Angels 7; Rangers 2

This being a day game, I had to sort of watch while "working". Missed Kotch's grand slam, and since most of the fireworks came in that at bat (shout out to Napoli's double as well, and the two run single from Murphy), there wasn't a whole lot left to see on the offensive end.

That's seven safe trips to first base for Kotchman in the last two games. He's establishing himself as a somewhat streaky hitter, which isn't all that surprising for a guy who's only 24. Consistency should come with more experience and at bats.

Little Weav was strong again, pitching through a rain delay, and going seven innings with only 87 pitches, striking out five while allowing eight to reach safely. This was Weaver's 25th start, and maybe that's a good time to make a comparison to his brother. There's another guy out there who likes this comparison a lot, so let's see where we're at.

Jeff: 25 starts, 8-10, 5.23 ERA, 144.2 IP, 101 K, 1.304 WHIP, 22 Homers
Jered: 25 starts, 13-5, 2.79 ERA, 155.1 IP, 135 K, 1.127 WHIP, 18 Homers

If you follow those links, click on the red numbers on the right to get cumulative career stats through that particular game. Granted, the Tigers sucked when Jeff played for them, so pay as little attention to that record as you'd like. And in the interest of full disclosure, Jeff was a year younger (so you could make the case that Jered is MUCH better at this age than his brother), and those starts came over the course of one season, as opposed to two. But the rest of the numbers speak for themselves. Granted, Jeff had great numbers through 14 starts. We're now 11 starts past that, and Jered is still kicking ass, and if you take away his one awful start this year (a true anomaly through his first 25), his numbers get even more impressive.

Additionally, if we dig a little deeper, we find that Jeff was 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA after 14 starts. Jered was 9-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Both look pretty damn good. But one of the main cries of the skeptics has been "wait 'til the league sees Jered twice". Assuming that MLB teams actually have an advanced scouting budget, I'm guessing that most teams are prepared for Jered at this point. So let's see how each fared over his next 11 starts.

Jered: 66.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 9 HR, 61 K
Jeff: 58.2 IP, 8.59 ERA, 16 HR, 40 K

So at what point do we stop making the "Jeff had a great start, too" argument? 30 starts? 50 starts? I'm serious, I wanna know.

Anyway, the Angels are now 8-11 on the road, which isn't that great, but consider they're 7-4 since that awful start, and they seem to have righted the ship somewhat. Aside from Santana's road woes (nice perspective given by the Chronicler over here), the starters have been fantastic. The bullpen has been spotty, or rather, most of the bullpen has been great, Darren Oliver sucks, and Scot Shields has not been reliable. The offense should get a jolt when Howie Kendrick returns, but all we can do is hope that it's not negated by Garret Anderson's return, which may very well lead to less time for Reggie Willits. Hopefully that's a net positive. And pending the eventual DFA of Shea Hillenbrand, the offense may improve from "terrible" to simply "not very good". With their pitching, that might be enough.

On to Seattle to hopefully open some ground on the M's. The good news? Santana's misses the series and his next start is on friendly ground.

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.

Angels 6; Rangers 3

I've been hard on John Lackey for the last couple of seasons because of his seeming refusal to put hitters away when he's ahead in the count. Time after time, he'll be ahead early, and let hitters off the hook, and even if he does get the out, he ends throwing 2-4 more pitches than he should have. Well, not tonight. Tonight he challenged guys, he got ahead, and he put them away. And guess what? He still struck out seven.

The proof is in the pitch count. He threw 95 pitches tonight, working eight and a third innings, and almost 73% of those pitches were strikes. That's efficiency, and that's not only going to allow John to work later into games, but it's going to help him enter his next start with similar sharpness.

Offensively, the Angels benefited greatly from an Ian Kinsler error, which would have started an inning ending double play, and instead allowed two Angels runners to cross the plate. As it was, the Angels still grounded into four double plays, with Kendry accounting for two of those, one on a shot back up the middle which took a fortuitous bounce off of Vicente Padilla right to Michael Young, or else it would have been an RBI single. Kendry was 1-4 and accounted for five outs, but still, he hit the ball hard every time up, which is more than you can say for the man he replaced.

Three straight wins, and just like that, the Angels seem to have turned it around a bit. It falls to big Bart tomorrow. I won't see this one, because a) I'll be playing golf, and b) it's a Fox regional broadcast, so I'd be blacked out anyway. Oh well.

The Hell?

I missed today's game due to a golf tournament in Michigan. What the hell happened? Figgins with two hits? Escobar in a game that lasted less than three hours? Has the whole world gone crazy?

Angels turn the tables on Indians....and me

I'd love to say the previous post was reverse psychology, but I was actually pretty convinced that the Angels were going to lose tonight. Of course, I became convinced sometime last night, but that's another story.

As mentioned before, I missed the top of the first because I was at the Michael Penn show. He was at Schuba's, and I assume he was promoting his new compilation CD. And he played with the Last Town Chorus, which is essentially made up of Megan Hickey and whoever she brings along to play with her. And she's very attractive, and really cool (we had a nice chat after the show). It's not too often you see a woman on slide guitar, and she really makes it sing. Very glad I made it to the opening set. But I digress.

Anyway, Jered looked fairly solid, if not completely sharp for the following five innings, holding the Indians at bay, even though he may have needed a Houdini routine in the sixth inning.

Moseley entered from there to keep the Tribe down in the top of the seventh before Kendry Morales, replacing the heretofore worthless Shea Hillenbrand, provided the fireworks, crushing a pitch into the right field seats, tying the game at two. Following another excellent inning from Moseley (2 IP, 1H, only 16 pitches), Gary Matthews provided the winning margin in the bottom of the eighth, even though FSN may not have wanted you to see it. Frankie worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the save, and temporary stem to the bleeding.

I'll gladly take the win, and it keeps the Angels above .500. But there's still not a whole lot to get excited about. On the plus side, they pounded out 11 hits, including a double from Kotchman. Perhaps more exciting than the Morales home run was the simple fact that he was in the lineup over Hillenbrand. It's a start.

Moseley dropped his ERA to 1.77 and earned his first win. The longer the offense continues to flounder, the more you have to think that Moseley's future is in another uniform. You can say what you will about his ceiling, but he's proving he can get major league hitters out, and he can do it as a starter or as a reliever.

Enjoy the victory, but this team is going to have to start scoring more than three runs per game if they hope to go on the type of May or June run that opens up a lead in the division that holds up the rest of the way.

Here's LTC doing David Bowie's Modern Love.

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.

Drew Gordon to Westwood

Huge get for Ben Howland and the Bruins. Considered to be the best power forward (6'9") in the West, the Bruins have landed for 2008 three of the top 42 players according to Scout. Joining Gordon are guards Malcolm Lee (6'4") and Jerime Anderson (6'1"). That's a power forward, a combo guard, and a point guard. Nice combination of recruits, especially with a center already coming in next year.

On the one hand, the first thing that comes to mind is if Love stays two years, and dare I say it, even three, they're going to be scary good. On the other hand, even if Love goes, does anyone think Howland won't find a replacement? The guy is getting almost everyone he wants. Two final fours will do that.

Best of all, the haters have been saying all along that the UCLA style of play will turn off recruits. High school kids want to run and gun and have fun. They don't want to hunker down on the defensive end. So why has Gordon verbally committed to UCLA?

Gordon felt the Bruins, with their defensive-oriented style, fit his all-around capabilities best.

"I had to think about the style of play," said Gordon, who has both sets of grandparents living in the L.A. area. "What it comes down to is being an all-around good player. You have to be able to pick up the pace, slow down the pace. In this case, UCLA, I'll slow down the pace a little bit, learn and get better slowing myself down, focusing on defense instead of run and gun.

Sounds like a smart kid. Sounds like a kid who wants to work hard at both ends of the floor. And with Ryan Wright's departure, the Bruins still have a scholarship to offer Jrue Holliday, Scout's #3 ranked player in the 2008 class. Nab him, and the Bruins likely have a top 3, if not top overall, recruiting class in 2008.

