Monday, June 9, 2008

Ex-Angels Report 6/9/08

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=228


Notes and Stats from former Angels players

-Bengie Molina leads all major league catchers with a .332 batting average. He also leads all cathcers with 40 rbi.

-Troy Glaus has finally found his power stroke hitting 5 home runs in the past 9 games.

-Darin Erstad of the Astros is hitting .351 (20-for-57) when he's playing in the field, but just .185 (5-for-27) as a pinch hitter.

- Troy Percival will miss Tampa Bay's series in Anaheim but should be ready when he comes off the DL on Friday.

- Bartolo Colon finally lost a game. He allowed 6 runs (3 earned) against Seattle on Friday. He's now 3-1 in 4 starts for the Red Sox.

-Orlando Cabrera has hit in 7 straight games

-Jose Guillen of the Royals has 4 multi-hit games in the past week along with 4 home runs over that span.

- Cardinals reliever, Russ Springer has extended his scoreless appearance streak to 14 games.

EX-ANGEL         TEAM  AB   R HR RBI  BB  SO   AVG   OPS
Bengie Molina     SF  205  24  6  40   8  13  .332  .857
Troy Glaus        STL 219  25  7  38  37  41  .265  .814
Darin Erstad      HOU  84  14  1  12   3  16  .298  .774
Jose Guillen      KC  241  26 10  47   7  48  .266  .765
David Eckstein    TOR 152  18  1  17  12  15  .270  .698
Alberto Callaspo  KC   89   5  0   3   8   7  .292  .688
Alfredo Amezaga   FLA 135  16  1   7  13  19  .252  .678
Orlando Cabrera   CWS 257  36  3  22  20  30  .253  .634
Jamie Burke       SEA  41   4  1   3   4   3  .220  .606
Jim Edmonds       SD  139   9  2  13  14  31  .209  .593
Adam Kennedy      STL 149  15  0  15  13  22  .248  .589
Damion Easley     NYM 101   8  1  12   5  14  .238  .585
Jose Molina       NYY 118  11  0   6   3  19  .220  .560
Nathan Haynes     TB   44   3  0   3   3  12  .227  .504

EX-ANGEL         TEAM  G  W-L  SV   IP   BB   K   ERA   BAA
J.C. Romero       PHI 28  4-1   0  22.2  15  19  1.59  .244
Bobby Jenks       CWS 25  2-0  14  25.1   7  16  2.13  .227
Kevin Gregg       FLA 29  4-2  11  30.1  17  23  2.37  .176
Scott Schoeneweis NYM 30  0-2   0  26.1  10  10  2.39  .205
Russ Springer     STL 21  1-0   0  16.1   9  13  2.76  .254
Troy Percival     TB  22  1-0  14  21.1   4  21  2.95  .133
Kent Mercker      CIN 15  1-0   0  13.2   8   6  3.29  .265
Bartolo Colon     BOS  4  3-1   0  23.0   6  15  3.91  .280
Gary Glover       TB  19  0-2   0  20.2  12  13  3.92  .272
Paul Byrd         CLE 12  3-5   0  70.2   8  26  4.46  .275
Joel Peralta      KC  18  0-2   0  22.1   4  17  5.64  .259
Chris Resop       ATL 16  0-1   0  18.1  10  13  5.89  .239
Matt Wise         NYM  8  0-1   0   7.0   3   6  6.43  .323
Jarrod Washburn   SEA 12  2-7   1  59.0  16  36  6.56  .322
Derrick Turnbow   MIL  8  0-1   1   6.1  13   5 15.63  .414

Cheap Tickets Offered This Week

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=227

The Angels have some really good deals this week which you can only get by going to the Angel Stadium box office.

Monday 6/9 and Tuesday 6/10 - Buy One Get One Free

Wednesday 6/11 - Up to 80% off. As low as $3 each.

