Tuesday, June 08, 2004
Scalped!
The Angels had their hat handed to them over the weekend by the rebuilding Tribe. The only game they won in the four game set was the only one that didn’t sell out. Not a good showing for the home fans. It wasn’t pretty under any circumstances--so bad, in fact, that the Angels have decided to just play National League teams for a week or so, see how that works out. It the former AL Brewers in town to take on the Halos, so get your Angels fantasy players ready, even with the Crew’s improvement in the offseason. The opener is against Sheets, which could give the Halos trouble, but beyond that, the matchups are favorable at worst. With the outage of wins over the weekend, the first place over the Elephant Men is down to 1 game, 1.5 over the Rangers.
Readers Are Freaking Out in My Inbox!
It’s leaving quite a mess. I’ve got Lysol, Pledge, 409, and other assorted cleaners, but it’s still bad. The subject? Something to the tune of “What the crappin’ freak is wrong with stinky Bartolo Colon?!”. This is an approximate paraphrase, mind you. I’ll admit, his performance smells a lot worse than his name implies right now, but I would caution frustrated owners who want to start taking him out with the trash. Take for instance a stat called hit rate. This is something the folks over at Baseball HQ are schooled in and they schooled me. Hit rate is the percentage of balled bats in play that go for hits. The mean is around 30%. Last year, Bartolo Colon enjoyed a 27% rate. This year? 36%. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s huge. So to expect a huge increase in ERA is reasonable.
And that’s exactly what’s happening. Right now it’s 6.00. Yeesh. Something else that Colon’s been doin’ is throwin’ a lot more flyballs. It started last year and has continued this year. So far in ’04, a lot more of those flies are leaving the park (1.9 HR/9 for BC). That’s outrageously high. He’s always been a marginal pitcher at giving the long ball, but the rate thus far this season is ridiculous and history says that it won’t continue this way. When all the luck quits working against BC, then he will start to post better numbers. Is there still a problem? Yeah, he needs to get the ball down in the zone. If you wanna watch for one thing during his starts, watch for that. The Ks are there, the control is good, the velocity is down a little (even Omar Vizquel commented about that this weekend. . .ouch), but the talent is obviously still there. I’d hold on Colon.
The DL Path: From Inflammation to MRI to Bench
Troy Percival is on the DL officially. Big surprise. K-Rod will be the replacement while he’s out. Again, big surprise. What will be interesting to see is if K-Rod continues to dominate (he did give up his first dinger of the year the other day), is there any chance he’ll remain the closer when Percival heals? That answer would be “very, very doubtful.” He’d probably have to fan everyone between now and then and Percival’s vet status and hefty salary still pretty much insure that barring some serious performance issues (which, it could be said, have already occurred), he’s the man. Move Shields and Gregg to set up roles because Weber was demoted to AAA Salt Lake to get his act together. Keep an eye on Percy’s status though. He’s concerned, so as his owner, you should be too.
This Week on a Very Special “Mending Wings”
Garret Anderson declares that his miraculous arthritis medicine has allowed to be ready for a minor league rehab stint! He started at Rancho Cucamonga yesterday and could play next Monday. Outstanding news! Don’t give ESPN your T-shirt size just yet, but smile real big if he looks good at single-A. Salmon could be back as early as tonight. Eckstein and Molina continue to be day-to-day, but I’d expect both back this week. Erstad continues to take it easy, but wants to come back before the late June date that was speculated in the local media recently. Donnelly continues to make small steps as well. For all except Glaus, the clouds are at least parting if not already revealing the sunshine. Here’s to hoping we can cancel this medical drama in this column very soon.
You Like Me! You Really Like Me!
I was shocked and amazed this weekend when I looked in my inbox. Underneath all those screaming Bartolo Colon owners was one little harmless e-mail stating seven words that didn’t seem to belong with all the rest. It was an e-mail saying, “I like your work as the correspondent.” Nothing else. No question. No complaints. Just a little note to tell me nice job. It was the first (and maybe the last), it wasn’t signed (who’d admit to telling me that?), and I also had one in there telling me I didn’t know anything about baseball at all (for balance against my swelling head, I suppose). Either way, it was nice and I appreciate it, whoever you are. I’m sure it’s possible that the person clicked the wrong address, of course, but let me have my one moment.
Odds and Ends
Lineup changes looming. When GA’s full strength, Mondesi will probably DH. Where does that leave Salmon? Not playing every day, that’s for sure. It’s possible Mondesi won’t be worth owning if he’s splitting time with Timmy, which 68% of you may just have to drop him again. . .Figgins should remain the man at 3rd for now. Boone could seriously be in the near future for the Angels though. . .World Series preview between the Halos and Cubs? Way too early to say, but great series nonetheless. Bats better be warm, ‘cause Cubs staff could shut everyone but maybe Vladdy down. Enjoy Interleague play and vote at ITH (insidethehalo.blogspot.com) on whether it’s a good thing or not. Also, May’s Halo is up at ITH. Go see who got it. For the Angels, Matt Allen--ESPN.