Only six months until basketball season.

White Sox 4; Angels 3 - Shields blows it Again

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White Sox 1: Angels 5

MVP has to go to the sky tonight. Without Erstad losing that ball in the gloaming, it would have been a much closer game. The offense still sucks, and relied on a lot of Sox mistakes to provide the winning margin tonight.

But credit where credit's due, and that goes to Kelvim, who was really pretty sharp. he gave the Angels seven strong innings, worked out of two significant jams, and allowed only eight baserunners, while striking out four. Better yet, he did it in 95 pitches. Watch his next start. It's an underrated area of analysis, but often times you'll see a pitcher on a fairly limited pitch count look really sharp in his next outing. And one thing the Angels have done almost better than any other team in the Scioscia era is manage their starters' workloads. That's an area where they don't get enough credit.

Back to the offense, at least it was a team effort tonight. Everyone, save Figgins, reached base at least once, and five different players scored. They got some serious breaks from the White Sox "defense", but props to the OC for coming through in a clutch situation and "breaking the game open", which for the Angels, means taking more than a one run lead.

Scot Shields is also starting to sharpen up. He was excellent over two perfect innings, striking out four in the process. Speaking of striking, take a look at the batting averages of the White Sox line up, but avoid it if you've got a weak stomach. Only Darin Erstad is hitting over .250, and Tadahito Iguchi is the only other player hitting over .216. Man, that's awful. They started six guys hitting under .210, two of whom are under .200, and a third is in double digits. Yowza.

Schmendrick takes the mound tomorrow, and against that lineup, he should roll. Jon "Granada Hills" Garland takes the mound for the Sox, with fellow alum Garret Anderson likely still sidelined. It's a day game, starting at about 3:00 my time. The good news is I should be back from Cog Hill (Dubsdread) by then. Got an appointment for a clubfitting after our round, weather permitting. Yeah, it rains here after March. I know, it sucks.

Grant Lee Phillips @ Lakeshore Theater - 5/3/07

Grant Lee has a new album which came out about a month or so called "Strangelet". In my opinion, after a handful of listens, is that it's his best solo work to date. A little louder and more up tempo than Ladies Love Oracle and Virginia Creeper, not quite as electronic as Mobilize. For me, so far, it's the one I've most enjoyed listening to.

To start with, last night's show was a treat because it's the first time since late 2001 that GLP has toured with a more or less full band (him, bassist, drummer). And the whole thing was electric. There wasn't even an acoustic guitar on stage. Most of that is probably because the new album sort of lends itself to that setup more than the last two, but it also means that the old GLB stuff is really going to sound great.

Clearly last night's show was going to be heavy on the new album. One of the downsides of seeing an artist with so much material (nine albums by my count) to draw from is that you're virtually guaranteed to leave without hearing everything you wanted to hear, but that's only a small complaint. He mixed in about half and half. Incomplete and out of order setlist (by album):

• Runaway
• Soft Asylum (No Way Out)
• Fountain of Youth
• Hidden Hand
• Chain Lightning (he opened with this one)
• Johnny Guitar
• Raise the Spirit (video below)
  
• Calamity Jane
• Far End of the Night
• Don't Look Down
  
• Truly, Truly, Truly
• Honey Don't
• Mockingbirds
• Lone Star Song (closed with this one)
• Fuzzy
• Wish You Well, which I'd never seen him do live before in the six or seven times that I've seen him.

Nothing off of Mobilize, Nineteeneightees, or Copperopolis.

It's truly an experience to see him live because he's either a great actor, or he really does love performing. More than anyone I've ever seen live, he really has a good time bantering with the crowd between songs, and that gets everyone into the show.

The down part last night was that "everyone" was a pretty small crowd. In addition to that, Lakeshore Theater is not a particularly good venue for a rock show. It's exactly what it says it is, a theater. As in, like a movie theater. It would be a great place to see a play, or a lecture. It's not a good place to see rock show. I don't like to sit at concerts, but you really didn't have a choice at this one. In addition, it was about three times too big for size of the crowd, especially for show in which the headliner was taking the stage at 11:00 on a Thursday night. This would have been a fantastic show at Schuba's. It was still a very good show, but the venue left a lot to be desired. That's not a knock on the theater itself. It just wasn't the right venue for this performance.

Speaking of Schuba's, Michael Penn comes to town next week.

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 7; Royals 5

We need to keep this one in perspective. Despite starting his season with two solid starts, Bart has basically started three games in the last year. He's not going to be in mid-season form. And that was the case tonight, as he blew a five run lead, and would have if his offense hadn't picked him up in the fourth inning. But he battled on a night where he really didn't have it, got through five innings, and turned the ball over to a suddenly effective bullpen to hold the lead.

It looked to me like Bart was getting squeezed a bit in the second inning, and then again in the third when he walked Pena. As a result, he threw some pitches that got too much of the plate as he was just trying to throw strikes. These may the Royals, but they're still professionals, and they have some excellent young hitters. They made Bart pay, the long ball coming off the bat of Mark Teahen to pull the Royals to within one.

Bart had the big lead because the offense was stout early. After three straight singles to start the game, Zach Greinke got behind Vlad 3-1, and Vlad took it out on him by hitting the next pitch about 460 feet for a grand slam and four run lead. They added another in the second on a Matthews triple and Cabrera double. A Kotchman sac fly in the 4th pushed the lead to two, which was promptly cut back to one in the bottom of the 4th, before a Reggie Willits RBI single in the 8th provided the winning margin.

The Angels pounded out 13 hits: Two each for Aybar and Cabrera, three for Willits, and four for HGHMJ. It's not easy to figure out who the best young player has been to this point. Willits is seemingly always on base, now hitting .382 while getting on base at a .447 clip. Honestly, other than deference to the veteran, I don't know how you put Garret Anderson back in the lineup unless you make him DH and put Hillenbrand on the bench.

Then there's Erick Aybar. Forget the two stupid caught stealings in the first two weeks. He's now hitting .320, while playing outstanding defense at second base. He's clearly bench bound upon the return of Kendrick, but if I were Orlando Cabrera, I might be polishing my resume. They're going to need to have this kind in the infield every day in the next year or two. Yeah, I know he's not slugging, but he'll hit for just as much pop as Cabrera, with a better average, comparable defense, for about $7MM less.

And if you thought those were the only two fighting it out, you've clearly forgotten about Dustin Moseley. He bridged the 6th and 7th innings tonight, turning the ball over the Scot Shakyields. All he's done is toss 17.1 innings, allowing less than a base runner per inning, with an ERA barely over one. He doesn't strike a lot of guys out, but he doesn't walk many either, and he's keeping the ball in the yard this season. Oh, and opposing hitters are hitting only .186 against him. He and Joe Saunders are making Ervin Santana look very tradeable. I hear there's a team in a big market on the East Coast that's really struggling on the mound right now.

Same time and teams tomorrow night, with the aforementioned Ervin taking on Jorge De La Rosa. Can Ervin get it done on the road? We'll see.

Ted Leo Review and Pics

Can't argue with Pitchfork on this one. If you enjoy live music, you owe it to yourself to check out a Ted Leo show sometime.

Angels 3; Royals 1

I'm not sure there's a lot to say about this one. They still aren't scoring many runs on the road. And as good as the pitching was, it's hard to get excited about holding the Royals to one run.

Still, Lackey overcame some early Lackey-itis and started to work through some efficient middle innings, which allowed him to get into the seventh, where Speier shut the door. Shields walked a guy with no power who he had down 1-2 before breezing through the rest of the inning, and Frankie gave up a lead off double before striking out the side for his ninth save. And boy is he going to have a lot of saves this season if he stays healthy. Because they aren't going to be winning a lot of blowouts. If they have a lead in the ninth, there's a really good chance it will be within three runs.

Figgins looked pretty solid in his 2007 debut, poking an RBI double to left field, which could have been good for two RBIs if the runners hadn't been forced to hold, waiting to see if the ball was caught. He also started an excellent, yet dubious double play, which featured a terrific turn by Erick Aybar, though it was pretty clear that Estaban German beat the throw to first. They're going to need to make room for Aybar somewhere next year. That guy is a lot of fun to watch in the field.

