Lost Weekend

Got back from the desert last night after spending the weekend without TV and internet. Fortunately, I was there for a wedding and the accompanying festivities, so the monotony didn't completely wear me down.

Also fortunate was the fact that the lack of a connection to the wired world meant that I didn't have to witness the Kings losing, the Bruins losing, and Derrick Rose choosing Memphis over Illinois. Of course, I have some experience witnessing all three, so I was able to just imagine all of the losing and still feel like I was there. Oh, I also lost at the casinos, or rather, the casino (Agua Caliente). I won at Fantasy Springs. I also took $10 from the groom's dad at Terra Lago the day before the wedding (That's right, Dan, I was playing golf).

Speaking of golf, I've squeezed in rounds at Oak Valley, Rustic Canyon, and Oak Quarry, the latter two for the first time. Must be something about the grasses used out here, or the time of the season, but courses in the Midwest are generally in better shape. Never noticed it until this trip. Oh well, 90 degrees here today, so I'll soak up a few more days of sun before heading back to Chicago.

Probably nothing until Sunday

Heading to Palm Springs for a wedding, probably won't post until Sunday. May even miss the Bruins game, but since I don't think they're going to win, it won't kill me. Keep your fingers crossed on Rose, but don't hold your breath.

Day Late for Halloween

But here's your scary music post:



And another non-scary one just for fun.

Derrick Rose back in the picture

Hotshot point guard out the Chicago Public League is back in the picture for the Illini after narrowing his list to five Adidas schools about a month ago, trimming the Nike aligned Illini in the process. All of the sudden, the door is back open, with Rose's list consisting of Illinois alongside previous destinations Indiana and Memphis. He was at a pre-season scrimmage and practice over the weekend. What's it mean? Who knows. I'm not getting my hopes up. Four pieces of speculation come to mind:

1. He's not happy with what Adidas is offering, and he's yanking their chain a little bit in the hopes of landing a better package.
2. He's yanking Illinois' chain just to be evil.
3. He doesn't want to play in Jackass Gordon's shadow at Indiana.
4. He's genuinely interested in attending Illinois.
   

Of course, three doesn't make much sense, since he could solve that by going to Memphis. 1, 2, and 4 seem about equally plausible to me. Like I said, I'm not getting my hopes up. Decision expected to come on Saturday.

Just get it over with

There are so many things wrong with the way the Bruins played yesterday that it's impossible to catalog them all right now, but suffice to say, the second half was pathetic. The Bruins were completely outcoached on both sides of the ball. I'll give a little slack to the defense because it's not easy when the offense can't keep the other team off the field, and you're continuously heading out there after another three and out.

Two plays that stick out for me are a couple of third down plays where the Bruins needed about seven yards to pick up the first. Both times the play that was run was designed to go underneath. Got that? Not a play where Cowan went through his progressions and dumped it off. They were designed to put the ball in the receiver's hand short of the first down marker. That's just idiocy.

I stayed off the Fire Dorrell bandwagon for a long time before starting to come around this year. I'm not usually the type of guy that wants to see a coach fired. Hell, I hung with Andy Murray and the Kings for a LONG time. But Dorrell needs to be let go. It's over. I'd say fire him now and appoint an interim coach for the rest of the season, but I'm afraid they'd beat U$C and there'd be a push to keep the interim guy without doing a real search. I don't know what to think anymore. I just know I want to see a new guy at the helm next year.

It's official

Well, yes, it's official that Dan Cloutier sucks, but that's not what this post is about. After four plus years, I have officially ended my employment with the Big 4 accounting firm that absorbed Andersen's tax practice in Chicago. Gave notice Monday, and they kicked me out today. But they're paying me for the next week and a half, plus about five weeks of vacation that I'd accrued, so that should be a nice little chunk of change. In about 10 hours, I'll be on a plane to LA, where I'll spend the next two weeks out of the increasingly cold temperatures of the Midwest. The new job doesn't start until November 13th, so that's a nice little break. Of course, that doesn't mean I can take a break from you, my loyal reader(s). I'll return to my frustratingly inconsistent posting even while on vacation.

An Unfortunate Possibility

From Jon Heyman at SI.com:

Edmonds back to Angels?

Some folks believe former Angel Jim Edmonds, a Fullerton, Calif., native and free agent, would like to return to Anaheim. When he left, some teammates saw him as something of a hot dog. But he's still a pretty good center fielder.

I hearby unequivocally state that if Jim Edmonds returns to the Angels, I will suspend myself from Angels fandom until such time as he is no longer a member of the team. I will not root for the Angels as long as Jim Edmonds wears an Angels uniform, should that come to pass.

I am not joking.

UCLA 17; Notre Dame 20

I'm not really sure what there is to say that hasn't already been said. There's an old addage (and if there's not, then I'm going to make one up) that says when you play not to lose, you usually end up losing. Well guess what? After a fourth down stop with just over two minutes to go, the Bruins decided the best course of action was to put money on the Irish not having enough time to drive the length of the field. Bad decision.

As with any typical UCLA loss, mistakes played a major role, and this game was no different. Lost in the hoopla of the impending victory and sudden defeat was the fact that the winning margin was a field goal made, then missed by Justin Medlock in the first quarter, the successful attempt called back on a false start. But otherwise, the game was suprisingly mistake, well, not quite free, but let's just say there weren't too many mistakes. Only two turnovers on offense, and very few penalties in a tough building in which to play. The defense generally picked up the slack after turnovers.

But in the last few minutes, Karl Dorrell and DeWayne Walker (who really looked like a genius all day), decided to tense up, play conservative, and hope ND wouldn't wake up. Dorrell's three straight "just don't fumble" running plays, and Walker's prevent defense awoke the sleeping giant, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A couple other stats really stand out. Neither team ran the ball all that well, but UCLA completely shut down Darius Walker, and sacked Quinn five times. Their defensive line was very impressive. But the stat that I have yet to hear anyone mention is 4-5. That was Notre Dame on FOURTH down conversions. When you stop an offensive as strong as ND's on three plays, you HAVE to get the ball back, and UCLA continually allowed ND to extend drives that they should have ended.

In the end, two coaches called plays like they were concerned about what they'd read in the paper the next day. Go conservative. Play not to lose. It's what any coach would do, right?

There's no points for trying hard.

Something for the Weekend

Some early music from the finest band currently in existence. I'm serious. The Super Furry Animals are about a million times better than anything you're currently listening to. And if you don't agree, you suck.

Really weird feeling

I've just quit my job. Only, no one here knows that I've quit my job. I've accpted an offer from another consulting firm. Just sent the email a couple hours ago. More money, overtime pay, identical to slightly better benefits. A little more uncertainty than you experience at a huge firm, but a good opportunity to grow with a new practice.

But it is really weird walking around here, looking at everyone, and not being able to tell them that I'm leaving this job. Starting up a new project? Sure, I'd be happy to help! That staff meeting in December? Hit accept on the old Outlook and add it to my schedule!

It's really quite surreal.

Everyone will be clued in on Monday. The ruse will be over. But for now, it just feels really strange.

The Blueprint

The Kings aren't going to play Phoenix every night, and they definitely aren't going to play Phoenix with a backup goalie every night. Let's face it, they did a lot of things right tonight that no reasonable person can expect them to do night in and night out. But that, quite frankly, is the blueprint for a successful Kings game.

• Success on both the power play and the penalty kill;
• The discipline to avoid taking too many stupid penalties (which doesn't mean they didn't take any stupid penalties);
  
• Better than average goaltending; and
  
• Production from Brown, Frolov, Kopitar, and Cammalleri.

It's that simple. The only thing they were missing was a goal from a defenseman, which is something I identified early in the season as a key to maintaining last year's pace.

Seriously, how good is Anze Kopitar? His first period power play goal displayed a poise that simply can't be taught. He avoided swinging at the puck with a high stick, choked up, waited for the puck to drop below the cross bar, and literally bunted it in. It's hockey IQ, and it can be learned, but it can't be taught. Some players just have the ability to pick it up.

Kudos also go out to Sean Avery tonight, who aside from the stupid dive, kept his emotions in check until Shane Doan basically took both of them off the ice. He was instrumental in creating the Dustin Brown goal. Brent Sopel gets a major thumbs up for his absolute destruction of Dave Scatchard. It was a monster hit, and a joy to watch. Obviously Garon deserved to be singled out for the Kings first shutout of the season. And Cammalleri, wow! What a rocket shot. Thing of beauty.

Nice effort tonight in the second of back to back games. It would have been easy to take a step backward after last night's excellent performance but poor result. That's all we ask for. Effort, and some promis of what's to come.

Free stuff....For me, I mean

So today I get an email from Sprint saying that someone there had read my blog (yeah, this one), and since I'm such a cool guy, they want to send me a free cell phone with six months of free service just so that I can check it out tell them what I think, or not. I'm talking free everything. Unlimited minutes, web, whatever video crap you can download, music downloads, the works. For nothing. Seriously, check it out:

As a qualified participant, we will send you one Sprint Power Vision (mobile broadband) phone and provide you with 6 months of all-access service (at no charge). In addition to NFL Mobile, you?ll have access to the Sprint Music Store, live TV broadcasts, gaming, and more. Yes, you will also have unlimited free calling and data service. It?s a pretty good deal and all we ask for in return is your candid feedback (you decide how much and how often).

