Friday, May 18, 2007

Two out of Three

Solid series in Seattle, after coming off a solid series in Texas. The Angels are now 10-12 on the road, which is pretty good following their 1-7 start. The most satisfying moments from this series? Jose Guillen striking out with the bases load and two out in a 2-0 game in game 2, and watching the ball go right between his legs on a base hit to right field last night. That was pretty sweet.

The Revs got a post up over at the mother ship about what's been good and bad so far. I'll say that I've been wrong on Matthews to this point, though I still think five years is way too long of a deal. However, I have been right about Willits. I maintained that Willits would outproduce Matthews this season, based partly on high expectations I had for Willits, and low expectations for Matthews. Reggie hasn't disappointed.

So after a quarter of the season, the hold a three game lead over the Mariners and A's. They've had Garret Anderson miss a ton of time (no big loss), and they've have Howie Kendrick miss a ton of time (big loss). In addition, Colon appears to be back and healthy, and Weaver has been solid, save for one unfortunate outing. The looming issues right now are Scot Shields, who has been good, but unreliable, and Justin Speier, who seems to have disappeared for some reason. And then there's Sheam Hillenbrand, who has been awful. He's either going to head back towards the mean and be decent the rest of the way, or he's history once Garret Anderson comes back. I'm guessing the latter.

I'm not particularly concerned about Kotchman or Napoli. Napoli has showed signs of breaking out of his slump a little bit. Kotchman is going to be up and down all season. He's a streaky hitter at this point, and a lot of that is probably due to his youth. I think he'll find that consistency as his career moves on.

So I could be happier right now, but all in all, things look pretty good. They've got room to improve, and they'll need to play better if they hope to win the division, but there's not a whole lot to complain about right now.

5 comments:

Ken in Irvine said...

It's nice to know that the only Angels' game I have been to so far this year was Weaver's one shitty game this year. Thanks Jared.

I am going tomorrow night, so I hope I can see the good Angels.

Also, according to the LA Times, Spier has some sort of illness. At first they thought it was the flu, but recent speculation has been something more serious (such as what Kotchman faced last year).

Seitz said...

Yeah, I know about Speier. I read the Times every morning. It was more of a commentary on the mysteriousness of the illness.

Is tomorrow a night game? I may actually get to see it then. I figured it would be a day game.

THN said...

we probably shouldn't get too wrapped up in the number of years for matthews seeing that we don't pay his salary. but he's good right now and that is what is important.

Seitz said...

Yikes, on the contrary! We shouldn't get caught up in the dollars, but the years scare the hell out of me. Hell, pay him $50MM for two or three years for all I care. I just don't want him around when he's 36 or 37 and can't get it done anymore.

Ken in Irvine said...

By now, you probably figured out that the Angels' game was on at 6pm PDT. According to my dad, all Saturday night Angel home games this year will be at 6pm local time.

It was a good game. Weaver made up for my last visit and the crowd was awesome. Tons of Dodger fans chanting and cheering and the Angel fans were giving it right back. However, it was in a nice, friendly Orange County manner. No threats, little swearing, and no fights.

All in all, it was a good time.