HGHMJ made a nice second inning peg to nail Ryan Shealy at the plate and keep the lead at 2-1. He's really starting to deliver. Speaking of runners being thrown out, note to Vlad: Please stop getting thrown out at third. It's starting to get a little ridiculous.

Big Bart tomorrow against Zach Greinke in what should be another low scoring affair.

Seitz Goes Commercial

Seen these new Puma ads?



Like the song? Here it is in it's entirety. And if you see these guys live, bring earplugs, because they are very loud. But both times I've seen them, they've been well worth the experience. I'd introduce them as Mazarin, but they aren't Mazarin anymore. The name is still pending.

Wood Down, Figgins Back

Sorry Erick, but you're about to get a lot less playing time. Wood was sent back to Salt Lake after today's game, and Figgins will rejoin the team tomorrow.

Good move by management here, mostly because Figgins will hardly realize he's no longer in AAA, since the Angels will be facing the Royals.

Angels 5; White Sox 2; Umpires Pathetic

If you're a major league umpire, and affiliated with the pieces of shit who called the Angels - White Sox game today, you should be embarrassed for your profession. And if you're Hawk Harrelson, well, you're already an embarrassment, so there's really nowhere for you to go from there.

In the seventh inning, with runners on second and third with nobody out, Orlando Cabrera hit a sac fly to right field, where Ryan Sweeney made a great diving catch, allowing Reggie Willits to come home. Only, home plate umpire Adam Dowdy fucked it up by calling Willits out for leaving to early. Only problem? Willits didn't leave early. He left exactly when he was supposed to leave, as replays clearly showed. Harrelson's response? Willits shouldn't have made it so close that the umpire would screw it up. Apparently he should have hung around on third for a while before leaving.

You heard that right. According to the White Sox broadcasters (Darin Jackson was equally complicit), it's Reggie Willits' and Dino Ebel's fault that the umpires fucked up. Something tells me they wouldn't have come to the same conclusion if the tables had been turned.

The embarrassment continued in the top of the 8th when Shea Hillenbrand hit a slow grounder to third. The White Sox forced out Vlad at second, then threw to first for the double play, which Hillenbrand beat by about a step. It wasn't even close. He was called out.

What is it with umpires and White Sox/Angels games. Not only do the umpires continually fuck things up, but the Angels then get blamed. It was Josh Paul's fault for not tagging out a batter on the third strike that clearly never hit the dirt. It's Reggie Willits' fault for not lingering on third base longer. It's apparently not the umpires' fault for blowing the calls to begin with, and then compounding it by either lying blatantly about it on national television (Eddings) or tossing Mike Scioscia from the game (today's asshole Dowdy).

Kelvim Escobar was excellent all day, making only one mistake, a third inning high fastball on a 3-2 count that Darin Erstad deposited in the right field bleachers for an early White Sox lead. But Ztu and Vlad went back to back an inning later to tie the game, and a two out single from Cabrera in the top of the fifth gave the Angels the lead for good. Frankie recorded the last four outs, two by strikeout, for his eighth save.

Special congratulations to Brandon Wood for picking up his first hit and scoring his first run. And don't look now, but Gary Matthews is hitting .306 and starting produce every day.

Off to KC to hopefully take at least three and have a successful road trip.

Angels 3; White Sox 0; Ted Leo - Awesome

Missed most of tonight's game because I was at the Ted Leo and the Pharmacists concert. Dude can rock the house like no other, but I digress.

Here's the meat: Jered Weaver - 5.2 scoreless. Mr. McMillin, I believe the floor is yours. If you require any assistance, allow me:

1. 5.2 innings and 107 pitches? You can't be successful if you keep that up!
2. Five Ks? That's not even one per inning!
3. I just can't see how a pitcher can be successful if he allows six hits in fewer than six innings. That looks like something Jeff would do.
   

But I kid Rob. I kid because I love.

And hey! Six runs is like, more than they had on the entire last road trip, right? And two homers in two games, neither by Vlad, that's gotta be a record!

Boy, I really hope they start hitting on the road soon.

Enjoy some Ted.

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.

Friday Morning Music

Not sure why, but I've been on a big Mary's Danish kick lately, and there is limited postable content on the net, so you get the classics. Saw them at UCR during my freshman year at the Barn, which at the time had a sort of seedy bar feel, but apparently is now a "casual dining location". At least it's still there. Good place to see a show, or to drink before going to see a show at the Rec Center.

I don't what it is about female fronted rock acts, but they seem to deliver a ton of energy to their performances. The Raveonettes come to mind as well, and the Peels. Anyway, these guys were great, and they got totally scewed by their record company. Enjoy:

Angels a lot; D-Rays not so much

If you had told me before the game that the Angels' run total would equal Big Bart's strikeout total, I would have figured we would be in for a rough game to end the homestand. But the fat man fanned 11, and the offense picked up their end, with much of the damage coming in the first inning.

Bart looked fantastic, throwing a ton of strikes and basically having his way with anyone in a green uniform. It was vintage Bartolo, and it will be a huge lift for the pitching staff if it's a sign of things to come.

As for Brandon Wood, he pretty much looked like a guy who strikes out a lot playing in his first major league game. I didn't expect too much, and he delivered. But he's still got a long way to go, and he's still ahead of schedule as far as I'm concerned. Nice to see him get into a game, especially one in which the Angels romped.

Back to the road for the Angels, which has not been friendly this season. I've got tickets for tomorrow night's game, but we're supposed to get a lot of rain tonight and tomorrow morning, and it's going to be in the 40s tomorrow, so I'm not sure whether it will be worth it. We'll see.

Wednesday Recap

D-Rays 1; Angels 9

Lackey was pretty sharp for the first five innings, and for once he didn't seem to be getting cute around the edges. He was challenging guys, using his fastball to get ahead early in counts, and put the D-Rays hitters away. He struck out seven over six innings, none bigger than the bases loaded, two out strikeout of B.J. Upton that ended the sixth. He loaded the bases by walking Elijah Dukes, which prompted an exchange between Lackey and home plate ump Chris Guccione, who really had no idea what the strike zone was for much of the night.

As has been true for much of the homestand, the Angels relied on awful defense from their opponents for early runs. Two Upton errors led to three Angels runs in the fifth inning, two coming home on a double from HGHMJ. The Angels did the rest of their damage in the seventh, primarily benefiting from doubles off the bats of Erick Aybar and Garret Anderson, and a two run single from Shea Hillenbrand. Speier, Carrasco, and Bootcheck all pitched scoreless innings to preserve the victory.

Big Bart is scheduled to go today if his ankle permits.

Brandon Wood Called Up

He'll replace Kendry Morales, who heads back to AAA. The Angels are essentially clearing a spot (3rd base) for Chone Figgins to do his rehab work at Salt Lake. Additionally, this is something that the Angels have been pretty good about over the last few seasons, and I think it's a good strategy. They've consistently brought their top prospects up for a taste of Major League Baseball, and not just during September. They did it with Howie Kendrick. They did it with Casey Kotchman a couple of years ago. They did it with Morales last year. They bring these guys up with very little pressure. They know that unless they set the world on fire, which no one expects, they're probably going to go back down. But most importantly, when they recall those guys (and Kendrick is probably the best example of this) at a time where they actually DO need production, the players can focus on getting the job done. They've already dealt with the distractions of making their major league debut, and they can just focus on baseball.

Wood will come up, get some at bats, start a game or two, an in a week, he'll be back in Salt Lake, hopefully with a better idea of what he needs to work on. And when he comes back up in the fall, or next season, he'll be ready to play ball.

Darren Collison Staying at UCLA

Not really surprising that he's staying, but I'm a little surprised that he's not testing the waters and getting some feedback from NBA scouts. This isn't big news so much next year as it is for the year after. My understanding is that a player can't "test the waters" twice. In other words, Arron Afflalo could not put his name into the draft pool like he did last year and still come back to school, even without hiring an agent. What this means for Collison and UCLA is that Collison can test the waters next year, and if he so chooses, can still come back for his senior season.

