Wood and S. Rodriguez

i think its funny that wood and rodriguez are both equally terrible at the moment and yet you think one has earned more ABs while the other is “slumping, knows it, and is pressing”. How can you honestly tell yourself thats only the case for ONE of them?

oh yeah, brandon wood’s reputation. Well newsflash, his reputation is destroying the bottom of the angels order and probably his own confidence, not to mention keeping a potentially surprising unknown from stepping in and contributing (reggie willits and napoli were not overhyped baseball america super prospects) or at the very least getting the chance. brandon wood has done nothing at the big league level to keep himself up here.

nobody is writing Wood off at 23 years old, which i think you seem to feel when you start defending him. But i am absolutely allowed to write him off in 2008 or at the least right NOW. people are allowed to get pissed off at rookies if theyre terrible. even you, who clearly loves your top prospects, have to be able to understand he has been awful. him and rodriguez together is at the point where it legitimately would cost most teams games. they simply dont do anything with guys in scoring position, and i mean ANYTHING.

there are endless other prospects in our system who probably watch wood and rodriguez and ask themselves why they get so much slack while everyone else doesnt even get a chance to show what they can do.

i can accept when people want to give GA and Frankie slack during shaky stretches because of their track records and what theyve done and mean to this team. I refuse to understand why people start treating prospects the same way.

for the record, wood’s ABs, whether you think theyre getting better or not, are still really really really bad. Hes consistently in 0-2 counts because of his long swing and bad pitch recognition. Sure, hes not striking out as much but thats deceptive. His ABs are still undisciplined and so he ends up popping or grounding out because hes forced to swing defensively at the pitcher’s pitch, not work the count and find the pitch HE wants. An out is an out anyway you cut it.

that they’ve been so highly touted (especially Wood) that when they dont hit a grand slam every AB and have 10 RBIs every game, we get pissed off.
the fact of the matter is that some players take time to get adjusted to MLB pitching and also to the pressure of trying to perform. Wood has been the top prospect 2 or 3 years… thats a lot of pressure to take upon yourself, not to mention the pressure of trying to shut up the naysayers (like ourselves and the “experts” that think he’s already declining).
once they shrug off the pressure and learn how to just go out there and play, things will start clicking. both of these guys (and especially Wood) are just too good to not pan out.

i’m really not freaking out about this. i think the real problem is that we’re building them up too much in our minds.

that is never going to happen bro. you know sosh reserves that two spot for a “proven veteran”, else he would already have kendrick or kotchman in that spot. its a great spot to hit and it shows how much GMJ is struggling by hitting near 200 in that spot

include very FEW K’s. Rodriguez and Wood are a strikeout-fest.

Anyway, I like your positive spin and I hope that these two that comprise the lower-third of the lineup “black hole” come out of their funk.

As your first line suggests, beyond Brandon Wood & Sean Rodriguez, the only viable alternative is Matt Brown. As between Wood & Brown, I’ll go with the former. Freddy Sandoval (SLC) isn’t having nearly as good a minor league season as either Wood or Brown. Gary Patchett (SLC) is not an option. Hainley Statia is not exactly setting the world on fire at AA, so it would be unreasonable to expect him to do anything at the major league level without so much as seeing one pitch at AAA. Moreover, there ate literally no other infielders on the 40-man roster. To give anyone else a chance, the Angels would have to disable someone for at least 2 months (60-day DL) or release someone.

Thus, I ask those calling for “someone else”: who should be released outright, gone forever with nothing in exchange?

I agree the kids need to get the opportunity, B. Wood more than S rod. I guess I am more mad at the situation and injuries that have thrusted these two into the lineup at the same time…there is no doubt that I would have no probelem with B wood getting his block of at bats, if he was the only one. Obviously now we have S rod and B wood and the rest of the lineup that isn’t producing…it is a much easier pill to swallow with just B Wood having a tough time than watching a 1-2 combo of Wood and Rodriguez… batting when the rest of lineup cant come up with any runs!

we are winning, and only good things can come from their MLB experience.

we aren’t necessarily winning games, rather we are getting freebies. series vs wsox and tigers. scoring 0-2 runs a game isn’t going to win a lot of games for the future. especially if we draw boston again in the playoffs. offense needs to pick it up

Go halos