Sunday 6/15 - Father's Day - $3 tickets in the Upper View section

For Monday and Tuesday's games (6/9 & 6/10), the Angels are offering buy one-get one free tickets at the box office. To get the deal, mention the word 'SUMMER'. This "buy one ticket, get one ticket free" offer is available for seats in the Field Box, Terrace Box, Terrace Box Wheelchair, Club Loge, Right Field Pavilion and in the entire 500 View and 400 Lower View levels. Offer is only available at the Angels' Ticket Window.

For Wednesday's day game against Tampa Bay, tickets are as low as $3 each when you use the password 'HOME RUN'. $3 in the 500 View level and Terrace Box Wheelchair, $5 in the 400 Lower View level, $10 in Right Field Pavilion, Field Box, Terrace Box and $20 in Club Loge.

For Father's Day, tickets are just $3 in the entire 500 View level when you say the password 'DAD' at the Angels' Ticket Window.

Happy Birthday Rally Monkey

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=226

Can you believe he's 8 years old!

The Angels trailed 4-1 entering the bottom of the 7th...

Garret Anderson singled
Troy Glaus walked, Anderson to second
Bengie Molina singled, Anderson scored, Glaus to third (4-2)
Adam Kennedy struck out
Edgard Clemente pinch hit for Orlando Palmeiro and struck out
Darin Erstad singled, Glaus scored, Bengie to second (4-3)
Kevin Stocker fouled out

There was more rallying in the bottom of the 8th...

Mo Vaughn struck out
Tim Salmon homered (4-4)
Garret Anderson struck out
Troy Glaus popped out

Scioscia then brought in Troy Percival in a non-save situation and, of course, he gave up a run. On to the bottom of the 9th with the Angels trailing 5-4

Robb Nenn came in to save the game for the Giants
Bengie Molina struck out
Adam Kennedy singled
Scott Spiezio pinch hit for Edgard Clemente and walked, Kennedy to second
Darin Erstad singled, Kennedy scored, Spiezio to third (5-5)
Kevin Stocker bunted and the Giants got Spiezio at home on the failed squeeze play, Erstad to second
Mo Vaughn singled, Erstad scored and the Angels won 6-5

About a coupe of the unknown players in that rally...

Edgard Clemente is the nephew of Roberto Clemente. He played for three seasons with the Rockies and Angels and hit .249 for his career. 2000 was his final season.

Kevin Stocker played 8 years in the majors. He had a career average of .254 and spent his final year with the Angels in 2000.

For a complete recap of the game, go here: http://www.rallymonkey.com/history.php?game=000606

Down On The Farm - 6/5/2008

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=225

AAA-Salt Lake

Thanks to their huge start, the Bees have a comfortable 9 game lead in the PCL North. In May, however, the Bees were sub-500 at 13-16. First Baseman Kendry Morales batted .352 in May with 6 home runs. Third Baseman Matt Brown followed up his great April (.425 45-for-106) with a lousy May (.250 18-for-72) although his home run totals were up - 6 in April and 7 in May. Pitcher Nick Adenhart has struggled since returning from the Angels. In 4 starts he has allowed 15 runs - a 5.96 era. Reliever Jason Bulger has been striking out players by the bushel. In 14.2 ip, he has struck out 23 batters. His era is 1.23.

AA-Arkansas

The Travelers are 28-29, three games behind first place NW Arkansas in the Texas League North Division. The Travs have the best era (3.93) in the league and the worst batting average (.253). Two pitchers are among the league leaders in era - Dan Denham, 25, is third with an era of 3.02 and Robert Mosebach, 23, is sixth with an era of 3.53. Offensively, only two regulars are hitting above .260 - outfielder Jordan Czarniecki, 27, is hitting .318 and first baseman Michael Collins, 23, is hitting .283.

Whos on first?

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=224

It's June 3rd. The baseball season is roughly 35% done.

Consider these two groups of teams.