Now, it may sound crazy to imply that Collison won't be a first rounder after next season. But the fact is, you just never know. You never know who's going to explode onto the scene. You can't know how the next season is going to play out. The consequences of Collison testing the waters this season were that he'd probably come back, but was definitely gone after next season. But by deciding not to test the waters this spring, it means he's definitely back next season, and his options are open for his senior season.

Another Classy Gesture From a UC Riverside Grad

From today's LA Times:

Closer Troy Percival did not throw a pitch for the Tigers in 2006, but the team still awarded the former Angels reliever a full playoff share.

Percival, who is now retired, reciprocated by spending $120,000 to lease an 18-seat luxury suite in Comerica Park for players' wives to use this season.

"I've never heard of anything like it," Detroit closer Todd Jones said. "It's the best gesture I've ever seen."

First he builds a clubhouse for the Highlander baseball team with his own two hands, and now this. Is it any wonder why I sponsor his baseball reference page?

My only quibble is with the Tigers. I didn't throw a pitch for the 2006 Tigers either, and I didn't even get a half share. That sucks.

Schmendrick Starts Blogging

Just got an email letting me know that John Lackey has a new blog. Already got a couple of posts up. You can check it out right here. I'm not sure how well these "celebrity" blogs turn out, as I don't read, well, any. But a lot of people like Curt Schilling's blog, which I refuse to read because I hate Curt Schilling, but that's my issue. Should be interesting to see how interactive John is.

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.

If It's April....

...it's baseball season. And if it's baseball season, that means it's time to get ready for another six months of Rob overreacting to every little bump in the road.

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.

Got To Punch, Right On Target

I wasn't quite expecting to see the lows and highs of the season in the span of about a week and a half, but shortly after looking like a Low A team for six straight games, the Angels bats woke up and tore apart the Mariners in a three game sweep.

The bats struck early and often, taking multi-run leads in the early innings of all three games, while the starters held down the Mariners until the bullpen, "led" be Carrasco and Shields, did it's best to blow up games 1 and 2. Speier and Mosely looked fine in game three. The victories coincided (though it surely wasn't a coincidence) with the return of Vlad, who hit monster home runs in games 1 and 2 to help create those early leads. And whether he had anything to do with it or not, HGHMJ, Casey Kotchman, and Garret Anderson started pitching in as well. HGHMJ also finally started playing some defense again.

Still, and I don't mean to be a downer, but we certainly aren't past concern territory. Don't get me wrong, this was the right series at the right time, but we can't ignore the fact that this was still just the Mariners. On top of that, there were a lot of hard hit balls that ended up in Angels gloves, and there were multiple line drive double plays. This was a series that can be a momentum builder, but I wouldn't take it as evidence that all is well in Halo-land.

On the positive side, Bartolo Colon looked excellent in his first start of the season. And with Jered Weaver back in the rotation, the Angels optioned a guy who would be no worse than a third starter for probably 15-20 major league teams to AAA. That's serious depth. And while he's been up, Dustin Mosely is starting to get the scent of trade bait.

But the best news of the weekend? After series number 1, Angels - 3, Cocksucker Guillen - 0. Don't worry though, M's fans, Jose went 4-12, and that's all that's really important. Team success is secondary for Guillen. What's good for Jose is good for......Jose.

Bonus points for getting the reference in the title. Minus points for using Google.

Over/Under on How Many Times Guillen Gets Plunked?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

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.

Dear Bill Stoneman

Next time you're going to make a big free agent deal, shoot me an email. I would have agreed to stand in center field and not catch fly balls for half of what you're paying HGHMJ. And I would have been just as awful at the plate.

Is it possible to send everyone down? Because this team sucks.

Please just end this

Ervin Santana, during the day, on the road, is a recipe for disaster. Nice six run first inning.

Maybe MLB knew what was best for me when they tried to take Extra Innings off of cable.

Quick Reader Request

Can someone clue me in the what the fuck is going on with Autolux/Carla Azar? I'm getting like at least 15 hits a day from people doing an image search which is turning up the old Autolux pic that I stole from some other site before I stopped hotlinking. So why all the sudden interest? New album? Did she finally marry the scientology dude? What the fuck?

Springfield

That's where I am for the next few days. The good ol' capital city.

But let's look at the bright side. At least the Angels didn't lose today.

On GA and #42

Shorter Garret Anderson detractors:

"Why won't Garret Anderson just shut up and wear the #42 like all of us white people are telling him to?"

See Rob's better post on this subject.

Someday....

Maybe someday a manager will come along who, having spent the vast majority of his (or her - hey, it's the future we're talking about) life in baseball, can recognize when a pitcher clearly doesn't have major league quality stuff/control, and is man (or woman) enough to realize his (or her) mistake after one hitter.

Maybe when that day comes, we'll be spared the atrocity that was the bottom of the eighth inning of today's game, where Scot Shields couldn't find the strike zone until he was facing Travis Hafner with two runners (whom he had walked) on base. One swing, and a one run lead was a two run deficit. But hey, at least he finally threw a strike.

Angels 4; Indians 1

Didn't make it to Milwaukee last night. Snow. Lots of it. It's actually a really easy drive when the weather is OK. I play golf a few times per year about a half hour from Milwaukee, so it seems like your close to home not long after leaving the stadium. Kinda like driving from Pasadena to Temecula. But when a 90 minute drive becomes a four hour drive, it's not quite as inviting.

That doesn't mean Tuesday night's game didn't have an affect on me, though. I was still so tired from Tuesday that I fell asleep for the last two innings or so, but by that time, the Angels had done most of their damage, and Saunders was about ready to turn it over to the lights out guys in the bullpen.

Saunders had some trouble finding the strike zone, but for the most part was excellent, making me look like an idiot for putting him on my bench this week. He walked four, but only allowed four hits and one run, a solo homer to Jhonny Peralta who did his part to help the Angels with an error out at short. Saunders also struck out five.

The top of the order did a little damage tonight, pounding out six hits, while HGHMJ scored twice. But it was Mike Napoli's RBI triple that held up for the winning RBI, and few pitches later he came home on a Jake Westbrook wild pitch. A little station to station ball accounted for the fourth run, with Cabrera singling home Matthews. Shields and Frankie closed the door from there.

I'm getting the feeling that we can see more out of this team, but it's still early. With all the expectations, you'd like to see them go on an early season run that opens up the type of real estate between them and second place, the type that takes those teams a long time to crawl back from. I think they have it in them.

Mosely takes the mound today, and serves as a reminder that Bart and Jered Weaver are on the mend. Weaver especially had a terrific outing last night. The lineup will look a little different in a month, and this team should only get stronger.

Angels 6; Indians 7

My second trip to Milwaukee and my first trip to Miller Park. You've really got to hand it to Milwaukee. On basically one day's notice, for two teams that aren't even in their league, they drew more people than the A's drew for a home game against the 2005 World Champions. But I don't need to remind any of you that A's "fans" suck.

I'm very glad that I had purchased and printed my tickets out earlier in the day. As it was, it took us a while to get into the parking lot, and we missed most of the first inning. Had we stood in the walk-up line, we wouldn't have gotten into the game until the third or fourth inning.

As we were walking to our seats, we were interviewed by Erin Toner of Milwaukee's NPR station for a national story. Unfortunately, it sounds like we ended up on the cutting room floor. They played the story on Morning Edition and they only used interviews with Indians fans. My friend was right. We should have told them we had flown in that day from LA. A lot more compelling than an interview with someone who drove up from Chicago.

We had seats (as you can see from the pictures in the post below) down the third base line. Started in row 25, but met up with Josh from Pearly Gates who was in the same section in row 9, and we sat with him for pretty much the entire game. All tickets were $10, and parking was only $8. The stadium was nice and warm. I hear the concessions lines were pretty long, but I never left my seat, so I can't give a first hand account. Still, on short notice, the Brewers did a pretty good job of throwing this together. I was pretty sure I was going to try to get to tonight's game as well, but with the snow (they're supposed to get 4 inches or so up there), it's not worth the four hour drive that it will become.

