6 posts tagged “los angeles angels”

Hey, I wanted to believe it too, but it just didn't make any sense.

After a 3-game sweep at the hands of NL East rivals and current division leaders Philadelphia Phillies over the July 4 weekend, it's time to call it. The season for the 2009 New York Mets is basically over.

Understand that unlike a lot of Met fans, I'm not the whining complaining blame & flame-throwing type. I don't fault any one person for the failure of the 2009 New York Mets. I don't beat drums about firing everyone in the front office, or demanding that they trade away part of "the core." I'm generally pretty optimistic when it comes to all things baseball. But I'm also realistic.

And the reality has finally set in for this team. It's not Jerry Manuel's fault. It's not Omar Minaya's fault. It's not Fred and Jeff Wilpon's fault.

It's the fault of overwhelming injuries to a multitude of players.

Injuries are the great unequalizer in sports. It's what makes fantasy sports such a tough game to win. You can draft the best players in any fantasy sports league, but if your #1, #2 and #3 picks go down for an extended period of time, you're going to have a very tough time of winning your fantasy league. Now translate that to REAL sports, and you've got a serious problem.

The 2009 New York Mets have lost a lot of players this season to injury. Some minor, many major. Oliver Perez was first to fall. To some, that's not a big deal. But then Carlos Delgado went down with a hip injury. Then Jose Reyes's calf and hamstring. Then JJ Putz with his elbow. Then the oft-injured starting pitcher John Maine and his shoulder.

But the biggest loss on top of all of the others that had already accumulated, was Carlos Beltran and the debilitating and painful bone bruise on his right knee.

There were periods of time in which the Mets were also without starters Ryan Church (RF), Brian Schneider (C), and backup utility man Alex Cora (SS/2B). There's a revolving door/platoon in LF once the Daniel Murphy outfield experiment ended. Fernando Tatis is not hitting at even close to the pace he was in 2008, and the backup players (Alex Cora, Gary Sheffield) are being worn down by playing nearly every day.

David Wright has become a very streaky and inconsistent hitter who has lost his power swing. Despite being the only major Met starter to remain healthy all season, he is going to have a career year in most strikeouts at his current pace, and his final BA could end up being .260 or .350, depending on what streak he ends the 2009 season on. But even assuming the best for David Wright, he's one player. Even Albert Pujols has a superior supporting cast surrounding him.

There are some Met fans who want to blame GM Omar Minaya for not providing a better set of backup players, forgetting that backup players are just that. Backups.

They're the guys who alternate in to give the others rest on a Sunday day game after a Saturday night game, and occasionally a couple of them can fill in for extended periods of time over the course of a season when needed. But when your backup players get hurt, and then you're calling up minor league players to fill-in for THEM before they are ready to produce at an MLB level a la Fernando (K-Mart) Martinez, Nick Evans, Argenis Reyes, etc. it's an unplanned recipe for disaster.

There are some Met fans who want to blame GM Omar Minaya for not having already traded for another offensive player, like an Aubrey Huff, Mark DeRosa or Matt Holliday. The three major problems with these concepts is that one player alone isn't going to turn the Mets around. The second is that despite the simplistic belief of many a baseball fan no matter which team they support, other GMs have to actually agree to the trades. The third is that Minaya has gone on record stating he wasn't willing to mortgage the future prospects of the franchise for short-term solutions. A very wise decision. However, the pill of potentially giving up on 2009 to have a shot at legitimately competing in 2010 and 2011 is proving to be a tough one to swallow.

The indisputable facts are this:

• Through 81 games, the halfway-point of a MLB season, the New York Mets have gone 39-42. They are 3 games under .500, and 4.5 games behind the Phillies.
  
• Last year, the 2008 Mets were 40-41 at the halfway point, 3 games behind the Phillies. They went 59-32 over the 2nd half of the season, which was still a game short of the NL wild card. And that's a team that didn't have nearly the number of injury problems that the 2009 team has endured.
  
• There are SEVEN teams currently ahead of them (Giants, Rockies, Brewers, Cubs, Marlins, Reds, Astros) in the wild card race, with Atlanta just a half-game behind the Mets in both the NL East and wild card race.The Mets are 5.5 games behind current wild card leading San Francisco Giants.
  
• Since June 1, the team has went 11-21, which would only be slightly palatable had they not gone 9-12 in April. Even though the team went 19-9 in May, things started to slide when June came, and went to hell in a handbasket once Beltran went on the DL (5-9 since June 22), including series sweeps against the Yankees and Phillies.

