 10 runs scored.
One of the most notable Angels fantasy lines belongs to Albert Pujols, but it’s for his lack of production, as he is hitting about .200, with no homers and very limited production. He got off to a slow start last season with St Louis as well, but he still hit 37 homers and drove in 99 runs, so it’s not time to worry yet.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Monday, April 9, 2012
Aston’s Angels Report 2012 [Game 2&3 vs Royals- LOSSES]
AAR: Aston’s Angels Report April 8, 2012 Games 2&3: Royal Thorn in the Angels' Side Vol. 2, Issue 3
Both losses vs. Royals [3-6, 3-7], Record: 1-2
The Royals once again to be the Angels’ kryptonite, much like last season, as they thoroughly beat down the Angels in the final two games of the series, in the Angels home openers. Last season, as you may recall, the Royals beat the Angels in 3 of the 4 games in the opening series of the season in Kansas City, so needless the say the Angels are happy not to have to play them again for a while. Despite the scores, the game on Sunday was actually much closely contested than the game on Saturday, but the Royals took the lead in their first at-bat in both games and held on to the lead throughout, before sending the Halos on their way to Minnesota.
In game 2, the Angels sent out one of their best pitchers, Dan Haren, who was 16-10 last year with a 3.17 ERA and a stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio, to face off against Luke Hochevar, who has pitched poorly in his career against the Halos, posting an ugly 8.02 ERA… But as they say, that’s why they play the game, because when you watched the game, you wouldn’t be able to tell who is the possible staff ace (Haren) and who has been deemed a #1 draft pick bust for most of his career (Hochevar).
The Royals used about the same defense/ lineup as in game one, with the exception of Humberto Quintero as the catcher. The Angels made a few changes to their defense, with Alberto Callaspo at 3rd base, Bobby Wilson as the catcher, and Bobby Abreu in left field, moving Vernon Wells to center (replacing Peter Bourjos). It didn’t really matter who was out there for the Angels, because Dan Haren was not on his game from the start, and the Angels were basically out of it by the 5th inning.
Haren started out well, inducing a ground out from Alex Gordon to lead off the 1st, but then he surrendered 4 straight singles to rookie CF Lorenzo Cain, 1B Eric Hosmer, DH Billy Butler, and finally Jeff Francoeur, who drove in two runs with his bases loaded single. Granted the first and last hit were weakly hit bloopers, but Haren was not hitting his locations, which is not like him at all, and his velocity was lower than usual, which makes for a bad combination obviously. He did come back to strike out the next two hitters in the inning to somewhat limit the damage, but it was 2-0 and the Royals never looked back. The Angels’ Howie Kendrick earned a one-out walk, but Albert Pujols grounded into an inning ending double play, to finish their half of the 1st.
The Royals tacked on another run, as Quintero led off with a double into left, SS Alcides Escobar sacrificed him to 3rd with a bunt, and Cain hit a sacrifice fly into right to make the score 3-0 Royals. The Angels managed just one hit in their 2nd inning, with a leadoff single by Kendrys Morales, as part of a 4-for-4 day, but the next three hit fly ball outs to quickly end that inning.
The Royals tried to start another rally in the 3rd, with two hits singles to left by RF Jeff Francoeur and 2B Yuniesky Betancourt, but Haren struck out 3B Mike Moustakas, and catcher Bobby Wilson made a great play on a wild pitch in the dirt, pouncing on the loose ball, and firing to 2nd base to get the runner out trying to advance, to end the inning.The Angels again failed to do much in their half of the 3rd, when Bobby Wilson, who walked with one out, was picked off of 1st base by the Royals catcher, with Kendrick up to bat., to end the inning.
Haren again got in trouble in the 4th, with another lead off double by the #8 hitter, Quintero, but he struck out two of the next three, with a weak pop-out sandwiched in between, to retire the side after the mild threat. The Angels biggest chance to make an offensive impact came in their half of the 4th but it still resulted in a goose egg on the score board. After Kendrick grounded out, Pujols hit a line drive off of the left field wall for a double, for his first hit as an Angel. Not only was the smash hit impressive, but I really like how he immediately hustles out of the batter’s box even though it looked like it may be a homerun off his bat, and ran hard all the way to 2nd base, which is not always the case with a lot of hitters these days. Morales followed with his second hit, a line drive to left field, but Pujols was thrown out by the left fielder Gordon at home plate. Well, he was called out, but it looked like he was tagged on the back leg after his front leg crossed the plate, but a bad call by umpire Bob Davidson has become a common occurrence so it’s not surprising, and in his [mild] defense, the ball did beat him, and some umpires just quit watching the play at that point, it seems, to give the automatic out call, instead of doing their job and watching the entirety of the play. I could blame the ump all day for another bad call, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time, but in reality, it was a bad play by Pujols, who ran threw the ‘stop sign’ by the 3rd base coach, and tried to score on one of the best throwing outfielders from last year, Gordon- who earned a gold glove last year, in large part to his league-leading 20 assists (which means he can really throw). That was probably the play of the game from the Angels standpoint, because it probably cost the Angels a chance to get back in it. Hunter followed by flying out to center, and there’s no guarantee he would have done the same with Pujols at 3rd and one out, but if he had, it would have been a sac. Fly for an RBI, and it would have given another RBI chance to the next batter, but as it turns out, they got nothing, and that was the story of the whole game.
Eric Hosmer capitalized on the Angels failure to score, launching a solo homerun, leading off the 5th inning against Haren, to give them a 4-0 lead, before Haren retired the next three in order. The Angels followed that with a miserable offensive inning, going down in order, as Abreu, Wells, and Callaspo each struck out swinging, after Hochevar had recorded no strikeouts going into the inning.
Mike Moustakas led off the 5th with another solo homer off of Haren, which led to a few boos from the Angels home crowd, who simply weren’t used to this futility from one of their best pitchers. Haren did manage to finally get Quintero out for the first time on a ground out back to him, but Escobar followed with a one-out single, and that was the end of the day for Haren, who left with a 5-0 deficit. Hisanori Takahashi came in to pitch in relief, and retired Gordon and Cain, but the Angels were in a big hole, and wouldn’t get out. They continued their offensive deficiencies, going down in order in their half of the 6th, and it looked like they were going to go down without much of a fight.
Takahashi and Jason Isringhausen combined to retire the Royals in order for the first time in the game, in the top of the 7th, and the Angels’ offense finally did something to attempt a comeback after the 7th inning stretch. After Pujols led off with a fly out, Morales added his third hit, a bloop single to left, and then he went to 3rd base when the Royals catcher, Quintero made a bad throw trying to pick him off at 1st. With the runner now at 3rd and one out, Hunter blooped a single into right that fell just in front of Francoeur, but Morales wasn’t sure if it was going to fall so he held at 3rd. The Royals manager Ned Yost then brought in left hander, Tim Collins and I was surprised to see the Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, stick with lefty Abreu as the hitter (coming up to bat with chants of “Bobby“ from the crowd). He promptly lined the first pitch fastball into right field for an RBI double, and I think that vote of confidence by his manager (who could have very easily pinch-hit for him, as I’m sure other managers would have) could really help him in the future, and hopefully prove to him that he will get the playing time he desires. The score was now 5-1, and Vernon Wells batted with runners at 2nd and 3rd and just one out. He grounded out to 3rd, and Hunter hesitated as he started for home, but luckily the 3B didn’t pay any attention to him and threw on to 1st for the sure out, allowing the Angels to score and make it 5-2. Callaspo struck out to end the inning, but the Angels finally had made it on the scoreboard and gave themselves a chance.
LaTroy Hawkins was called upon to pitch the 9th, but he allowed a lead off double to the pinch hitter Chris Getz, on a grounder down the left field line. Following a strikeout by Moustakas, Getz tried to steal 3rd base on the first pitch to Quintero, and the Angels catcher made a terrible throw that sailed past Callaspo at 3rd, into left field, allowing Getz to trot home, making the score 6-2, and taking away any momentum the Angels had acquired. Quintero walked, and Escobar hit into an inning ending double play. Greg Holland came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th for the Royals, and allowed a two-out single up the middle by Howie Kendrick, before striking out Pujols (looking) to end the inning.
The Angels brought in Rich Thompson to pitch the 9th, and he retired the Royals’ top of the lineup in order for a quick inning. The Royals brought in their closer Jonathon Broxton, in a non-closing situation with a 4-run lead, and the Angels tried to at least make it interesting. Morales continued his great day at the plate, by lacing a double off the right center field wall to lead off the 9th, and Hunter followed with a wise bunt single, that got past the pitcher, to put two runners on base and attempt a rally. With runners at 1st and 3rd, Abreu had a chance to do more damage, but could only muster a sacrifice fly to left, scoring one run, but with one all-important out, to make the score 6-3. Vernon Wells followed and grounded into an easy game-ending double play, and that was that.
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Now on to Sunday’s game, the final tie-breaking game of the series. This game pitted the Angels Ervin Santana vs. new Royals starter Jonathon Sanchez, formerly of the San Francisco Giants (with a no-hitter to his name, a few years ago). The Royals inserted Chris Getz into the 2nd base slot, using the same defense they finished with in game 2, plus moved their rookie CF, Cain, down in the lineup, shifting the SS Escobar up to the #2 spot. The Angels reverted back to their opening day lineup, with Trumbo back at 3rd, Iannetta catching, and Bourjos back in center (with Wells moving back to left) in hopes that it would produce the same victorious result.
The Royals did some more 1st inning damage, taking the early lead once again, as they continued to put pressure on the Halos. After Gordon grounded out on the first pitch of the game, Escobar was hit by a pitch, and then stole 2nd base with Hosmer at the plate. Santana made a good pitch to Hosmer, jamming him with a fastball, but he managed to bloop it out to left field for an RBI single, and a quick 1-0 lead for the Royals. Santana fell behind the next hitter, Billy Butler, and threw mediocre 3-1 slider down the middle and Butler whacked it just over the center field wall (and just to the left of the large wall that extends from the normal wall near right center) for a two-run homerun, and just like that the Angels were in a deep hole again, down 3-0.
The Angels hustled their way to a run in their half of the 1st inning, when Kendrick grounded one back up the middle for a one-out single, and then ran all the way to 3rd base on a wild pitch to Albert Pujols, on a rare two-base wild pitch. Pujols had a runner at 3rd with just one out, and a 3-1 count, but was fooled by a changeup and hit a grounder to 3rd, but Kendrick was able to score, giving Pujols his first RBI as an Angel, so the score was now 3-1.
The 2nd inning was quick for both teams, as a double play fly ball to Peter Bourjos erased Quintero from 2nd base, after he hit another double with one out in the inning, but ventured too far away from 2nd on a line drive to shallow center, allowing Bourjos to make another gold glove- calibur play to end the inning. The Angels managed only a walk by Chris Iannetta, but that was all for their half of the 2nd.
The top of the 3rd was highlighted by a great defensive play by Albert Pujols, who dove to his left to snag a high- hop grounder down the 1st base line, by Alex Gordon leading off the inning, and Santana retired the next two for a 1-2-3 inning, thanks in large part to Pujols and his all-around greatness. The bottom of the 3rd proved to be the biggest inning for the Angels, but more for what they didn’t do instead of what they did do, although they did inch closer on the scoreboard. Aybar led off the 3rd with swinging at a ball in the dirt to strikeout, but he was able to advance to 1st as the wild pitch got past the catcher, so the lead off man got on base which has not happened much for them so far. Kendrick followed that with a patented opposite field line drive into right, for a double, moving Aybar to 3rd. Pujols had two in scoring position, and Sanchez was obviously trying to be careful, as he fell behind 2 balls, 0 strikes, before Pujols rocketed the next two pitches into the crowd to even the count, and then he threw two sliders to try to get Pujols to swing and miss, but he showed excellent patience (another one of his trademark skills) and took the walk, to load the bases for Torii Hunter. He hit a sharp grounder to Hosmer at 1st base, who bobbled it before he could try to make it into a double play, settling for the putout at 1st, so the Angels converted an out into a run, making it 3-2 and still had two runners in scoring position. Vernon Wells now batted with runners at 2nd and 3rd and just one out- a time where an “RBI hitter” is supposed to be able to at least put the ball in play (either on the ground or a deep enough fly ball to score Kendrick from 3rd), but Wells once again failed mightily in what turned out to be the most important Angels at-bat in the game. He swung at consecutive pitches up near his neck (no I’m not exaggerating for effect) to strike out meekly, and blow a relatively easy RBI opportunity (an unfortunate broken record in his brief Angels career). The next batter, Morales also had a good RBI opportunity, but much more difficult now with two outs where a hit is necessary, and he grounded out sharply to the SS, to end the inning, and the last real threat to make the game close that the Angels would have.
The Royals looked like they were going to capitalize right away on the Angels failures in the top of the 4th, when Santana issued a four-pitch walk to the first hitter, Billy Butler. Francoeur lined out to 3rd and Moustakas popped out to center, but Cain drew another walk to put two runners on, and Quintero came through with another hit, a line drive to right field. Hunter grabbed the ball and fired it to the cutoff man, Butler held at 3rd base, but the rookie Lorenzo Cain made a base running error, rounding 2nd base too much, and Pujols threw behind him and the Angels got him in a run down for the final out, instead of what would have been a bases-loaded, two out situation. In their half of the 4th, the Angels failed to capitalize on that possible momentum shift, as the bottom third of the lineup went down in order, including a couple easy grounders to 1st.
The Royals took control of the game in the 5th inning, as Getz led off with a groundball single to right, just out of the reach of the diving Kendrick. Santana retired the next two hitters, Gordon and Escobar, but Eric Hosmer launched the first pitch fastball deep into the right field seats, up above the tall wall, for a two-run homerun, giving his team a relatively commanding 5-2 lead. In the bottom half of the 5th, the Angels tried to start a comeback, as Aybar singled to lead off the inning. Kendrick then followed with a loud line drive right to the SS for a loud out, but Pujols lined a single to left on the first pitch he saw, to put two runners on. Hunter popped out to 1st and Wells grounded out to the SS to end the inning and put an end to any potential threat once again.
The Royals added another run in the top of the 6th, when Francoeur blooped in a single to right, lunging for a good pitch, but making enough contact to get on base- another bad omen for this game. After Moustakas hit an easy fly out to left (swinging at the first pitch for the third straight at-bat), Cain hit a ground ball to Mark Trumbo near the 3rd base line, and Mark couldn’t field it cleanly so Cain reached on another error by Trumbo. Quintero hit a deep fly ball to center, that Bourjos chased down, and that was the last pitch for Santana, who was then replaced by Takahashi, to face the left-hand hitting Chris Getz. The Angels got what they wanted, a weak broken- bat hit, but it managed to dribble past the pitcher and it was hit so slowly that Kendrick wasn’t able to make a play, so Getz reached on an infield RBI single, and the Royals were now up 6-2, after two well- placed weak hits, once again proving this was just not going to be the Angels’ night. The Angels managed just one hit, a line drive single to left by Trumbo, in the bottom of the 6th, off of the Royals’ new pitcher, Jose Mijares, and hope was fleeting.
Things got worse in the top of the 7th, when Escobar led off with a bunt single, taking advantage of Trumbo at 3rd again. Hosmer grounded into a force play, making it safely at 1st, and then the Angels brought in Jason Isringhausen to face the right-handed hitting Butler. Hosmer stole 2nd on the first pitch, and then Butler lined the next pitch into left field, which rolled to the wall, for an RBI double, giving the Royals a 7-2 lead, and essentially ending the game for all intensive purposes. They did get the final two outs to head into the 7th inning stretch, but the Angels offense couldn’t get it together in their half of the 7th. Aybar led off an inning once again, and grounded one back up the middle that deflected off the pitcher’s glove far enough to allow him to reach on an infield single. Kendrick, however, followed with an easy groundball double play, and (of course) Pujols followed with a double in the left-center gap, but it was with the bases empty. Hunter grounded out to end the inning, and it was another case-in-point for their bad day.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 8th, and Vernon Wells finally put a good swing on a ball, hitting a low curve ball into bullpens beyond the left field wall for a solo homerun, but it was too little, too late, as usual as the score was now 7-3. After Morales grounded out, Trumbo singled up the middle, and Iannetta hit one the other way, down the right field line, for a double to push Trumbo to 3rd. Aaron Crow was brought in to kill the Angels rally, with runners at 2nd and 3rd and one out, and he struck out Bourjos and induced a weak ground out back to the mound from Aybar, to do just that.
Jordan Walden came in to pitch the 9th for the Angels and retired the Royals in order, heading into their last at bat. Kendrick led off the 9th with a single into left, and Pujols drew a four-pitch walk, prompting the Royals to bring in their closer, Jonathon Broxton again. He took control of the game, and struck out Hunter, Wells (another ridiculously high fastball I might add), and Morales to end the game. The Angels had base runners on during the game, and chances to tie the game in the early innings, which is more than they had in Saturday’s game, but the result was the same, and they are now headed to Minnesota with a 1-2 record, to try and get back on track. I’m sure they would rather stay at home, but still welcome the chance to play anybody other than those pesky Royals.