Santana clearly didn't have it. He couldn't throw strikes, and the ones he did throw got tagged for two long home runs. The Angels had Darren Oliver up in the fourth before Santana got out of the inning, and followed that up with two runs to get back into the game. At that point I mentioned to someone that they probably ought to take Santana out, because he was likely to give those runs back, and sure enough, he conspired with Pipo to do just that, with Pipo giving up a sac fly and a two out, two run double before getting out of the inning.

Still, the Angels worked their way back into the game, with two runs in the eighth and a run in the ninth. They had the tying run on first base, and Howie Kendrick coming to the plate. Speculating from the stands, Erick Aybar never even entered my mind. I thought for sure they would use Willits or Murphy to pinch run in that spot, but I'm assuming the idea was to move Kendrick to first and Aybar to second if they had tied the game. And seriously, standing there, Jose and I went back and forth over how bad of a baserunner Aybar was. He's fast, but he's not a good baserunner, and he's not a good base stealer by any means.

So what happens with a fast guy on first and a hot hitter at the plate? Aybar goes and gets thrown out to end the game for the second time in a week. It was quite possibly one of the dumbest ways to end a game I've ever seen. At least when Frankie dropped the ball a couple of years ago, it was lazy, but it was a mistake. This, on the other hand, was simply an awful, awful decision, and the blame is shared equally between Aybar and Scioscia. Scioscia should have been smart enough to give Aybar the red light, and Aybar should have been smart enough to just say no to the green light.

Other than Howie's 4-4 night and GA's 3-5, the other bright spot was Chris Bootcheck. 1.2 IP, no hits, a walk, and a strikeout. I'll take that from the fifth or sixth reliever every time. Props to Darren Oliver who got Travis Hafner looking in a tough spot as well.

It really was a fun evening, despite the douchebags sitting in front of us for the last few innings. I enjoyed Miller Park, and it was kind of neat to finally attend a game indoors. First time I've ever been in a dome, or at least a retractable roof stadium with it's roof closed. Sight lines could be a tiny bit better, but otherwise it was a really nice park, and it was super easy to get out of the parking lot after the game ended. I wouldn't mind getting up there for another game sometime this season.

In other news, Brendan Donnelly is still kind of a bad ass, and Jose Guillen is still a cocksucker. Donnelly struck out the piece of shit on three pitches, then grabbed his crotch, which set Guillen off. Guillen got run, and Donnelly plunked the next batter. I love baseball.

Pics from Miller Park

Game one of the three game set between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Cleveland Indians of Milwaukee.

Santana

Sausages

Bootcheck

Off to Milwaukee

Just bought two tickets for tonight's game. Third base line. Section 126, row 25. $11 per. Not too bad. I've only been to Milwaukee once, and it wasn't a particularly memorable experience (just stopped for dinner before heading over to Madison).

How often do you get a chance to see two American League teams play in a National League ballpark?

One Week Down

So the Angels are off to a 5-2 start, which has to be just about the best start they've had in the last few years, and they're a couple of key hits away from being 7-0. Still, the offense has sputtered with runners in scoring position, or at least it sure did against the A's. Only Cleveland, Seattle, and Minnesota have allowed fewer runs to this point, and that's only because Cleveland and Seattle had an entire series postponed, while Minnesota has played two fewer games. The starting pitching has been darn near stellar, and only the Yankees have a better relief ERA to this point.

Offensively, Vlad has been a monster, and the Angels have the fifth best OPS in the league to this point, due in large part to Vlad's 440/483/880, and Casey Kotchman's 375/464/625 line. Howie is off to a slow start at the plate, but he's been downright excellent in the field. Speaking of which, early returns on the defense are mixed. A two error inning on opening day led to a run and a ton of pitches from Lackey, but didn't affect the outcome of the game, and HGHMJ has been pretty solid in the field to this point, save for his one error.

It would have been nice to take three of four from Oakland, but I'll settle for a split. Now the Angels move on to Milwaukee to face the Indians. It's cold here, folks. Too cold for baseball. And I'm not surprised that the morons in charge have Minnesota, a dome team, playing in Chicago (where one game was canceled due to single digit wind-chills), and Seattle (not) playing in Cleveland, where as mentioned above, not one game was completed. Good thinking, schedule makers. With any luck, I'll be able to make it to Milwaukee for one game. It's about a 90 minute drive, but I'm working on making plans for the game.

Angels win

Seriously, I'll be back to blogging games soon. But last night I fell asleep on the couch at about 8:00, and the next thing I knew, it was 8:30 this morning.

Frankie Update - er, Updated

Frankie Responds to Matt Hurst of the Press Enterprise (yay, Riverside!):

I talked to Francisco Rodriguez about this white substance on the underside of his bill and he grabbed the hat from his locker, flipped it over and said "This?"
On the black underside of his cap was a sizable white smudge.
"It's rosin," Rodriguez said.
There is a rosin bag on the back of every mound in professional baseball filled with the white, chalky substance that pitcher's can use on their hands to eliminate sweat so they can better grip the ball. John Lackey, for instance, puts it on his left wrist, just above his glove, so he can wipe his right hand on the wrist instead of constantly going to the rosin bag.
So, why does Rodriguez continually tug on his cap, bringing suspicion about?
Because he stopped wearing his trademark goggles, he fidgets with his hat instead of his glasses.

More on MLB.Com.

The Angels had a two-word response to Internet posted allegations of doctoring baseballs by closer Francisco Rodriguez in two games this week against the Texas Rangers.

"It's resin," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said.

"It's the same stuff I've had since I was called up [in 2002]," Rodriguez said, showing his cap to a pair of reporters at his locker to show the resin residue on its bill. "A lot of pitchers use it. They rub it on their pants and use it when they need it. I have it on my cap. You can see it in all the pictures; it's there.

As for Derek, well, this is pretty weak stuff:

Rosin is a foreign substance, same as pine tar. Now, players have pine tar on their helmets and uniforms, and that goes unenforced. But this is where they might take action: it’s clear that there was something on his cap, whether they find evidence that it was applied to the ball at any point. But it seems like it’s a lot more likely that the most dramatic action they’d take is a warning.

Part of this is political: if the league takes action on something that’s perceived as coming from the internet, MLB might see it as opening the floodgates for every fan to start making rules complaints, and there’s no way they want that.

Umm, Derek, I like you, but seriously, get the fuck over yourself. They aren't going to refrain from taking action because it came from the internet. They aren't taking action because there's no there there. It's fucking rosin. Do you think they walk out there and inspect the hands of every pitcher after he drops the bag to make sure that no specks remain on his hands before he grabs the ball? Fucking A, I'm sure there are trace amounts of rosin on EVERY ball. It's one thing to have pine tar on your hands as a pitcher. It's a whole 'nother thing to have the same exact crap they put on every mound SPECIFICALLY FOR A PITCHER TO HANDLE on your hands, or hat, or glove, or any other part of your body.

Seriously, that last paragraph is probably the dumbest thing I've ever read, and it reeks of CYA because I think Derek is smarter than that. But that's what happens when you have to defend a post entitled "Francisco Rodriguez Doctoring the Ball."

Anonymous in the comments asserts:

um... even if it is rosin...

The he quotes rule 8.02(a). You can read it yourself in the comments.

I'm quite aware of that rule. I already linked to that rule in the previous post. That's why I called loading up a hat with rosin technically illegal. And it's the foundation atop which Zumsteg builds his entire argument. And it's stupid.

Ya know, it's also technically illegal to have your back foot out of the batters box, and there's such a thing as a catcher's balk. Show me the last time they were ever enforced.

They put a freaking bag of the stuff on the goddamn mound, fer chrissakes. This isn't like glue. It isn't like pine tar. This isn't like vaseline. It's stuff they put on the mound for the use of every pitcher in every professional baseball game. When they start putting a pine tar rag or a tube of super glue on the mound, I'll treat those the same way.