The Mets have their next 6 at home going into the All-Star Break. 3 against the Dodgers, owners of the best record in baseball, and the Cincinnati Reds. Figure the Mets go 3-3 over that span, losing the series to the Dodgers, winning the series against the Reds.

After the All-Star break, the Mets go on the road for 4 against Atlanta, 3 against Washington, 3 against Houston. If this were truly the 2009 Mets with all their healthy starters in the lineup, it would not be absurd to expect them to win 8-9 of those 10 games.

But without those starting players in the lineup and the team's inability to score runs at a consistent pace, the more likely outcome of that 10-game roadtrip is 4-6.

The Mets will finish up July with a 4-game set at home against the Colorado Rockies, and a 4-game set that extends into August (1 game in July) against the dying Arizona Diamondbacks. Over those 5 games, I'll give the Mets a 3-2 record.

Taking into account all the series remaining in the month, that would bring the Mets to a July finish of 12-14, and a total record of 49-53 through 102 games played.

For the New York Mets to actually have a reasonable shot of winning the NL East or even the wildcard, they'd have to amass at least 88-90 wins by season's end at the bare minimum.

In a perfect world, you get back all your healthy players PLUS Billy Wagner in the bullpen by August 1, 2009. Maybe you already have some of then back already. But the Mets would then need to go around 39-14 over the rest of the season, and pray that other teams in the NL East encounter troubles of their own. While that's not impossible, it's certainly not very probable. Keep in mind that this is also assuming that the team doesn't suffer any additional injuries to major players.

Whether the Mets should be buyers, sellers, or neither at the end of July will ultimately be determined how the team plays their next 21 games. Will they still be in the race? Will they be completely out of it? Will they barely be hanging on? And can GM Omar Minaya afford to publicly wave the white flag at the risk of lost ticket sales and other revenues at Met home games in August and September, and depending on what moves he makes, 2010?

Only time will tell, but you can put this one in the books. The 2009 Mets will not make the postseason because they've gone too many games without their horses. By the time the cavalry comes back, it will be too late.

I really hope to be proven wrong, but this time, I highly doubt it.

Go Angels.

Let's start with the New York Mets.

They're 5-5. Not a great start, but it's still .500 ball. What is overlooked is that unlike another team in New York, the Mets have been in every single one of their losses until the very last pitch of the game.

They're not getting obliterated (like the Yankees were 15-5 by Tampa Bay when Nick Swisher had to pitch.)

Nor are they getting completely embarrassed (like the Yankees were at their home opener once CC Sabathia left the game and the bullpen gave up NINE RUNS in the 7th inning, leading to a 10-2 Yankee Stadium opening destruction.)

Of the Mets 5 losses in this early 2009 season, the Mets lost 4 of those 5 games by 1 run, 1 of them by 2 runs. You often have to judge teams not only by their wins, but by their losses. Are they in the game until the end? Are they playing exciting baseball? Is the game over in the 9th inning or the 5th? Teams that play until the final out are going to allow themselves a greater chance of success and comebacks, and so far the Mets are doing just that. Of course, it'd be much nicer for them to win more of those close games, but there are 152 games left to play.

Tonight's game against Milwaukee was another nailbiter for the Metropolitans that saw Gary Sheffield get his 500th career HR in a key situation with the team down by a run, tying the game and allowing the solid bullpen to keep them in the game until Luis Castillo became the hero in the bottom 9 by hitting an infield single with 2 out that scored Carlos Delgado from 3rd for the CitiField walkoff victory.

Of course had the Mets lost tonight, fans would somehow find a way to blame Willie Randolph again.

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It's still very early in the season, and most teams seem to have their fair share of problems right now except perhaps for the Florida Marlins. The Red Sox are in the AL East cellar, and a lot of the standings 10-11 games in, are a tad lopsided. But fans and media pundits alike have to remember that what happens in April rarely reflects the final results at the end of September.

Both the Marlins and Padres are off to very hot starts. Are both going to win their division? Not likely with the Marlins, and no way in hell with the Padres. Is Toronto going to win the AL East? Not a chance. But it always leads to a never-ending string of panic from each team's fanbase that "drastic actions" must be taken in order to right the ship immediately!!!!

Maybe these same people forget how hot the 2008 Arizona Diamondbacks were for most of the season, only to fade away when August (and Manny Ramirez) came around.

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One team that's already had enough problems both on and off the field, are my 2nd favorite team, the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim).

Three of their top starters in their pitching rotation began the season on the DL: John Lackey, Ervin Santana, and Kelvim Escobar.

While Lackey began last season the DL as well (and Escobar spent the entire season on the DL),  Joe Saunders and Ervin Santana stepped up to hold the team together along with Jered Weaver and Jon Garland, until mid-May when ace Lackey came back.