Pretty bitchin, huh? And I don't even write about the NFL. Unfortunately, I just bought a new phone and re-upped my Sprint contract about two months ago, and even then I never go over my minutes. But hey, if it's free, it's for me.

Seriously, this blog has now gotten me a free book, a free cell phone and six months of free service. Note to potential advertisers/product development types - you are hereby authorized to send me more free stuff. Have at it.

Kings lose again

Actually, the title isn't completely fair, as they at least managed a point, but man, they played easily their best game of the season tonight, completely outplaying the undefeated Minnesota Wild, but it still wasn't enough, as former King Pavol Demitra got a gift bounce against a goaltender who refuses to poke check and banked it in for the game winner in OT.

Despite the final result, there were a lot of positives. As I said, they played their best game of the season. They had a ton of pressure, a ton of shots, and simply couldn't find the net. They lack a lot of things right now, but chief among them seems to be an ability to finish. Among the "goal scorers", for lack of a better word, the only guy I can really pin blame on right now is Frolov. He's been an offensive black hole for more than half a season now, and he's the one that they really need to find the net. Kopitar, O'Sullivan, and even Cammy and Avery, their goals are going to come (that's right, I said Avery). But Frolov has had a number of years to develop, and it seems like he just stopped about two months into last season and, if anything, has regressed.

Congratulations to O'Sullivan, who picked up his first goal tonight. Although it sure looked to me like it was kicked by Willsie and probably shouldn't have counted. But who among us hasn't collected his fair share of garbage goals. Hell, I practically made a living out of it.

I can't really single anyone out as having a bad game tonight. Even Cloutier played well, although both goals can be attributed to his own misplays. On Rolston's goal, he should have gloved a shot he saw clearly all the way in. The subsequent rebound led to a scramble that ended with the puck on Rolston's stick with a wide open net. The OT goal by Demitra could have been avoided with a simple poke check.

But we'll take out positives where we can get them, and the Kings did everything right except for putting the puck in the net. Baby steps. I actually see them as being a team that will struggle for four months, then hit their stride sometime in February. It will be too late to make the playoffs, but they'll be a fashionable pick for the playoffs next year, and in 2008-2009, they'll be legitimate contenders.

Two wins, two losses

So after four games, the Kings find themselves at 2-2, able to beat the bad teams ( Blues and Islanders), and not able to beat the good teams (Ducks and Stars). It's tough to judge too much after these four games. They looked good against the Ducks, had a ton of shots, but came up short. They looked poor against the Blues, and so so against the Islanders, but picked up the points. Against Dallas last night, they played their worst game of the season. Very little flow, got behind early, very poor defensive coverage, and a predictable result.

Obviously the story of the early season has been Anze Kopitar, the greatest Slovenian player in the history of the game. His first goal (see post below), was real highlight material, and he did it against a future hall of famer. He added three assists in game two, and a fourth in game three. He has the game breaking skills that the Kings have never really developed from within (although they were close with Robert Lang before Barry Melrose destroyed him). He is the future, and no matter how bad it gets this season, he's going to be fun to watch.

O'Sullivan has yet to find the net, but he's an exciting skater, and he's got a sniper's shot. The kid is going to be good, but it might take half a season for him to hit his stride. He's like a better version of Michael Cammalleri. Mind you, Cammy is better right now, but when O'Sullivan reaches Cammy's experience level, I think he'll be a much better player.

I said last week that the defense had to add significantly more offense. Well, they have four goals so far, two from Visnovsky and two from Sopel. It's a good start, and it includes no goals from Blake or Teverdovsky (who in all fairness has only played two games, although he's looked smooth with the puck in those games). But the defense can't afford to let down on the other end, and they did that against Dallas, particularly Kevin Dallman who may find himself back in the press box tomorrow night.

Cloutier has not impressed me yet, but he's shown flashes of regaining his form. The problem is that he's already established himself as the pariah of LGK, a stigma that is almost impossible to get rid of. Just ask Joe Corvo and Roman Cechmanek. It's a group that practically prides itself on letting preconceived notions dictate their opions. But it's a long season, and if the worst case scenario is that his play inspires Mathieu Garon to play his way back into the number one role, then so be it.

Lots of hockey left, but it's a young team, and a difficult division and conference. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered.

Eric Gordon, Jackass

Eric Gordon made it as official as it can get until November when his family went public with his intention to accept a basketball scholarship at the University of Indiana beginning in 2007. Roughly a year ago, Eric Gordon held a press conference at his high school during which he anounced his intention to accept a basketball scholarship to the University of Illinois. He renegged on that agreement. And he did it in dramatic fashion, choosing a bitter rival, and doing it near the end of the recruiting process.

A verbal commitment is just that. Nothing is official until the player signs his letter of intent. But there is an unspoken rule against recruiting a kid who has already verbally committed to another program. Fortunately for the Hoosiers, rules have never mattered much to Kelvim Sampson, be they unspoken, unwritten, or even written. He always been slimeball. So he continued to recruit Gordon, who, along with his family, made a series of public reassurances to Coach Weber and the Illini faithful that he was still a solid Illinois recruit. Other prospects at the shooting guard position cooled to the Illini. I mean, who wants to play behind the top shooting guard in the country?

That brings us to today, when the selfish Gordon finally alerted the press that he would no longer be enrolling at Illinois, and would instead attend Indiana, conveniently coinciding with the kickoff of Indiana's pre-season practices, a televised event at which he'll be the star attraction.

The situation was handled incredibly poorly, and it does not speak well to the ethics of Sampson or the Gordons. It may also not speak well to Coach Weber's ability to recruit, but that's another issue. Players commit early and later change their mind all the time. It's not uncommon. But usually, those kids have the decency to decommit, to re-open the recruiting process, which gives their original choice time to line up a plan B. Gordon did no such thing. He fueled the rumors, strung Coach Weber along, and left the Illinois program high and dry. His parents, especially his father Eric Sr., were complicit in the deception. They must really enjoy getting their name in the paper. As for Sampson, well, we already knew he was an unethical sack of crap, so this whole episode didn't tell us anything we didn't already know.

As for Weber, everyone wants to get the blue chip prospects. For those of us who love college basketball, recruiting is the only story from April through October. But Kelvin Sampson, much like the coach who preceded Weber at Illinois, can't coach. Recruits are great, but you still need a good coach to win games. Good coaches take good talent and beat teams like Bucknell and Bradley in the first round. Bad coaches don't. Sampson's teams consistently underachieved, save for one final four appearance in 2002. And underachieving in the Big 12, a supposed "power" conference that has produced only two national champions in the last 55 years (both Kansas), and none in the last 18, is tough to do. I've lived through the Steve Lavin years at UCLA. I've seen what a great recruiter can do a program when he doesn't know how to coach. I'm completely satisfied with Weber.

But ultimately this falls at the feet of Eric and his family. This situation could have been handled much better, and they failed to do that at every opportunity. Few kids are ever the most hated player by a rival school a year before they set foot on a court, but Eric Gordon just became public enemy #2 today for the Illini faithful. I just pray that the Big Ten schedules a game between U of I and IU in Champaign during the 2007-2008 season. And if Gordon drives the lane and ends up getting pile driven into the floor, I think the pile driver will get quite an ovation from the home that night.

Another exellent take on this right here.

Anze Freaking Kopitar

Turns out this guy is pretty good.



The kids call that "sick".

Your 2006-2007 Los Angeles Kings

Not having access to any pre-season information that isn't provided to me free via the internets (in other words, having not seen any pre-season games), here's my attempt at a season preview.

Goaltender:

Mathieu Garon will back up newly acquired (and re-upped) Dan Cloutier who travels south to L.A. with new coach Marc Crawford. Injuries limited him to 13 mediocre games last season, and he played briefly in Austria during the lock-out, but the scuttlebutt is that his knee is healthy once again. Hopefully he can return to the form he displayed between 2001 and 2004, when he won over 30 games three times and never had a GAA worse than 2.43. If he can, the Kings will have their first reliable goaltender since Felix Potvin's good days in LA. One of the knocks on Cloutier is that he's soft in the playoffs. Considering that the Kings have been absent from the playoffs the last few years, I wouldn't mind getting a chance to see for myself.

Defense:

The Kings have some depth here, with eight defensemen who are at least fairly capable. The top four are pretty well set, with Rob Blake returning to L.A., joining Matty Nortstrom, Lubomir Visnovsky, and Aaron Miller. The final two spots are most likely to go to Brent Sopel and one of Kevin Dallman, Oleg Teverdovsky, and Mike Weaver. That depth is going to be important, primarily because Miller is perennially injured, and, well, this is the Kings, so it kind of goes without saying that guys are going to get hurt. The hope here is that the competition for playing time lights a fire under Teverdovsky, who is still a pretty skilled player. Be prepared to see a lot of offense from the blue line, and a lot of odd man rushes the other way. Blake especially has never been one to shy away from big hit regardless of what it costs in terms of defensive positioning. But hey, they'll be fun to watch.

Honestly, this is the strength of the team, and if they can set the tone, the Kings could be better than anyone expects. Last year they got about 40 goals from the defensive corps. 14 of those are in Ottawa this season. They're going to need about 55 this season to be competitive, maybe 60. Let's face it, the offense isn't loaded with proven goal scorers, so they're going to need all the help they can get from the blue line. I think they can do it.