Group 1

Seattle Mariners (88-74, 2nd Place AL West last season)
Colorado Rockies (90-73, NL Champion)

Group 2
Chicago Cubs (85-77, NL Central Champion)
Tampa Bay Rays (66-96, 30 games out of first in the AL East)

Which group includes the two teams with the best records in MLB?
Which group includes the two teams with the worst records in MLB?

Before the season started, the Mariners and Rockies were picked as favorites for their divisions. Now they both have records of 21-38 (.356), tied for the worst in the major leagues. How bad are they? Francisco Rodriguez has more saves, 23, than they have wins.

The Cubs were supposed to contend for the NL Central title, but the Rays? Not with the Red Sox and the Yankees in their division. I doubt the Rays can keep it up all season, but I said the same thing a month ago when they were playing well.

Just something to ponder.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Is this the Return Of The Rally Monkey????

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=222

In case you weren't paying attention (perhaps the forthcoming Lakers vs Celtics finals has you sidetracked)...

The Angels just had a six game homestand.

Four of the games ended with walk-off hits for the Angels.

Monday, May 26 - Angels 1, Tigers 0 (12 innings)

Garret Anderson takes a 4-pitch walk with the bases loaded to force in the only run of the game.

Tuesday, May 27 - Angels - Angels 3, Tigers 2

After scoring two in the 8th inning to tie the game, Gary Matthews Jr hit a two-out single to score Sean Rodriguez in the bottom of the ninth inning for the victory.

Saturday, May 31 - Angels 3, Blue Jays 2 (10 innings)

Juan Rivera hit a one-out pinch hit single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th inning for the win.

Sunday, June 1 - Angels 4, Blue Jays 3

With the Angels down one run in the bottom of the ninth and the bases loaded, Howie Kendrick was hit by a pitch (Anyone remember the classic Simpson's Episode???) to force in the tying run. Maicer Izturis later hit a two-out single to score Casey Kotchman and ignite the Halos' fourth walk-off celebration of the week.

Ex-Angels 6/2/2008

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=223

Notes and stats from former Angels in the majors...

From May 20 through May 28, Bengie Molina had 7 consecutive multi-hit games. The hot streak boosted his batting average from .276 to .339. Could this be the year Molina finally makes an All-Star team?

Jose Molina isn't faring as well. In 34 games, he's hitting just .218.

Troy Glaus has homered in back-to-back games and now has a whopping 4 home runs in 193 at-bats this season.

Tampa Bay reliever, Troy Percival injured his hamstring last Wednesday and is on the 15-day disabled list.

Fellow Rays' relief pitcher, Gary Glover, had a miserable May going 0-1 with a 10.50 era in 8 appearances. In April, Glover had a 1.69 era in 9 games.

Cardinals reliever Russ Springer had a great May. In 12 games, he had an era of 0.90 and a batting average against of .171.

After hitting .192 in April, Royals' of Jose Guillen hit .308 in May with 3 home runs and 21 rbi.

Scott Schoeneweis continues to have a great season. In 25 appearances (23ip) he has an era of 1.17 and a whip of 0.83.

Bobby Jenks recorded 8 saves in May while allowing only one earned run in 11 games.

Bartolo Colon returned from a minor league stint and has started and won 3 games for the Red Sox.

Met's rp Matt Wise is on the 15-day dl with a sore right shoulder.
The Atlanta Braves waived Chris Resop last week.


