Tuesday, June 01, 2004
The Long Weekend/#43 on Your Scorecard
This is what happens when you duck out early on Memorial Day weekend. I almost posted an update Friday saying, “Watch out! It looks like Mondesi is on the way!”, but decided I would cash in early on Friday afternoon of a holiday weekend, and look what happened. I missed the deal. One thing I am glad I did miss was the watching the Halos stink it up this weekend. 1-5 on the road trip. It seems the Angels spent Memorial Day weekend remembering that, yeah, they’ve got about 47 guys on the DL and they aren’t supposed to be playing this good. As for Mondesi, other than givin’ you the scoop, I wouldn’t have been excited about anything else in the #43 situation. He’s aging, he whiffing a lot, and he just did the Pirates flat wrong. But hey, welcome, Raul. Let’s break this deal down.
Raul will play CF primarily until GA gets back, although he’s played there a grand total of 108 games in his career and 94 of those were 7 years ago, so let’s not jump for joy about the Halos finding their new CF. He hit 6th in the lineup on Sunday and I would expect him to stay there. Should you pick him up? AL only, sure. It’s new blood. Mixed? If you’re okay with the .283 takin’ a dip (and it will with Mondesi currently fanning 27% of the time) and need some RBIs, then do it. Mondesi looked rough over in PIT, and I wouldn’t expect a full turnaround now. He’s a career .246 AL hitter while hitting .289 in the NL. That’s with a pitcher’s NL park primarily (LA) and a hitter’s AL park (TOR/some NYY). He may run a little more (a grand total of zero SB at PIT), but that’s all I’d expect.
Figgins will move to 3B primarily and DaVanon could still see a lot of CF when Mondesi DHs, like he did Sunday. That wouldn’t surprise anyone. However, when Salmon comes back and GA gets healthy, Mondesi’s PT situation will be interesting. Even with just Salmon back, Mondesi will have to deal with playing CF every day because Salmon has been pretty much relegated to Edgar Martinez status and will be hitting only from now on. If you’ve got DaVanon, I’d be ready to drop him. Figgins’s situation pretty much stays the same, while the 0.1% of you who picked up Adam Riggs for some strange reason have since dropped him. He’s gone to clear room for Mondesi. This improves the Angels no doubt, but dramatically? Count me as skeptical.
Percy, Percy, Percy
What in the world is wrong with Percy? His ERA is above 4.32 (only worse in 2000), the WHIP is a shining 1.86, it’s June and he’s still got more BBs than Ks. I think it’s certainly time to ask if Troy is hurt. If he wasn’t making almost 8 mil this year and hadn’t been the closer for 8+ years, he would be in danger of losing his post. I’m surprised I haven’t got a lot of Marathon Man e-mails (“Is it safe?”) in regards to TP keeping his job as the closer. Maybe it’s because most of you know that Scioscia has confidence in #40 and thinks he’ll get it back on track. Will he? If he’s not hurt, yeah. If he is? Well, then he’s managed to pull out 12 saves, which is 4th in the AL. But be careful, Percy owners. You know and I know the numbers don’t look good.
Mending Wings: A New Summer Drama
The sheer number of injuries on the team means that I have to use at least a little space every time updating you on all the injury progress and analysis. GA has been doing workouts and is getting better. The timetable we’re all waiting for could come soon. Scioscia says Salmon and Erstand could both begin minor league rehab stints in a week to ten days, according the team website. Despite all wishes otherwise, Glaus is still gone until September (really the season), although 25% of you are still holding out hope. Don’t. He’s gone and maybe for good as far as the Halos are concerned. Brendan Donnelly is having complications with his elbow. Last word was that if it doesn’t get better soon, he’ll shut it down for the year.
Speaking of injuries, 75% of you thought that Glaus’s injury hurts the Halos the most and I tend to agree. Nothing the Angels have (including new #43) can come close to replacing what he can produce. Be sure to check out ITH (insidethehalo.blogspot.com) for more instant polls, trivia, and other important baseball links. Also, we’ve got a running tabulation on the Silver Halos for the weekly fantasy MVPs. This week’s honor goes to Vlad, who finally gets number 1. The stats? 7-19 (.368), 4 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI. Not earth-shattering, but then neither was this week for the Angels. He was overdue anyway, finishing 2nd just about every week up until now.