HUSTLE/ BEYOND THE BOX SCORE I have been thoroughly impressed with the work ethic and hustle of Albert Pujols during the spring and so far in this young season, and I think it will benefit the whole team as the season progresses. He always runs hard to 1st, and spends extra time every day preparing and trying to get better, and his teammates see this and it can only work to encourage them to do the same thing, which will assuredly benefit the team as we go along. He busted it out of the batter’s box on what looked like a homerun, and the ball bounced hard off the wall instead, but because he was hustling, he was able to make it into 2nd base safely, whereas there are many players who probably would have started to trot to 1st as they admire what they thought was a homerun, and may have been limited to a single purely because of a lack of hustle. And you know if he sees one of his teammates do that, he will tell them of his disapproval, being the vocal leader that he is, and it won’t just be an idle point, because they know he does exactly what he is telling them to do, every second he is on the field. Early in Sunday’s game, Howie Kendrick turned a simple advance on a wild pitch, into an exciting two base wild pitch, because he ran hard all the way and turned around 2nd with the intent of possibly going to 3rd, and it resulted in their first run of the game, and Pujols’ first RBI as an Angel.
GREAT DEFENSE Pujols also made one of the best defensive plays you will ever see by a first baseman, in Sunday’s game, when he dove for a ball down the 1st base line, and it took a very high hop as it got to him, but he reached out for it and snagged the ball, allowing for the first easy inning of Santana’s night.
In Saturday’s game, the Royals made two great defensive plays, one of which was aided by the combination of Angels over-aggressiveness and another bad call by an umpire. Left fielder Alex Gordon made a great throw home to get Albert Pujols “out” but it was more about the bad base running by Pujols and the worse call by home plate umpire Bob Davidson. Later in the 8th, when the game was basically out of reach anyway, the Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar made a great running bare-handed pick-up-and-throw to get the speedy Erick Aybar out at 1st in the 8th inning, which was one of the plays of the day in all of baseball.
FANTASY WATCH
The Angels’ only bright spot on the stat line on Saturday, was Morales who went 4-for-4 with 3 singles and a double. On Sunday, Kendrick had 3 hits, including a double, and Pujols did finally get an RBI, and went 2-for-3 with two walks. Hopefully you chose not to start Haren or Santana, because they each had awful stat lines, including earning the loss(es).
The Royals’ Eric Hosmer had a homerun and multiple hits in both games, proving he may well become an all-star player this year (it also helps the all-star game is in KC this year). Their catcher, Humberto Quintero also had standout performances, especially in the game on Saturday. He hit two doubles off of Haren, and was 2-for-3 with a walk on Saturday, and continued his offensive onslaught with two more hits on Sunday, including another double off of Ervin Santana.
Both losses vs. Royals [3-6, 3-7], Record: 1-2
The Royals once again to be the Angels’ kryptonite, much like last season, as they thoroughly beat down the Angels in the final two games of the series, in the Angels home openers. Last season, as you may recall, the Royals beat the Angels in 3 of the 4 games in the opening series of the season in Kansas City, so needless the say the Angels are happy not to have to play them again for a while. Despite the scores, the game on Sunday was actually much closely contested than the game on Saturday, but the Royals took the lead in their first at-bat in both games and held on to the lead throughout, before sending the Halos on their way to Minnesota.
In game 2, the Angels sent out one of their best pitchers, Dan Haren, who was 16-10 last year with a 3.17 ERA and a stellar strikeout-to-walk ratio, to face off against Luke Hochevar, who has pitched poorly in his career against the Halos, posting an ugly 8.02 ERA… But as they say, that’s why they play the game, because when you watched the game, you wouldn’t be able to tell who is the possible staff ace (Haren) and who has been deemed a #1 draft pick bust for most of his career (Hochevar).
The Royals used about the same defense/ lineup as in game one, with the exception of Humberto Quintero as the catcher. The Angels made a few changes to their defense, with Alberto Callaspo at 3rd base, Bobby Wilson as the catcher, and Bobby Abreu in left field, moving Vernon Wells to center (replacing Peter Bourjos). It didn’t really matter who was out there for the Angels, because Dan Haren was not on his game from the start, and the Angels were basically out of it by the 5th inning.
Haren started out well, inducing a ground out from Alex Gordon to lead off the 1st, but then he surrendered 4 straight singles to rookie CF Lorenzo Cain, 1B Eric Hosmer, DH Billy Butler, and finally Jeff Francoeur, who drove in two runs with his bases loaded single. Granted the first and last hit were weakly hit bloopers, but Haren was not hitting his locations, which is not like him at all, and his velocity was lower than usual, which makes for a bad combination obviously. He did come back to strike out the next two hitters in the inning to somewhat limit the damage, but it was 2-0 and the Royals never looked back. The Angels’ Howie Kendrick earned a one-out walk, but Albert Pujols grounded into an inning ending double play, to finish their half of the 1st.
The Royals tacked on another run, as Quintero led off with a double into left, SS Alcides Escobar sacrificed him to 3rd with a bunt, and Cain hit a sacrifice fly into right to make the score 3-0 Royals. The Angels managed just one hit in their 2nd inning, with a leadoff single by Kendrys Morales, as part of a 4-for-4 day, but the next three hit fly ball outs to quickly end that inning.
The Royals tried to start another rally in the 3rd, with two hits singles to left by RF Jeff Francoeur and 2B Yuniesky Betancourt, but Haren struck out 3B Mike Moustakas, and catcher Bobby Wilson made a great play on a wild pitch in the dirt, pouncing on the loose ball, and firing to 2nd base to get the runner out trying to advance, to end the inning.The Angels again failed to do much in their half of the 3rd, when Bobby Wilson, who walked with one out, was picked off of 1st base by the Royals catcher, with Kendrick up to bat., to end the inning.
Haren again got in trouble in the 4th, with another lead off double by the #8 hitter, Quintero, but he struck out two of the next three, with a weak pop-out sandwiched in between, to retire the side after the mild threat. The Angels biggest chance to make an offensive impact came in their half of the 4th but it still resulted in a goose egg on the score board. After Kendrick grounded out, Pujols hit a line drive off of the left field wall for a double, for his first hit as an Angel. Not only was the smash hit impressive, but I really like how he immediately hustles out of the batter’s box even though it looked like it may be a homerun off his bat, and ran hard all the way to 2nd base, which is not always the case with a lot of hitters these days. Morales followed with his second hit, a line drive to left field, but Pujols was thrown out by the left fielder Gordon at home plate. Well, he was called out, but it looked like he was tagged on the back leg after his front leg crossed the plate, but a bad call by umpire Bob Davidson has become a common occurrence so it’s not surprising, and in his [mild] defense, the ball did beat him, and some umpires just quit watching the play at that point, it seems, to give the automatic out call, instead of doing their job and watching the entirety of the play. I could blame the ump all day for another bad call, and I’m sure it won’t be the last time, but in reality, it was a bad play by Pujols, who ran threw the ‘stop sign’ by the 3rd base coach, and tried to score on one of the best throwing outfielders from last year, Gordon- who earned a gold glove last year, in large part to his league-leading 20 assists (which means he can really throw). That was probably the play of the game from the Angels standpoint, because it probably cost the Angels a chance to get back in it. Hunter followed by flying out to center, and there’s no guarantee he would have done the same with Pujols at 3rd and one out, but if he had, it would have been a sac. Fly for an RBI, and it would have given another RBI chance to the next batter, but as it turns out, they got nothing, and that was the story of the whole game.
Eric Hosmer capitalized on the Angels failure to score, launching a solo homerun, leading off the 5th inning against Haren, to give them a 4-0 lead, before Haren retired the next three in order. The Angels followed that with a miserable offensive inning, going down in order, as Abreu, Wells, and Callaspo each struck out swinging, after Hochevar had recorded no strikeouts going into the inning.
Mike Moustakas led off the 5th with another solo homer off of Haren, which led to a few boos from the Angels home crowd, who simply weren’t used to this futility from one of their best pitchers. Haren did manage to finally get Quintero out for the first time on a ground out back to him, but Escobar followed with a one-out single, and that was the end of the day for Haren, who left with a 5-0 deficit. Hisanori Takahashi came in to pitch in relief, and retired Gordon and Cain, but the Angels were in a big hole, and wouldn’t get out. They continued their offensive deficiencies, going down in order in their half of the 6th, and it looked like they were going to go down without much of a fight.
Takahashi and Jason Isringhausen combined to retire the Royals in order for the first time in the game, in the top of the 7th, and the Angels’ offense finally did something to attempt a comeback after the 7th inning stretch. After Pujols led off with a fly out, Morales added his third hit, a bloop single to left, and then he went to 3rd base when the Royals catcher, Quintero made a bad throw trying to pick him off at 1st. With the runner now at 3rd and one out, Hunter blooped a single into right that fell just in front of Francoeur, but Morales wasn’t sure if it was going to fall so he held at 3rd. The Royals manager Ned Yost then brought in left hander, Tim Collins and I was surprised to see the Angels manager, Mike Scioscia, stick with lefty Abreu as the hitter (coming up to bat with chants of “Bobby“ from the crowd). He promptly lined the first pitch fastball into right field for an RBI double, and I think that vote of confidence by his manager (who could have very easily pinch-hit for him, as I’m sure other managers would have) could really help him in the future, and hopefully prove to him that he will get the playing time he desires. The score was now 5-1, and Vernon Wells batted with runners at 2nd and 3rd and just one out. He grounded out to 3rd, and Hunter hesitated as he started for home, but luckily the 3B didn’t pay any attention to him and threw on to 1st for the sure out, allowing the Angels to score and make it 5-2. Callaspo struck out to end the inning, but the Angels finally had made it on the scoreboard and gave themselves a chance.
LaTroy Hawkins was called upon to pitch the 9th, but he allowed a lead off double to the pinch hitter Chris Getz, on a grounder down the left field line. Following a strikeout by Moustakas, Getz tried to steal 3rd base on the first pitch to Quintero, and the Angels catcher made a terrible throw that sailed past Callaspo at 3rd, into left field, allowing Getz to trot home, making the score 6-2, and taking away any momentum the Angels had acquired. Quintero walked, and Escobar hit into an inning ending double play. Greg Holland came in to pitch the bottom of the 8th for the Royals, and allowed a two-out single up the middle by Howie Kendrick, before striking out Pujols (looking) to end the inning.
The Angels brought in Rich Thompson to pitch the 9th, and he retired the Royals’ top of the lineup in order for a quick inning. The Royals brought in their closer Jonathon Broxton, in a non-closing situation with a 4-run lead, and the Angels tried to at least make it interesting. Morales continued his great day at the plate, by lacing a double off the right center field wall to lead off the 9th, and Hunter followed with a wise bunt single, that got past the pitcher, to put two runners on base and attempt a rally. With runners at 1st and 3rd, Abreu had a chance to do more damage, but could only muster a sacrifice fly to left, scoring one run, but with one all-important out, to make the score 6-3. Vernon Wells followed and grounded into an easy game-ending double play, and that was that.
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Now on to Sunday’s game, the final tie-breaking game of the series. This game pitted the Angels Ervin Santana vs. new Royals starter Jonathon Sanchez, formerly of the San Francisco Giants (with a no-hitter to his name, a few years ago). The Royals inserted Chris Getz into the 2nd base slot, using the same defense they finished with in game 2, plus moved their rookie CF, Cain, down in the lineup, shifting the SS Escobar up to the #2 spot. The Angels reverted back to their opening day lineup, with Trumbo back at 3rd, Iannetta catching, and Bourjos back in center (with Wells moving back to left) in hopes that it would produce the same victorious result.
The Royals did some more 1st inning damage, taking the early lead once again, as they continued to put pressure on the Halos. After Gordon grounded out on the first pitch of the game, Escobar was hit by a pitch, and then stole 2nd base with Hosmer at the plate. Santana made a good pitch to Hosmer, jamming him with a fastball, but he managed to bloop it out to left field for an RBI single, and a quick 1-0 lead for the Royals. Santana fell behind the next hitter, Billy Butler, and threw mediocre 3-1 slider down the middle and Butler whacked it just over the center field wall (and just to the left of the large wall that extends from the normal wall near right center) for a two-run homerun, and just like that the Angels were in a deep hole again, down 3-0.
The Angels hustled their way to a run in their half of the 1st inning, when Kendrick grounded one back up the middle for a one-out single, and then ran all the way to 3rd base on a wild pitch to Albert Pujols, on a rare two-base wild pitch. Pujols had a runner at 3rd with just one out, and a 3-1 count, but was fooled by a changeup and hit a grounder to 3rd, but Kendrick was able to score, giving Pujols his first RBI as an Angel, so the score was now 3-1.
The 2nd inning was quick for both teams, as a double play fly ball to Peter Bourjos erased Quintero from 2nd base, after he hit another double with one out in the inning, but ventured too far away from 2nd on a line drive to shallow center, allowing Bourjos to make another gold glove- calibur play to end the inning. The Angels managed only a walk by Chris Iannetta, but that was all for their half of the 2nd.
The top of the 3rd was highlighted by a great defensive play by Albert Pujols, who dove to his left to snag a high- hop grounder down the 1st base line, by Alex Gordon leading off the inning, and Santana retired the next two for a 1-2-3 inning, thanks in large part to Pujols and his all-around greatness. The bottom of the 3rd proved to be the biggest inning for the Angels, but more for what they didn’t do instead of what they did do, although they did inch closer on the scoreboard. Aybar led off the 3rd with swinging at a ball in the dirt to strikeout, but he was able to advance to 1st as the wild pitch got past the catcher, so the lead off man got on base which has not happened much for them so far. Kendrick followed that with a patented opposite field line drive into right, for a double, moving Aybar to 3rd. Pujols had two in scoring position, and Sanchez was obviously trying to be careful, as he fell behind 2 balls, 0 strikes, before Pujols rocketed the next two pitches into the crowd to even the count, and then he threw two sliders to try to get Pujols to swing and miss, but he showed excellent patience (another one of his trademark skills) and took the walk, to load the bases for Torii Hunter. He hit a sharp grounder to Hosmer at 1st base, who bobbled it before he could try to make it into a double play, settling for the putout at 1st, so the Angels converted an out into a run, making it 3-2 and still had two runners in scoring position. Vernon Wells now batted with runners at 2nd and 3rd and just one out- a time where an “RBI hitter” is supposed to be able to at least put the ball in play (either on the ground or a deep enough fly ball to score Kendrick from 3rd), but Wells once again failed mightily in what turned out to be the most important Angels at-bat in the game. He swung at consecutive pitches up near his neck (no I’m not exaggerating for effect) to strike out meekly, and blow a relatively easy RBI opportunity (an unfortunate broken record in his brief Angels career). The next batter, Morales also had a good RBI opportunity, but much more difficult now with two outs where a hit is necessary, and he grounded out sharply to the SS, to end the inning, and the last real threat to make the game close that the Angels would have.
The Royals looked like they were going to capitalize right away on the Angels failures in the top of the 4th, when Santana issued a four-pitch walk to the first hitter, Billy Butler. Francoeur lined out to 3rd and Moustakas popped out to center, but Cain drew another walk to put two runners on, and Quintero came through with another hit, a line drive to right field. Hunter grabbed the ball and fired it to the cutoff man, Butler held at 3rd base, but the rookie Lorenzo Cain made a base running error, rounding 2nd base too much, and Pujols threw behind him and the Angels got him in a run down for the final out, instead of what would have been a bases-loaded, two out situation. In their half of the 4th, the Angels failed to capitalize on that possible momentum shift, as the bottom third of the lineup went down in order, including a couple easy grounders to 1st.
The Royals took control of the game in the 5th inning, as Getz led off with a groundball single to right, just out of the reach of the diving Kendrick. Santana retired the next two hitters, Gordon and Escobar, but Eric Hosmer launched the first pitch fastball deep into the right field seats, up above the tall wall, for a two-run homerun, giving his team a relatively commanding 5-2 lead. In the bottom half of the 5th, the Angels tried to start a comeback, as Aybar singled to lead off the inning. Kendrick then followed with a loud line drive right to the SS for a loud out, but Pujols lined a single to left on the first pitch he saw, to put two runners on. Hunter popped out to 1st and Wells grounded out to the SS to end the inning and put an end to any potential threat once again.
The Royals added another run in the top of the 6th, when Francoeur blooped in a single to right, lunging for a good pitch, but making enough contact to get on base- another bad omen for this game. After Moustakas hit an easy fly out to left (swinging at the first pitch for the third straight at-bat), Cain hit a ground ball to Mark Trumbo near the 3rd base line, and Mark couldn’t field it cleanly so Cain reached on another error by Trumbo. Quintero hit a deep fly ball to center, that Bourjos chased down, and that was the last pitch for Santana, who was then replaced by Takahashi, to face the left-hand hitting Chris Getz. The Angels got what they wanted, a weak broken- bat hit, but it managed to dribble past the pitcher and it was hit so slowly that Kendrick wasn’t able to make a play, so Getz reached on an infield RBI single, and the Royals were now up 6-2, after two well- placed weak hits, once again proving this was just not going to be the Angels’ night. The Angels managed just one hit, a line drive single to left by Trumbo, in the bottom of the 6th, off of the Royals’ new pitcher, Jose Mijares, and hope was fleeting.