EX-ANGEL         TEAM  AB   R HR RBI  BB  SO   AVG   OPS
Bengie Molina     SF  186  20  6  36   8  13  .323  .860
Darin Erstad      HOU  73  13  1  12   2  13  .315  .799
Troy Glaus        STL 193  20  4  34  33  37  .269  .795
Jose Guillen      KC  215  22  7  38   7  44  .256  .724
David Eckstein    TOR 135  17  1  13  11  12  .267  .697
Alfredo Amezaga   FLA 131  15  1   7  13  19  .252  .675
Alberto Callaspo  KC   79   4  0   3   8   7  .278  .661
Orlando Cabrera   CWS 228  34  3  15  19  28  .241  .620
Jamie Burke       SEA  35   4  1   3   4   1  .200  .596
Adam Kennedy      STL 136  13  0  15  11  21  .243  .577
Jose Molina       NYY 110   9  0   6   2  17  .218  .548
Damion Easley     NYM  86   6  1   8   4  12  .209  .518
Nathan Haynes     TB   44   3  0   3   3  12  .227  .504
Jim Edmonds       CHC 121   8  2  11  12  27  .198  .494

EX-ANGEL         TEAM  G  W-L  SV   IP   BB   K   ERA   BAA
Scott Schoeneweis NYM 25  0-1   0  23.0   5  10  1.17  .187
J.C. Romero       PHI 24  3-1   0  20.1  11  17  1.33  .244
Bobby Jenks       CWS 23  2-0  14  22.1   6  14  1.61  .218
Kevin Gregg       FLA 26  4-2  10  27.1  14  20  2.30  .194
Troy Percival     TB  22  1-0  14  21.1   4  21  2.95  .133
Russ Springer     STL 18  1-0   0  14.0   8  10  3.21  .259
Kent Mercker      CIN 15  1-0   0  13.2   8   6  3.29  .265
Bartolo Colon     BOS  3  3-0   0  18.0   5  13  3.50  .261
Paul Byrd         CLE 11  2-5   0  63.2   8  24  4.66  .287
Gary Glover       TB  17  0-2   0  16.2  12  10  4.86  .294
Joel Peralta      KC  16  0-2   0  18.2   3  15  5.79  .250
Chris Resop       ATL 16  0-1   0  18.1  10  13  5.89  .239
Matt Wise         NYM  8  0-1   0   7.0   3   6  6.43  .323
Jarrod Washburn   SEA 11  2-6   1  53.2  13  32  6.54  .318
Derrick Turnbow   MIL  8  0-1   1   6.1  13   5 15.63  .414

Why do our prospects hit like pitchers?

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=221

I wish I had an answer.

Some stats to consider.

Our prospects hit like pitchers...

Brandon Wood is hitting .106 (5-for-47)
Sean Rodriguez is hitting .175 (11-for-63)
The average pitcher in the National League has a batting average around .165.

Other teams' prospect can hit...

The Cincinnati Reds just called up their "Super prospect" Jay Bruce and he had 3 hits in his debut last week. And to prove that wasn't a fluke, he had a 4-hit game yesterday. The 21-year old Bruce is hitting .571 (8-for-14) in his first week in the majors.

Slow starts don't mean a thing...
In Troy Glaus' rookie season, he hit .218 in 165 at-bats with only one home run and he turned out pretty good...until the Mitchell Report. Glaus has 2 home runs this year in 187 at-bats for St. Louis.

Angels Record Deceiving

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http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=220

Through 55 games, the Angels are 9 games over .500 at 32-23. They have also outscored their opponents by only 9 runs this season - an average of 4.25-4.09.

While on the surface this looks good since the Angels are winning close games, it foreshadows a bigger problem. Eventually the numbers will catch up and the Angels win/loss record will become much closer to .500.

Bill James, baseball stat geek extraordinarie, has a formula which works quite well to predict a teams record based on runs scored and runs allowed.

The formula is rs*rs/(rs*rs + ra*ra).

Using this formula the Angels should have a win/loss record of 29-26. The A's, who are currently two games behind the Angels, have an expected win/loss record of 33-20.

I realize that 'expected runs' don't mean anything, but the point I'm trying to make is that the Angels have overachieved thus far and unless they start outscoring their opponents by more runs, I expect Oakland to overtake them for first place.

How accurate is this stat?

Here is a look at expected wins vs actual wins the past few years for the Angels. In the past seven years, the difference has never been more than four games.

