..... Angels 3

 .................

=== Baseball Prospectus, Dept. ===

In a 4-game series, the M's will be made monkeys of by only one more Angels ace, that on Sunday.  Very cool.  The next two days they face pitchers who aren't stars, who throw right handed.  They'll have no excuses.  If they're trying to play meaningful baseball, they need to put up good performances on Friday and Saturday before they face the lefty-killer Wilson on Sunday.

.........

The Angels have had a terrible start to the season, 25 losses already, and even if they play at a 95-win pace the rest of the way, they'll still only win 88-89 games.  The two Wild Cards are much more open than they were supposed to be.

.........

Eric Wedge made noises like Miguel Olivo's role is going to be throttled down.  It even sounded like Wedge spoke with Olivo, bracing him for it.  

Wedge has been much more flexible than he was scripted to be -- Figgins' benching, Liddi in left field, he was real quick to spot Seager's emergence, quick to spot Leutge and get Leutge some game-deciding at-bats real early  ... a lot of stuff.

In baseball, labels die hard.  The Seattle internet has given Wedge a "bullheaded" label.  He hasn't been that way so far in 2012, and the newspaper comments about Olivo are another case in point.

...........

Let's not get 2-dimensional in our moaning about Miguel Olivo.  He called a good game on Thursday night.  As we've mentioned, Miguel Olivo's CERA has consistently been good since he returned to the AL.  

The people in a position to know these things, they give Olivo 9,000 kinds of credit for managing a game.  A catch-and-throw man has a lot of value in the major leagues.  Wonder to whom he has the most ......

..........

Four K's for Alex Liddi tonight.  

When he catches the ball with the barrel of the bat, the popcorn vendors dive for cover.  But if he were to play an entire season in 2012, he'd finish with (probably) 25 homers, 40 walks, and 200 strikeouts.  At the moment he looks like a developing Mark Reynolds, and that's no insult.  Reynolds, in his prime, has hit 44, 32, and 37 homers the last three years.  As an infielder.

Mark Reynolds with a plus glove would probably be a 4.0-WAR player.  Liddi at 3B may be that now, although he's not going to play third.  The kid they got at 3B now, he's on pace for 4.8 WAR.

The Seattle Mariners' traffic jam is worsening by the week.  Consider the proposition that the Mariners - who may lose 90 games - can't get a plus-glove, 40-run Mark Reynolds onto the field.  It's weird rooting for a team full of rookies, ain't it?

............

For those of yer wondering what the big infatuation is all about, in going for great starting pitchers as opposed to innings eaters... hope you enjoyed the game ternight.

Like Chuck Knox said.  Big games are won by great players.  Stars & Scrubs baby.  How many K's for Hultzen last night?

.

BABVA,

Dr D

Comments

1
paracorto's picture

All right, Seager is on pace for 4.8 WAR and Liddi could be a 4.0 WAR as a 3B. So, where's the problem in the M's infield, how to make it the best defensive/offensive infield possible ? I think anyone knows it but it's still forbidden matter.

5

2B-Ackley
SS-Seager
3B-Liddi
Seager is the best defender of all three and therefore he's at the toughest position and the best all around hitter too. Can we give this a try at least?
Then there's: 1B-Carp/Smoak Of-Wells, Saunders, Ichiro
C- Jaso/Montero
DH-Smoak/Montero
I'd stand behind this lineup anyway. 
 
On a different note what's the over/under on when our Sgt. is gonna give our 38 year old RF an inning off?  Any takers?.. Before or after the all star break?

6
paracorto's picture

Probably not so good to play CF but adequate to play LF - or even 1B as a nouvelle Don Mattingly and that's my favourite choice. My season-end and possibly 2013 infield:
1B Ackley, 2B Seager, 3B Liddi/Catricala/Triunfel, SS Franklin (hitting LH only). Only real athletes please. Defense and running game. Exciting.

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