Offense:

Right now, I'm not exactly sure what the line combinations are going to be, so I can't comment on each one. The offense on the whole is going to be a little shaky. They're going to be tremendously entertaining at times, and tremendously unreliable at times. That's the way young players tend to be, and it doesn't help that some of their older guys, like Frolov, already tend to play that way. The Kings are going to need a big effort from Alex this year, who has the talent to put together a 35-40 goal season. He's going to have to be the focus on offense this season, so hopefully he'll rise to the occasion. Michael Cammalleri lead all returning Kings with 26 goals last season. He's going to have to add 5-10 for the Kings to contend for a playoff spot.

The influx of youth up front is what will make this team fun to watch this season. Anze Kopitar and Patrick O'Sullivan make their NHL debuts, and both have shown a lot of offensive promise. O'Sullivan led the AHL in goals last season, and Kopitar has, by some reports, been the Kings best player throughout the pre-season. Dustin Brown chipped in 14 goals last season, and although he may continue to bring fans to their feet with his big hits on even bigger targets, he needs to increase that offensive production by about 10 goals this year. Old reliables Craig Conroy and Derek Armstrong will more than likely be solid up the middle, so the kids are going have to be the ones that take the big steps forward.

Of course, the wild card (in more ways than one) is Sean Avery. Can they keep him under control and out of the penalty box? Can he harness that speed and talent and turn in a 20-25 goal season? If he can, and if things break right for the Kings, they can be a playoff team. They could end up being they type of team that has no one score more than 35 goals, but has 10 guys that score more than 15. Balanced offensively, experienced defensively, and maybe the goaltenders are good enough to steel a few.

Special Teams:

The bane of the 2005-2006 season, the Kings absolutely must improve on the power play and the penalty kill, or they're going to live down to the low expectations that the media has set for them. In the new NHL, where there is a lot of time spent with fewer than 10 skaters on the ice, a team simply cannot be successful if they aren't solid on special teams.

On the power play, it starts on the blue line, and Rob Blake should provide some improvement over Joe Corvo, who actually wasn't too bad last year. The addition of Teverdovsky should give them a decent PP quarterback on the second unit. Logic would say that he'd be paired with Brent Sopel, but last season Norstrom got a lot of time with the extra man, and at times his no nonsense style led to getting the puck to the front of the net with some success. I wouldn't be surprised to see him out there again on the power play.

Eric Belanger, who was always a decent penalty killer, is gone to Carolina, but Alyn McCauley and Scott Thornton have arrived to shore up this unit. Look for Aaron Miller and Norstrom to log a lot of time on this unit. Hopefully Marc Crawford brought a magic formula with him. Vancouver was fairly middle of the road in both the PP and the PK, but even that would be a huge improvement over last season.

Outlook:

The Kings look to have a ceiling of about 6th in the conference, and a floor of about 14th. They'll probably end up right down the middle in about 10th place, probably contending for a playoff spot up until the last week or two of the season. If they stay healthy, they just may surprise a lot of teams and end up in the post-season, but I think the realistic expectation is that they'll miss this year, improve a little next year, and be set to really start flying in a couple of years as O'Sullivan, Kopitar, Tukonen, and Jack Johnson are hitting their stride. The future looks pretty bright, but it's still a ways off in the distance at this point. Here's hoping we get a little taste this season.

Here are my "totally pulled out of my ass" projections.

Projected record: 37-41-4
Projected finish: 4th in the Pacific, 11th in the Western Conference

Projected Stats (G-A-Pts)
Frolov: 32-40-72
Cammalleri: 33-34-67
O'Sullivan: 26-30-56
Kopitar: 16-27-43
Brown: 24-31-55
Avery: 23-29-52 (223 PIM - Four games lost to suspension)
Visnovsky: 19-41-60
Blake: 17-35-52

Cloutier: 26 wins, GAA - 2.93

Something to think about

The Angels are the only team that has ever employed the good Weaver.

Of all the teams that have ever employed the bad Weaver, the Angels are the only one not currently in the playoffs. I don't know what this means, but it pisses me off.

UCLA and Stanford

First things first, the Bruins won, and won convincingly. The defense continued to play well, and they look like they've taken a complete 180 under Coach Walker. That's the good news.

The bad news is that there are still a ton of questions:

• They really haven't played a great offense yet. And the one mediocre offense that they've played kind of tore them up in the second half, or at least, got the big plays when they needed to. That said, to the naked eye, the defense does look lightyears better than they have in the past.
• The offense has not been very pretty to watch. Inconsistent. Poor execution. Very unreliable. I do not think this team can mount a drive to win a game late in the fourth quarter, let alone three, like last year's team routinely could.
• The play calling has been pretty atrocious. I'm not sure if the personnel look bad because of the play calling, or if the play calling is conservative because they don't trust the personnel. Either way, it's bad. Although the play action they ran on 4th and goal did fool the camera man. Too bad it didn't fool Stanford.

Ultimately, from what I've seen so far, I can't see this team doing better than 6-6. If they can't beat Washington, they're probably going down to Cal, ASU, Oregon, Notre Dame, and U$C. Arizona and Washington State aren't going to be picnics either, so 6-6 may be a little optimistic. I can't see Dorrell surviving that, but stranger things have happened.

89-73

For the first time in franchise history, the Angels finished on the good side of .500 for three consecutive years. Unfortunately, for the first time in three years, the Angels won't be playing in the post-season. In a fitting end to a lost season, the Angels lost in extra innings due to an unearned run. They led the American League in unearned runs this season, and ultimately, that was their undoing. Their offense, while not good, was roughly as good as it was expected to be. Their pitching was better than average. But they were let down continuously by their defense, and that will stand as the reason the A's are preparing to meet the Twins, while the Angels are clearing out their lockers.

Tim Salmon finished his career in the on deck circle, the Angels unable to get one man on base in the bottom of the 10th to bring the Kingfish to the plate. C'est la vie. This game was kind of a microcosm of the season. Down early, then on top, then hanging around for a while, then kind of blowing it, then a furious rush to get back in it, before coming up short at the end due to their aforementioned defensive woes. Weird.

So where do they go from here? More on that later this week, but off the top of my head, I see a bit of a logjam at catcher, holes at third base and center field, with possible answers inside the organization depending on the winter. The pitching appears to be a strength, and the bullpen looks sound. They can contend again without a lot of movement, but I'd suggest not getting attached to anyone, because I've gotta think that a catcher, a pitcher, and one or more (probably more) of Kotchman, McPherson, Morales, Aybar, Izturis, Murphy, Willits, and Quinlan won't be here next year. This is going to be a tough off-season to handicap.

Catching up

Man, I've really been lazy lately. Lots of stuff going on, and not much of a desire to write about any of it. Anyway, this seems like a good time to start catching up:

• The Angels have finally, for the first time in three years, been mathematically eliminated from the playoff hunt. Expect a longer post-mortem here sometime shortly after the end of the season. I'd imagine that like last year, I'll do my position by position breakdown, outlook, and what I jokingly like to refer to as analysis. Short preview: It's the defense that did them in. No matter how much they needed a big bat, or another bullpen arm, ultimately they were sunk by allowing over 140 errors and 80 unearned runs. It's tough to win on pitching and defense when you can't play defense. It didn't help that this team seemed to lack the magic. Time for a new monkey.

• The Bruins looked downright pathetic against Washington on Saturday. They came out blazing in the first quarter, and they were so domininant that it looked like their inability to put the ball in the endzone wasn't going to be a problem. But Washington made adjustments, the Bruin braintrust didn't, and the result was predictable. The talent is there, but they need a better gameplan. Still, fundamentally they appear to be better defensively than they have been in years. But honestly, if they can't beat Washington, they aren't going to beat U$C, ASU, Oregon, Cal, or Notre Dame. That means they have to beat Arizona, OSU, Stanford, and WSU to get to six wins. I don't like those odds. It's going to be a long season, and I'd put the odds on Dorrell getting canned at better than 50/50. I'm not a knee jerk Dorrell hater, but that effort by the coaching staff on Saturday was unacceptable.

• In my last round of the year (and possibly ever?), I fired a 79 at Dubs on Saturday. This one was planned in May, and I wasn't going to stick the guy who has the permanent tee time with my $135 green fee. Kind of a weird 79, with a bad hole followed by two good holes, and so on, until bogeying the last two holes. Played the whole round with one ball, though. A real accomplishment.

Here's a cool Teenage Fanclub video.

• Hockey season gets underway soon, and I'm actually really looking forward to seeing the Kings play this year, especially O'Sullivan and Kopitar. I think their defense stacks up to be really solid, and if they can get some improvement from the likes of Cammy, Brown, and Frolov, they could surprise some people. Lord, just please get into the playoffs this season. That's all I ask. And beat the fucking Ducks.

• I'm gonna be home at the beginning of November for a couple of days attending a wedding in Palm Springs, but I'll probably take a day on either side of the weekend. Might be a good time for a small halosphere get-together since it will be the only time I'm ever home when Welch isn't in France.

Anyway, that's all for now. But keep watching this space!