2007 - 94 actual wins, 90 expected wins
2006 - 89 actual wins, 85 expected wins
2005 - 95 actual wins, 95 expected wins
2004 - 92 actual wins, 91 expected wins
2003 - 77 actual wins, 80 expected wins
2002 - 99 actual wins, 103 expected wins
2001 - 75 actual wins, 77 expected wins

Angels to host 2010 All-Star Game

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=219


It's finally official. After months of speculation, Bud Selig was in town today to announce that Anaheim will host the 2010 Major League All-Star Game. The game will be played on July 13th.

Anaheim has previously hosted games in 1989 and 1967.

Five teams have waited longer for the All-Star Game to return to their city - Cincinnati (1988), Oakland (1987), Minnesota (1985), Dodgers (1980) and Kansas City (1973).

There are three teams who have never hosted an All-Star Game - Tampa Bay, Arizona and Florida.

Predicted sites for future games (just guesses)
2011 Arizona
2012 Kansas City
2013 New York Mets
2014 Minnesota

Projecting Angels Stats at the 1/3 point

copied from...
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=218

The season is now 1/3 over. In 54 games, the Angels are 32-22 which projects to a 96-66 record, most likely good enough for a playoff spot.

So here are some projected season-long Angels statistics calculated by multiplying their current stats by three.

Projected RBI Leaders

84 Casey Kotchman
84 Vladimir Guerrero
84 Gary Matthews Jr
81 Garret Anderson

It's hard to imagine a 96-win club with no player knocking in 100 runs, but that's what the Angels are on pace to do. The last time the Angels didn't have a player with over 100 rbi was 1998 when Jim Edmonds led the club with 91. Last season Vlad led the team with 125.

Projected HR Leaders

30 Mike Napoli
21 Vladimir Guerrero
18 Casey Kotchman
18 Gary Matthews Jr
18 Torii Hunter

Napoli's power has been a boost to the Angels offense. It would be surprising if he maintained hitting home runs every 10.3 at-bats like he currently is, but so far so good. Last year, only Vladdy was over the 20 home run plateau with 27.

Projected Win/Loss Records

24-3 Joe Saunders
21-6 Ervin Santana
15-9 Jon Garland

There's no doubt that Saunders and Santana won't continue their torrid start, but without their stellar pitching the Angels would not be in first place. Remember, these two pitchers were supposed to be battling for the 5th starting spot in spring.

Projected Saves

63 - Francisco Rodriguez

Quite a nice number for someone who will be a free agent in the off season. The Major League record is 57 saves set by Bobby Thigpen of the White Sox in 1990. Thigpen was 27 at the time and wound up saving only 53 more games in his career.

First Place Angels AWOL in ASG Voting

...copied from
http://www.rallymonkey.com/pluggedout-blog2/index.php?entryid=217

Major League Baseball posted it's first look at All-Star balloting today and to the surprise of nobody (and the delight of Selig and ESPN) the results are littered with Red Sox and Yankees and severly void of players on the first place teams.

Baseball only lists the top five at each position, fifteen for outfielders, so the real extent of the oversights can't properly be judged.

The Angels are first in the West and yet, if balloting ended todat, only Vladimir Guerrero would be an All-Star. In fact, the only other Halo to be listed is Torii Hunter who is 9th for outfielders.

The East-leading Tampa Bay Rays fare even worse in the voting. Despite having the best record in all of baseball, no Ray is higher than first baseman Carlos Pena. Ray outfielders Carl Crawford and BJ Upton are 13th and 15th respectively.

The Central Leading White Sox also only have three players amongst the top vote getters. DH Jim Thome is third highest, 3rd Baseman Joe Crede is 4th and former Angel Orlando Cabrera is 5th amongst shortstops.

As for the leaders, they are all either Red Sox or Yankees except in the outfield where Ichiro is second and Vladdy third.