Things got worse in the top of the 7th, when Escobar led off with a bunt single, taking advantage of Trumbo at 3rd again. Hosmer grounded into a force play, making it safely at 1st, and then the Angels brought in Jason Isringhausen to face the right-handed hitting Butler. Hosmer stole 2nd on the first pitch, and then Butler lined the next pitch into left field, which rolled to the wall, for an RBI double, giving the Royals a 7-2 lead, and essentially ending the game for all intensive purposes. They did get the final two outs to head into the 7th inning stretch, but the Angels offense couldn’t get it together in their half of the 7th. Aybar led off an inning once again, and grounded one back up the middle that deflected off the pitcher’s glove far enough to allow him to reach on an infield single. Kendrick, however, followed with an easy groundball double play, and (of course) Pujols followed with a double in the left-center gap, but it was with the bases empty. Hunter grounded out to end the inning, and it was another case-in-point for their bad day.
Fast forward to the bottom of the 8th, and Vernon Wells finally put a good swing on a ball, hitting a low curve ball into bullpens beyond the left field wall for a solo homerun, but it was too little, too late, as usual as the score was now 7-3. After Morales grounded out, Trumbo singled up the middle, and Iannetta hit one the other way, down the right field line, for a double to push Trumbo to 3rd. Aaron Crow was brought in to kill the Angels rally, with runners at 2nd and 3rd and one out, and he struck out Bourjos and induced a weak ground out back to the mound from Aybar, to do just that.
Jordan Walden came in to pitch the 9th for the Angels and retired the Royals in order, heading into their last at bat. Kendrick led off the 9th with a single into left, and Pujols drew a four-pitch walk, prompting the Royals to bring in their closer, Jonathon Broxton again. He took control of the game, and struck out Hunter, Wells (another ridiculously high fastball I might add), and Morales to end the game. The Angels had base runners on during the game, and chances to tie the game in the early innings, which is more than they had in Saturday’s game, but the result was the same, and they are now headed to Minnesota with a 1-2 record, to try and get back on track. I’m sure they would rather stay at home, but still welcome the chance to play anybody other than those pesky Royals.
HUSTLE/ BEYOND THE BOX SCORE I have been thoroughly impressed with the work ethic and hustle of Albert Pujols during the spring and so far in this young season, and I think it will benefit the whole team as the season progresses. He always runs hard to 1st, and spends extra time every day preparing and trying to get better, and his teammates see this and it can only work to encourage them to do the same thing, which will assuredly benefit the team as we go along. He busted it out of the batter’s box on what looked like a homerun, and the ball bounced hard off the wall instead, but because he was hustling, he was able to make it into 2nd base safely, whereas there are many players who probably would have started to trot to 1st as they admire what they thought was a homerun, and may have been limited to a single purely because of a lack of hustle. And you know if he sees one of his teammates do that, he will tell them of his disapproval, being the vocal leader that he is, and it won’t just be an idle point, because they know he does exactly what he is telling them to do, every second he is on the field. Early in Sunday’s game, Howie Kendrick turned a simple advance on a wild pitch, into an exciting two base wild pitch, because he ran hard all the way and turned around 2nd with the intent of possibly going to 3rd, and it resulted in their first run of the game, and Pujols’ first RBI as an Angel.
GREAT DEFENSE Pujols also made one of the best defensive plays you will ever see by a first baseman, in Sunday’s game, when he dove for a ball down the 1st base line, and it took a very high hop as it got to him, but he reached out for it and snagged the ball, allowing for the first easy inning of Santana’s night.
In Saturday’s game, the Royals made two great defensive plays, one of which was aided by the combination of Angels over-aggressiveness and another bad call by an umpire. Left fielder Alex Gordon made a great throw home to get Albert Pujols “out” but it was more about the bad base running by Pujols and the worse call by home plate umpire Bob Davidson. Later in the 8th, when the game was basically out of reach anyway, the Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar made a great running bare-handed pick-up-and-throw to get the speedy Erick Aybar out at 1st in the 8th inning, which was one of the plays of the day in all of baseball.
FANTASY WATCH
The Angels’ only bright spot on the stat line on Saturday, was Morales who went 4-for-4 with 3 singles and a double. On Sunday, Kendrick had 3 hits, including a double, and Pujols did finally get an RBI, and went 2-for-3 with two walks. Hopefully you chose not to start Haren or Santana, because they each had awful stat lines, including earning the loss(es).
The Royals’ Eric Hosmer had a homerun and multiple hits in both games, proving he may well become an all-star player this year (it also helps the all-star game is in KC this year). Their catcher, Humberto Quintero also had standout performances, especially in the game on Saturday. He hit two doubles off of Haren, and was 2-for-3 with a walk on Saturday, and continued his offensive onslaught with two more hits on Sunday, including another double off of Ervin Santana.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Aston’s Angels Report 2012 [Game 1 vs Royals- WIN]]
AAR: Aston’s Angels Report April 6, 2011 Game 1: Weaver Wills Another Win Vol. 2, Issue 2
Win 5-0 vs. Royals, Record: 1-0
The first game in the Albert Pujols era started today with a bang, but the pitching staff once again stole the show. All eyes were on Albert Pujols, who has performed at the highest level in baseball history over his first decade in the game, and the Angels hope his final decade follows the same path and ends with him being recognized as the best player in baseball history (and help bring them a couple more championship trophies along the way). The offense put five runs on the board, but Pujols wasn’t the center of the attack as expected, as he only reached base once with a late inning intentional walk, but the star of the show turned out to be the Angels ace starter (or at least one of their aces) Jared Weaver, once again. Weaver was dominant from the start of the game until his final pitch in the 8th inning, keeping his team in the game despite a lackluster offensive performance for most of the contest, holding it to a scoreless tie until the Angels bats finally awoke with a five run 8th inning to seal the victory.
Starting Pitchers Weaver was 18-8 last season, with a stellar 2.41 ERA, and nearly 200 strikeouts, and he seemingly continued right where he left off, hurling 8 scoreless innings, allowing only for hits, and striking out 10 Royals batters along the way. The Royals starter, left-hander Bruce Chen, equaled Weaver’s zeros on the score board, through his 6 innings of work, only allowing 3 hits while striking out 4 Angels batters, as he kept them off balance with excellent change of speeds and locations. It looked like it was going to be another game like last season, where a crafty left-hander keeps the Angels off the scoreboard, and the offense once again fails to support Jared Weaver in another superb outing, but they managed to come through at the last second against the Royals bullpen and give Weaver a much deserved victory, as he was still the pitcher of record when they finally produced.
Defense and New Faces Both teams brought pretty good defenses to the field, with gold glove winners in the outfield for both teams, along with the Angels gold glove winning shortstop from last season, Erick Aybar. The only glaring weakness on the Angels side is, of course, Mark Trumbo at 3rd base, who is still learning the position and going through some growing pains as he progresses. The teams basically put out the same fielders as they did last year, with only a couple notable new faces. Obviously the Angels have added Pujols, and their predominant catcher will be the new addition, former Rockies player, Chris Iannetta, but they also have DH Kendrys Morales, finally making his comeback after two seasons on the disabled list. The Royals have a lot of familiar young players from last year plugged in again, with the exception of rookie center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who replaced Melky Cabrera in the outfield when he left for San Francisco, and they brought in former Brewer SS Yuniesky Betancourt to play 2B for them this season too.
Game Summary This game went very rapidly as both starting pitchers were on their game, mowing through the opposing hitters, hardly dealing with any threats at all. Weaver threw mostly fastballs in the first couple of innings, and set the Royals down in order in the 1st and would have done the same in the 2nd, if not for a throwing error (and a bad call by the 1st base umpire) by Mark Trumbo. Trumbo fielded a grounder from Betancourt well, but his throw was offline, forcing 1B Pujols to dive for it and take his foot off the base, but replays showed that he actually reached back with his foot and touched the base before the runner got there, so he should have been called out. It did add a few more pitches to Weaver’s inning, but he retired the next batter on an easy pop out to end the inning. The Angels had a hit in each of the first two innings, when Kendrick doubled off the center field wall in the 1st inning, and Vernon Wells singled up the middle in the 2nd, but both innings ended on double plays. Pujols came up for his first Angel at-bat to a standing ovation in the 1st, following Kendrick’s double, and hit a sinking liner that the SS Alcides Escobar gloved, and Kendrick misread it and started to run for 3rd so he was easily doubled off 2nd base to end the inning. In the 2nd, Kendrys Morales made his first appearance for the Angels in about two years, and received his own standing ovation, before promply grounding into an easy double play to end that inning.
The only real jam that Weaver found himself in came in the 3rd inning, when the Royals got their first two hits of the game, back-to-back to start the inning, by catcher Bryan Pena and the SS Escobar, who each whacked fastballs into left field for solid singles, with the top of the lineup coming up to bat again. After that, Weaver went into the next chapter of his game plan, and started to mix in some off speed pitches into the assortment, and went on to strike out the next three batters, LF Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain (for 2nd time in game), and potential all-star 1B Eric Hosmer, to get out of the jam unscathed. In the bottom of the 3rd, Royals starter Bruce Chen got into the strikeout frenzy, getting Trumbo and Iannetta to swing and miss at high fastballs (even though they are less than 88 MPH) to start the inning. Peter Bourjox punched a slider into right field for a 2-out single, but he was picked off of 1st base after about five straight throws over there by Chen, to end the inning, so Chen still had faced the minimum despite giving up 3 hits in the game.
The 4th was a quick inning for both pitchers as Weaver retired the Royals in order on two pop outs and a check swing dribbler by RF Jeff Francoeur, who swung at the first pitch in each of his first two at bats in the game and made easy outs both times. Chen continued his rare strikeout flurry, getting Aybar to watch a fastball right down the middle on an 0-2 count for a called strike 3, and then Kendrick struck out on a ball in the dirt, but luckily the ball rolled past the catcher to the backstop, so Kendrick was able to make it to 1st. Pujols got another chance with a runner on base, but he could only hit a high pop fly to the 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas, and RF Torii Hunter followed with a weak fly out to left to end that inning.
Weaver and Chen both had 1-2-3 innings in the 5th, although there was a well hit fly ball that looked potentially dangerous at first, by both teams. Pena hit a deep fly ball to right that Hunter caught on the warning track for the 2nd out of that half of the inning, before Weaver struck out Escobar to end the inning. In the bottom half, Morales launched one deep into right center, but Cain tracked that one down as he ran right up against the wall for the 2nd out, and the game remained scoreless going into the 6th.
Weaver struck out the first two hitters in the 6th, getting Gordon and Cain swinging again, this time at offspeed breaking balls, and Hosmer followed by pulling an outside fastball to 2nd for an easy out on the first pitch he saw, so Weaver now had retired 12 Royals hitters in a row, as part of another dominant start. The Angels batters went down just as quietly in their half of the 6th, as Chen rolled through another 1-2-3 inning of his own, getting Aybar to lunge for a first pitch change up and pop out to 1st base for the final out.That turned out to be his final pitch of the game, but he kept the Angels off balance all game, inducing weak, unsure swings through out, and matching Weaver inning for inning as he went.
Weaver struck out the first hitter, DH Billy Butler, in the 7th, with a perfectly placed changeup over the outside edge of the plate. Francoeur followed and he finally restrained himself from swinging at Weaver’s first pitch, and got to a favorable 2-0 count, before whacking the predictable fastball into the left field corner for a 1-out double. Weaver had a little control issue with the next hitter Betancourt, taking the count to 3-0 with a couple bad pitches, but he redeemed himself by making a perfect pickoff move to 2nd base, to get Francoeur out at 2nd base for the important 2nd out of the inning, and maybe the play of the game. He then managed to get back to a full count against Betancourt, and induced a pop fly into foul ground that should have been caught by Trumbo, but once again he made a mistake, and didn’t even get a glove on the ball, giving Betancourt another chance at the plate. He (of course) capitalized on Trumbo’s mistake (not ruled an error since the ball landed foul) and blooped a single into left field to continue the inning. Weaver fell behind the next hitter, 3B Moustakas, with a 3-1 count, but induced a weak grounder to 2nd as he pulled an outside pitch to Kendrick at 2nd base for the easy last out of the inning…. After the 7th inning stretch, the Royals brought in a new pitcher in the bottom of the 7th, Aaron Crow, who was the polar opposite of Bruce Chen- a flame throwing right-hander. He plowed through the Angels best hitters, striking out Kendrick, Pujols, and Hunter, with his 96 MPH fastball and biting slider, to end that inning very quickly.
Weaver came back out toe pitch the top of the 8th inning, having only thrown about 80 pitches or so, and continued his dominance, retiring the side in order once again, including another strikeout of the Royals’ leadoff hitter, Alex Gordon to cap it off. Weaver didn’t walk a batter, and only allowed hits in two innings (two in each) and two of the base runners he allowed (one hit and one error) were the result of a defensive mistake (by Trumbo) so he was even better than the stat line indicated. That was all well and good, but he still needed his offense to produce something, if he was going to get anything but a no- decision (again), and more importantly, if the Angels were going to win this game.
The Angels hitters had to face off against Aaron Crow again, in his second inning of work after his dominant 7th inning, but this time they produced. Vernon Wells started the inning with a weak flyball to left field, pulling another outside pitch, which has become the disappointing norm for him in his Angels career. Morales followed and started a rally, with a good at-bat, battling against an 0-2 count, to hit a low 95 MPH fastball through the hole between 1st and 2nd, into right field for a one-out single. Youngster Alexi Amarista came in to pinch run, for the [still limping] Morales (who was never fast anyway), and Mark Trumbo scorched a line drive single to center on another 95 MPH fastball to put two runners on with one out. Iannetta followed by smacking another inside fastball into left field for their third straight hit, but because it was hit so hard, and the fact that Gordon had 20 outfield assists last year to lead the league, Amarista was held at 3rd base, so the bases were now loaded with one out. The Royals manager Ned Yost went out and replaced pitchers, bringing in another flame throwing right-hander, Greg Holland to try and get out of the jam. Peter Bourjos was up next with the potential tie-breaking run just 90 feet away, and he fell behind to a 1-2 count, before tapping a 96 MPH fastball towards 3rd base, and both the 3rd baseman and shortstop charged it, but sort of got in each other’s way, and the ball hit off each of their gloves, allowing all the runners to advance, allowing the Angels to finally score, to go ahead 1-0, and keep the bases loaded. The next batter was leadoff man Erick Aybar, and he came through with the big hit the Angels were waiting the whole game for, whacking an inside 94 MPH fastball over the 1st baseman, down the right field line. Two runs scored easily, and Francoeur ran over and cut the ball off before it rolled to the wall, but Bourjos flew around the bases in no time flat, and slid in across home plate safely, scoring all the way from 1st on the 3-run triple by Aybar, to give them a comfortable 4-0 lead. Kendrick came up with the runner at 3rd and one out, but he couldn’t put the ball in play, and struck out for the 2nd out, and the Royals opted to intentionally walk Pujols instead of giving him the chance to do damage. Hunter followed and punished them for their decision, when he hit a little blooper into right field, that fell just in front of Francoeur for another RBI, and a 5-0 lead. Wells came up for the second time in the inning, and popped out to the catcher, making his second out of the inning in the process, but the damage was done. It came at the perfect time, right before the Royals’ last at- bat, and just after what turned out to be Weaver’s last inning of work, ensuring that he was in line for the much deserved victory, and all they needed now were three more outs.
The Angels most reliable relief pitcher from last season, Scott Downs, came in to finish off the game, along with a defensive replacement at 3rd base- Alberto Callaspo (which will probably be a common late inning substitution until Trumbo gets more comfortable there). Downs continued the Angels dominant pitching theme, retiring the Royals in order, to end the game and secure the Angels first victory and shutout of the year.
There were a lot of 1-2-3 innings in this one, as pitching dominated for both sides for a majority of this quick-paced game, but timely Angels hitting prevailed in the end, and finally gave some support to their superb pitchers. The 5-0 score makes the game look like something of a blow-out, but the Angels were in a dog fight for most of the game, and surprisingly, Albert Pujols wasn’t at the center of the scoring inning, like one might think when they first see the final score. There were a few other aspects to the game that may have remained unnoticed as well, which I will briefly go over now:
BAD BASERUNNING
The Angels had a couple of bad base running plays, that could have cost them a chance at victory, if not for their offensive explosion in the 8th inning. In the 1st inning, Howie Kendrick made what could have been a major mistake, running for 3rd base on the low line drive by Albert Pujols and was doubled off of 2nd to end the inning. They didn’t have many scoring chances against Chen, and you always want to try to get to the starter early before they get into a pitching groove, so that was a bad mistake, especially since he would have been in scoring position still with the cleanup hitter, Hunter, coming up and two outs. You always have to make sure the low line drives get through before you try to advance, which you learn from a very young age, so that was a somewhat inexcusable mistake there. The other base running blunder came when Bourjos was picked off trying to steal 2nd base, in the 3rd inining, after a handful of throws over to 1st by Chen. There were two outs, and he wanted to get into scoring position, which is understandable but he should have had a better read on Chen’s move after all those throws over there and showed more patience. If the result of the game had been different, those would have been more heavily scrutinized base running errors.