This season, it's even rougher, certainly off the field. The tragedy that all of baseball suffered with the loss of Nick Adenhart, which has affected both the team and fanbase on multiple levels.

Add to that the injury to slugger Vladimir Guerrero, who will be out for at least a month with a pectoral muscle tear injury. There's hope that Vlad can heal without the need for surgery, but losing the team's power bat for any length of time is never a positive, and could potentially shake things up in the AL West. As it is, the Angels are off to a slow start, and Seattle is on fire.

The Angels opened a 3-game series tonight in Minnesota at the MetroDome, and pretty much every one of their pitchers did horribly tonight with the exception of Justin Speier, who ironically enough, usually is terrible out of the bullpen. He pitched 2 IP, 4 Ks, no hits. Everyone else, an utter disaster.

That was capped off by a Jason Kubel grandslam in the bottom of the 8th off of Angel reliever Jason Bulger which took the Twins from down 9-7, to an 11-9 victory taking the opener.

The Angels' bullpen, usually one of their greatest strengths, has not been too strong this season ever since Frankie Rodriguez went to New York. Jose Arredondo and Scot Shields, normally rocks of this team's 7th and 8th innings, currently have 7.20 ERAs on the season. I'm confident things will normalize over the course of the next couple of months, but it does raise an eyebrow or two.

By now, the story of Angels' rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart is quite well-known. Just hours after his 4th MLB appearance with the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday, April 8th, pitching 6 shutout innings against the Oakland A's, Nick and 2 friends were killed as a result of a drunk driver in the morning hours of Thursday, April 9th. The driver of the minivan, identified as Andrew Gallo, 22, from Riverside, CA, was going approximately 60 mph when he plowed into the silver Mitsubushi Eclipse that Nick and 3 friends were in.

Only one of the passengers from the crash survived.

There's not much more to the tragedy that I can write about here. I was supposed to go the Angels-A's game on Thursday, but obviously with the terrible events that day, the game was postponed.

Below is the opening Fox Sports broadcast from the Angels-Red Sox game on Friday night, April 10th.

For reasons unknown, the portion which I really wanted to find, a montage video of Nick Adenhart set to Train's "Calling All Angels," a song that is basically the anthem of the Los Angeles Angels played before every home game, was removed from the web version of the video. 

If anyone knows where that video can be found, I'd love to see it.

Well, the Mets once again miss the postseason, but there's still plenty of great baseball to be played in October.
Last year my predictions for the 1st round were pretty much wrong across the board, so maybe this year I'll get some right?

ALDS:
Los Angeles Angels vs Boston Red Sox.

These two teams have met in the playoffs twice before. 2004 in the ALDS, and 2007 in the ALDS.
Both times, Boston swept the Angels 3-0.

However, in 2004 and 2007, Boston had the advantage over the Angels in regular season play. In 2004, Boston won the season series 5-4. In 2007, Boston won the season series 6-4.

In 2008, the Angels won the season series 8-1. That's not even close. The Angels were able to go into Fenway and win. The Angels had identical records at home and away in 2008, 50-31. They are also the ONLY AL team in the postseason with a winning record on the road.

The Red Sox may not have Josh Beckett available to go, they don't have Manny or Schilling anymore, and they are not as good of a team as they have been in the past. J.D. Drew may not be available either with a bad back. Mike Lowell is hurt, etc.

With Mark Teixiera, the Angels are a deeper team with power, something they've lacked in postseasons of the past.

Also, this time the Angels possess home-field advantage, which they did not have in 2004 or 2007 against Boston.

All of the tangibles heavily favor the Angels, but Boston is still gonna be tough.

My prediction: Angels in 5 games.

ALDS:
Chicago White Sox vs Tampa Bay Rays

Regular season, Tampa won the season series 6-4.

Tampa has a slight advantage in that they are a little more well-rested than the White Sox, having finished up play on Sunday. Chicago will get a break on Wednesday before beginning the series in Tampa at the Trop, where Tampa is practically unbeatable with the best home record in the majors at 57-24.

The White Sox also posted a terrible 4-16 record in games on artificial turf this season. Which means they did very poorly when playing in Toronto, Minnesota, and Tampa Bay.

Too many ignorant fans still think Tampa Bay lucked their way into the postseason, as opposed to recognizing that they're a very very good team. Tampa's only real question mark is their bullpen right now.

My prediction: Tampa in 4 games.

NLDS:
Philadelphia Phillies vs Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee nearly missed the postseason with a terrible September. Only a winning series against the Chicago Cubs, coupled with the Mets losing series against the Florida Marlins, allowed them to win the wild card.