Still breathing

With the Angels win over Kansas City, they've moved to six games out. Oakland currently trails Cleveland 2-1 in the fifth leads Cleveland 5-2 in the sixth. The Angels could conceivably be will be 5.5 6.5 games out after tonight, and possibly be as close as four five games out going into their first series with Oakland (seven games remain between the two). It's still a mathematical possibility.

Joe Saunders was excellent tonight, and the Angels provided more than the scraps of offense they've dished out lately, helping Saunders improve to 6-3. But he's pitched more this year than he ever has, and it shows. He needs extra rest, or he gets shelled. What do I mean? Look at his ten starts since being recalled in August:

Date	Innnings	Pitches	Earned Runs
8/1	7.0	104	2
8/6	7.0	104	0
8/11	6	100	2
8/16	2.2	70	7
8/22*	5.2	98	0
8/27	2.1	75	8
9/2*	7.1	97	1
9/8*	7.2	97	1
9/13	3.1	73	7
9/19*	7	115	1

*Extra day of rest between starts.

So that breaks down as follows:
1) In his four starts with extra rest, he's had three quality starts and was an out short of a fourth, with an ERA of 0.98.
2) In his six starts on normal rest, he's had three quality starts, with an ERA of 8.26.
3) In his last three starts on normal rest, as he pushes into his largest ever workload, he's had no quality starts, and allowed 22 runs in 8.1 innings for an ERA of 23.76.

In other words, thank God there's an off day before he makes his next start. But at this rate, he's scheduled to pitch on the next to last day of the season, with no extra day of rest. Should it matter, that's a scary thought for Angels fans and a comforting thought for A's fans. Still, I'm not sure what other options they'd have. He faces Texas next, and Volquez gets that start for the Rangers. He's been solid lately, though he got kind of hammered tonight. The Angels only hope would be to blow Volquez out early, and get Saunders a big lead after five innings so the Angels can sit him down after about 75 pitches. Problem is the Angels offense has shown a proclivity for scoring a lot of runs lately, and on normal rest, Saunders has provided PLENTY of opportunities in his first 75 pitches for opponents to basically rip the crap out of him. And quite frankly, if Saunders IS going good through five, I don't trust Scioscia and Black to do the analysis above and yank him after 75 pitches anyway.

Oh well, probably won't matter, and if does, it looks pretty bad for the Angels in that penultimate game. But damn, I'd sure like to find out.

Inconsistency

If it wasn't already in the dictionary, John Lackey would be defining it. I'm done with him. Deal him in a package for a big bat, and sign an arm via free agency.

Combined with the complete lack of pride shown by the Cock Sox this weekend, the season is coming to an end.

4.5

Angels: Winners

Bobby Jenks: Loser

Oakland's Noose: Tightening. Early stages of A'sphyxiation.

Shhh....I think I hear something....

Do ya hear it....?

Can't quite make it out.........

Getting a little louder.........

Uh-oh..........

I hear footsteps....And I think they hear them in Oakland too.


Psst, Adam. Whenever they tell you bunt, foul one off, then swing away. Trust me.

So anyway

I hear this Tiger Woods guy is pretty good. It's called history, folks. You're watching it.

Actually, I've met Tiger once. Back in 1992 when I was a freshman in college, I played with my dad as a guest in a corporate tournament at Riviera about three weeks before the L.A. Open. It was the year Tiger played in a professional tournament for the first time at Riv, and he was on the course that day as a guest of the folks putting on the event playing a practice round. At the buffet after the event, there were a couple of empty seats next to my dad and me, and Tiger and his father sat next to us. As someone who played high school golf for four years prior, I knew who he was. Can't remember much of the conversation, and he wasn't one millionth as famous as he is now, but still, that's my brush with golf greatness.

And on another note, posting will infrequent to non-existent for the next week+. I leave Wednesday on vacation. Driving back to Montana to visit relatives and to meet up with my parents who will be attending my dad's 50 year high school reunion. I'll be playing the top three courses in North Dakota at various stages of the journey. The first day will be a roughly 840 mile drive to Bismarck, which is about 160 miles short of my longest one day drive, but still plenty long. Should be fun.

6.5 Back

Dear Angels Offense,

In case you haven't noticed, the pitchers are stepping up. Howzabout a little response. What say you guys swing the sticks a little better tomorrow night so that we don't need Frankie to come in to pitch the ninth. And bring your extra good swings, because Lackey's on the mound, and he can't seem to get anyone out without throwing about a million pitches in the first five innings. So please get some hits and score some runs, and while you're at it, start playing defense a little bit better. For those counting, that's eight hits for, and 4 errors committed by the Angels in the last two games. You can't keep winning by doing that. So stop it.

Sincerely,
Me

For the second time in three days, the Angels gained ground on the A's. They're now seven back in the loss column, and at that magical place where if they were to take all remaining games against Oakland, it would be a dead heat to the post-season. I still can't see them getting there, but at least there's reason for hope.

Tremendous effort by Jered Weaver tonight. Seven shutout innings, and he broke his two game losing streak. Extra props to Adam Kennedy who drove in the game's only run, and Mike Napoli who, despite a rough day at the plate, threw out two runners trying to steal for big outs. The defense finally nutted up, with the only error coming on Weaver's bad pickoff throw to first. Biggest play of the game was the Ramon Hernandez's ground ball induced by Weaver and the crisp defense that turned it into a run saving double play in the bottom of the fourth.

Lackey turns the page on August and gets his first September start of the season tomorrow. Hopefully he burned that page in his calendar.

Southpaw Jesus Indeed!

Without dissecting every play (the game just ended afterall), Ben Olson is the freaking man. He stood up to pressure in the pocket, stepped up and threw strikes when the Bruins needed him to, made his reads to find the open receiver, and despite the lack of an effective running game, marched the Bruins down the field for three touchdowns. He looked every bit as impressive as Drew Olson did last year. Of course, not all of Drew's production came in the fourth quarter (it just seemed like it), but what a nice sight it was to see the Bruins march down the field on their first drive of the game, culminating in a scoring strike from the chose one. 26 for 35, 316 yards, 3 touchdowns, and no interceptions. That's not too bad for a debut, even against Utah. Aside from a couple of shaky QB/Center exchanges, I can't remember one play that even ALMOST went for an interception. Excellent decision making and execution.

Logan Paulsen also made a name for himself tonight, hauling in five catches for 90 yards. Brandon Breazell also stepped up with some big grabs, including a very athletic leaping grab for a big first down in the third quarter. The only disappointments were Junior Taylor, with two really awful drops, and the run blocking of the offensive line, which control the line of scrimmage all night. But with the numbers Big Ben put up tonight, teams won't be able to sell out against the run.

On the defensive end, true freshman Alterraun Verner had a huge game, with an interception return for a touchdown, and a fumble forced and recovered that salted the game away. The interception was especially important as it came when the game was tied and the offense was struggling. Dennis Keyes also stood out, and the defensive line was pretty impressive. They held Utah to 112 yards on the ground.

The most important part of the game for the defense, in my opinion, was their fundamental play. They actually tackled, something the Bruins haven't done for the last five years or so. Say what you will about Dewayne Walker. Criticize his lack of experience, his schemes, what have you, but if does one thing, if he teaches these guys to tackle, this will be the best defense the Bruins have put on the field in the Dorrell era.

Well, one down, ten to go. The way they looked tonight, and the way Notre Dame looks right now, that game in October should be a heck of a lot of fun to watch.

Angels 5; Mariners 3

Nice way to finish the series. The offense finally staked Lackey to a lead that he somewhat amazingly didn't turn over. Howie was big time again, GA continues to rake, and Frankie continues to be absolutely lights out. The Angels salvaged the season series from the Mariners, ten games to nine.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. The A's swept the Red Sox and increased their lead to 7.5 games. They lead by more than a week, and there's only about five of those left in the season. At this point, the Angels need to really outplay the A's down the stretch in their games versus other opponents, and they need to pound the A's in their last seven head to head. I don't think it's a stretch to see that anything less than 5-2 pretty much ends the discussion, and realistically, even that likely won't be good enough.

Now it's on to Detroit to face the Tigers, who narrowly escaped a sweep in New York this evening when Craig Monroe hit a two out three run homer in the ninth to salvage a split. They've been struggling, and the Angels need to take advantage. Honestly, this is a series that won't kill me if the Angels lose. I have a friend who has suffered for the last 12 years with the Tigers, and their slide has him a bit on edge. I've been there, and I hate to see people go through that. So I'm rooting for the Angels, but if they get swept, it won't devastate me. There's a silver lining. Plus, Tiger wins are bad for the White Sox, and that's good for everyone.

Except the White Sox, of course.

Good lord

These guys are fucking awful.

Update: Hope Soriano's OK. Anyone else see him spit out a big fatty of dip as the trainers got to him. Good thing he didn't swallow it.

God help us

From the L.A. Times:

Napoli Is Hatcher's Project

Well, it was a nice career, Mike . See ya in the independent leagues.

More fun with Sitemeter

Someone did a Yahoo search (people still use Yahoo?) for "Seitz" and came to this site via that search. One of the other listings for Seitz was a link to this page, which, in addition to providing the correct pronunciation of my last name, links to the census bureau page which lists Seitz as the 2,837th most popular last name in America. Lookout, Smalley, we got your number!!

Actually, that's not true. I can't think of any Seitzes in my family set to add to that number, now that I think about it.