NOT IN THE BOXSCORE
Mark Trumbo’s fielding issues did show up somewhat in the box score, with the error in the 2nd inning, but there is more to it than that for me. Obviously you could argue that the runner was out, so the inning should have been over, but he was called safe because of Trumbo’s poor throw, and that forced Weaver to make a few extra pitches in the inning when he shouldn’t have to. The next mistake Trumbo made didn’t rally show up in the box score, when he completely misplayed an easy pop fly near the dugout in the 7th , and it dropped about 3 feet away from him, allowing the hitter to get another chance to get a hit, and force Weaver to throw more pitches and face unnecessary stress. If not for those two blunders by Trumbo, Weaver would have been able to come back out for the 9th inning, and possibly pitched a complete game, having saved about 10 pitches off his total. If the Angels hadn’t scored in the 8th, and Weaver was still unable to come out to pitch the 9th (having racked up 97 pitches to that point), he wouldn’t have only qualified for a no-decision, all because of a couple defensive miscues.
FANTASY WATCH
For all you fantasy baseball players like me, Jared Weaver and Erick Aybar were the fantasy stars of this game. Weaver posted 10 strikeouts, in 8 shut out innings (0.00 ERA) and allowed just four hits (.444 WHIP), while earning the win, so he was virtually perfect for your team if you own him. Aybar only had one hit, but it was a triple that drove in three runs, and then he scored on Hunter’s single, so he added some important stats if you own him. The Royals Bruce Chen had a very impressive stat line as well, with a superb 0.50 WHIP, allowing only 3 hits in 6 innings, with his own 0.00 ERA, and a quality start to boot, if your league counts that statistic, but I’m sure very few people own him in any league….
Win 5-0 vs. Royals, Record: 1-0
The first game in the Albert Pujols era started today with a bang, but the pitching staff once again stole the show. All eyes were on Albert Pujols, who has performed at the highest level in baseball history over his first decade in the game, and the Angels hope his final decade follows the same path and ends with him being recognized as the best player in baseball history (and help bring them a couple more championship trophies along the way). The offense put five runs on the board, but Pujols wasn’t the center of the attack as expected, as he only reached base once with a late inning intentional walk, but the star of the show turned out to be the Angels ace starter (or at least one of their aces) Jared Weaver, once again. Weaver was dominant from the start of the game until his final pitch in the 8th inning, keeping his team in the game despite a lackluster offensive performance for most of the contest, holding it to a scoreless tie until the Angels bats finally awoke with a five run 8th inning to seal the victory.
Starting Pitchers Weaver was 18-8 last season, with a stellar 2.41 ERA, and nearly 200 strikeouts, and he seemingly continued right where he left off, hurling 8 scoreless innings, allowing only for hits, and striking out 10 Royals batters along the way. The Royals starter, left-hander Bruce Chen, equaled Weaver’s zeros on the score board, through his 6 innings of work, only allowing 3 hits while striking out 4 Angels batters, as he kept them off balance with excellent change of speeds and locations. It looked like it was going to be another game like last season, where a crafty left-hander keeps the Angels off the scoreboard, and the offense once again fails to support Jared Weaver in another superb outing, but they managed to come through at the last second against the Royals bullpen and give Weaver a much deserved victory, as he was still the pitcher of record when they finally produced.
Defense and New Faces Both teams brought pretty good defenses to the field, with gold glove winners in the outfield for both teams, along with the Angels gold glove winning shortstop from last season, Erick Aybar. The only glaring weakness on the Angels side is, of course, Mark Trumbo at 3rd base, who is still learning the position and going through some growing pains as he progresses. The teams basically put out the same fielders as they did last year, with only a couple notable new faces. Obviously the Angels have added Pujols, and their predominant catcher will be the new addition, former Rockies player, Chris Iannetta, but they also have DH Kendrys Morales, finally making his comeback after two seasons on the disabled list. The Royals have a lot of familiar young players from last year plugged in again, with the exception of rookie center fielder Lorenzo Cain, who replaced Melky Cabrera in the outfield when he left for San Francisco, and they brought in former Brewer SS Yuniesky Betancourt to play 2B for them this season too.
Game Summary This game went very rapidly as both starting pitchers were on their game, mowing through the opposing hitters, hardly dealing with any threats at all. Weaver threw mostly fastballs in the first couple of innings, and set the Royals down in order in the 1st and would have done the same in the 2nd, if not for a throwing error (and a bad call by the 1st base umpire) by Mark Trumbo. Trumbo fielded a grounder from Betancourt well, but his throw was offline, forcing 1B Pujols to dive for it and take his foot off the base, but replays showed that he actually reached back with his foot and touched the base before the runner got there, so he should have been called out. It did add a few more pitches to Weaver’s inning, but he retired the next batter on an easy pop out to end the inning. The Angels had a hit in each of the first two innings, when Kendrick doubled off the center field wall in the 1st inning, and Vernon Wells singled up the middle in the 2nd, but both innings ended on double plays. Pujols came up for his first Angel at-bat to a standing ovation in the 1st, following Kendrick’s double, and hit a sinking liner that the SS Alcides Escobar gloved, and Kendrick misread it and started to run for 3rd so he was easily doubled off 2nd base to end the inning. In the 2nd, Kendrys Morales made his first appearance for the Angels in about two years, and received his own standing ovation, before promply grounding into an easy double play to end that inning.
The only real jam that Weaver found himself in came in the 3rd inning, when the Royals got their first two hits of the game, back-to-back to start the inning, by catcher Bryan Pena and the SS Escobar, who each whacked fastballs into left field for solid singles, with the top of the lineup coming up to bat again. After that, Weaver went into the next chapter of his game plan, and started to mix in some off speed pitches into the assortment, and went on to strike out the next three batters, LF Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain (for 2nd time in game), and potential all-star 1B Eric Hosmer, to get out of the jam unscathed. In the bottom of the 3rd, Royals starter Bruce Chen got into the strikeout frenzy, getting Trumbo and Iannetta to swing and miss at high fastballs (even though they are less than 88 MPH) to start the inning. Peter Bourjox punched a slider into right field for a 2-out single, but he was picked off of 1st base after about five straight throws over there by Chen, to end the inning, so Chen still had faced the minimum despite giving up 3 hits in the game.
The 4th was a quick inning for both pitchers as Weaver retired the Royals in order on two pop outs and a check swing dribbler by RF Jeff Francoeur, who swung at the first pitch in each of his first two at bats in the game and made easy outs both times. Chen continued his rare strikeout flurry, getting Aybar to watch a fastball right down the middle on an 0-2 count for a called strike 3, and then Kendrick struck out on a ball in the dirt, but luckily the ball rolled past the catcher to the backstop, so Kendrick was able to make it to 1st. Pujols got another chance with a runner on base, but he could only hit a high pop fly to the 3rd baseman Mike Moustakas, and RF Torii Hunter followed with a weak fly out to left to end that inning.
Weaver and Chen both had 1-2-3 innings in the 5th, although there was a well hit fly ball that looked potentially dangerous at first, by both teams. Pena hit a deep fly ball to right that Hunter caught on the warning track for the 2nd out of that half of the inning, before Weaver struck out Escobar to end the inning. In the bottom half, Morales launched one deep into right center, but Cain tracked that one down as he ran right up against the wall for the 2nd out, and the game remained scoreless going into the 6th.
Weaver struck out the first two hitters in the 6th, getting Gordon and Cain swinging again, this time at offspeed breaking balls, and Hosmer followed by pulling an outside fastball to 2nd for an easy out on the first pitch he saw, so Weaver now had retired 12 Royals hitters in a row, as part of another dominant start. The Angels batters went down just as quietly in their half of the 6th, as Chen rolled through another 1-2-3 inning of his own, getting Aybar to lunge for a first pitch change up and pop out to 1st base for the final out.That turned out to be his final pitch of the game, but he kept the Angels off balance all game, inducing weak, unsure swings through out, and matching Weaver inning for inning as he went.
Weaver struck out the first hitter, DH Billy Butler, in the 7th, with a perfectly placed changeup over the outside edge of the plate. Francoeur followed and he finally restrained himself from swinging at Weaver’s first pitch, and got to a favorable 2-0 count, before whacking the predictable fastball into the left field corner for a 1-out double. Weaver had a little control issue with the next hitter Betancourt, taking the count to 3-0 with a couple bad pitches, but he redeemed himself by making a perfect pickoff move to 2nd base, to get Francoeur out at 2nd base for the important 2nd out of the inning, and maybe the play of the game. He then managed to get back to a full count against Betancourt, and induced a pop fly into foul ground that should have been caught by Trumbo, but once again he made a mistake, and didn’t even get a glove on the ball, giving Betancourt another chance at the plate. He (of course) capitalized on Trumbo’s mistake (not ruled an error since the ball landed foul) and blooped a single into left field to continue the inning. Weaver fell behind the next hitter, 3B Moustakas, with a 3-1 count, but induced a weak grounder to 2nd as he pulled an outside pitch to Kendrick at 2nd base for the easy last out of the inning…. After the 7th inning stretch, the Royals brought in a new pitcher in the bottom of the 7th, Aaron Crow, who was the polar opposite of Bruce Chen- a flame throwing right-hander. He plowed through the Angels best hitters, striking out Kendrick, Pujols, and Hunter, with his 96 MPH fastball and biting slider, to end that inning very quickly.
Weaver came back out toe pitch the top of the 8th inning, having only thrown about 80 pitches or so, and continued his dominance, retiring the side in order once again, including another strikeout of the Royals’ leadoff hitter, Alex Gordon to cap it off. Weaver didn’t walk a batter, and only allowed hits in two innings (two in each) and two of the base runners he allowed (one hit and one error) were the result of a defensive mistake (by Trumbo) so he was even better than the stat line indicated. That was all well and good, but he still needed his offense to produce something, if he was going to get anything but a no- decision (again), and more importantly, if the Angels were going to win this game.
The Angels hitters had to face off against Aaron Crow again, in his second inning of work after his dominant 7th inning, but this time they produced. Vernon Wells started the inning with a weak flyball to left field, pulling another outside pitch, which has become the disappointing norm for him in his Angels career. Morales followed and started a rally, with a good at-bat, battling against an 0-2 count, to hit a low 95 MPH fastball through the hole between 1st and 2nd, into right field for a one-out single. Youngster Alexi Amarista came in to pinch run, for the [still limping] Morales (who was never fast anyway), and Mark Trumbo scorched a line drive single to center on another 95 MPH fastball to put two runners on with one out. Iannetta followed by smacking another inside fastball into left field for their third straight hit, but because it was hit so hard, and the fact that Gordon had 20 outfield assists last year to lead the league, Amarista was held at 3rd base, so the bases were now loaded with one out. The Royals manager Ned Yost went out and replaced pitchers, bringing in another flame throwing right-hander, Greg Holland to try and get out of the jam. Peter Bourjos was up next with the potential tie-breaking run just 90 feet away, and he fell behind to a 1-2 count, before tapping a 96 MPH fastball towards 3rd base, and both the 3rd baseman and shortstop charged it, but sort of got in each other’s way, and the ball hit off each of their gloves, allowing all the runners to advance, allowing the Angels to finally score, to go ahead 1-0, and keep the bases loaded. The next batter was leadoff man Erick Aybar, and he came through with the big hit the Angels were waiting the whole game for, whacking an inside 94 MPH fastball over the 1st baseman, down the right field line. Two runs scored easily, and Francoeur ran over and cut the ball off before it rolled to the wall, but Bourjos flew around the bases in no time flat, and slid in across home plate safely, scoring all the way from 1st on the 3-run triple by Aybar, to give them a comfortable 4-0 lead. Kendrick came up with the runner at 3rd and one out, but he couldn’t put the ball in play, and struck out for the 2nd out, and the Royals opted to intentionally walk Pujols instead of giving him the chance to do damage. Hunter followed and punished them for their decision, when he hit a little blooper into right field, that fell just in front of Francoeur for another RBI, and a 5-0 lead. Wells came up for the second time in the inning, and popped out to the catcher, making his second out of the inning in the process, but the damage was done. It came at the perfect time, right before the Royals’ last at- bat, and just after what turned out to be Weaver’s last inning of work, ensuring that he was in line for the much deserved victory, and all they needed now were three more outs.
The Angels most reliable relief pitcher from last season, Scott Downs, came in to finish off the game, along with a defensive replacement at 3rd base- Alberto Callaspo (which will probably be a common late inning substitution until Trumbo gets more comfortable there). Downs continued the Angels dominant pitching theme, retiring the Royals in order, to end the game and secure the Angels first victory and shutout of the year.
There were a lot of 1-2-3 innings in this one, as pitching dominated for both sides for a majority of this quick-paced game, but timely Angels hitting prevailed in the end, and finally gave some support to their superb pitchers. The 5-0 score makes the game look like something of a blow-out, but the Angels were in a dog fight for most of the game, and surprisingly, Albert Pujols wasn’t at the center of the scoring inning, like one might think when they first see the final score. There were a few other aspects to the game that may have remained unnoticed as well, which I will briefly go over now:
BAD BASERUNNING
The Angels had a couple of bad base running plays, that could have cost them a chance at victory, if not for their offensive explosion in the 8th inning. In the 1st inning, Howie Kendrick made what could have been a major mistake, running for 3rd base on the low line drive by Albert Pujols and was doubled off of 2nd to end the inning. They didn’t have many scoring chances against Chen, and you always want to try to get to the starter early before they get into a pitching groove, so that was a bad mistake, especially since he would have been in scoring position still with the cleanup hitter, Hunter, coming up and two outs. You always have to make sure the low line drives get through before you try to advance, which you learn from a very young age, so that was a somewhat inexcusable mistake there. The other base running blunder came when Bourjos was picked off trying to steal 2nd base, in the 3rd inining, after a handful of throws over to 1st by Chen. There were two outs, and he wanted to get into scoring position, which is understandable but he should have had a better read on Chen’s move after all those throws over there and showed more patience. If the result of the game had been different, those would have been more heavily scrutinized base running errors.
NOT IN THE BOXSCORE
Mark Trumbo’s fielding issues did show up somewhat in the box score, with the error in the 2nd inning, but there is more to it than that for me. Obviously you could argue that the runner was out, so the inning should have been over, but he was called safe because of Trumbo’s poor throw, and that forced Weaver to make a few extra pitches in the inning when he shouldn’t have to. The next mistake Trumbo made didn’t rally show up in the box score, when he completely misplayed an easy pop fly near the dugout in the 7th , and it dropped about 3 feet away from him, allowing the hitter to get another chance to get a hit, and force Weaver to throw more pitches and face unnecessary stress. If not for those two blunders by Trumbo, Weaver would have been able to come back out for the 9th inning, and possibly pitched a complete game, having saved about 10 pitches off his total. If the Angels hadn’t scored in the 8th, and Weaver was still unable to come out to pitch the 9th (having racked up 97 pitches to that point), he wouldn’t have only qualified for a no-decision, all because of a couple defensive miscues.
FANTASY WATCH
For all you fantasy baseball players like me, Jared Weaver and Erick Aybar were the fantasy stars of this game. Weaver posted 10 strikeouts, in 8 shut out innings (0.00 ERA) and allowed just four hits (.444 WHIP), while earning the win, so he was virtually perfect for your team if you own him. Aybar only had one hit, but it was a triple that drove in three runs, and then he scored on Hunter’s single, so he added some important stats if you own him. The Royals Bruce Chen had a very impressive stat line as well, with a superb 0.50 WHIP, allowing only 3 hits in 6 innings, with his own 0.00 ERA, and a quality start to boot, if your league counts that statistic, but I’m sure very few people own him in any league….
Friday, April 6, 2012
AAR- “Baseball is Finally Here Again!”
ASTON’S ANGELS REPORT VOL. 2, ISSUE 2
“I’m so excited… and I just can’t hide it.” Luckily for anyone who knows me, I wouldn’t dare sing that aloud, but I can’t help the fact that song runs through my head when I think about the upcoming opening day for my favorite sports team, the Angels. To me, they are the California Angels, but technically they are labeled as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but whatever you want to call them, the Angels should be one of the best teams in baseball, and I simply can’t wait for their season to finally start. I watched virtually every televised spring training game, even to the point that I would record games if I wasn’t able to watch them live, which I would admit is probably on the extreme [fanatic] side, since they are exhibition games with minor league players (who have no shot of playing in the majors this season ) playing half of the game each time. I missed baseball so much, any viewing of the team I love playing the game I love was absolute must-see television for me (even though I fast-forwarded or quit watching in the final few innings of some of the games, when they turned into minor league games).