Odds and Ends
Big homestand comin’ up. BOS, CLE, then interleague with MIL and CHI. That’s right, interleague’s already here. . .Those crazy screwups at home plate against TOR were all about communication. It’s not like you couldn’t hear at SkyDome. The two attendance figures were 15,301 and 14,515. Bengie’s meeting with Scioscia should’ve cleared all that up. . .Sele continues to be the best Angel starter and is owned in only 6% of mixed leagues. Now would be a good time to pick him up. I won’t be though. I’m a tough sell, I guess. . .I wouldn’t want to let Memorial Day go by without acknowledging our troops who have sacrificed (and continue to) so much for us here at home. No matter how we feel about Iraq, they deserve our utmost gratitude. Reporting for the Angels, Matt Allen--ESPN.
Raul will play CF primarily until GA gets back, although he’s played there a grand total of 108 games in his career and 94 of those were 7 years ago, so let’s not jump for joy about the Halos finding their new CF. He hit 6th in the lineup on Sunday and I would expect him to stay there. Should you pick him up? AL only, sure. It’s new blood. Mixed? If you’re okay with the .283 takin’ a dip (and it will with Mondesi currently fanning 27% of the time) and need some RBIs, then do it. Mondesi looked rough over in PIT, and I wouldn’t expect a full turnaround now. He’s a career .246 AL hitter while hitting .289 in the NL. That’s with a pitcher’s NL park primarily (LA) and a hitter’s AL park (TOR/some NYY). He may run a little more (a grand total of zero SB at PIT), but that’s all I’d expect.
Figgins will move to 3B primarily and DaVanon could still see a lot of CF when Mondesi DHs, like he did Sunday. That wouldn’t surprise anyone. However, when Salmon comes back and GA gets healthy, Mondesi’s PT situation will be interesting. Even with just Salmon back, Mondesi will have to deal with playing CF every day because Salmon has been pretty much relegated to Edgar Martinez status and will be hitting only from now on. If you’ve got DaVanon, I’d be ready to drop him. Figgins’s situation pretty much stays the same, while the 0.1% of you who picked up Adam Riggs for some strange reason have since dropped him. He’s gone to clear room for Mondesi. This improves the Angels no doubt, but dramatically? Count me as skeptical.
Percy, Percy, Percy
What in the world is wrong with Percy? His ERA is above 4.32 (only worse in 2000), the WHIP is a shining 1.86, it’s June and he’s still got more BBs than Ks. I think it’s certainly time to ask if Troy is hurt. If he wasn’t making almost 8 mil this year and hadn’t been the closer for 8+ years, he would be in danger of losing his post. I’m surprised I haven’t got a lot of Marathon Man e-mails (“Is it safe?”) in regards to TP keeping his job as the closer. Maybe it’s because most of you know that Scioscia has confidence in #40 and thinks he’ll get it back on track. Will he? If he’s not hurt, yeah. If he is? Well, then he’s managed to pull out 12 saves, which is 4th in the AL. But be careful, Percy owners. You know and I know the numbers don’t look good.
Mending Wings: A New Summer Drama
The sheer number of injuries on the team means that I have to use at least a little space every time updating you on all the injury progress and analysis. GA has been doing workouts and is getting better. The timetable we’re all waiting for could come soon. Scioscia says Salmon and Erstand could both begin minor league rehab stints in a week to ten days, according the team website. Despite all wishes otherwise, Glaus is still gone until September (really the season), although 25% of you are still holding out hope. Don’t. He’s gone and maybe for good as far as the Halos are concerned. Brendan Donnelly is having complications with his elbow. Last word was that if it doesn’t get better soon, he’ll shut it down for the year.
Speaking of injuries, 75% of you thought that Glaus’s injury hurts the Halos the most and I tend to agree. Nothing the Angels have (including new #43) can come close to replacing what he can produce. Be sure to check out ITH (insidethehalo.blogspot.com) for more instant polls, trivia, and other important baseball links. Also, we’ve got a running tabulation on the Silver Halos for the weekly fantasy MVPs. This week’s honor goes to Vlad, who finally gets number 1. The stats? 7-19 (.368), 4 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI. Not earth-shattering, but then neither was this week for the Angels. He was overdue anyway, finishing 2nd just about every week up until now.
Odds and Ends
Big homestand comin’ up. BOS, CLE, then interleague with MIL and CHI. That’s right, interleague’s already here. . .Those crazy screwups at home plate against TOR were all about communication. It’s not like you couldn’t hear at SkyDome. The two attendance figures were 15,301 and 14,515. Bengie’s meeting with Scioscia should’ve cleared all that up. . .Sele continues to be the best Angel starter and is owned in only 6% of mixed leagues. Now would be a good time to pick him up. I won’t be though. I’m a tough sell, I guess. . .I wouldn’t want to let Memorial Day go by without acknowledging our troops who have sacrificed (and continue to) so much for us here at home. No matter how we feel about Iraq, they deserve our utmost gratitude. Reporting for the Angels, Matt Allen--ESPN.