Angels nothing; Mariners something more than nothing

Anyone who thought the Angels stood a chance after the Mariners took the lead in the fourth was either fooling themselves, or named Matt Welch. Felix Hernandez had his good stuff, and the Angels hitters decided they were going to swing early and often, which helped Felix keep the pitch count down.

With the A's on their way to winning, the Angels continue to dig their hole that much deeper. But perhaps something positive can come from this game. Hopefully John Lackey and Ervin Santana were watching. Hopefully they learned something from watching a kid younger than both of them. Hopefully they've learned that you can get through a game without trying to strike everyone out. Hopefully they've learned that it's not normal to have 110 pitches through five innings. But I doubt it.

Jered Weaver takes the mound against Jarrod Washburn tomorrow. 56 vs. 56. Enjoy it, because the season has essentially been reduced to seeing how well Jered Weaver and Howie Kendrick can finish. The rest of the team can pretty much take the rest of the season off, to the extent they already haven't

Yankees 5; Angels 6

Nice win. Looks like Dino got some religion after last night's game. Anyway, can't really say much more. Missed this one. The Fat Man and I were at the ChiSox-Twins tilt. Always nice to walk out of the Cell with a bunch of upset Sox fans. And boy, can he dish the dirt on Matt Welch?!

Red Sox 2; Angels 1

This team is, for lack of a better word, dumb. Maybe this year, while the pitchers and catchers are going through early spring training, they can send the position players to Baseball 101 classes, because these are the stupidest mothefuckers I've ever seen on a baseball field. Stick Orlando Cabrera in the front of the room, because he needs the most help. He essentially salted the game away for the Red Sox in the top of the 7th when he tried to beat Alex Cora to second base on what should have been an inning ending double play. With the catcher at the plate, a simple flip to Kennedy would have started an easy double play which would have ended the inning and kept the Angels within one run. But Cabrera was beaten to the bag, Cora was called safe, and the Sox doubled their lead.

Of course, it probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, because these guys decided about half way through last night's game that they were no longer going to try to score runs. One good chance came in the bottom of the sixth, with two runners on, one out, and Vlad at the plate. He promptly ended the threat with a 6-4-3 double play. Only slightly less dramatic than Tim Salmon's statue routine with the bases loaded last night.

But the coup de gras of stupidity came in the bottom of the seventh. With runners on second and third and none out, Howie Kendrick laced a single to left. I remind you, there were none out. Anderson scored, and despite the fact that there were none out, Rivera was sent, and was too stupid to understand the situation. He was promptly thrown out. Did I mention that there were no outs? Because it's important to know that there were no outs in order to guage the full moronitude of this play. No more runners would cross the plate, making the shithead play by Cabrera in the top of the sixth that much more painful.

This is without a doubt, the stupidest collection of players in professional baseball. They prove it again and again and again. With average intelligence, they'd be ten games up on the A's right now, but their utter contempt for knowledge, from the amateur psychologist in chief right on down the line, has doomed them to failure this year.

The bottom line is that they simply can't afford to lose close games in which they have opportunities to win. They don't have to cash in every runner, but they need to bring those guys home in the big situations. It's August 25th, and their down by a week. There aren't that many weeks left. Despite numerous opportunities, I haven't bailed on this season since May. I'm doing it now. The Angels are done for 2006. Even assuming they could mount a challenge the rest of the way, they're far to stupid to get over the hump.

Oh well, at least Oakland will choke it away in the first round again.

Ugh. Red Sox 5; Angels 4

11 runners left on base, a hell of a lot of them in scoring position. That's the main story of tonight's game. The secondary story line was Kelvim's inability to get off to a good start, which put the Angels in a hole that they should have been able to dig out from. But time after time after time they let golden opportunities go by the wayside, none worse than in the seventh inning. After loading the bases with one out on a Robb Quinlan single that couldn't get Cabrera home from second, Tim Salmon struck out on four pitches, never bothering to swing at any of them, and Howie Kendrick knocked the first pitch he saw back to the pitcher to end the threat. And that pretty much summed up the evening.

L - O - B

In his defense, Escobar was outstanding from the second third inning on, but damage was already done. Just can't afford to lose games in which they get that many chances to tie it up. I think the monkey's got a virus. Time for a new monkey.

Last night's gain in the standings is gone, and the Angels are back to -5.

Red Sox 3; Angels 4

How does this team win games? Seriously. They basically handed the Red Sox three runs tonight, and almost handed them a fourth in the ninth inning. Figgins misplayed a slightly tougher than routine fly ball into two runs. Garret Anderson misplayed a blooper into another run (only after gross mismangagement by Mike Scioscia), and Maicer Izturis just about blew in the top of the ninth inning. Twice.

But somehow, the Angels scratched out just enough runs to win the game, thanks to another clutch two out RBI single from Garret Anderson, coming on the heels of Orlando Cabrera's GIDP to take the leadoff hitter off the bases. Props to GA and Juan Rivera for their RBIs, and Figgins should be recognized from getting one of the gift runs he handed the Red Sox back, and for the nice catch he made on Manny Ramirez's deep drive to center to lead off the ninth.

But special ire is reserved for Mike Scioscia tonight, who made the inexplicable (I've used that word a lot this year) decision to remove Brendan Donnelly with two outs in the seventh. He had retired all three hitters he faced, and there was no reason to take him out mid-inning. It reeked of amateur psychology on Scioscia's part. The only explanation is that he ran Shields out there to exorcise his Papi demons, which include two homers, one that preceeded a complete collapse last month. There was absolutely no baseball purpose behind that move, and it almost cost them the game. Fortunately GA came through in the clutch, Shields turned it around, the Angels pulled it out.

Another game picked up on Oakland tonght, and the Angels are back within four. That's five straight wins, and they need to keep this pace to hang with the A's who have an easier schedule this week. I don't know how they're doing it, but just imagine if they actually start playing the mistake free baseball that a lot of thought they were capable of playing.

Taking suggestions for a new weekend hobby

As of last Sunday, I quit the game of golf. I started playing golf probably around age 9, going to three par courses with my dad. I played all through high school, earning my varsity letter in my freshman year, which had more to do with living in a primarily blue collar town than being really good, though I wasn't bad.

I played on the club team in college, with little commitment the first three years, mainly because I didn't have a car. I played a lot my senior year, though, and by that time, I was working part time at a golf course in during the summer, winter, and spring vacations, as well as a few weekends a month while I was in school.

After graduation, I worked there for a few more years, and even registered for and took a P.A.T., or playing ability test twice with the intent of becoming a teaching professional. However, in the time between deciding to take the tests and actually taking them, I decided to continue my education in law school, and didn't put forth the effort to practice for either test.

In law school, the combination of being time and cash poor led to limited activity on the golf course, though my last year I played a fair amount, and picked up the game again full steam in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, the combination of work and various other factors kept me off the course more than I would have liked, but last year I finally joined the Chicago District Golf Association, registered for a handicap, and played at least once pretty much every weekend.

This year I went at it full bore. Started hitting the heated driving range when the weather was still cold, and in about mid-April, I basically started playing roughly twice per week, mostly on Saturday and Sunday with the occasional weekday round tossed in. In my first full round of the year, I fired a 74, marred by a double bogey on the last hole. In one three hole stretch, I sandwiched an eagle around two birdies, getting back four strokes to par in three holes. I felt way ahead of scheduled, and thought that this was a year in which I could make some pretty big strides. Later, I qualified to play in the Illinois State Mid-Amateur championship, and registered for two other individual events, and one pairs event (the pairs event and one of the individual events was rained out). I was in a bad stretch for the Mid-Am, and played horribly in the actual event, but got things somewhat back on track, the highlights being a 73 at Arcadia Bluffs up in Michigan, and a 75 (actually below the course rating), including five birdies, at Blackthorn in South Bend.

But ultimately, the season has been pretty awful. I've been wildly inconsistent, unable to put two good rounds together. I've had the shaft in my driver break three times, once through my own idiocy. I've spent God only knows how much on clubs (including a new three wood, hybrid 2-iron, two driver shafts, two new wedges, and a new putter), balls, gloves, and especially green fees.

Last Sunday, I played Pine Meadow, as close to a home course as I have, with a friend and his brother. After a solid start, I proceeded to three putt six greens, and just generally play rotten golf from the third hole on. That followed a round at Cog Hill where, after being even through three holes and in the middle of the fairway on the 4th, I proceeded to play the last 15.5 holes in 17 over par.

Golf is no longer fun. My handicap currently sits at 3.7, and there are a lot of people who would be thrilled with that. But the fact is that it's almost two strokes higher than it was two months ago, and if I were to continue to play and post my average scores for the rest of the year, my handicap would probaly end somewhere right around 6 or worse. That's not acceptable.

The fact is, at my age, and with the amount of time I've put into the game this year, if I can't consistently shoot in the 77-79 range and better, it's just not worth the time and effort, not to mention the money. Compounding that is the fact that if you're going to put up those numbers, you either need to play a consistently solid round start to finish, or you need to make a lot of birdies. I don't do the latter, and if you aren't going to make a lot of birdies, you can't fall apart early. Invariably after four or five holes, I'm three or four over par, which means I have to be lights out the rest of the way, and if you can't get on track early, it's not going to happen. The result that I spend the last 3 and a half hours miserable, making the experience less enjoyable for myself, and more importantly, my playing partners. It's not fair to them, and it's not worth it for me. I simply refuse to play a game that I am unable to play at the level to which I feel I should be playing.