The way this team is presently constructed it would be a huge disappointment if they weren’t able to make the playoffs, especially with the implementation of the new double wild card system this season, which allows for two wild card teams in each league (instead of one). Although this new system allows for more teams to compete for the playoffs, and enables many more teams to have a chance going into the final month than at any time in the history of baseball, it also makes winning the division much more important, because the two wild card teams have to fight each other in a one-game “play-in” for the right to play in the division series of the playoffs, and the loser of that game goes home. That means a team could potentially win 95 games or more, earn the #1 wild card spot, and they could still miss the playoffs if they lose that play-in game. It now becomes virtually imperative for teams to win their division, not only to avoid the one-game play-in, but also in order to set their pitching rotation so they can save their #1 starter for the first game in the playoffs (instead of game 163 or whatever that play-in will be called). This increases the overall excitement for nearly every team in the major leagues, ensuring that nearly every game important (which hasn’t been the case in most prior seasons, when teams used lock in their playoff spots before the season ended, so other teams were eliminated from contention early), but it also puts much more pressure on the great teams to avoid that pre-playoff game. I am confident that this should be one of the most exciting seasons in the history of the sport, and it’s already started off with a bang.
The Angels are one of the last teams to make their season debut, as many played on Thursday (yesterday), and many others play early on Friday, if they weren’t one of the four teams who started the season earlier. The Mariners and Athletics played in Japan last week, in what was technically the season-opening series, and split the two game series, before coming back to the US to play a few more preseason exhibition games, as part of the most peculiar scheduling in sports. About a week or so later, the “stateside opener” was played on Wednesday between the Marlins and Cardinals, which acted more like the true season opener, as it was on ESPN during primetime, as opposed to the Japan series, where game 1 wasn’t even televised until 12 hours later, and game 2 aired at about 2 am. It was the only game of the day, and the world champion Cardinals beat the Marlins in the first game played in the Marlins new, extremely colorful park, and then both teams left to play other teams, after the only one-game series of the season (I assume).
Sometimes too much of a good thing becomes a problem, and that seems to be the only issue with this season’s Angels team; they have too many good players and not enough roster spots for them to fill. They obviously added maybe the best player in baseball history, Albert Pujols, to play first base and on the same day they announced that they signed one of the league’s best pitchers over the past two seasons, CJ Wilson to bolster their already great pitching staff. When you look at their position players, they have talent and depth at every position, with the only possible exception at catcher, and they have added to the best pitching staff in the American League from last season, so there just isn’t room for some players that could have made major league rosters on some other teams.
They now have one of the very best starting rotations in the majors this season, and each one of the top four pitchers, Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, and the new addition CJ Wilson, could be #1 starters for many other teams in the league, and they have potential talent in the #5 spot, with Jerome Williams (who still start on the disabled list but should be ready to pitch by the middle of April) and rookie Garret Richards, who seems to be in line for the #5 spot after his stellar performance in spring training and his healthier status. Last season, the bullpen has some issues to start the season, but then got their act together to support the starters and help win games, as the season progressed and a few changes were made (most notably, moving rookie Jordan Walden into the closer role). They have made a few more changes to the bullpen this season, bringing in a few solid veteran relievers to (hopefully) improve their bullpen depth even more. They signed veterans LaTroy Hawkins, Jason Isringhausen, and it looks like Kevin Jepsen has gotten back to the impressive form he showed in 2012, after a very poor season last year (highlighted by the wild-pitch-on-an-intentional walk debacle that resulted in his being sent down to the minors for the remainder of the season). This means that they have about 5 or 6 very dependable setup men, with the two left-handers from last year, Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi (who are even more valuable since they aren‘t just specialists who only get left handed batters out), and another impressive right-hander from last seaosn, Rich Thompson . I’m not exactly sold on the reliability of Isringhausen, who is getting a little long in the tooth, so to speak, but he pitched well last year for the Mets, so he could be valuable even if it is in a limited 6th inning role (which might not be necessary because the starters expect to pitch though the 6th or 7th inning in most of the games). Unfortunately, this also means there isn’t room for some of the younger relievers like Bobby Cassevah, Michael Kohn, and one of the more impressive minor leaguers I saw during this spring training, David Carpenter (remember the name, because I think he could be a factor in the majors some time this year). Cassevah and Kohn will start the season on the DL with an injury, and will pitch in the minors as part of their rehabilitation, and all three will be ready to fill in bullpen spots if there is an injury. If Richards doesn’t fill the 5th starter role well, the Angels can come back with Jerome Williams, who pitched exceptionally well in his few starts for the Angels at the end of last season, or they could go to another one of the more impressive minor leaguers from spring training, Brad Mills (who is also a left-hander, which adds a point in his column, since the only other lefty in the possible rotation is Wilson).
The team has an even better assortment of position players, that could become an issue as the season progresses, just in terms of getting them all playing time on the field. With the addition of Pujols, who is penciled in to play every game of the season at 1B, and the return of Kendrys Morales from his two year absence due to injury, there just isn’t enough room for some of the familiar players from the past to play very often. Last year’s runner-up in the rookie of the year voting, slugger Mark Trumbo, who led the team in all power categories last year, is attempting to move from 1B to 3B, in order to keep his bat in the lineup, which means that Alberto Callaspo will get much less playing time than last year, and utility man Maicer Izturis will get even less playing time, unless there is a significant injury or two on the team. They have carried three catchers in previous seasons, but there was only room for two this time, so the high hitting potential of Hank Conger will have to start out in the minors, to work on his defense and wait for his chance to come back to the majors. The team’s catchers performed very poorly last season on the offensive side, so new addition Chris Iannetta should provide some much appreciated offense (both with slugging and on-base percentages) , and fairly solid defense, while back-up baskstop Bobby Wilson is primarily a defensive specialist with a great throwing arm, to go along with solid pitch-calling and ball-blocking abilities. The outfield is probably the best fielding trio in the majors this season, with Vernon Wells in left, Peter Bourjos in center, and Torii Hunter in right field. Wells and Hunter have each won multiple gold glove awards as centerfielders in their careers, and Bourjos was absolutely robbed last year of what should have been a gold glove season, so there will be very few balls that drop out there again this season. The only possible issue in the outfield will be their offensive consistency, mainly with Vernon Wells who hit for a terrible average last season, as he seemingly refused to hit the ball to right field. Hopefully I don’t spend much time yelling “Hit the ball to right!!“ like I did last year, and have done on a few occasions during the spring. If the Wells and Hunter meet their power potential that they have established in the past, and Bourjos cuts down his strikeouts and gets on base, their offense could be one of the best in the majors, which is a few cry from last year, where the pitching carried the team for the entirety. Now that Morales appears to be back from his ankle injury, he can probably only play in the Designated Hitter role, which is the main reason that Trumbo has to move to 3B, but it also pushes some other players out of the hitting rotation, most notably Bobby Abreu.
Abreu was relegated to the DH role when he played last season, because of the excellent players they have in the outfield already, along with his diminishing speed and skills, as he gets older, but now there is a log jam at the DH position too, so there doesn’t seem to much of a role for poor ol’ Bobby this season. I have been one of the biggest Bobby Abreu advocates the past couple of seasons, even calling for him to hit leadoff before last season started because of his excellent patience (and decreasing power), but I’m sorry to say it might be time for him to go. I think he could be one of the best pinch hitters and part-time, backup DH’s in the game, if he wants to fill that role. He voiced his objection to that potential role early in the spring, saying that he wants to get his usual 500 at-bats, and basically that he isn’t happy filling a bench role. I can understand that he wants more playing time, as a high performing veteran for more than a decade, as most players do (especially when they get older, because they sometimes need more time to get into their hitting groove). Unfortunately, there simply won’t be enough playing time to fit him in to play anywhere close to 400 at-bats (about 100 games as a starter), barring [at least one] injury, so he may have to be traded, if he remains unhappy with his role. There was a rumor that he may be traded to the Indians near the end of spring training, but that never came to fruition, nor were the rumors ever really acknowledged. Another problem is that there probably won’t be too many teams looking for the services of an aging outfielder/ designated hitter, whose value has decreased significantly after the last two seasons where he hit about .250 as a regular player for the Angels. I hope he stays, because I think he can be valuable on the bench, almost like a coach, helping his teammates with their patience, pitch recognition, situational hitting, and things like that, but I fully understand if he thinks he only has a season or two left in him, and wants to fulfill his final potential as he heads to retirement, on another team. The Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia has always been good at rotating players in and out of the starting lineup to keep them fresh (see Maicer Izturis the last couple seasons) but even he won’t be able to get Abreu many at bats, with the outstanding depth on the roster this season.
The team may have to make a decision of Abreu’s future with team soon, but they had some other tough decisions to make at the end of spring training. As I mentioned before, the pitching depth is almost too good, so a few high-potential players were sent back down to the minors, but they also had to make a couple tough decisions with their potential utility men. The main battle for the final roster spot was between the young IF/OF Alexi Amarista, who made his major league debut last season, and the veteran IF Jorge Cantu, who was on the Padres last season. They both performed exceptionally well in the spring training games and are valuable in different ways, but the Angels chose to go with Amarista and sent Cantu to the minor leagues. I would have rather seen both make the team, and it is quite possible that Cantu will end up on the major league roster, given the possible Abreu trade situation, as well as the high possibility of an injury (Izturis is probably the prime candidate for that, given his past history of trips to disabled list). Amarista can play each outfield spot and the middle infield positions, to give the starters a day off, and on offense, he has surprising power for such a little man, as well as great speed so he provides pinch-running potential which the team could definitely use, so I fully understand why he was chosen. Cantu is a proven hitter and RBI producer in his past, as well as solid defender as a corner infielder, but there isn’t much room for him to fill in that role, with depth at 1B and 3B already on the team. So far he has remained very professional with what has transpired, and hopefully he chooses to stay in the organization, because he could be a valuable asset to the team later in the season.
The overall depth of the organization looks good this season, and I have to mention a few other players that impressed me this spring training. I mentioned Carpenter and Mills on the pitching side already, but I was even more impressed by left hand hitting OF Cole Calhoun, who hit close to .400, even though he hit against left handed pitchers in many of his at-bats, making his performance even more impressive. 2B Taylor Lindsay looked good as well, SS Andrew Romine showed some potential and great speed, as low minor league players, but obviously the Angels have those two position filled at the major league level with potential all-star Howie Kendrick and last year‘s gold glove winning shortstop Erick Aybar. The future certainly looks great for the Angels, and it is a welcomed sight to the diehard fans, such as myself.
I will continue my Angels report, adding an entry after every game this season, but there will be some (welcomed) changes this time, as I have come to realize that great detail doesn’t always make for an entertaining article. I took excessively detailed notes on each game, which I will look forward to doing again, but I will alter the format of my posts, so that I’m not documenting every out (and sometimes every pitch) of every game because there’s just too much information, and very few people want to read all that stuff. I have plans to compartmentalize my details, in sections like “Game Changing Plays” and “Outside of the Box Score” to better summarize the details, and hopefully add increase the entertainment value of each for my readers (if there are any). I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I will enjoy watching the games, and writing them…. I can’t wait!!
“I’m so excited… and I just can’t hide it.” Luckily for anyone who knows me, I wouldn’t dare sing that aloud, but I can’t help the fact that song runs through my head when I think about the upcoming opening day for my favorite sports team, the Angels. To me, they are the California Angels, but technically they are labeled as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but whatever you want to call them, the Angels should be one of the best teams in baseball, and I simply can’t wait for their season to finally start. I watched virtually every televised spring training game, even to the point that I would record games if I wasn’t able to watch them live, which I would admit is probably on the extreme [fanatic] side, since they are exhibition games with minor league players (who have no shot of playing in the majors this season ) playing half of the game each time. I missed baseball so much, any viewing of the team I love playing the game I love was absolute must-see television for me (even though I fast-forwarded or quit watching in the final few innings of some of the games, when they turned into minor league games).
The way this team is presently constructed it would be a huge disappointment if they weren’t able to make the playoffs, especially with the implementation of the new double wild card system this season, which allows for two wild card teams in each league (instead of one). Although this new system allows for more teams to compete for the playoffs, and enables many more teams to have a chance going into the final month than at any time in the history of baseball, it also makes winning the division much more important, because the two wild card teams have to fight each other in a one-game “play-in” for the right to play in the division series of the playoffs, and the loser of that game goes home. That means a team could potentially win 95 games or more, earn the #1 wild card spot, and they could still miss the playoffs if they lose that play-in game. It now becomes virtually imperative for teams to win their division, not only to avoid the one-game play-in, but also in order to set their pitching rotation so they can save their #1 starter for the first game in the playoffs (instead of game 163 or whatever that play-in will be called). This increases the overall excitement for nearly every team in the major leagues, ensuring that nearly every game important (which hasn’t been the case in most prior seasons, when teams used lock in their playoff spots before the season ended, so other teams were eliminated from contention early), but it also puts much more pressure on the great teams to avoid that pre-playoff game. I am confident that this should be one of the most exciting seasons in the history of the sport, and it’s already started off with a bang.
The Angels are one of the last teams to make their season debut, as many played on Thursday (yesterday), and many others play early on Friday, if they weren’t one of the four teams who started the season earlier. The Mariners and Athletics played in Japan last week, in what was technically the season-opening series, and split the two game series, before coming back to the US to play a few more preseason exhibition games, as part of the most peculiar scheduling in sports. About a week or so later, the “stateside opener” was played on Wednesday between the Marlins and Cardinals, which acted more like the true season opener, as it was on ESPN during primetime, as opposed to the Japan series, where game 1 wasn’t even televised until 12 hours later, and game 2 aired at about 2 am. It was the only game of the day, and the world champion Cardinals beat the Marlins in the first game played in the Marlins new, extremely colorful park, and then both teams left to play other teams, after the only one-game series of the season (I assume).
Sometimes too much of a good thing becomes a problem, and that seems to be the only issue with this season’s Angels team; they have too many good players and not enough roster spots for them to fill. They obviously added maybe the best player in baseball history, Albert Pujols, to play first base and on the same day they announced that they signed one of the league’s best pitchers over the past two seasons, CJ Wilson to bolster their already great pitching staff. When you look at their position players, they have talent and depth at every position, with the only possible exception at catcher, and they have added to the best pitching staff in the American League from last season, so there just isn’t room for some players that could have made major league rosters on some other teams.
They now have one of the very best starting rotations in the majors this season, and each one of the top four pitchers, Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, Ervin Santana, and the new addition CJ Wilson, could be #1 starters for many other teams in the league, and they have potential talent in the #5 spot, with Jerome Williams (who still start on the disabled list but should be ready to pitch by the middle of April) and rookie Garret Richards, who seems to be in line for the #5 spot after his stellar performance in spring training and his healthier status. Last season, the bullpen has some issues to start the season, but then got their act together to support the starters and help win games, as the season progressed and a few changes were made (most notably, moving rookie Jordan Walden into the closer role). They have made a few more changes to the bullpen this season, bringing in a few solid veteran relievers to (hopefully) improve their bullpen depth even more. They signed veterans LaTroy Hawkins, Jason Isringhausen, and it looks like Kevin Jepsen has gotten back to the impressive form he showed in 2012, after a very poor season last year (highlighted by the wild-pitch-on-an-intentional walk debacle that resulted in his being sent down to the minors for the remainder of the season). This means that they have about 5 or 6 very dependable setup men, with the two left-handers from last year, Scott Downs and Hisanori Takahashi (who are even more valuable since they aren‘t just specialists who only get left handed batters out), and another impressive right-hander from last seaosn, Rich Thompson . I’m not exactly sold on the reliability of Isringhausen, who is getting a little long in the tooth, so to speak, but he pitched well last year for the Mets, so he could be valuable even if it is in a limited 6th inning role (which might not be necessary because the starters expect to pitch though the 6th or 7th inning in most of the games). Unfortunately, this also means there isn’t room for some of the younger relievers like Bobby Cassevah, Michael Kohn, and one of the more impressive minor leaguers I saw during this spring training, David Carpenter (remember the name, because I think he could be a factor in the majors some time this year). Cassevah and Kohn will start the season on the DL with an injury, and will pitch in the minors as part of their rehabilitation, and all three will be ready to fill in bullpen spots if there is an injury. If Richards doesn’t fill the 5th starter role well, the Angels can come back with Jerome Williams, who pitched exceptionally well in his few starts for the Angels at the end of last season, or they could go to another one of the more impressive minor leaguers from spring training, Brad Mills (who is also a left-hander, which adds a point in his column, since the only other lefty in the possible rotation is Wilson).