But if you're a real crusader, I expect to see you out there with a pitchfork demanding that the umpires make pitchers wash their hands between pitches, lest they get dirt on the ball.

Frankie Under the Microscope

Apparently MLB has initiated an investigation into whatever the stuff is on Frankie's hat. This all started when Derek Zumsteg blogged about it on the site he set up, I assume, to promote his book, but I could be wrong about his intentions (about the site). Full disclosure, I've always liked Derek, and had a few very brief electronic conversations/thread interactions with him in the old Primer days. I don't think he wrote a book and then went looking to find a guy cheating to get his name out there. I think if anything, he wrote the book and got used to looking for that kind of stuff. You know how when you're in the market for a new car, you start noticing every car on the street and wondering what it costs (or is that just me)? Kinda like that. Anyway, I'll try to break down what we know:

1. Frankie had some white junk on the underside of the brim of his cap. It's pretty clearly visible in some pictures, so it's really undisputed.
2. Frankie seems to like to touch that part of his hat a lot before he pitches.
3. Frankie throws some really nasty stuff.

That looks bad, but there's a few other things that we also know:

1. Frankie has been going to his hat like that since he entered the league in 2002.
   
2. The underside of the new hat that New Era is producing this year is black.
3. Frankie has been throwing really nasty stuff since he came into the league.
   

That's basically all that we know for sure. Now for the speculation:

1. Possibility #1 - Frankie feels like he needs something extra this season, so he's started loading up his cap with a foreign substance to get more action on the ball. If I were, say, a Mariners fan (like, for example, Derek), I'd probably be pre-disposed to believing that. It would also be good pub for my book if I pointed that out and everyone ran with it(hey, like I said, it's speculation).
2. Possibility #2 - Frankie has been cheating for years, and no one has ever caught him, and no one has ever said anything, including current Mariner and noted cocksucker Jose Guillen, who famously ratted out Brendan Donnelly a couple of years ago when he was in Washington. Note, however, that Frankie didn't pitch in any of those games, or maybe Guillen would have done the same thing then.
3. Possibility #3 - Frankie has been cheating for years, and no one ever noticed because the color of the underside of the hate hat. Note that this also requires Frankie to be really stupid, as he must have not noticed that any substance he was using was now pretty noticeable.
   
4. Possibility #4 - Frankie has loaded his hat with some rosin, or whatever the hell they're putting in the bag this year, so that he can dry his fingers without constantly going back to the bag. This is seemingly innocuous, but also technically illegal.
5. Possibility #5 - Frankie goes to the bag, then wipes his fingers off on his hat, inadvertantly depositing rosin on his hat in the process. This would, one would think, also leave a white mark on the top of his hat. Photos are inconclusive at best.
   

Personally, it doesn't make much sense to me for him to have started cheating this season. If he's doing it, chances are he's always been doing it, and I have a hard time believing that with all of the video of opposing players that teams pour over looking for any edge, any quirk, any little tip-off, that they wouldn't have noticed that, and at least had it questioned at some point.

I actually think the most likely most likely explanation on that list is #5, and it gets decreasingly plausible as you ascend towards number 1. Of course, they also get increasingly worse for Frankie as you ascend towards number 1, so my rules of plausibility are probably based in bias.

A couple of other notes: Derek claims that video shows the pitches where it's "clear" he loaded up (all fastballs) move a lot more than the pitches where it's not clear. Personally, I think this is crap. It's almost impossible to perceive the motion on a four seem fastball on television, and the gameday feature on MLB.com shows the ball moving anywhere from about 2-3 inches consistently. FWIW, Rob Neyer thinks it's either chalk or talcum, which he's using to keep his fingers dry, presumably as opposed to loading up the ball.

And finally, I'm not trying to bust Derek's chops on this, but I think he reported this incredibly unprofessionally. That's fine, it's his blog. But for Christ's sake, the title of the post is "Francisco Rodriguez Doctoring the Ball". That doesn't leave you a lot of wiggle room in case the whole thing turns out to be fairly innocent. You'd think a guy who spent a lot of time wiping egg off of his face after announcing that Pete Rose had reached an agreement with Selig for reinstatement might measure his words a little more carefully.

I'll be curious to see what they have to say about this tonight during the broadcast, which I get to watch now.

See also: The Chronicler's take on the subject.

Why I Gave Money to John Kerry

The man gets things done. InDemand and MLB just announced that they've reached a deal that will put Extra Innings on cable television this season, and going forward. Baseball is back on in my apartment.

Seriously, games are already on my television. This is a happy day. I'm welcoming myself back to the Halosphere.

And a major, major thumbs up to Maury Brown over at the Bizness of Baseball and Bizness of Sports for following these negotiations non-stop for the last few weeks. He did a great job of aggregating the reports and being essentially a one stop shop for updates, and a forum for all of us to bitch about not having access by opening day. Great work, Maury.

Angels win again

Sure wish I could have seen it.

Thanks, Mr. Selig, you piece of shit.

I Know Yesterday was Opening Day...

But if you're looking for baseball content, you've probably come to the wrong place. And there probably won't be any for a while. You can keep checking here to find out when it might be back, if ever.

Re-visiting Saturday Night

I'm gonna be honest, I've got very little memory of what happened Saturday, and that's probably for the best. The brief post that preceded this one was an alcohol fueled rant, and trust me, there was a lot of alcohol involved. Word of advice, it's probably not a good idea to get really, really drunk the night before you have a morning golf tournament. We finished second, which was less surprising than the fact that we were even able to wake up in time to make it. Of course, we won it last year, and I played the whole round with food poisoning after spending the morning puking, so maybe I was in better shape this year.

If you had told me before the game that the Bruins would win the turnover battle 16-3, I would have felt pretty good about the game. Of course, that would have meant omitting the fact that they were completely dominated on the boards, that they couldn't shoot (39%), and that they really couldn't shoot from beyond the arc (22%). The Bruins had the game within four early in the second half before Florida ran off a 21-4 run that more or less decided the game.

As for the officiating, I don't believe the refs cost UCLA this game. I do believe that the game was pretty much over when they called the second foul on Arron Afflalo. They can't win a big game without Afflalo playing a major role, and when he was taken off the floor practically before the game even started on what were really ticky tack fouls, the game was essentially over. They can't win a big game when he only gets 22 minutes.

Before the game, I figured that a key for the Bruins would be the player (either Afflalo or Shipp) who was not guarded by Brewer, because I figured that was a matchup advantage for UCLA. When Afflalo was taken off the floor in the first two minutes, it took away that advantage. I'm not saying that analysis was correct, but we never got a chance to find out whether it was.

Speaking of Shipp, he provided a lot of hope for next year. His play down the stretch this year was excellent, and he was the lone bright spot in the semi-final. He finished with 18 points, shooting 50%, grabbed four rebounds, dished out five assists, and stole the ball four times. It will be good to have him back, even if Afflalo decides to leave.

So ignore the vitriol in the previous post. It was a disappointing end to an excellent season, and again, the Bruins should be even better next year with the arrivals of Kevin Love and Chace Stanback, combined with the continued improvement of Aboya, LRMAM, Keefe, Roll, and Westbrook. They may even get contributions from Ryan Wright and Nikola Dragovic. I still think they're a top five team going into 2007-2008.

So congratulations to the Bruins on a great season, and hopefully OSU will beat the shit out of Florida.

If I'd Only Known

Dear NCAA,

Next year, when you decide in October who will be in the National Championship game, please let me know so I don't have to waste a whole season watching what I think is a fairly called college basketball season.

Utlimately, maybe it wouldn't have made a difference, but I think the decision the fact that they simply weren't going to let Arron Afflalo play meaningful role in the game was devastating.

Also, Billy Packer can eat a cock. He's a piece of shit, plain and simple.

So What's Gonna Happen Tomorrow?

Hell if I know. Of course, I actually did pretty well on my selections, getting three of the Final Four participants correct, and I may have been an Acie Law IV layup away from having all four. I also correctly picked U$C to beat Texas, and UNLV to beat Wisconsin, which were among the larger upsets I got correct (at least by perception).