So after roughly 24 years, my days playing golf are over. There will still be rounds that I'll need to play, either as a work function, or a family function, etc. I'll still play with my dad when I see him, because I'm not sure how much time we may have to do such things. But the weekend trips to the course, the mid-week trips to the driving range, the time spent reading Golfweek, they're all over. The clubs are put away, and pretty much everything that would indicate I play golf (other than my checkbook, I guess) is out of sight.

So while this blog post is essentially meaningless, it's served as an opportunity to put my frustrations into writing. It's been fun, or at least, it's been fun on occasion. Now I need to find something to occupy my weekends in the summer.

If that's how they want to play it...

Next series with the Rangers, first opportunity, DeRosa's got to go down. They've got a lot of prime targets in that lineup, but DeRosa's a cheap-shotting little bitch. We'll see if he has the balls to charge someone who's actually waiting for him instead of going after someone who's already engaged in a fight with another player.

Hats off to Kevin Gregg and Brendan Donnelly. Texas is managed by the whiniest little punk bitch in the league, and the real tragedy tonight was that no one took the liberty to beat the shit out of Showalter when he was on the field.

Special pussy award to Bitch Feldman, who conveniently avoided throwing at the larger Juan Rivera and Howie Kendrick, preferring to throw at the smaller Adam Kennedy. You're a real man, Feldman.

I hope this isn't over. By the next time these two teams meet, the rosters will be expanded, and both team will be out of the race (considering the A's will win all of their remaining games against the pathetic Mariners). Some Rangers need to go down, and they need to go down hard.

And John Lackey, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get that angry on the mound in your next start. PLEASE get mad and challenge hitters. PLEASE pitch like you're angry. It's when you're at your best.

Dear John,

I am officially done with John Lackey. No killer instinct. No belief in his stuff. No will to win. Once again, he's undone by two strike hits. He gets ahead in the count, and then he's got to nibble, nibble, nibble with his curveball, hoping someone swings at a pitch in the dirt, hoping they don't rip his curveball for a base hit. Well, tonight they ripped it for hits, including the single that put the game winning run on base. He allowed more than two runners per inning tonight, and it wasn't because they were teeing off on him. It's because he refuses to go after hitters. He pitches scared. He's done it his whole career. Worst part is that I think it's rubbing off on Santana.

This team is maddeningly frustrating to watch. They squander their talent trying to be perfect. I simply can't watch a game with confidence that they'll win, mostly because the Angels have no confidence in themselves.

They fought back valiantly from a slow start this season, and they got themselves in position to challenge for the division, based half on their decent play, and half on the poor play of the rest of the division. But they've squandered that opportunity, playing even or worse with dominant teams like Kansas City and Cleveland. They now trail the A's by six games in the loss column, and despite what history tells us, they simply don't have the talent or make-up to gain back that much ground.

Because the mood struck me...

Here's a couple vids from 2003's best album (yeah, that's right, you're choice for best album of 2003 sucks), The Wrens Meadowlands. Enjoy.

Faster Gun


Everyone Chooses Sides

Pitchfork Music Festival - July 29th and 30th - Union Park - Chicago

On July 29th and 30th at Union Park in Chicago, Pitchfork put together what is essentially their second annual music festival (last year it was the Intonation Festival curated by Pitchfork, while this year, there were two separate music festivals, of which Pitchfork had a better lineup), bringing 30 some bands to the Windy, and extremely hot, City. Needless to say, there were a bunch of bands that I didn't see, but pretty much everyone that I wanted to see, I saw.

First up for me was Destroyer, which is essentially Dan Bejar and some other dudes. Bejar, you may recall, is a contributing member of New Pornographers, and Destroyer played with New Pornographers when they hit Chicago about a year ago. It was a solid set, although he didn't play anything from Streethawk: A Seduction, which is my favorite Destroyer album. But this set did help me adjust to the heat. One thing about being in 95 degree heat with 95% humidity, once you're in it for about a half hour, you pretty much get used to it. You're sweaty and grosser, and it ain't getting any better, so you better just learn to live with it. Anyway, here's some Bejar:


Next up was Art Brut, but we didn't really pay much attention to that set. Altough as we were walking over to see Ted Leo, they played Good Weekend, which was actually pretty entertaining. Check it out:


Kind of weird, but despite the similarity, those first two videos were taken from completely different stages. It's actually a really cool set up for an outdoor festival. There are three stages, two main and one side stage which is basically in a tent. The two main stages sit at a right angle, and there are never two bands playing on those stages at the same time. As soon as a set finishes on stage 1, a new set starts on stage 2 within five minutes. There's always someone to listen to, but you never really have to make a decision to miss a band that you want to see in favor of another band you want to see (unless they're on the third stage, which is mostly DJs and local acts).

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists hit the stage next, and they were nothing but a revelation. For some reason I never got around to listening to these guys. Maybe I confused them with Kings of Leon, who I also haven't listened to, but regardless, I've been remiss. They kicked some serious ass, mixing in stuff from their new album "Shake the Sheets" along with stuff from their first album "Hearts of Oak". Hilights included "Where Have All the Rude Boy Gone", "Ballad of the Sin Eaters", "Me and Mia", and "Walking to Do". The coolest part was during the final song when he busted his head open on the microphone. Seriously. If you haven't listened to Ted yet, here's the video for Rude Boys. You'll like it:


After that, we wandered over to catch the Walkmen. I won't bore you with more videos, because I posted some just a few posts ago, and you can scroll down to find them. But they basically played everything I wanted them to play, which included "Wake Up", "We've Been Had", "The Rat", "Little House of Savages", and "Thinking of a Dream I Had".

To close out the night (for me anyway), we switched stages to catch the Futureheads, who were really good, and to whom I need to listen to more often. But geez, gimme time. I'm still finally getting into the Ted Leo stuff.

Day two began long before I arrived, but the acts on the bill that we wanted to catch inlcuded Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, and Spoon. Okay, I was the only one who wanted to see Spoon, but I digress. How were they? Mission of Burma was pretty good. Early '80s post punk band that recently reformed, and they mixed in some of the classics with the new stuff. A friend of mine had missed them during their first go round, and was pretty pumped to see them this time. They were good. Check it:


We paid little attention to Devendra Banhart while we waited for Yo La Tengo, who were pretty good, but again, for some reason they're one of those bands who are up my alley that I've never gotten around to listening to. From what I understand, most of the set was stuff from an upcoming album, including one song that lasted about 20 minutes, which was literally half the set.

Spoon closed things out with a set that included two songs with which I was unfamiliar, a bunch of stuff from their new album (Beast and Dragon, Two Sides, Camera, Mathematical Mind, Summon You, Never Got You) and Kill the Moonlight (Paper Tiger, Johnathan Fisk, and a few others not icluding Small Stakes or Way We Get By). Solid set, but I'm at the point where I really want to hear more stuff off of Telephono or Series of Sneaks. Perhaps those ships have sailed.

So anyway, that was Pitchfork. More bands that I wanted to see than last year, but none that I wasnted to see as much as Broken Social Scene, AC Newman, and the Wrens, who were the highlights of last year's show. But all in all, I can't complain.

What goes down...

Just when you think it's safe to start counting the Angels out again, they pound the Texas starters like Irish Car Bombs, then rake "All-Star" Mark Buehrle for six runs and three solo shots, and just like that, the Angels have followed a three game losing streak with a three game winning streak. I hate to sound like someone who roots for misfortune, but the Angels got good news when they learned that Bartolo was done for the year. A healthy Joe Saunders is much better than an injured Bartolo, and quite frankly, right now he's pitching better than a healthy Bartolo. The Angels AAA starters have combined to go 11-0 this season, with only one less than average start factoring in. They've given the team a tremendous lift. Matt Welch made the point the other day, and it bears repeating, that for all of the handwringing over Scioscia's supposed preference for veterans, the Angels have broken in four rookies into starting roles this season between Napoli, Kendrick, Weaver, and Saunders. How many other contending teams do you think have done that?

I've thought all along that this was essentially a rebuilding year for the Angels. They've got some veterans on the downside of their careers, ready to be replaced by kids who appeared to be just short of completely ready. But Juan Rivera, Maicer Izturis, and Robb Quinlan have filled some gaps rather nicely, while the aforementioned rookies have made huge contributions. The Angels are ahead of schedule, and though I don't think they're legit World Series contenders this year, they're poised to dominate the AL West for the rest of the decade.

On to Cleveland, New York and Texas for the next ten games before heading home to face Seattle, Boston and New York. A realistic expectation for this trip is 6-5. 7-4 would be fairly productive, and 8-3 would be tremendous. But with Oakland hitting a soft spot in their schedule, anything worse than 5-6 could really mean disaster.

FYI - I just finished reading Robert Goldman's excellent book Once They Were Angels, and I'll be reviewing a little later this week. Aside from some tiny factual errors which I was only able to pick out due to my freakish memory (trust me, they're incredibly inconsequential), the book was a great read, and I dare any long time fan to read it without tearing up once or twice.

How cool is YouTube?

Man, this is one of the funniest sketches I've ever seen, but Exit 57 is never on TV anymore. Thank God for YouTube.

What goes up.....