The team has an even better assortment of position players, that could become an issue as the season progresses, just in terms of getting them all playing time on the field. With the addition of Pujols, who is penciled in to play every game of the season at 1B, and the return of Kendrys Morales from his two year absence due to injury, there just isn’t enough room for some of the familiar players from the past to play very often. Last year’s runner-up in the rookie of the year voting, slugger Mark Trumbo, who led the team in all power categories last year, is attempting to move from 1B to 3B, in order to keep his bat in the lineup, which means that Alberto Callaspo will get much less playing time than last year, and utility man Maicer Izturis will get even less playing time, unless there is a significant injury or two on the team. They have carried three catchers in previous seasons, but there was only room for two this time, so the high hitting potential of Hank Conger will have to start out in the minors, to work on his defense and wait for his chance to come back to the majors. The team’s catchers performed very poorly last season on the offensive side, so new addition Chris Iannetta should provide some much appreciated offense (both with slugging and on-base percentages) , and fairly solid defense, while back-up baskstop Bobby Wilson is primarily a defensive specialist with a great throwing arm, to go along with solid pitch-calling and ball-blocking abilities. The outfield is probably the best fielding trio in the majors this season, with Vernon Wells in left, Peter Bourjos in center, and Torii Hunter in right field. Wells and Hunter have each won multiple gold glove awards as centerfielders in their careers, and Bourjos was absolutely robbed last year of what should have been a gold glove season, so there will be very few balls that drop out there again this season. The only possible issue in the outfield will be their offensive consistency, mainly with Vernon Wells who hit for a terrible average last season, as he seemingly refused to hit the ball to right field. Hopefully I don’t spend much time yelling “Hit the ball to right!!“ like I did last year, and have done on a few occasions during the spring. If the Wells and Hunter meet their power potential that they have established in the past, and Bourjos cuts down his strikeouts and gets on base, their offense could be one of the best in the majors, which is a few cry from last year, where the pitching carried the team for the entirety. Now that Morales appears to be back from his ankle injury, he can probably only play in the Designated Hitter role, which is the main reason that Trumbo has to move to 3B, but it also pushes some other players out of the hitting rotation, most notably Bobby Abreu.
Abreu was relegated to the DH role when he played last season, because of the excellent players they have in the outfield already, along with his diminishing speed and skills, as he gets older, but now there is a log jam at the DH position too, so there doesn’t seem to much of a role for poor ol’ Bobby this season. I have been one of the biggest Bobby Abreu advocates the past couple of seasons, even calling for him to hit leadoff before last season started because of his excellent patience (and decreasing power), but I’m sorry to say it might be time for him to go. I think he could be one of the best pinch hitters and part-time, backup DH’s in the game, if he wants to fill that role. He voiced his objection to that potential role early in the spring, saying that he wants to get his usual 500 at-bats, and basically that he isn’t happy filling a bench role. I can understand that he wants more playing time, as a high performing veteran for more than a decade, as most players do (especially when they get older, because they sometimes need more time to get into their hitting groove). Unfortunately, there simply won’t be enough playing time to fit him in to play anywhere close to 400 at-bats (about 100 games as a starter), barring [at least one] injury, so he may have to be traded, if he remains unhappy with his role. There was a rumor that he may be traded to the Indians near the end of spring training, but that never came to fruition, nor were the rumors ever really acknowledged. Another problem is that there probably won’t be too many teams looking for the services of an aging outfielder/ designated hitter, whose value has decreased significantly after the last two seasons where he hit about .250 as a regular player for the Angels. I hope he stays, because I think he can be valuable on the bench, almost like a coach, helping his teammates with their patience, pitch recognition, situational hitting, and things like that, but I fully understand if he thinks he only has a season or two left in him, and wants to fulfill his final potential as he heads to retirement, on another team. The Angels’ manager Mike Scioscia has always been good at rotating players in and out of the starting lineup to keep them fresh (see Maicer Izturis the last couple seasons) but even he won’t be able to get Abreu many at bats, with the outstanding depth on the roster this season.
The team may have to make a decision of Abreu’s future with team soon, but they had some other tough decisions to make at the end of spring training. As I mentioned before, the pitching depth is almost too good, so a few high-potential players were sent back down to the minors, but they also had to make a couple tough decisions with their potential utility men. The main battle for the final roster spot was between the young IF/OF Alexi Amarista, who made his major league debut last season, and the veteran IF Jorge Cantu, who was on the Padres last season. They both performed exceptionally well in the spring training games and are valuable in different ways, but the Angels chose to go with Amarista and sent Cantu to the minor leagues. I would have rather seen both make the team, and it is quite possible that Cantu will end up on the major league roster, given the possible Abreu trade situation, as well as the high possibility of an injury (Izturis is probably the prime candidate for that, given his past history of trips to disabled list). Amarista can play each outfield spot and the middle infield positions, to give the starters a day off, and on offense, he has surprising power for such a little man, as well as great speed so he provides pinch-running potential which the team could definitely use, so I fully understand why he was chosen. Cantu is a proven hitter and RBI producer in his past, as well as solid defender as a corner infielder, but there isn’t much room for him to fill in that role, with depth at 1B and 3B already on the team. So far he has remained very professional with what has transpired, and hopefully he chooses to stay in the organization, because he could be a valuable asset to the team later in the season.
The overall depth of the organization looks good this season, and I have to mention a few other players that impressed me this spring training. I mentioned Carpenter and Mills on the pitching side already, but I was even more impressed by left hand hitting OF Cole Calhoun, who hit close to .400, even though he hit against left handed pitchers in many of his at-bats, making his performance even more impressive. 2B Taylor Lindsay looked good as well, SS Andrew Romine showed some potential and great speed, as low minor league players, but obviously the Angels have those two position filled at the major league level with potential all-star Howie Kendrick and last year‘s gold glove winning shortstop Erick Aybar. The future certainly looks great for the Angels, and it is a welcomed sight to the diehard fans, such as myself.
I will continue my Angels report, adding an entry after every game this season, but there will be some (welcomed) changes this time, as I have come to realize that great detail doesn’t always make for an entertaining article. I took excessively detailed notes on each game, which I will look forward to doing again, but I will alter the format of my posts, so that I’m not documenting every out (and sometimes every pitch) of every game because there’s just too much information, and very few people want to read all that stuff. I have plans to compartmentalize my details, in sections like “Game Changing Plays” and “Outside of the Box Score” to better summarize the details, and hopefully add increase the entertainment value of each for my readers (if there are any). I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I will enjoy watching the games, and writing them…. I can’t wait!!
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Sit the Babies on the Bench!
LAKERS REPORT- April 1, 2012
Sometimes, even when you are following in the footsteps of [at least one of] the best professional coach in sports history you have to assert yourself and show your players that you have some balls. Coach Mike Brown finally showed that he has some control over his players and has the balls to bench his two all-star players when it is necessary. It was indeed a welcomed sight, and a far cry from his hands-off approach so far, that has led to many people, including his own players, to question his leadership.
First, Brown benched Kobe Bryant in the game vs. the Memphis Grizzlies when he was being handcuffed by their defense and forcing up bad shots, when he wasn’t making ill-advised passes that became turnovers (which led to easy baskets for the Grizzlies). That was a big step considering he seemed to have no control over what Kobe does on the floor leading up to that point, basically admitting in several press conferences that Kobe can do whatever he wants, shoot from wherever he wants, as many times as he wants, even if it costs his team. Of course, Kobe was visibly pouting on the bench and then when he was put back on the floor during the final couple of minutes, he evaded the team huddle and went right to the floor all by himself. And as expected, the first play he made when he came back on the floor was a turnover to help the Grizzlies cement their victory, proving the benching was probably justified. Kobe hasn’t been playing well lately, and maybe the extended minutes this season have caught up with him, so it only makes sense that he spends some time on the bench, when the alternative is a 30% shooting performance that leads to a lopsided loss. One day, Kobe will realize that all of those missed shots ado hurt the team, and a little rest could do his aging body some good. That was an impressive show of dominance by the coach, but it was only for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, whereas the next all-star benching was for almost an entire half.
A game or two later after the Kobe benching story, Andrew Bynum was finally punished for acting like an immature baby, in the game against the Golden State Warriors. Bynum sometimes shows a very lackadaisical effort on the floor, not hustling back on defense often, not making the extra effort to put a hand up to affect opponents’ shots when he does get back on defense, and constantly pouting and whining when he doesn’t get the ball on offense. Near the start of the 2nd half of this game, Bynum caught the ball above the 3-point line, which is a common occurrence when they start an offensive possession, but this time he lofted up a 3-point shot with about 19 seconds left on the (24-second) shot clock, which of course clanked off the rim and left most of the crowd and commentators with their mouth gaping open in astonishment. To make matters worse he lollygagged when transitioning from offense to defense, and let his man beat him down the court, as he barely jogged down there to watch (from half court) as his man made an uncontested lay-up. I was surprised Bynum stayed in after that terrible shot, but the lack of hustle was the final straw for Coach Brown, who yanked him right out of the game, where he sat for most of the rest of the game. He came back in to the game to start the 4th quarter, but showed further immaturity as he jogged around with disgruntled body language, and no effort to hustle on the few plays he was out there for, before Brown yanked him out again almost immediately, to supplant him on the bench for the rest of the game. To make matters worse, cameras showed Bynum mimicking his 3-point shot on the bench in conversations with teammates, laughing and shrugging his shoulders as if to say he thought it was a good shot, and didn’t understand why he was being benched. I expected him to be contrite and apologetic in post-game interviews, even if he was forced to by players/management, but he remained defiant and even professed that he would keep on shooting them because he thinks it’s part of his game, going on to say that if he had made it then it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. I think a major reason for his defiant thought process is that his big man counterpart, Pal Gasol, has taken a few 3-pointers this season (and made a couple of them) but the immature Bynum is missing a few key points there too. First off, Gasol makes a majority of his shots from outside of the key, because he is much more of shooter than an inside pounder, which is the opposite of Bynum, who is best in the low post and hardly ever makes any shot from outside of the key near the basket. Even though Gasol is a much better shooter, and he tends to avoid contact (or at least yell and scream every time someone makes contact with him) in the low-post, he probably still shouldn’t be taking 3-pointers because he is a power forward, and shouldn’t be drifting that far away from the basket. For Bynum to even think that was a good shot, is absolutely ridiculous, and I applaud Mike Brown for showing some balls and benching one of his best players, for failing to fulfill his true role on the team. There are still a lot of aspects of his coaching that are questionable, but at least this time he did what was right, and the team still won, so it didn’t negatively affect the game that much, and proved the team can win without him. Now, if he can get his team to hustle and play with some energy in every game, instead of for half of every game, that would be an even bigger step in the right direction.
I can understand the fact that Bynum wants the ball on offense, and I agree that he should get the ball in the post more often, and when he passes it out, he should get the ball reposted right back to him, because no one defender can guard him down by the basket, but he looks like a crybaby when he pouts and gestures for all to see his disappointment, and it negatively effects the team cohesiveness. He should shoulder some of the blame, because he doesn’t pass the ball out of double teams well, and doesn’t put out his best effort all the time. After the benching, he played much more aggressively, with a chip on his shoulder, but that should be the case in every game, so hopefully he will learn a lesson or two from this event, and realize that he helps the team by hustling on defense, and getting into the low post to either score or invite double teams from the opposition, which opens up teammates for better shots.
In that next game following the benching, the Lakers looked good for about 1 ½ quarters against the #1 West team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, holding them to their lowest shooting percentage for a half, but the Lakers only managed to convert that into a 5 point half-time lead. They gave up two many second-chance points and had way too many turnovers, which has become a common theme, so the game was very close despite the Thunder’s shooting woes and adequate Lakers defense. It was pretty obvious they were going to end up losing that game, since they failed to increase their lead despite all their energy and effort in the first half, and as expected, the Thunder took a double digit lead soon into the 3rd quarter and went on to win the game easily, further proving that the Lakers can’t play with the young Thunder squad. The game also signified the return of Derek Fisher, who was inexplicably given away just before the trade deadline, to save more money.
Many Lakers fans don’t quite understand the move to trade away one of the Lakers leaders, who has meant so much to the organization, not to mention the league- as the players union representative during the lock-out. I like the fact that they traded for Ramon Sessions, formerly of the Cavaliers, because they lacked speed at the point guard position, and Fisher was one of the main culprits in that deficiency, but I still don’t understand why they would rather have Steve Blake as the #2 point guard in the rotation, instead of Fisher. I would rather see the rookie Andrew Goudelock as the backup, over Steve Blake, and I’m sure Derek Fisher would have been fine coming off the bench. The rumor was that they were near a trade of Blake to the Timberwolves for scoring forward Michael Beasley, which would have helped the team immensely, but then that fell through, so they traded away one of their most appreciated and trusted players instead, just to save money for next year apparently, since the player (whatever his name is) that Houston sent over has played about 2 minutes in the games since the trade. That is two separate occasions now, with the trade of Odom and Fisher, that the Lakers have given away two of their most popular players, both with the fans and with teammates as co-team leaders, for absolutely nothing, just to save money. And now, instead of using Fisher and Sessions as a respectable tandem (whether Fisher remained as starter or not) at the point guard position, Blake comes off the bench to provide little to no offense, with very few assists and almost no points, and he tends to be defensive liability against the taller guards. Granted, Blake does give a good effort and he tries to play some tenacious defense despite his very short stature, but the fact remains that he is simply not that good, and his outside shot is very unreliable and miles away from what it used to be when he played for Portland a few years ago.
I still can’t figure out why Blake is playing nearly half the game, and Goudelock has been sitting on the bench for the past month or so, and the questionable player rotation is another reason why his players seem to lack respect for Coach Brown, despite his recent efforts. Brown has made some questionable decisions for sure, but the person to blame seems to be their General Manager, Mitch Kupchak, for absolutely giving away starting players who would been key components of championship contenders for the past decade or so. The team does have a tentative lead in their division, so they obviously have some potential, but they are only a few losses away from falling out of the playoff race altogether, and with the rest of the league seemingly improving, the Lakers seem to be falling further away from realistic contention as each week progresses, and it is disappointing to say the least. The only thing that gives me hope, is the fact they weren't playing that well during the regualar season when they won the championship a couple of years ago, but that was a far different (and much better) team (and coach) then, so hope is fleeting. At least baseball season is almost here!
Sometimes, even when you are following in the footsteps of [at least one of] the best professional coach in sports history you have to assert yourself and show your players that you have some balls. Coach Mike Brown finally showed that he has some control over his players and has the balls to bench his two all-star players when it is necessary. It was indeed a welcomed sight, and a far cry from his hands-off approach so far, that has led to many people, including his own players, to question his leadership.
First, Brown benched Kobe Bryant in the game vs. the Memphis Grizzlies when he was being handcuffed by their defense and forcing up bad shots, when he wasn’t making ill-advised passes that became turnovers (which led to easy baskets for the Grizzlies). That was a big step considering he seemed to have no control over what Kobe does on the floor leading up to that point, basically admitting in several press conferences that Kobe can do whatever he wants, shoot from wherever he wants, as many times as he wants, even if it costs his team. Of course, Kobe was visibly pouting on the bench and then when he was put back on the floor during the final couple of minutes, he evaded the team huddle and went right to the floor all by himself. And as expected, the first play he made when he came back on the floor was a turnover to help the Grizzlies cement their victory, proving the benching was probably justified. Kobe hasn’t been playing well lately, and maybe the extended minutes this season have caught up with him, so it only makes sense that he spends some time on the bench, when the alternative is a 30% shooting performance that leads to a lopsided loss. One day, Kobe will realize that all of those missed shots ado hurt the team, and a little rest could do his aging body some good. That was an impressive show of dominance by the coach, but it was only for a few minutes in the fourth quarter, whereas the next all-star benching was for almost an entire half.
A game or two later after the Kobe benching story, Andrew Bynum was finally punished for acting like an immature baby, in the game against the Golden State Warriors. Bynum sometimes shows a very lackadaisical effort on the floor, not hustling back on defense often, not making the extra effort to put a hand up to affect opponents’ shots when he does get back on defense, and constantly pouting and whining when he doesn’t get the ball on offense. Near the start of the 2nd half of this game, Bynum caught the ball above the 3-point line, which is a common occurrence when they start an offensive possession, but this time he lofted up a 3-point shot with about 19 seconds left on the (24-second) shot clock, which of course clanked off the rim and left most of the crowd and commentators with their mouth gaping open in astonishment. To make matters worse he lollygagged when transitioning from offense to defense, and let his man beat him down the court, as he barely jogged down there to watch (from half court) as his man made an uncontested lay-up. I was surprised Bynum stayed in after that terrible shot, but the lack of hustle was the final straw for Coach Brown, who yanked him right out of the game, where he sat for most of the rest of the game. He came back in to the game to start the 4th quarter, but showed further immaturity as he jogged around with disgruntled body language, and no effort to hustle on the few plays he was out there for, before Brown yanked him out again almost immediately, to supplant him on the bench for the rest of the game. To make matters worse, cameras showed Bynum mimicking his 3-point shot on the bench in conversations with teammates, laughing and shrugging his shoulders as if to say he thought it was a good shot, and didn’t understand why he was being benched. I expected him to be contrite and apologetic in post-game interviews, even if he was forced to by players/management, but he remained defiant and even professed that he would keep on shooting them because he thinks it’s part of his game, going on to say that if he had made it then it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. I think a major reason for his defiant thought process is that his big man counterpart, Pal Gasol, has taken a few 3-pointers this season (and made a couple of them) but the immature Bynum is missing a few key points there too. First off, Gasol makes a majority of his shots from outside of the key, because he is much more of shooter than an inside pounder, which is the opposite of Bynum, who is best in the low post and hardly ever makes any shot from outside of the key near the basket. Even though Gasol is a much better shooter, and he tends to avoid contact (or at least yell and scream every time someone makes contact with him) in the low-post, he probably still shouldn’t be taking 3-pointers because he is a power forward, and shouldn’t be drifting that far away from the basket. For Bynum to even think that was a good shot, is absolutely ridiculous, and I applaud Mike Brown for showing some balls and benching one of his best players, for failing to fulfill his true role on the team. There are still a lot of aspects of his coaching that are questionable, but at least this time he did what was right, and the team still won, so it didn’t negatively affect the game that much, and proved the team can win without him. Now, if he can get his team to hustle and play with some energy in every game, instead of for half of every game, that would be an even bigger step in the right direction.
