Litmus test

If in the biggest inning of the biggest game of your season, you allow two runs without the other team getting one hit, you don't deserve to even be in the post-season, let alone the World Series.

Angels lose again

We’re 12 games in and it’s already getting difficult to find things to write about the Angels. For a change, the pitching was actually adequate. Shane Loux lasted seven innings, allowing 3 runs on 10 hits, while not allowing a walk. He was not helped out by his defense. No one was charged with an error, but numerous plays went left unmade, at least one which led to a run. Loux allowed single runs in the second, fifth, and seventh innings, all of the manufactured varierty.

Their failures were overshadowed by the bullpen yesterday, but the offense was responsible for today’s loss. They were completely dominated by Glen Perkins for eight innings. He allowed one run on four hits, and needed only 84 pitches in his eight innings. That’s three pitches per batter faced. So much for all of the talk about how the Angels preached plate discpline this spring.

Thoughts on the game:

• Bobby Abreu had two of the Angels’ four hits, and one of their two walks. He and Torii Hunter remain the only Angels providing anything remotely close to what can be called production.
• Daniel Davidson debuted, and allowed one walk in an otherwise uneventful eighth inning. That automatically makes him the Angels’ best relief pitcher.
• The Angels get a much needed off day to regroup. They have to start turning it around now.

This Is A Bad Baseball Team

Look at the bright side, folks. You won't be losing the float on those playoff deposits.

I'm not sold on the idea that an offense needs to walk and hit homers to score, but you also can't rely on stringing a ton singles together. Don't let the nine runs fool you. This is not a good offense.

As for the pitching, well, the front line guys are fucking head cases. They give up one hit and refuse to ever go back to the zone. You guys wanted Frankie gone, and you got your wish. Now we have no one, outside of Speiere (believe it or not) who can get anyone out.

No one in the minors to take over outside of Wood and Rodriguez. Crippling contracts to Matthews and now, apparently, Rivera. The run is over. This team will not return to the post-season until 2014 at the earliest.

Vlad, out for more than a month.

Season. Over.

New Concept in UCLA Blogging

I'm going to put as much effort into writing about yesterday's game against Arizona as UCLA put into playing it.

Post over.

How do you define pathetic?

One field goal in 13 minutes is a pretty good start.  Failing to get a shot off on the final possession might do it as well.

Complete and utter meltdown.  I think we're seeing why the final four run ends this year.  No leadership in crunch time.  No one willing to take over the offense.  Three seniors on the floor, and all of them played afraid.  More about this later if I get around to caring.  

Embarrassing

There's no other way to describe it. The Dodgers basically just said "You guys suck so bad that we don't even need a hit to beat you."

I'd say that Lackey needs to go out and pick them up tomorrow, but other than hitting a couple of homers, I'm not sure what he can do. This is the most pathetic performance I've ever witnessed. I'll admit, I was hoping that Ethier's ball would go over GA's head, just so they'd have a hit.

This is quite possibly the lowest moment in the history of the franchise. This is laughing stock territory. This is losing to Appalachian State territory. This is something you never, ever live down.

UCLA chokes against Texas

Maybe if they showed up to play the first half, they would have won. Horrible defense, even worse shooting, and they still should have won if they'd had a clue what to do in the last minute. Absolutely pathetic performance against a very overrated Texas team, which does nothing but fling the ball at the basket half the time, and tonight they were lucky that a lot of them went in.

Still, this was a #1 ranked team that played like they didn't deserve to be in the top 25, and if they don't come prepared, this is going to happen a lot. Fortunately, I'm confident that Ben Howland will keep them ready. But the fact is, the Pac 10 has already lost the luster that it had pre-season. UCLA and that other team both lose to Big 12 opponents on their home floor. That's pathetic.

Now that I think about it

Maybe the offense doesn't work better with Pat Cowan. They're about to accomplish nothing against arguably the worst team in the Pac 10.