The Angels offense returned to earth, then kept going, against the A's the past couple of days, dropping two of three in an important, yet not particularly critical home series. Next up is four straight against the Rangers. This is no time for a letdown, and the Angels probably need to step up and take three out of four in this series, or at least split 2-2. This thing isn't going to be decided until the final two weeks of the season, but it's important that they don't spend a lot of time playing catch-up heading into those final two weeks.

As the Angels offense has morphed from that was good to one that is bad, it's no surprise that the monkey days of old are more or less out the window, which of course puts more pressure on the bullpen. If someone like Shields comes in and can't get the job done, there's really no chance that the offense is going to come through and pick him up. The Angels are now something like 1-44 when trailing after eight innings. I think we need a new monkey.

Finally, I held the belief for a while that all the errors were pretty much just small sample size. I mean, the defense isn't all that different from last year, and any team can go through a tough few months. But the fact of the matter is, they aren't getting better. They continue to make errors, and that extends innings, and that means more pitches, and that means we get to the bullpen quicker. That's not a good thing with a bullpen as shaky as the Angels' bullpen has been. I don't know what the fix is, and I don't know if they can overcome it, but for the most part, the team is roughly in line with what we expected them to do aside from the defensive miscues. And after watching them put the contact play on with the A's infield in, I still maintain that the Angels are the dumbest team in baseball. They may be able to overcome that, but it sure makes the road tougher.

More to come later in the week...

I'll be posting about the A's series, of course, in addition to the Pitchfork Music Festival that I attended last weekend in the sweltering Midwestern heat, and the Grant Lee Phillips shows that I'll be attending tonight and tomorrow night. But until I have a few minutes to get those thoughts down, I'll leave you with a couple of vids from Pitchfork performers The Walkmen, who played a pretty sweet set on Saturday. The second tune, "Little House of Savages", was personally my favorite song of 2004. But first up, to whet your appetite, is "The Rat", their first single off of their 2004 LP "Bows and Arrows". Enjoy.

Angels outslug their own stupidity

Trust me, I know it's out of character for me, but I really believe this team can win the AL West. I even think they can do it without making a deal at the deadline. But they simply cannot win the West if they continue to be the stupidest team in baseball. How stupid are they? Let me count the ways:

1. Howie Kendrick throws a ball into left field trying to turn a double play they had little chance of turning, putting runners on first and second with none out in the first (I'm willing to let this one slide based on Kendrick's limited experience at first base).
2. John Lackey, after getting drilled on the thigh by Manny Ramirez, inexplicably tries to throw the runner out at the plate, a play which he had no chance of making, instead of taking the sure out at first.
3. Chone Figgins tries to turn a double into a triple, then tries to turn it back into a double, which he was successful doing, because you still get credit for double when you reach second base safely before idiotically overrunning it and getting thrown out on your way back.
4. The top of the sixth inning. Like, the whole thing, even though they scored four times, no thanks to smart baseball. First, Jamie Van Buren walks Mike Napoli on four pitches to load the bases. Got that? Four pitches! So what does Kennedy do? Goes after the first pitch, a 58 footer. He wasn't close. Then after taking three ball, he fouls off ball five, then lines out to center on ball six. Nice at bat, AK. But that wasn't as bad as....
5. Juan Rivera, who inexplicably (I hate to use that word twice, but there was a lot of inexplicability out there tonight) remained on third base after Coco Crisp made a diving catch of Kennedy's line drive. How galactically stupid was this? First, Crisp has about as strong an arm as my dead grandmother. Second, he was lying on his stomach after making the catch. He would have had to get up and thrown to a cutoff man (since he probably couldn't have gotten it all the way to the plate) to get Rivera had he tagged. But to make it even worse, Crisp got up and fired to first in an attempt to throw out Napoli who has broken for second. Rivera was STILL AT THIRD!!! What the hell was he waiting for?
   

Now, the Angels got clutch hits out of Figgins and Izturis, and a sac fly out of Cabrera, and finished their half of the sixth with a six run lead. But they nearly blew a chance at a big inning, and almost left without scoring a run at all.

This is a stupid baseball team, folks. They've shown it all season in the field and on the basepaths. I actually think they have the talent and ability to reach the post-season. But I'm not convinced they have the brains to do so.

Howie Kendrick

I mean, GOOD GOD, MAN!! So that dude can hit a little bit from what I hear.

Nice effort all around tonight, except for maybe the bullpen, though it really didn't matter. This is a series that could have easily gone south quick. None of the pitching matchups really favor anyone, and considering the Sox' stronger offense, the Angels were more likely to get swept than the other way around, and they haven't exactly been swinging a weighted bat against KC and Tampa. With that in mind, it was nice to see them go out and grab the first one of this set. It's a little early for the classic late summer East Coast swoon, but the Angels typically don't fare well in that part of the country during this part of the year, so even coming out of Boston with 1 out of 3 would be acceptable. Let's just cross our fingers and hope Kelvim isn't as sore tomorrow as he was after his last start.

Lots or rumors floating around, the latest being that the Angels have offered Ervin and Aybar for Tejada. I don't like it, and I'll like it even less if they sweeten it by exchanging Aybar for Wood or Kendrick, who is already one of the top 3 or 4 hitting second basemen in the majors. Quite frankly, as I've said elsewhere,
All this does is take the Angels from a team that MAY win the West and WON'T win the WS to a team that WILL win the West and WON'T win the WS. Paying the price for a team good enough to win the WS this year will take more than Tejada, and for it will cost the Angels in cheap talent over the next five or six, it isn't worth it.

Carlos Lee comes to the AL West - Who cares?

First reaction? Big deal. He really doesn't make the Rangers much better, if at all, and the negligible difference between Lee and a Mensch/Cordero combination is even lessened by the fact that there's only about 60 games left. The best possible result for the Rangers would be to force the Angels to do something stupid and give up the farm for Soriano/Tejada/etc.

Stand firm, Bill Stoneman. Don't make a trade just to make a trade. Don't deal any of the top prospects for a rental. If you get an offer you simply can't refuse, I'll understand, but in the absence of something overwhelming, I want to see Wood, Kendrick, Weaver, Aybar, and Adenhart at Spring Training next year.

Let's face it, despite this move, and any moves the A's may make, the Angels still may be good enough to win the division, as none of their opponents are very good. And nothing they do is going to make them good enough to win the WS this year, so any big deal is done essentially to win the West and taste post-season defeat again. Don't be fooled, Bill. The future is very bright. Don't dim those lights.

Floyd Landis

Something is not kosher in this whole situation. For those of you who haven't been following it, and are getting you information here, first, what the hell is wrong with you? Seriously. But anyway, Landis was among the top riders in the tour, then in stage 16, he bonked and lost about 8 minutes. In stage 17, in one of the most amazing rides in the history of the Tour, he rode away from the field on the first climb, gained about seven and a half minutes back. He then took the lead for good in the penultimate stage, a time trial. Fast forward to yesterday, when it was anounced that his urine sample tested positive for a higher than acceptable ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone. In other words, he failed his drug test, or at least, that's what you'll hear in news reports.

My problem with all of this coverage is that there are still serious questions which no one appears to be asking. They are as follows:

1. Did he fail the ratio test because of high testosterone (T), or low epi-testosterone (epi-T)? According to ESPN's cycling analyst, it's the latter. This creates further questions.
2. If we know that it was lower than normal epi-T that caused the problem, well, is that really a problem? Does having low epi-T aid an athlete's performance? I'm completely talking out of my ass here, but bear with me. The fact that a test exists which can measure T levels, combined with the fact that the test in question is a ratio test leads me to the conclusion that we all have different levels of naturally occuring T, to the extent that we can't just say "Rider X has a T level of Y, and that's higher than acceptable, so he's out." But, the ratio of T to epi-T must be fairly consistent for all us, or else using that particular test would be of no real value. If Rider X's testosterone is naturally high, then the fact that it's higher than some arbitrary level really tells us nothing without a comparison of what is normal for Rider X. So we use the ratio test to see if his level, in comparison to his epi-T level.
3. So now that we know his ratio is out of whack, and we know that it's because the epi-T levels were lower than normal, we need to know a) if that's an advantage, and b) was it a natural or otherwise acceptable occurrence (perhaps owing to his use of cortisone, or his thyroid medication, both allowed by the Tour). If it's not an advantage, and if he T level is normal, and if the drop in his epi-T level is caused by either a natural or otherwise acceptable occurrence, than what's the problem? It sounds like there's no reason to disqualify him if that's the case.
4. According to the LA Times, there is, believe it or not, another test which can tell us if his testosterone was completely produced naturally. My question is, why the hell don't they do that test first?

The B-Sample thing, that's a red herring. It's going to come back with the same result, and they're going to use that result to hang him. But the coverage of this episode has been awful. He hasn't tested positive for a banned substance. He hasn't even tested positive for having to much of a natural substance. He has tested positive for having a ratio of natural substances which are out of whack. That raises suspicion, no doubt, and requires further investigation. But no one seems to want to mention that. I guess we'll wait and see how it all plays out, but when the B-sample result comes back, be ready for the guillotine blades to be sharpened and raise, despite the fact that nothing of substance will have been proved.