I can understand the fact that Bynum wants the ball on offense, and I agree that he should get the ball in the post more often, and when he passes it out, he should get the ball reposted right back to him, because no one defender can guard him down by the basket, but he looks like a crybaby when he pouts and gestures for all to see his disappointment, and it negatively effects the team cohesiveness. He should shoulder some of the blame, because he doesn’t pass the ball out of double teams well, and doesn’t put out his best effort all the time. After the benching, he played much more aggressively, with a chip on his shoulder, but that should be the case in every game, so hopefully he will learn a lesson or two from this event, and realize that he helps the team by hustling on defense, and getting into the low post to either score or invite double teams from the opposition, which opens up teammates for better shots.
In that next game following the benching, the Lakers looked good for about 1 ½ quarters against the #1 West team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, holding them to their lowest shooting percentage for a half, but the Lakers only managed to convert that into a 5 point half-time lead. They gave up two many second-chance points and had way too many turnovers, which has become a common theme, so the game was very close despite the Thunder’s shooting woes and adequate Lakers defense. It was pretty obvious they were going to end up losing that game, since they failed to increase their lead despite all their energy and effort in the first half, and as expected, the Thunder took a double digit lead soon into the 3rd quarter and went on to win the game easily, further proving that the Lakers can’t play with the young Thunder squad. The game also signified the return of Derek Fisher, who was inexplicably given away just before the trade deadline, to save more money.
Many Lakers fans don’t quite understand the move to trade away one of the Lakers leaders, who has meant so much to the organization, not to mention the league- as the players union representative during the lock-out. I like the fact that they traded for Ramon Sessions, formerly of the Cavaliers, because they lacked speed at the point guard position, and Fisher was one of the main culprits in that deficiency, but I still don’t understand why they would rather have Steve Blake as the #2 point guard in the rotation, instead of Fisher. I would rather see the rookie Andrew Goudelock as the backup, over Steve Blake, and I’m sure Derek Fisher would have been fine coming off the bench. The rumor was that they were near a trade of Blake to the Timberwolves for scoring forward Michael Beasley, which would have helped the team immensely, but then that fell through, so they traded away one of their most appreciated and trusted players instead, just to save money for next year apparently, since the player (whatever his name is) that Houston sent over has played about 2 minutes in the games since the trade. That is two separate occasions now, with the trade of Odom and Fisher, that the Lakers have given away two of their most popular players, both with the fans and with teammates as co-team leaders, for absolutely nothing, just to save money. And now, instead of using Fisher and Sessions as a respectable tandem (whether Fisher remained as starter or not) at the point guard position, Blake comes off the bench to provide little to no offense, with very few assists and almost no points, and he tends to be defensive liability against the taller guards. Granted, Blake does give a good effort and he tries to play some tenacious defense despite his very short stature, but the fact remains that he is simply not that good, and his outside shot is very unreliable and miles away from what it used to be when he played for Portland a few years ago.
I still can’t figure out why Blake is playing nearly half the game, and Goudelock has been sitting on the bench for the past month or so, and the questionable player rotation is another reason why his players seem to lack respect for Coach Brown, despite his recent efforts. Brown has made some questionable decisions for sure, but the person to blame seems to be their General Manager, Mitch Kupchak, for absolutely giving away starting players who would been key components of championship contenders for the past decade or so. The team does have a tentative lead in their division, so they obviously have some potential, but they are only a few losses away from falling out of the playoff race altogether, and with the rest of the league seemingly improving, the Lakers seem to be falling further away from realistic contention as each week progresses, and it is disappointing to say the least. The only thing that gives me hope, is the fact they weren't playing that well during the regualar season when they won the championship a couple of years ago, but that was a far different (and much better) team (and coach) then, so hope is fleeting. At least baseball season is almost here!
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Beware the Futility of Complacency
Lakers Report -- 2/25/2012
It’s been a while since my last entry, when the Lakers won a game against the Mavericks that they had absolutely no business winning. A few days ago, the Lakers tried to lose a game against the Mavs that they had in the bag, by missing 6 straight free throws in the final minute or so in Dallas to turn a comfortable win into another nail biter. They followed that impressive win (despite the lackluster finale) with a stinker at Oklahoma City where they had absolutely no shot of winning, no matter how close the score was in the first half. Their road record of 6-12 leaves a lot to be desired, but they have only lost two games at home, so their 20-14 record puts them right in the middle of the highly competitive Western Conference playoff race. They have a few teams nipping at their heels in the standings, so they will have to maintain their winning percentage to stay out of the final two spots. At the all-star break right now, there are ten teams with a winning percentage of .500 or better, and the tenth best team-the Timberwolves, of all teams- are only 3 games behind the 5th place Lakers, so there is a lot to worry about. If they fall to the bottom of the ladder, they will have to play Oklahoma City or San Antonio where they probably have little to no shot, and even if they fall to number 6, they probably don’t want to play against the hometown rival Clippers in the first round either because they have already shown that their young, athletic style can overpower and outrun the old, often stagnant Lakers team.If they can't get a point guard who will help, then the other position they need vast improvement with is the small forward spot. There are rumors about multiple players filling both needs being available, and the trade deadline is coming fast. The way I see it, they need to make a trade soon for a point guard (not necessarily trading away Gasol) who can actually dish out some assists and provide speed to the team, since they have no one to fill that role right now, or else they face the possibility of not even making the playoffs. Not only that, but if they don’t make a trade, their preseason trade of Lamar Odom will prove to be completely worthless since the trade exception they received in exchange will mean absolutely nothing. As of right now that trade looks worse and worse everyday, as their bench falls productivity falls further and further into obscurity.
The Lakers have a few problems, but probably the most glaring obstacle is the worst scoring bench in the league, and if not for the emerging guard Andrew Goudelock and the return of Steve Blake, they would barely score a point off the bench at all. Matt Barnes provides some energy and quickness off the bench, when he comes in to replace the offensively challenged (putting it nicely) Metta World Peace, and Troy Murphy scores a handful of points but is a defensive liability who is immediately targeted by the opposition every time he comes into the game. Goudelock has been impressive with his ability to make shots, as well as his aggressiveness, which has resulted in Kobe Bryant to nickname him the “Mini Mamba” (miniature version of Kobe) because Goudelock is willing to take and make shots to help the offense out. His running tear-drop-like, floating shot has become his trademark. It seems like he can make it from several different angles and distances as he dribbles into the painted area, and he can loft it up over all the taller players to fall through on a very consistent basis, and he has also been a welcomed source of 3-pointers, but he probably takes too many ill-advised shots as he is definitely more of a shot-first guard even though he is technically playing point guard. The only person I see him play well with in the two-man passing game is Troy Murphy, probably from their practice time with the 2nd team, so that ball hog tendency is probably another reason why Kobe sees himself in Goudelock.
Quite frankly, one player like Kobe Bryant is enough, since the ball just sticks in his hands for 15 seconds on seemingly every slow possession. I am (and I'm sure I'm not alone here) so sick of watching him demand the ball above the 3-point line, then stand there for 10 seconds with the ball in his hand, before he dribbles and shows off for 5 more seconds, then holds the ball even when they double team, so that he can loft up a fade away, one- legged, ridiculously difficult, deep shot just because he thinks he can make everything. Those tend to result in a long rebound and fast break for the other team, and in most cases Kobe stops to complain to the ref about a non-existent foul instead of running down to play defense. It’s so irritating I can’t stand it sometimes, and then there are the times where he does try to pass the ball and jumps up to throw the ball around the double-teaming opposition, and fires it away for a turnover (and another potential fast break for the opposition). He had 10 turnovers (the most by anyone this season) about a week ago, and about 8 or so against the OKC Thunder, which is beyond disgusting. When the opposition double-teams you, it means that there is at least one player open, if you pass it right away, but he holds it and tries to dribble around or through the double team, and if he doesn’t turn it over then, he tries to jump pass when he is surrounded which often forces a turnover if he passes it at all. Usually he just holds the ball, and fires it up towards the basket because he believes that if he makes one shot, he can make them all. He has taken over 150 more shots than anyone else in the league, but the number of unnecessary low-percentage shots are beyond compare. I’ve seen where he will hold the ball about 7 feet behind the 3-point line for like 5 seconds, and instead of passing to anyone who would automatically be closer to the basket than him, he just fires up a brick to beat the shot clock to completely waste a possession, and he continues to do it! Not only that, but he constantly complains and bitches to the refs on just about every single play, by swinging his arms and acting like an ass when he constantly complains, often receiving technical fouls that hurt his team, and, oh by the way, don’t exactly encourage the refs to help you out in the future. He takes things way too personally when an oppositions player starts scoring a lot, so he tries to match it by shooting the ball on every possession, and I truly believe that he thinks about his scoring title more than wins during some games. Some experts will dispute it, but I think he wants to prove that he can still score more than anyone in the game just to prove himself (at his age, etc), even if he ends up taking 300 more shots than the next closest player to get those points. The irony of all ironies is that Kobe actually leads the team in assists, but that is probably more of an indictment on their point guards than anything else (as well as the fact that he has the ball in his hands more than anyone else on any other team).
Obviously Kobe doesn’t trust his teammates (not the first time that has happened) and sometimes you can’t blame him, since many of them aren’t the most aggressive players, or the best scorers in the world, but it sure would be nice to see them pass the ball around and try to get open shots. If they could just play the way they did in the first half against Portland about a week ago, where they passed the ball around the perimeter to got open shots (and made most of them) nearly every time. They made far less one-on-one plays and it helped that Portland only scored 7 points in the first quarter, en route to a good team victory (even though they gave up way too many points when they had a large lead in the second half). Their offense was more impressive than it has been all season, but that was about three or four games ago, and they haven’t repeated it since, for whatever reason. The way their team is constructed they have to pass the ball around and try to get open shots, because they have very few players who can dribble into the middle and make plays and most of them are perimeter shooters who need space to make their shots. They should use the double teams against Kobe or their center Andrew Bynum when they come, and pass it out immediately to open the court up and free up a player for an open shot. Typically, if there are two quick passes out of a double team situation, the guy who catches that second pass will be open for a shot, because the defense cannot recover fast enough to rotate to the open player. The key is getting the ball to an open shooter in his prime spot, or passing it around a third time to someone with a higher percentage shot. Sometimes they are guilty of just passing the ball to Kobe and watching him (which is also probably because they doubt he will pass it to them.), but that complacency doesn’t work.
If there is one thing I can’t stand to see when I watch sports, it is complacency, or a lack of trying on the court (or field). How is it possible that someone who gets paid millions of dollars to play, can’t come out with the appropriate energy level and mental fortitude to play a 2 or 3 hour game? I hate it when a player (Kobe more than anyone else) turns the ball over or takes a bad shot, then stops to complain or doesn’t hustle back on defense because they are mad at themselves or the ref. Points are a precious commodity and when you just surrender points to the other team on an easy fast break, just because you are mad about the play on the other end of the court, that makes you a bad team player, and it can only help your team lose. All you have to do is try hard and hustle when you are on the court or field, and you will be respected and applauded for your effort and more than likely will be rewarded with a victory, but when you jog down the court or stand there with your hands in the air and watch as the other team sprints in the other direction, it calls into question your dedication and willingness to play. As fans, we see a talented man (or woman) who is playing a game we would do anything to be able to make a (great) living doing, and when we see them slack off and act as if they don’t care, it’s the most disrespectful thing you can do, and we don‘t appreciate it because we know that if we were given the opportunity, we would be diving all over the court and sprinting back to play defense (despite our lack of skills or physical abilities/height). That’s why fans love players like Josh McRoberts (who is now just a bench ornament apparently) and past players like Kurt Rambis and Mark Madson; they weren’t the most physically gifted but they were yeomen workers who tried to their fullest ability on seemingly every play. If you don’t care about your team and the fans, why the hell should I give a hoot about you?
Another one of their obvious problems is their poor 3-point shooting as a team. World Peace is an obvious culprit here, but nearly every other player is a sub-par shooter from the long distance, and there a lot of players who shoot [far too many of] them. Perhaps the only exceptions are Steve Blake and Troy Murphy, but they come off the bench, get only a handful of shots per game, and they both seem to be content only shooting 3-pointers on every shot, which gets very redundant and annoying. I think too many players try a 3-pointer for their first shot in the game, unnecessarily, and maybe the coach should enforce a rule that every player has to take a 2-point shot before they take a 3-pointer (whenever possible) so they can warm up and calibrate their shot in order to get into a shooting rhythm before they shoot the deep shots. The four players this seems to affect the most would be Derek Fisher and Metta World Peace from the starting lineup, along with two from the bench I alerady mentioned, Blake and Murphy. It makes sense (to me) for these players to try shorter 15-foot jump shots (or lay ups), in order to get their confidence up early before they drift back behind the 3-pint arc. Most players do better when they see their first shot go through, even if it is a lay up, so it would just be beneficial if they made a concerted effort to go to the basket early or just take shorter shots, to start with. Kobe is (obviously) also guilty of taking too many deep shots early, and he doesn’t stop taking them even when he misses ten in a row, so it makes even more sense for him to try for higher-percentage shots early to get himself going. When he misses a bunch of jump shots, he tends to keep on taking them, instead of going to the rim more often to try a short shot/ lay up. The other benefit to going to the basket more aggressively is if he gets fouled, he can calibrate his shot at the free throw line and get in rhythm that way, so he can take and make those longer shots. On the other side of the spectrum, Metta World Peace should probably just stop shooting 3-pointers altogether, since he apparently can only make plays with his left hand, but he needs to get closer to the basket to be effective. That isn’t going to happen since there isn’t enough room in the post for him to operate effectively.
The team has a lot of post players, with Bynum and Pau Gasol in their front court, and even Kobe who tries to post up against smaller guards sometimes, but they don’t have to best shooters to pass out to when they get double-teamed so the team isn’t as effective as they should be. Their offense is slow and they often get the ball in deep to the post player late in the shot clock so they have to hurry their shot, and don’t have enough time to pass it out if they are double-teamed to get someone an open shot. They have the fewest fast break points in the league and that won’t change unless they get a different point guard, but they could at least bring the ball up to their end a little faster and start their offense sooner to give their players more time to operate and pass out of double team situations more effectively. Most teams have to double team Bynum when he is down close to the basket, and if there is plenty of time on the shot clock when he gets it, he can pass it out and the ball can swing around to an open shooter, or the ball can be re-entered into the post so he can get deeper post position after the double team leaves him alone, but that rarely happens. Gasol has good post moves, but he tends to hang out near the free throw line because Bynum occupies the low post most of the time when they are on the floor together, and they still play well together because they like to pass it to one another to get easy shots (especially Gasol who is at times too unselfish).
Because of Bynum and Gasol in their front court, both averaging about 10 rebounds a game, the Lakers lead the league in rebounding. They are also one of the top defensive teams in the league, according to points allowed per game and opponents shooting percentages statistics, which is a plus. Coach Mike Brown is obviously a defensive minded coach, and their defense has helped them win 20 games this year, so he gets some credit, but some of those stats are still misleading. A major reason that they are near the top in points allowed per game, is because they are the worst fast-breaking offense in the league, which means they take long offensive possessions nearly every time, which means the opposition gets less offensive possessions than normal, leading to less points scored. It is the modus operandi of the team, since they are a big and relatively slow team, but their offense has also dropped off significantly in most of the major categories, so the difference ends up being more of a wash than a road to victory. Even though they are the best rebounding team, they still give up way too many offensive rebounds to the opponents, resulting in far too many extra possessions and usually a lot of second-chance points. If they could clean that part of their game, their defense would be so much better than it already is, and their shooting percentage allowed (and points allowed obviously) would be even greater. They just need to take notice of the opponents and put a body between them and the basket, face-guarding them if necessary, to keep them away from the offensive rebounds and second-chance point opportunities, but that is probably easier said than done for the coaching staff.
Coach Brown and his staff need to make a few other changes too, if they want to actually compete this season. He uses very unbalanced lineups on the floor when he goes to the bench, with too many offensively limited or inexperienced players at the same time, and it gets them into trouble often. Usually he will leave Bynum or Gasol with four bench players, but the opposition will always double-team Bynum and then he has to pass to someone who cannot make a shot consistently, and their defense suffers as well with all the inexperience or lack of cohesion when you put players like Goudelock, Murphy, and Barnes on the floor around them. He has used both rookie point guards at the same time and it makes absolutely no sense to anyone, especially the rest of the team, who have been openly complaining about the lack of a true rotation for a while now. Their offense has suffered immensely since coach Brown removed the triangle offense and installed his own offense, which results in very few assists and no cohesiveness whatsoever.