But honestly, I'm not terribly optimistic about UCLA's chances versus Florida. Keep in mind, people who know me will tell you that I'm a pessimist by nature, and images from last year's game are still stuck in my mind.

There are two players that I see holding the keys for their respective teams. For the Gators, it's Corey Brewer. The Bruins have played enough teams with good big men that I think they neutralize Horford and Noah. But Brewer is a big time matchup problem with his size, quickness, and ability to play on the perimeter as well as slash to the basket. And while it may look like Horford and Noah just kill teams inside, it starts with the respect that teams have to pay to Brewer. Hopefully coach Howland has developed a strategy to prevent him from opening up the middle for the dunk fest that we witnessed last year.

For the Bruins, I think the X-factor is Josh Shipp, and seeing as how he's the only guy in the starting line-ups who played no role last year, I'm not really going out on a limb with that. But convential wisdom says that Brewer will guard Afflalo, and that leads Humphrey to guard Shipp. I think Josh Shipp can exploit that matchup. The question is, will he be willing to beat Humphrey and settle for mid-range jumpers. I think he can beat Humphrey, but Josh likes to go to the basket, and that's where he could run into trouble. I still have nightmares of the 2001 Illini losing to Arizona in the regional final, watching Frankie Williams and company getting swatted by Loren Woods again and again and again. If they had simply pulled up from five feet, the Illini would have rolled in that game. But I digress.

If Shipp has a good shooting game, the Bruins have an excellent chance to move on. Brewer is going to have to guard one of Shipp and Afflalo, and I think it give the other a big advantage that the Bruins will need to hammer.

I'm not going to pick against UCLA. I think this team can adapt to many different styles and still be successful. Witness their sweeps over both Arizona and Washington State this year. They'll play your game and beat you at it. But Florida is very good, and playing very well right now.

Either way, it should be a very entertaining game.

I Think This is Where I'm Supposed To Say "I'm Out"

After roughly two years of baseball blogging, this blog will more than likely be going, if not dark, than at least dim over the summer months. Despite what appear like fair offers from InDemand, and in the face of repeated requests from Senators to at least offer the Extra Innings package this season while continuing negotiations over the alleged 2009 launch of the Baseball Network, Major League Baseball's Deputy Douchebag, Bob Dupuy has all but eliminated any hope of digital cable networks carrying extra innings this season.

Senators spent two hours urging Major League Baseball and TV executives not to let the Extra Innings pay package land exclusively on DirecTV's satellite system. But despite congressional brush-back pitches — warnings of legislation and even the oft-repeated threat to review baseball's anti-trust exemption — MLB President Bob DuPuy didn't flinch.

Although he promised to continue negotiating through Saturday, the eve of opening day, DuPuy said baseball was willing to make an unpopular call — inconvenience about 230,000 Extra Innings subscribers on cable and the Dish Network satellite system — to get broad distribution of the league's planned Baseball Channel on DirecTV in 2009.

But DuPuy would not agree to extend the negotiations into the season, allowing cable and the Dish Network to carry Extra Innings while talks continued.

"We as a business matter view the Baseball Channel as critical to our long-term survival and the interests of our fans who want more baseball,'' he said during the two-hour hearing.

He left out "of course, the fans who want more baseball but either don't want to, or can't, switch to DirecTV can go fuck themselves."

You can certainly see where he's coming from. Nearly a century and a half of professional baseball, with record attendance and interest over the last few seasons, revenue through the roof. But dammit, if they can't get the baseball channel in front of 16 million DirecTV subscribers, 15.7 million of whom won't even know they have it, then baseball is doomed. Or, as Bender might say "DOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMED".

And let's get one thing clear about Dupuy: The man is a lying sack of shit. Baseball refuses to offer Extra Innings to InDemand unless they match the terms offered by DirecTV. Only, one of those terms was that baseball would give DirecTV a 20% equity stake in the baseball channel, a stake not offered to the other carriers. So in other words, InDemand and other dish networks need to match the terms that DirecTV gave to MLB, but MLB doesn't have to match the terms it gave to DirecTV. Or put more simply, pay us the same consideration as we got from DirecTV, and we'll give you a fair amount less than we're giving DirecTV. Like I said, the guy is a piece of shit.

So what does this mean for you (and by "you" I mean "me")? Well, it means that for the time being, I'm more or less done with baseball. I will not be switching to DirecTV (where rumor is there's a two month wait for HD equipment). I will not be purchasing the streaming video offered by MLB.TV (motto: For an extra $20, you can get the version that only kinda sucks!). I will not be purchasing the package that provides radio broadcasts. Baseball has essentially decided that it no longer wants my business. And that's fine. That's their prerogative. And I certainly don't expect others to join me. This is not a crusade. It's not a boycott. They've made a business decision, and I've made a business decision.

The natural next step, of course, is that unless a deal is reached in the next two days, I won't be blogging about baseball anymore. I don't like to blog about sporting events I haven't at least witnessed on television, other than to comment on some news item. And since I won't be doing that anymore, I probably won't be covering those events here.

It's not going to be easy, and I may completely relapse. It's like giving up heroin (or, at least what I imagine giving up heroin may be like, without the actual physical symptoms...OK maybe that's a bad analogy). I've been addicted to baseball for as long as I can remember, and I've been a pretty loyal customer over that time as well. But I imagine that if I can get through the first month or so, I'll be gone (from baseball) for good....or at least for the year.

So unless something breaks in the next couple of days, consider this a swan song of sorts, at least as it pertains to baseball. I'll still check in on the final four, the occasional concert, and when UCLA football gets underway again, it will probably be business as usual next fall (though I can't guarantee that - sometimes it's too easy to not blog).

He Has Landed

Jack Motherfucking Johnson is a King.

Hoodoo Gurus w/ Goldstar at the Abbey - 3/25/07

It's not often that you get to a see a band in concert whom you've been listening to for almost 20 years, especially when you thought they'd broken up about 10 years ago. It's also not often that I'm arguably the youngest person in the crowd. But lo and behold, my update email from Pollstar told me that the Hoodoo Gurus were playing the Abbey, and I felt obligated to get a ticket. I'm very glad I did.

Goldstar, who is apparently a local Chicago band led off the evening, and quite frankly, I found them to be pretty entertaining. I want to be delicate about this, but these aren't exactly spring chickens we're talking about. Throw in the matching shirts, and I'm sure one can be forgiven for underestimating them. But they played a very tight set, threw in some comedic banter between songs, and generally seemed to be enjoying themselves on stage.

The Gurus took the stage shortly thereafter, and after firing up with about a 20 second jam, they launched into "I Want You Back". They played an excellent mix of songs from across their eight proper albums, without too much focus on any one in particular. They hit all of the major tracks, though I would have loved to have heard Leilani, Death Defying, Desiree, or I Don't Mind, I can't really complain about the set list. I've tried to reproduce what I could remember, and this, like always, is not the order in which they were actually played:

1. I Want You Back - Stoneage Romeos
   
2. Dig It Up - Stoneage Romeos
3. Kamikaze Pilot - Stoneage Romeos
4. Bittersweet - Mars Needs Guitars
5. Poison Pen - Mars Needs Guitars
6. Like Wow, Wipeout - Mars Needs Guitars
7. What's My Scene - Blow Your Cool
   
8. Where Nowhere Is - Blow Your Cool
9. Middle of the Land - Blow Your Cool
10. Come Anytime - Magna Cum Louder
11. Another World - Magna Cum Louder
    
12. Miss Freelove '69 - Kinky
    
13. 1,000 Miles Away - Kinky
    
14. The Right Time - Crank
    
15. Form A Circle - Crank
    
16. Be My Guru - Stoneage Romeos (Bonus Track)
    
17. At least two or three from Mach Schau
18. At least two or three from Blue Cave

That's a pretty impressive grouping of songs. I usually expect about 15 songs out of a headliner. Anything on top of that is gravy, and they played upwards of 20 last night. They even tossed in a couple of requests.