The Brewers have a very tough offense, but they're also very weak on pitching once CC Sabathia is no longer on the mound. And now #2 starter Ben Sheets is out of the postseason with a torn muscle near his pitching elbow.

The Brewers bullpen is frankly, dogshit compared to the Phillies' pen. Brad Lidge may have had playoff chokes in the past, but Albert Pujols is nowhere to be found in the playoffs this year.

The Phillies also will have home-field advantage. I give the Brewers one win in the series, figuring it's the one Sabathia pitches.

My prediction: Philadelphia in 4 games.

NLDS:
Chicago Cubs vs Los Angeles Dodgers

The L.A. Dodgers have won a total of 1 playoff game in 20 years since their 1988 World Championship. That 1 game was in the 2004 NLDS against the St. Louis Cardinals, when Jose Lima pitched a CG SHO 4-0 win over the Cards.

In 1995, 1996, 2004, and 2006, the Dodgers made the playoffs. And they were swept 3 of those 4 times (Cubs, Braves, Mets) in first-round 3-0 laughers.

The 2008 Dodgers have the worst regular season record of all the playoff teams at 84-78, fattened up in September on the very weak NL West (and Pirates) by going 17-8 when it counted. A lot of that success was due to the Manny Ramirez effect. Manny batted just under .400 since joining the Dodgers on August 1, and he (as well as Casey Blake) have been huge contributors to the success of the Blue Crew.

But so has facing teams like the Giants, Padres and Rockies so often in the 2nd half.

The Cubs on the other hand, are the best team in the NL, beat the Dodgers 5 out of 7 times in the regular season, (the Wrigley series was in May without Manny or Blake on the team, and as such, the Dodgers scored 1 run in each game of that Cubs sweep) and are a superior team in every imaginable way.

Then there's the Wrigley advantage. Cubs will have home field advantage, and them losing at Wrigley isn't happening. The only real question mark is Carlos Zambrano's health. Zambrano probably will only need one start in this series, and he won't be pitching the opener.

Dodgers starter Derek Lowe has gone 5-1 with a 0.94 ERA in his last nine starts, which is the best run of any pitcher in the majors over that time period. He even outpitched Zambrano at Wrigley in May, only to have closer Takashi Saito blow the game for him.

With Lowe on the mound, it's probably the Dodgers' best chance to win a game. Except I don't see it happening since he'll be facing Ryan Dempster.

My prediction:
The Dodgers will continue their record of being 1st-round losers, being swept by the Chicago Cubs in 3 games.

Without getting into in-depth analysis (mostly because I don't really have the time at this juncture, with the playoffs starting in 3 hours and I have work to do...)

Here are my official predictions for the first round of divisional play in the MLB postseason:

ALDS
Cleveland Indians vs New York Yankees
The Indians have the better pitching in Sabathia and Carmona, but a weaker bullpen. The Yankees have decent pitching but a stronger bullpen, even if Mariano Rivera isn't what he used to be, he's still better than Indians closer Joe Borowski. Yankees have a better offense and they've also not lost a single regular season game to the Indians in 2007.

Prediction: Yankees in 3

Los Angeles Angels vs Boston Red Sox
Just as the Angels have owned the Yankees in the postseason, the Red Sox have pretty much owned the Angels in the postseason, and moreso during the regular season especially at Fenway. This is the ultimate matchup of home field advantage since the Angels had the best home record during the regular season, with Boston's home record just slightly behind. All the Angels need to do is win 1 game in Boston, and take 2 at home to win the series.

Prediction: Angels in 4

NLDS
Philadelphia Phillies vs Colorado Rockies
Both teams are riding huge momentum going into the postseason. The Phillies, well, you know... and the Rockies won 14 of their last 15 games, a franchise record. Ironically, neither team is GREAT, though the Phillies do have a very potent offense. Colorado seems to be well, lucky. Sometimes luck is all you need, but the Phillies do have a couple of strong starters in Cole Hamels, and Jamie Moyer can turn it on when the heat is on. Most people expect this series to be a slugfest since neither team is particularly strong in pitching,

Prediction: Phillies in 4

Chicago Cubs vs Arizona Diamondbacks
This is a fairly intriguing series. The Diamondbacks have the most wins of any team in the NL, they don't have any strong starters beyond Brandon Webb (which may be all they need) and they're a scrappy young bunch of players. However, the Cubs have more talent on all fronts (except at closer, with Arizona closer Jose Valverde finally coming into his own this year), and should be able to outlast Arizona.

Prediction: Cubs in 5