UCLA flat out sucks. They have no heart, they have very little talent, and they have no idea how to use what little talent they have. They are being outplayed in every single facet of the game. Pat Cowan has just thrown his 14th incomplete pass in his last 20 attempts.

Firing Karl Dorrell won't be a sure fire cure, but damn it it won't be a step in the right direction.

Only one word describes this team: Pathetic. Everyone associated with UCLA football ought to be ashamed of themselves.

Looks like the Thinker will have to fire a few more coordinators, because that's been really successful over the last few years. All the best teams have new offensive defensive coordinators every year.

Get used to this

Maybe not the final. Maybe not the horrendous defense. Maybe not the bad outing.

But get used to the Angels losing every game started by Felix Hernandez for probably the next 15 years or so.

Say what you will about Escobar, but if Figgins isn't a moron, he goes into the third tied, and if not for Ztu, it's a tie game with one out in the third. Kelvim didn't have his good stuff, but his defense killed him.

Sheamful

If the Angels lose a game, chances are it has Hillenbrand's fingerprints all over it. Today, he may have homered, but he also left five guys on base, three in scoring position, in his last two at bats.

The guy sucks. Everyone knew he sucked before the Angels signed him, except possibly Bill Stoneman.

His failure to drive in a run in either at bat meant that Scot Shields was pitching the ninth, instead of Frankie, and Shields has more or less been about as reliable as a Trabant this season, and once again, he didn't even give his fielders a chance, serving up a game ending gopher ball to Nelson Cruz. Erick Aybar wasn't any better, going 0-5 and leaving six men on base. The difference, however, between Aybar and Hillenbrand is that Aybar can contribute defensively, and has played to a level that has warranted more playing time. Shea hasn't.

Santana was not good, but he kept his team in the game, though he continuously blew leads. Then again, if you expected Santana, against the Rangers offense, on the road, during the day, to even come close to pitching a good game, you're a moron.

On the plus side, Kotchman and HGHMJ each had three hits, and Napoli is up over .200. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Alfonso Maquez is a fucking idiot, not only screwing up a tag up play (in the Angels' favor), but also booting Carrasco for "throwing at" Ian Kinsler....in a tie game....with no one out....in the seventh inning....with a curve ball. Kinsler, of course, did nothing to move out of the way of the pitch, but that no longer matters to major league umps. Scioscia, for his part, got tossed while telling Marquez he's a fucking idiot.

It's looking like the Royals series. Weaver goes tomorrow, and don't be surprised if the Angels turn a good opportunity into a pile of crap yet again.

Indians something; Angels less than the Indians also something, for now

Just walked in the door after returning from the Michael Penn concert. Flipped on the TV and saw that the Angels gave up two runs in the top of the first.

At least it was nice of them to go ahead and lose tonight's game early. Now I've got time to do some cleaning, watch something else, etc.

It's unbelievable how much this team sucks.

Update: Will wonders never cease? Kendry Morales with an absolute bomb to right field and the game is tied. That's two more runs than I expected them to score.

This team is awful

Bottom of the third inning, and from the swings they're getting against Cliff Lee, we may very well be in for a no-hitter tonight. I'm serious.

Fourth inning, now 3-0 Indians, and the game is officially over. See you tomorrow night.

Eighth inning. 3-1. Scioscia officially gives up on this game and brings in Darren Oliver.

Physioc just mentioned that, with Speier on the DL, Carrasco will pitch in more high pressure situations in the next two weeks. Umm, don't you have to be able to score enough runs to get a lead before you can be in a high pressure situation? I don't think Pipo will be in too many high pressure situations in the next two weeks.

It wasn't a fluke, folks. The Royals didn't get lucky to take two of four games from the Angels. This team is honestly no better than the Kansas City Royals. They're that bad.

White Sox 4; Angels 3 - Shields blows it Again

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Thank God for the AL West

The Angels may win the division only because every team sucks a little more than them. Then again, if they can't beat the Royals, and apparently they can't consistently, they'll find themselves in the cellar before too long.