Decent crowd. I'd guess the Abbey holds a couple hundred people (a little bigger than Schuba's), and it was more or less filled. I was about 10 feet from the stage, and it looked pretty packed behind me. If you're a fan, or even if you just have a passing familiarity with their stuff, do yourself a favor and check them out. It's called entertainment, folks. Not every song has to change the world.

UCLA 68; Kansas 55 - Bruins Off to the Land of Many Peachtree Streets

Seriously, I've been to Atlanta, and there are like 18 streets all called Peachtree. It's very confusing. But I digress...

Look, this isn't gonna be an easy post for me to write without going into how much I hate Kansas. It started with Roy Williams poaching SoCal's best players, and the hatred intensified when that cocksucker Bail $elfish left Illinois to take the Kansas job. Let's get one thing straight, $elfish is a great recruiter, but he is a flat out AWFUL game coach (with an exception or two, which I'll get into later). Ask any Illinois fan who witnessed the 2003 debacle against Notre Dame where he suddenly decided that guarding the perimeter was not a priority, and when ND hit a ton of first half threes, he still thought it wasn't a priority. Result? Predictable.

Let me go ahead and write out the quotes from Kansas players right now:

• We missed a lot of easy shots.
• We missed a bunch of shots that we usually make.
• We picked a bad time to miss a bunch of layups.
• Yada...Yada...Yada....

Pyrrhus wrote a great diary about this the other day at Bruins Nation. It seems that every team who plays against UCLA in the tournament miraculously suffers through a bad shooting game. Like it's magic or something. Note to Bruins opponents: Their defense is very good. Those shots you missed, they weren't easy. You were rushing, because you knew if you'd taken another half second, you would have been stuffed or stripped. At least in missing, you had a shot at the offensive rebound.

On to the the game itself, I'll be honest. I was not happy with the first half. Too many turnovers. Too many bad decisions. At about the 15 minute mark, I thought 'just get it to three by halftime'. But a nice run over the last five minutes, and a great play at the end of the half (which failed later in the game) gave the Bruins a four point cushion. At that point of the game, I called my dad and said the first five minutes of the half were of utmost importance. This has been kind of a theme of mine this season. Ever since they lost the Stanford game, I've been all over the importance of the first five minutes of the second half. Well, tonight, after the first five and half minutes of the second half, UCLA pushed a four point lead out to nine, and would make it 11 just a minute later. Kansas never returned to that four point deficit.

So many heroes tonight. Josh Shipp's three pointers, including the three at the end of the first half. He finished with 9 points, 5 assists, and 6 boards. Darren Collison handled the Kansas pressure for the most part and tossed in 14 points. Don't look at the assist to turnover ratio. It's meaningless tonight. The defense of Aboya, Mata, and LRMAM, once again forcing a ton of misses on "easy" shots. Russel Westbrook, 2-2 on a dunk and a layup. Instant offense. And I'll say it right now, I hope Collison doesn't leave, but if he does, I could see Russel making the same type of transition that Collison has made in Jordan Farmar's absence.

But the hero, UCLA's best player, was UCLA's best player, Arron Afflalo. What. A. Game. He poured in 24 points. 10-15 from the field, most of those in the second half (he started off poorly). 3-7 from beyond the arc. And he showed the country once again that you should never feel comfortable in the final second of the shot clock. He nailed one. Collison nailed one. They were back breakers for Kansas. There's just something about giving up those types of shots late. You think you're about to get the ball back. You think you have a chance to cut a six point deficit to three or four, and all of the sudden your down by nine. This kid is a winner, and the only bad news from tonight is that he probably cemented his status as an NBA first rounder.

Ben Howland. Talk about a class act, and a hell of a game coach. He stayed with the game plan, and knew his players could execute. And you had to love the respect he showed former UCLA PBP announcer Dick Enberg. And I will give credit to $elfish for his strategy with about 3 minutes left. Kansas had not committed many fouls, and they knew they would need to probably put UCLA on the line at the end. But he didn't wait until a minute remained to foul on purpose. He got his team to really start ball hawking with about three minutes left. Go for the foul, and if you foul, who cares? It was a good strategy and it led to a couple of turnovers.

But despite the turnovers, despite some poor decision making, UCLA is heading to it's second straight final four. Ben Howland has returned this team to the top of college basketball's elite. And these kids, who have worked so hard all year, are headed back to college basketball's biggest stage. Congratulations, Bruins.

Pitt 55; UCLA 64 - Bruins Dance Into the Elite 8

Not quite so much drama as the last time the Bruins were the Sweet 16, but a win is a win, and the Bruins are still playing. They'll face Kansas on Saturday.

In a bit of a change of pace, UCLA won this game at the free throw line. That's right, I said they *won* it at the line, making 23 of their 26 free throws. And quite frankly, if you watched the game, you shouldn't have been surprised. Why? Look at the free throw distribution. Of their 26 free throws, 22 were shot by Arron Afflalo (10/10), Darren Collison (6/6), and Josh Shipp (5/6). If those three had shot 86% of UCLA's free throws all season, they wouldn't have been at the bottom of the Pac 10.

The defense was stifling yet again. The press will write about how UCLA was lucky that Pitt missed so many easy shots. My response: What easy shots? Not only did the Bruins play their typical ball hawking defense on the perimeter, but they brought quick double teams on Aaron Gray (who had all of one assist to show for his great passing out of double teams), and they routinely made life miserable for Pitt in the paint. Lorenzo Mata may only be somewhere between 6'8" and 6'10", but the guy probably has the strongest lower body in the country. You simply don't back him down. Other than the misadventures of Alfred Aboya and Ryan Wright (note to Dick Enberg: They aren't the same guy - Wright wears a head band), the Bruin defense was very stingy inside.

Unsung hero of the game? He was 2-2 with five points, no assists, no rebounds, no steals. But Michael Roll knocked down both of his open shots. With the Bruins leading by five, and under a minute to play, Darren Collison drove the lane, kicked it out to Roll, and his two point jumper made it a three possession game, essentially icing the victory. He didn't force it. He didn't try to do things he couldn't do in the first half. He waited for the game to come to him, and hit a huge shot.

Arron Afflalo shot the ball poorly, but did his damage at the free throw line and finished with 17 points. Josh Shipp shot it a little better, hit a couple of big threes, and finished with 16 of his. And Darren Collison didn't put up great numbers across the board, but he still finished with 12 points on 3-5 shooting, though I would like to see a little better assist/turnover ratio (4/3 may not cut it against Kansas).

Again, I don't know a ton about the Jayhawks, other than I hate their coach, and I don't think he's all that good. From what I saw tonight, they look long and athletic. No huge force on the inside, but they may create matchup problems in the backcourt. I like the fact that Collison has the experience edge over Sherron Collins. That could be a difference maker. And the best news of all, there won't be any other games on at the same time, so I'll actually get to see the whole game in HD.

Final notes: It's hard not to like Aaron Gray. Dude looks like the Michelin Man when he comes out the game, bouncing from side to side with a dumb guy grin on his face. Good luck to him in the NBA. Also, Satan lost tonight. Sure, it was against OhowIhateOhioState, but Satan is dead nonetheless. Bruce Pearl, quite possibly the biggest piece of shit in college basketball, is done, and that makes me happy.

Texas A&M Got Screwed....Kinda

Background: 3.1 seconds on the clock as the ball went out of bounds, with A&M down by one. But the refs had to take some time off. They took 1.1 seconds off.

What you'll hear in defense of the refs: The ball was touched by Memphis, then bounced in bounds before landing out of bounds. That probably was at least one second, so the refs got it right. But....

Here's why they still got it wrong: If you watch the replay in real time, the ref under the basket at which Memphis was shooting blew his whistle as soon as the ball hit the floor. The clock should have been dead right at that point. I do not believe the refs are allowed to change the time left on the clock when the whistle blows. They can review it on made baskets and such, or they can put time on the clock if the whistle comes late, but they are not allowed to add "in play" time when the whistle is blown early.

The refs screwed that one up. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered, but trying telling Texas A&M that they didn't need an extra eight or nine tenths of a second.