First Place

Sure, I'm a little late, and hey, it's only been a week since I've updated this thing, but trust me, I've been busy. Between multiple projects at work that are forcing me to actually do work (the nerve...), and spending pretty much my entire weekend playing golf, I've been tied up. Speaking of golf, I set a personal record on Sunday at Blackthorn in South Bend with five birdies, and those don't include a a 255 yard three wood I hit to about 10 inches to save par on a hole on which I'd hit my drive out of bounds. Finished with a 75. Two double bogeys are tough to overcome, but I'd gotten back to even through 12, and was one over going to 17 before making really bad bogeys on the last two holes. But they were the 35th and 36th holes of the day, so I was starting to wear down a bit.

But enough about me. The resurgent Angels have worked their way back into a tie at the top of the AL West, tied with Oakland, 1.5 games clear of Texas and three up on Seattle. Quite frankly, I never would have believed it possible after the first three months of the season, and I'm still not quite sure how they're doing it. They still aren't playing good defense, their pitching has still been hot and cold, the front end of the bullpen has been atrocious, and their offense has been spotty. But Juan Rivera has been a freaking stud. Orlando Cabrera is still turning in a solid offensive performance, and management has finally seen fit to put Howie Kendrick in the lineup. All he's done since is hit .458 with five doubles and a homer. Robb Quinlan and Maicer Izturis are providing consistent production at the corners, which have covered for Mike Napoli's predicatble but not discouraging regression. Vlad isn't exactly displaying his raw power, but he's hitting .400 in July, and driving in runs.

The question, of course is whether they can keep it up. Quinlan, Izturis, and Kendrick can't be expected to maintain their level of production, and Rivera is bound to cool off. On the mound, they can expect better performances than what they've received from Ervin Santana lately (who really was pretty unlucky on Tuesday aside from the Wigginton home run). Lackey will be Lackey, but Jered Weaver has got to cool off at some point. Kelvim is sore after every start, and an injury to Bart could be a blessing in disguise if it brings Joe Saunders back to the rotation. Remember, he won't be replacing Bart of 2005, he'll be replacing the shell that has worn Bart's XXXXL jersey in 2006, so that's an upgrade, most likely.

When you look at it, there's not a lot to be excited about. But darn it if I don't feel pretty positive about the Angels right now. They're fun to watch again. They're back in the race, and they've got fresh faces in the lineup that make them an interesting three hours of entertainment. Four if Colon, Escobar, or Santana are pitching. The biggest thing they've got going in their favor is that the rest of the division sucks as well. I've said it before, but the reason I can see the Angels winning the West this year isn't because I think they're good, but rather, I don't think any of the other teams are deserving. In the last two years, the A's really scared me. This year, they don't. Same goes for the Rangers and Mariners (of course, those teams are all saying the same things about the Angels, but...).

Regardless, the team is fun to watch again, though maddeningly frustrating when they play like they did on Tuesday, but hey, that's baseball.

Checking in....

Geez, it's been a while. Anyway, here's the story. 73 at Arcadia Bluffs. 85 in the State Am qualifier on Monday, so I picked the wrong day to play well. Also, in the qualifier, it was about a million degrees outside, and round about the 13th hole, I'm pretty sure I started hallucinating.

Anway, Nice post AS-break start for the Angels, sweeping Tampa, then taking two from Cleveland before dropping their last two. They're only a half game out, but the last two games have not been pretty, featuring lots of walks and errors. The schedule gets real tough, real quick, so they really need to make some hay over their next six games (3 in KC and 3 in Tampa) before heading to Boston. The two more crucial sets against Oakland and Texas.

The offense has looiked fairly shap lately, and Howie Kendrick is building a fan base. Vlad is swinging the bat pretty well, with the average up to about .320, but he's still not providing the power that a lot of us expected. And just when you though it was safe to watch them play defense, they look like Little Leaguers in Kansas City.

Honestly, I have no idea what the last two and a half months are going to bring. I can't discern any noticeable trend. They played terrific for a few weeks, then looked pathetic in their last two. Right now I'm just happy that I still care about the season at this point.

Anyway, Dubs tomorrow, followed by 36 in South Bend on Sunday, so it's another busy weekend.

Struck me funny

I'm not a reporter, and I'm sure this is something they do on all similar blurbs, but this quote from today's Times made me laugh:

Bane flew to South Korea to join Jung and his family at a news conference, which he said attracted 150 media members, including 15 photographers.

"They just snapped away as if it was Halle Berry or something," Bane said. "I don't think we had that big a press conference when we signed Vlad," referring to All-Star Vladimir Guerrero.

Oh, that Vlad. Thanks for clearing that up.

The Second Half

Wow, get a front page link from the Rev and everyone stops by. Anyway, with the second half getting underway tonight, I figured I'd reprint an email that I sent to Keith Law (formerly of Prospectus and the Blue Jays, currently of ESPN), with whom I've had an informal correspondence over the years (long story), in response to the excepts I read from his ESPN write up on the Angels the other day. It's behind the wall, and I'm cheap, so I haven't read the whole thing. It should still serve as a quick assessment of how I see the Angels doing in the second half.

• The Angels rotation will be better in the second half simply because of the return of Colon, and the absence of Jeff Weaver in favor Jered. Obviously, that's health permitting, but even if Colon goes back to the DL, they'll be better off with Saunders getting those starts than they would be with either Jeff Weaver or Carrasco/Gregg. If they lose Lackey or Santana to injury, though, they're in trouble. But geez, Kelvim Escobar is their fifth starter!
  
• I really don't think their defense can be any worse than it was in the first half. And it wasn't simply a case of making a lot of errors. They were very unlucky, too (this is eyewitness testimony as opposed to statistical analysis). They gave up more than their fair share of unearned runs, mostly because it seemed like just about every single guy who reached base on an error ended up scoring. I checked about 60 games into the season, and they were so far out in front on unearned runs that it was ridiculous. Their DER is still pretty decent, and I really don't expect them to keep making the errors that they've made to this point. I would expect their overall run prevention to get better.
  
• I can't see the offense really being any better or worse. It's tough to tell, though, because if Anderson gets hurt, the offense will probably improve. And if they can deal Kennedy and get Kendrick in there everyday, it should be better. Conversely, if they insist on playing Erstad if/when he returns, it will be worse. And I really have no idea if they're going to deal for a bat (I sort of hope they don't). I don't necessarily buy the argument that says Vlad is in a slump, and he'll be better in the second half. My gut tells me he's just having a bad year or he's hiding an injury, but either way, I suspect that what we've seen is what we're going to get.
  
• I can't see the offense really being any better or worse. It's tough to tell, though, because if Anderson gets hurt, the offense will probably improve. And if they can deal Kennedy and get Kendrick in there everyday, it should be better. Conversely, if they insist on playing Erstad if/when he returns, it will be worse. And I really have no idea if they're going to deal for a bat (I sort of hope they don't). I don't necessarily buy the argument that says Vlad is in a slump, and he'll be better in the second half. My gut tells me he's just having a bad year or he's hiding an injury, but either way, I suspect that what we've seen is what we're going to get.

Ultimately, I don't think any of the AL West teams are all that good. They've all got good elements, but none are really good teams, which is why I think the Angels have just as good a chance at winning the division than any of them. In the past when I've picked against the Angels, it's because I thought the other teams were too good for the Angels to beat out (and I was wrong, of course). This year, I just don't think any of them are very good. And I don't really buy the injury excuses for Oakland. It's not like we're talking about injuries to Lou Gherig and Cal Ripken. Usually I'm enough of a pessimist that no matter how weak the Angels opponents are, they still scare me. This year, none of them scare me.

As the second half begins, I'll actually be heading out of town for the weekend, so I won't be seeing any of this weekend's series. I'll be leaving tonight to head up to Michigan to play the 10th best public course in the country (per Golf Digest), Arcadia Bluffs. Seriously, click the link. This place is freaking amazing. Coming back on Sunday, so I may see some of that game, but I'll also be heading out the driving range one last time to prepare for Monday's qualifier for the Illinois State Amateur championship. I haven't really played very well since I qualified for the Mid-Am (then played just awful in the actual event itself), but I've been encouraged by my work on the range this week, so we'll see.


And for the hell of it, here's an old Catherine Wheel video:

Quite A Week

The only thing standing between the Angels and a perfect week was a sac fly by Juan Rivera or Mike Napoli, and/or a scoreless ninth inning by Scot Shields on Thursday night. But the Angels were not disheartened by Big Hurt's walk off in the first game of this series. They shook it off and won the next three behind a brilliant performance by John Lackey, backed up by excellent starts by Jered Weaver and Ervin Santana. As a result, the Angels find themselves just two games out of first (and two games under .500).

While the offense has been picking it up a bit, evidence by the slugging in the A's series, the pitching has been dominant. The last turn through the rotation before the All-Star break, the starters went 38 innings and allowed 4 earned runs for an ERA under 1.00. That's awesome. They'll be in the thick of this race from here on out if they can do two things: 1) Continue to get excellent performances from the starters, and 2) play the type of defense that they're capable of. I should mention, they allowed three unearned runs over those 38 innings, and unearned runs have been the difference between being two game out and two games up to this point. The defense has to improve, or they'll continue to let opportunities slip away.

The AL West is set up for a tremendously exciting second half. Four teams are separated by 2.5 games, and thanks to Ozzie Guillen's myopia, only a handful of AL Westians will be worn out by the All-Star game.