Readers Are Freaking Out in My Inbox!
It’s leaving quite a mess. I’ve got Lysol, Pledge, 409, and other assorted cleaners, but it’s still bad. The subject? Something to the tune of “What the crappin’ freak is wrong with stinky Bartolo Colon?!”. This is an approximate paraphrase, mind you. I’ll admit, his performance smells a lot worse than his name implies right now, but I would caution frustrated owners who want to start taking him out with the trash. Take for instance a stat called hit rate. This is something the folks over at Baseball HQ are schooled in and they schooled me. Hit rate is the percentage of balled bats in play that go for hits. The mean is around 30%. Last year, Bartolo Colon enjoyed a 27% rate. This year? 36%. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s huge. So to expect a huge increase in ERA is reasonable.
And that’s exactly what’s happening. Right now it’s 6.00. Yeesh. Something else that Colon’s been doin’ is throwin’ a lot more flyballs. It started last year and has continued this year. So far in ’04, a lot more of those flies are leaving the park (1.9 HR/9 for BC). That’s outrageously high. He’s always been a marginal pitcher at giving the long ball, but the rate thus far this season is ridiculous and history says that it won’t continue this way. When all the luck quits working against BC, then he will start to post better numbers. Is there still a problem? Yeah, he needs to get the ball down in the zone. If you wanna watch for one thing during his starts, watch for that. The Ks are there, the control is good, the velocity is down a little (even Omar Vizquel commented about that this weekend. . .ouch), but the talent is obviously still there. I’d hold on Colon.
The DL Path: From Inflammation to MRI to Bench
Troy Percival is on the DL officially. Big surprise. K-Rod will be the replacement while he’s out. Again, big surprise. What will be interesting to see is if K-Rod continues to dominate (he did give up his first dinger of the year the other day), is there any chance he’ll remain the closer when Percival heals? That answer would be “very, very doubtful.” He’d probably have to fan everyone between now and then and Percival’s vet status and hefty salary still pretty much insure that barring some serious performance issues (which, it could be said, have already occurred), he’s the man. Move Shields and Gregg to set up roles because Weber was demoted to AAA Salt Lake to get his act together. Keep an eye on Percy’s status though. He’s concerned, so as his owner, you should be too.
This Week on a Very Special “Mending Wings”
Garret Anderson declares that his miraculous arthritis medicine has allowed to be ready for a minor league rehab stint! He started at Rancho Cucamonga yesterday and could play next Monday. Outstanding news! Don’t give ESPN your T-shirt size just yet, but smile real big if he looks good at single-A. Salmon could be back as early as tonight. Eckstein and Molina continue to be day-to-day, but I’d expect both back this week. Erstad continues to take it easy, but wants to come back before the late June date that was speculated in the local media recently. Donnelly continues to make small steps as well. For all except Glaus, the clouds are at least parting if not already revealing the sunshine. Here’s to hoping we can cancel this medical drama in this column very soon.
You Like Me! You Really Like Me!
I was shocked and amazed this weekend when I looked in my inbox. Underneath all those screaming Bartolo Colon owners was one little harmless e-mail stating seven words that didn’t seem to belong with all the rest. It was an e-mail saying, “I like your work as the correspondent.” Nothing else. No question. No complaints. Just a little note to tell me nice job. It was the first (and maybe the last), it wasn’t signed (who’d admit to telling me that?), and I also had one in there telling me I didn’t know anything about baseball at all (for balance against my swelling head, I suppose). Either way, it was nice and I appreciate it, whoever you are. I’m sure it’s possible that the person clicked the wrong address, of course, but let me have my one moment.
Odds and Ends
Lineup changes looming. When GA’s full strength, Mondesi will probably DH. Where does that leave Salmon? Not playing every day, that’s for sure. It’s possible Mondesi won’t be worth owning if he’s splitting time with Timmy, which 68% of you may just have to drop him again. . .Figgins should remain the man at 3rd for now. Boone could seriously be in the near future for the Angels though. . .World Series preview between the Halos and Cubs? Way too early to say, but great series nonetheless. Bats better be warm, ‘cause Cubs staff could shut everyone but maybe Vladdy down. Enjoy Interleague play and vote at ITH (insidethehalo.blogspot.com) on whether it’s a good thing or not. Also, May’s Halo is up at ITH. Go see who got it. For the Angels, Matt Allen--ESPN.