It will help if Brown gets a regular rotation in place, so his players’ roles on the team are more clearly defines, but they just need to play to their individual their strengths more and know what their weaknesses are out there. World Peace and Barnes need to stop shooting long jumpers (and weird fade away shots in MWP’s case) and go to the basket, Bynum needs to work on passing out of the double teams, Gasol needs to be more aggressive on both ends of the court and play like he knows he is one of the best players in the league, while the guards just need to take care of the ball and quit taking so many ill- advised deep shots. Some of them (especially World Peace) just need to stop thinking out there and play like they have in the past. Maybe if they do, Kobe will pass them the ball, instead of taking stupid shots constantly.
The bottom line is this team, as presently constructed needs to improve significantly on offense and block out opponents from the offensive rebounds, if they want any chance at making it to the playoffs and getting past the first round. They have little to no chance to beat the Thunder, Clippers or Spurs even if they do make it past the first round, so there is almost no chance this season will end on a positive note. To make matters worse, even if they do make a good trade, there are so few practices and a very condensed season, so they won’t have enough time to play together with the new player(s) to get accustomed to each other. On the other hand, the last time there was a lock-out, the Knicks made it to the finals and they were no where near the best team in the Eastern conference that season, but managed to play best in the final few weeks leading up to the playoffs and carried it in to an impressive and unexpected playoff run. So there is still a chance, albeit very slim, and getting smaller by the day. (Let’s just say, I’m glad it’s almost baseball season.)
A special (sarcastic) thanks goes to the NBA commissioner David Stern for vetoing that trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers in the preseason. He said the other trade was better for the league-owned Hornets and obviously it was a great trade for New Orleans, since they have the WORST record in the western conference. I said so when it happened and it is confirmed now: there is no way you can convince me that they are a better team with the players they got from the Clippers than they would have been with Odom, Kevin Martin and Luis Scola. Way cheaper, yes. Better [as a team or for the fans], hell no! Way to go David Stern; you’re a complete moron.
It’s been a while since my last entry, when the Lakers won a game against the Mavericks that they had absolutely no business winning. A few days ago, the Lakers tried to lose a game against the Mavs that they had in the bag, by missing 6 straight free throws in the final minute or so in Dallas to turn a comfortable win into another nail biter. They followed that impressive win (despite the lackluster finale) with a stinker at Oklahoma City where they had absolutely no shot of winning, no matter how close the score was in the first half. Their road record of 6-12 leaves a lot to be desired, but they have only lost two games at home, so their 20-14 record puts them right in the middle of the highly competitive Western Conference playoff race. They have a few teams nipping at their heels in the standings, so they will have to maintain their winning percentage to stay out of the final two spots. At the all-star break right now, there are ten teams with a winning percentage of .500 or better, and the tenth best team-the Timberwolves, of all teams- are only 3 games behind the 5th place Lakers, so there is a lot to worry about. If they fall to the bottom of the ladder, they will have to play Oklahoma City or San Antonio where they probably have little to no shot, and even if they fall to number 6, they probably don’t want to play against the hometown rival Clippers in the first round either because they have already shown that their young, athletic style can overpower and outrun the old, often stagnant Lakers team.If they can't get a point guard who will help, then the other position they need vast improvement with is the small forward spot. There are rumors about multiple players filling both needs being available, and the trade deadline is coming fast. The way I see it, they need to make a trade soon for a point guard (not necessarily trading away Gasol) who can actually dish out some assists and provide speed to the team, since they have no one to fill that role right now, or else they face the possibility of not even making the playoffs. Not only that, but if they don’t make a trade, their preseason trade of Lamar Odom will prove to be completely worthless since the trade exception they received in exchange will mean absolutely nothing. As of right now that trade looks worse and worse everyday, as their bench falls productivity falls further and further into obscurity.
The Lakers have a few problems, but probably the most glaring obstacle is the worst scoring bench in the league, and if not for the emerging guard Andrew Goudelock and the return of Steve Blake, they would barely score a point off the bench at all. Matt Barnes provides some energy and quickness off the bench, when he comes in to replace the offensively challenged (putting it nicely) Metta World Peace, and Troy Murphy scores a handful of points but is a defensive liability who is immediately targeted by the opposition every time he comes into the game. Goudelock has been impressive with his ability to make shots, as well as his aggressiveness, which has resulted in Kobe Bryant to nickname him the “Mini Mamba” (miniature version of Kobe) because Goudelock is willing to take and make shots to help the offense out. His running tear-drop-like, floating shot has become his trademark. It seems like he can make it from several different angles and distances as he dribbles into the painted area, and he can loft it up over all the taller players to fall through on a very consistent basis, and he has also been a welcomed source of 3-pointers, but he probably takes too many ill-advised shots as he is definitely more of a shot-first guard even though he is technically playing point guard. The only person I see him play well with in the two-man passing game is Troy Murphy, probably from their practice time with the 2nd team, so that ball hog tendency is probably another reason why Kobe sees himself in Goudelock.
Quite frankly, one player like Kobe Bryant is enough, since the ball just sticks in his hands for 15 seconds on seemingly every slow possession. I am (and I'm sure I'm not alone here) so sick of watching him demand the ball above the 3-point line, then stand there for 10 seconds with the ball in his hand, before he dribbles and shows off for 5 more seconds, then holds the ball even when they double team, so that he can loft up a fade away, one- legged, ridiculously difficult, deep shot just because he thinks he can make everything. Those tend to result in a long rebound and fast break for the other team, and in most cases Kobe stops to complain to the ref about a non-existent foul instead of running down to play defense. It’s so irritating I can’t stand it sometimes, and then there are the times where he does try to pass the ball and jumps up to throw the ball around the double-teaming opposition, and fires it away for a turnover (and another potential fast break for the opposition). He had 10 turnovers (the most by anyone this season) about a week ago, and about 8 or so against the OKC Thunder, which is beyond disgusting. When the opposition double-teams you, it means that there is at least one player open, if you pass it right away, but he holds it and tries to dribble around or through the double team, and if he doesn’t turn it over then, he tries to jump pass when he is surrounded which often forces a turnover if he passes it at all. Usually he just holds the ball, and fires it up towards the basket because he believes that if he makes one shot, he can make them all. He has taken over 150 more shots than anyone else in the league, but the number of unnecessary low-percentage shots are beyond compare. I’ve seen where he will hold the ball about 7 feet behind the 3-point line for like 5 seconds, and instead of passing to anyone who would automatically be closer to the basket than him, he just fires up a brick to beat the shot clock to completely waste a possession, and he continues to do it! Not only that, but he constantly complains and bitches to the refs on just about every single play, by swinging his arms and acting like an ass when he constantly complains, often receiving technical fouls that hurt his team, and, oh by the way, don’t exactly encourage the refs to help you out in the future. He takes things way too personally when an oppositions player starts scoring a lot, so he tries to match it by shooting the ball on every possession, and I truly believe that he thinks about his scoring title more than wins during some games. Some experts will dispute it, but I think he wants to prove that he can still score more than anyone in the game just to prove himself (at his age, etc), even if he ends up taking 300 more shots than the next closest player to get those points. The irony of all ironies is that Kobe actually leads the team in assists, but that is probably more of an indictment on their point guards than anything else (as well as the fact that he has the ball in his hands more than anyone else on any other team).
Obviously Kobe doesn’t trust his teammates (not the first time that has happened) and sometimes you can’t blame him, since many of them aren’t the most aggressive players, or the best scorers in the world, but it sure would be nice to see them pass the ball around and try to get open shots. If they could just play the way they did in the first half against Portland about a week ago, where they passed the ball around the perimeter to got open shots (and made most of them) nearly every time. They made far less one-on-one plays and it helped that Portland only scored 7 points in the first quarter, en route to a good team victory (even though they gave up way too many points when they had a large lead in the second half). Their offense was more impressive than it has been all season, but that was about three or four games ago, and they haven’t repeated it since, for whatever reason. The way their team is constructed they have to pass the ball around and try to get open shots, because they have very few players who can dribble into the middle and make plays and most of them are perimeter shooters who need space to make their shots. They should use the double teams against Kobe or their center Andrew Bynum when they come, and pass it out immediately to open the court up and free up a player for an open shot. Typically, if there are two quick passes out of a double team situation, the guy who catches that second pass will be open for a shot, because the defense cannot recover fast enough to rotate to the open player. The key is getting the ball to an open shooter in his prime spot, or passing it around a third time to someone with a higher percentage shot. Sometimes they are guilty of just passing the ball to Kobe and watching him (which is also probably because they doubt he will pass it to them.), but that complacency doesn’t work.
If there is one thing I can’t stand to see when I watch sports, it is complacency, or a lack of trying on the court (or field). How is it possible that someone who gets paid millions of dollars to play, can’t come out with the appropriate energy level and mental fortitude to play a 2 or 3 hour game? I hate it when a player (Kobe more than anyone else) turns the ball over or takes a bad shot, then stops to complain or doesn’t hustle back on defense because they are mad at themselves or the ref. Points are a precious commodity and when you just surrender points to the other team on an easy fast break, just because you are mad about the play on the other end of the court, that makes you a bad team player, and it can only help your team lose. All you have to do is try hard and hustle when you are on the court or field, and you will be respected and applauded for your effort and more than likely will be rewarded with a victory, but when you jog down the court or stand there with your hands in the air and watch as the other team sprints in the other direction, it calls into question your dedication and willingness to play. As fans, we see a talented man (or woman) who is playing a game we would do anything to be able to make a (great) living doing, and when we see them slack off and act as if they don’t care, it’s the most disrespectful thing you can do, and we don‘t appreciate it because we know that if we were given the opportunity, we would be diving all over the court and sprinting back to play defense (despite our lack of skills or physical abilities/height). That’s why fans love players like Josh McRoberts (who is now just a bench ornament apparently) and past players like Kurt Rambis and Mark Madson; they weren’t the most physically gifted but they were yeomen workers who tried to their fullest ability on seemingly every play. If you don’t care about your team and the fans, why the hell should I give a hoot about you?
Another one of their obvious problems is their poor 3-point shooting as a team. World Peace is an obvious culprit here, but nearly every other player is a sub-par shooter from the long distance, and there a lot of players who shoot [far too many of] them. Perhaps the only exceptions are Steve Blake and Troy Murphy, but they come off the bench, get only a handful of shots per game, and they both seem to be content only shooting 3-pointers on every shot, which gets very redundant and annoying. I think too many players try a 3-pointer for their first shot in the game, unnecessarily, and maybe the coach should enforce a rule that every player has to take a 2-point shot before they take a 3-pointer (whenever possible) so they can warm up and calibrate their shot in order to get into a shooting rhythm before they shoot the deep shots. The four players this seems to affect the most would be Derek Fisher and Metta World Peace from the starting lineup, along with two from the bench I alerady mentioned, Blake and Murphy. It makes sense (to me) for these players to try shorter 15-foot jump shots (or lay ups), in order to get their confidence up early before they drift back behind the 3-pint arc. Most players do better when they see their first shot go through, even if it is a lay up, so it would just be beneficial if they made a concerted effort to go to the basket early or just take shorter shots, to start with. Kobe is (obviously) also guilty of taking too many deep shots early, and he doesn’t stop taking them even when he misses ten in a row, so it makes even more sense for him to try for higher-percentage shots early to get himself going. When he misses a bunch of jump shots, he tends to keep on taking them, instead of going to the rim more often to try a short shot/ lay up. The other benefit to going to the basket more aggressively is if he gets fouled, he can calibrate his shot at the free throw line and get in rhythm that way, so he can take and make those longer shots. On the other side of the spectrum, Metta World Peace should probably just stop shooting 3-pointers altogether, since he apparently can only make plays with his left hand, but he needs to get closer to the basket to be effective. That isn’t going to happen since there isn’t enough room in the post for him to operate effectively.
The team has a lot of post players, with Bynum and Pau Gasol in their front court, and even Kobe who tries to post up against smaller guards sometimes, but they don’t have to best shooters to pass out to when they get double-teamed so the team isn’t as effective as they should be. Their offense is slow and they often get the ball in deep to the post player late in the shot clock so they have to hurry their shot, and don’t have enough time to pass it out if they are double-teamed to get someone an open shot. They have the fewest fast break points in the league and that won’t change unless they get a different point guard, but they could at least bring the ball up to their end a little faster and start their offense sooner to give their players more time to operate and pass out of double team situations more effectively. Most teams have to double team Bynum when he is down close to the basket, and if there is plenty of time on the shot clock when he gets it, he can pass it out and the ball can swing around to an open shooter, or the ball can be re-entered into the post so he can get deeper post position after the double team leaves him alone, but that rarely happens. Gasol has good post moves, but he tends to hang out near the free throw line because Bynum occupies the low post most of the time when they are on the floor together, and they still play well together because they like to pass it to one another to get easy shots (especially Gasol who is at times too unselfish).
Because of Bynum and Gasol in their front court, both averaging about 10 rebounds a game, the Lakers lead the league in rebounding. They are also one of the top defensive teams in the league, according to points allowed per game and opponents shooting percentages statistics, which is a plus. Coach Mike Brown is obviously a defensive minded coach, and their defense has helped them win 20 games this year, so he gets some credit, but some of those stats are still misleading. A major reason that they are near the top in points allowed per game, is because they are the worst fast-breaking offense in the league, which means they take long offensive possessions nearly every time, which means the opposition gets less offensive possessions than normal, leading to less points scored. It is the modus operandi of the team, since they are a big and relatively slow team, but their offense has also dropped off significantly in most of the major categories, so the difference ends up being more of a wash than a road to victory. Even though they are the best rebounding team, they still give up way too many offensive rebounds to the opponents, resulting in far too many extra possessions and usually a lot of second-chance points. If they could clean that part of their game, their defense would be so much better than it already is, and their shooting percentage allowed (and points allowed obviously) would be even greater. They just need to take notice of the opponents and put a body between them and the basket, face-guarding them if necessary, to keep them away from the offensive rebounds and second-chance point opportunities, but that is probably easier said than done for the coaching staff.
Coach Brown and his staff need to make a few other changes too, if they want to actually compete this season. He uses very unbalanced lineups on the floor when he goes to the bench, with too many offensively limited or inexperienced players at the same time, and it gets them into trouble often. Usually he will leave Bynum or Gasol with four bench players, but the opposition will always double-team Bynum and then he has to pass to someone who cannot make a shot consistently, and their defense suffers as well with all the inexperience or lack of cohesion when you put players like Goudelock, Murphy, and Barnes on the floor around them. He has used both rookie point guards at the same time and it makes absolutely no sense to anyone, especially the rest of the team, who have been openly complaining about the lack of a true rotation for a while now. Their offense has suffered immensely since coach Brown removed the triangle offense and installed his own offense, which results in very few assists and no cohesiveness whatsoever.
It will help if Brown gets a regular rotation in place, so his players’ roles on the team are more clearly defines, but they just need to play to their individual their strengths more and know what their weaknesses are out there. World Peace and Barnes need to stop shooting long jumpers (and weird fade away shots in MWP’s case) and go to the basket, Bynum needs to work on passing out of the double teams, Gasol needs to be more aggressive on both ends of the court and play like he knows he is one of the best players in the league, while the guards just need to take care of the ball and quit taking so many ill- advised deep shots. Some of them (especially World Peace) just need to stop thinking out there and play like they have in the past. Maybe if they do, Kobe will pass them the ball, instead of taking stupid shots constantly.
The bottom line is this team, as presently constructed needs to improve significantly on offense and block out opponents from the offensive rebounds, if they want any chance at making it to the playoffs and getting past the first round. They have little to no chance to beat the Thunder, Clippers or Spurs even if they do make it past the first round, so there is almost no chance this season will end on a positive note. To make matters worse, even if they do make a good trade, there are so few practices and a very condensed season, so they won’t have enough time to play together with the new player(s) to get accustomed to each other. On the other hand, the last time there was a lock-out, the Knicks made it to the finals and they were no where near the best team in the Eastern conference that season, but managed to play best in the final few weeks leading up to the playoffs and carried it in to an impressive and unexpected playoff run. So there is still a chance, albeit very slim, and getting smaller by the day. (Let’s just say, I’m glad it’s almost baseball season.)
A special (sarcastic) thanks goes to the NBA commissioner David Stern for vetoing that trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers in the preseason. He said the other trade was better for the league-owned Hornets and obviously it was a great trade for New Orleans, since they have the WORST record in the western conference. I said so when it happened and it is confirmed now: there is no way you can convince me that they are a better team with the players they got from the Clippers than they would have been with Odom, Kevin Martin and Luis Scola. Way cheaper, yes. Better [as a team or for the fans], hell no! Way to go David Stern; you’re a complete moron.
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