Pretty much everything about the Angels right now is awful. They can't get anybody out, and when they do get guys to hit the ball to people, they drop it. If you lose a game to the Twins in which you score double digit runs, you truly suck. The sad thing is that it was so predictable. I have yet to watch a fly ball go to right field without cringing as it approached Vlad. He gets lazy, and he drops easy fly balls. He's done it his entire career, and he did it again tonight.
The stat I find almost unbelievable is the seven walks allowed by Angels pitchers. This was not exactly what you'd call a small strike zone, yet Angels pitchers still were unable to hit it. Almost as unbelievable were the three walks drawn by the Angels. That has to be damn close to a season high.
If you saw Frankie pitch to Joe Mauer and came away thinking that the Angels had a chance in hell to get to a 10th inning, you truly are a person of faith, because that was just about the most predictable ninth inning I've ever seen. The only unexpected aspect of the inning was that the Angels held the Twins to only one run. Every person in the universe knew exactly what pitch was on the way to Mauer at 0-2, and he drilled it. With Sierra at the plate, you could see the fear in Frankie's eyes, as he wanted absolutely no part of the slugger. And then the coup de grace, a 3-2 bases loaded slider. I understand he'd just thrown one in the zone, but that's all the more reason to realize that lightning wasn't going to strike twice. A predictable walk, a tie game, and a few minutes later, the complete reversal of a 9-4 lead into a 12-10 loss was completed with Michael Cuddyer's walk off home run.
Piss poor play has defined the Angels' season this year, and it's tough to see it getting better any time soon. The only guy really ready to come up and possible make a difference plays the one position that has been fairly productive for the Angels. Now might be the time to trade Kennedy, as he's hitting well and might actually fetch something.
Right now, this is a very bad baseball team. Fortunately, the A's suck just as much right now. Welcome to the AL Worst, folks.
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5 comments:
what should be done but never will be done: make Shields the closer and demote Frankie back to the set-up role he dominated in before.
what should be done but never will be done, part 2: demote jeff mathis, who can't handle a pitching staff to save his life yet. i don't care if jose mo goes 0-for-the-season, at least he handles the pitchers well.
" ", part 3: trade figgins
this game sucked on so many levels tonight...
I totally agree with the first one, but why trade Figgins? What or who could he possibly net? On a team with so many injury concerns, you don't trade away someone who can play a lot of position.
And for Mathis, I think he just needs some time.
The Angels just need to get their act together, play better D. Four unearned runs, outch!
Oh Mr. Seitz, while I'm here, could you be so kind and update my link? It's http://athomeplate.com/angels now. Thanks!
I agree that Mathis needs time. But maybe not with the big club, ya know?
I'm perfectly comfortable with Mathis back there. First, I'm not even sure to what extent he's calling the pitches. Second, I saw three or four pitches with runners on last night that would have been to the backstop last season. It's not Mathis' fault that no one in the field can catch the ball.
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