Two hits. That's what they mustered today. Two goddamned hits. They've managed three runs in their last two games. Against the Royals.

These guys fucking suck.

Angels 1; Royals 3

Two things:

1. Don't make the first or third out of the inning at third base. Especially the first out when Vlad is on deck.
2. A pitcher shouldn't have 107 pitches through fewer than seven innings when he's pitching a shutout.

Also, with the way the Royals crowd the plate and get hit by pitches that are practically in the strike zone, someone needs to come out and just drill about six or seven of them in one game.

Angels 3; White Sox 7; Temperature about 45

At least they scored a couple of runs on the road.

Santana looked pretty sharp until he lost control of the Jermain Dye at bat. He had him down 0-2, lost him, threw him a fat strike on a 3-2 pitch that landed about 400 feet away. Presumably rattled, he left another pitch in a bad location to AJ Piersasdflksski and it was immediately 2-0. Again, he was one out away from ending the fifth when he gave up an RBI double to Paul Konerko. Santana has, throughout his career, struggled with putting guys away, and last night was no different.

To their credit, the Angels offense didn't fold like it had in pretty much every other road game this season. Casey Kotchman followed up three straight singles with a two out shot to right field to tie the game at three. Of course, had Vlad not been thrown out at third for the second time this week, they might have taken the lead. But don't ask Scioscia about it, because they aren't going to change their style. They're aggressive, and they'll continue to be aggressive no matter how many stupid outs they run into.

The killer all night, however, were the double plays. Mike Napoli legged it out to beat the throw on the second to last AB of the game, just avoiding what would have been the Angels fifth double play of the game. Fittingly, that left it up to Erick Aybar, responsible for two of those double plays, to make the last out.

It was pretty chilly out, and the longer you sit in that weather, the colder it gets. But at least Sox fans weren't total dicks to me last night. No one really said anything, which is fine with me. It's probably the only game I'll see on this trip, because I have Ted Leo tickets tonight, and I'll probably play golf on Sunday.

Weaver and Garland tonight. Let's see if Little Weav is still hurting, or if the last game was an aberration.

I was one inning off - Updated x2

A good friend of mine is a Tigers fan, and we've been exchanging emails today. When Shields came in, I told him that the Tigers would leave that inning with the lead. Turns out I was off by one.

This team is flat out awful. If they hit, they can't get starting pitching. If they get starting pitching, they can't get relief pitching. Seriously, is there anyone who thought they actually had a chance to win once Sheffield hit that ball to left?

And Shields, jebus, he really, really sucks right now. I'm pretty sure I could get on base against him, mostly by standing there and waiting for him to throw me nothing near the strike zone.

98 balls. That's how many pitches out of the strike zone that Angels pitchers have thrown. They've taken less than half of that.

And you really have to ask yourself, how shitty are the Mariners?

Update: This is turning into a battle to see who sucks more, the Angels pitching, or the Tigers defense. It's the classic battle between the movable object and the resistible force.

Update x2: In a preview of the upcoming Little League season, the Tigers defense showed that it was just as bad as it was in last year's World Series, with Todd Jones allowing the eventual winning run to reach base by not only picking up a ball that was going foul, but by then chucking it into right field. Amazing. It was a battle to see who could outsuck one another.

These are two not ver good baseball teams.

Early Warning

If anyone who saw the first three batters of the game didn't think Weaver was going to get absolutely lit up, then they're either true believers, or don't know baseball very well.

When you give up a homer to a guy after going 0-2, then go to three ball counts on pretty much every batter, you may as well walk back into the dugout and not come out, because as long as you're in the game, your team is going to lose.

That was ugly.

Is is possible for the Angels to score negative runs?

With no Vlad and no Howie, it just might be.

This is not going to be fun to watch.

Damn, I didn't know it was a day game

And you know what, I don't even care. These assholes are pathetic.