The Glass is Half-Full
by MurrietaMick on Oct 18, 2009 2:11 PM PDT
Email
Print
The Angels still have a realistic shot to win the ALCS. I take heart in the fact that the Yankees have twice beaten a team that looks very little like the team we've been watching through most of the season--the one that plays excellent defense, that has good pitching, that is poised yet fired up, and that has a clutch, potent offense. I have no doubt that the "other" Angels team will show up in Anaheim starting tomorrow. And when it does, the Angels will win. Actually, I have almost no doubt...
Just as not all runs are created equal, not all losses are created equal. Extreme case-in-point: Game 6 of the 2002 WS--after that loss, you just knew that the Giants would be toast in Game 7. Compare that to the previous game, Game 5, where the Angels were pounded 16-4, and were already behind 6-0 after two innings. Some days are just not your day; you're not going to win, regardless.
It's easier to walk away from and forget about the Game 5-type loss than the Game 6-type loss. Game 1 on Friday was more like the 2002 Game 5 loss; there wasn't much chance of winning given how the Angels were stinking it up on the field. Easy to move on. Last night's game wasn't nearly as gut-wrenching as the Giant's Game 6 loss, but it was one that could have gone either way--and I believe those types of losses are much harder to walk away from and forget.
Fortunately (and this is a good part of my optimism), the Angels have the best forget-about-the-last-game-and-focus-on-the-next-game guru around in Scioscia. Definitely look for the Angels *not* to fold up the tent; we'll see a different looking (and playing) team than the one that we watched in NY. It will be a great indicator of Scioscia's prowess and of the team's make-up when Game 3 ends with the Angels having a "1" in the ALCS win column.
One game at-a-time...
This Fan-Post is authored by an independent fan. Tell us what you think and how you feel.
47 comments
|
2 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
There's the spirit
I’m joining you in your optimism. As we celebrate the World Series victory, we will look back on game 2 and remember how low we were. Every great story needs a detour.
Angels in 09!
Finally...
a post after my own heart…I am heading to the airport first thing in the morning to fly down and watch games 3-5 in Ana. Let’s win this thing! :D
Miss you Nick...! RIP
What is so frustrating...
is that they have been beating a team, as you said, that looks very little like the team we watched during the regular season.
Why is this? If the Angels were playing their best baseball I’d be resigned to say the best team is winning the series right now. But they aren’t and it isn’t.
We can certainly win 4 of the next 5 but to do so we really need to change things up. Watching Vlad fail twice with the bases juiced isn’t inspiring. Maybe move him down the order or something.
Playing in a freezing swamp might have something to do with it.
Angels baseball. We do what we must, because we can -- HaloDutch
let's all keep the faith!
I like seeing that some fans still have hope, I am getting tired of seeing posts from the nay-sayers. Being down 2-0 isn’t the end of the world. You can be sure that the Angels haven’t given up yet, and NEITHER SHOULD WE!
Just another Halo victory
by HalosFanInNorCal on Oct 18, 2009 3:24 PM PDT reply actions
i just really want to see us play with some pride
whether we win or lose the series i want us to fight hard. i just didn’t see that same fight we had in the bos series in game 1 of the ALCS or after fuentes blew the save last night. i was happy to see the yankees used every single pitcher in their pen last night. i hope that helps us in game 3. i am going to do my best to tone down my apocalyptic pessimism. this post has the perfect balance of optimism and realism for me to get on board. thank you.
Chili Davis - the closest thing the MLB got to a real life Pedro Cerrano.
Baseball's a funny game
A series isn’t won, as the 2004 ALCS showed, until one team has won four games. Just two years ago, the Indians had a 3-1 series lead against Boston and let it slip away. While being down 2-0 isn’t ideal, it’s certainly nothing worth panicking about.
As we showed in Boston just a week ago, with two outs and two strikes against us – not once, not twice, but THREE times – anybody can come back.
The Angels beat New York four straight earlier this year: May 2, then July 10,11, 12. It CAN be done. But yes, they need to play a little bit better.
Until the Yankees have gotten the last out of a fourth win, I will always believe there is a chance…
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
While your point is valid and entirely possible...
… I also believe we have not seen the Yankees play a quintessential Yankee game yet.
"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt
i don't know if you're going to see
a quintessential Yankee game. the offense (outside of Jeter and A-Rod) has struggled throughout the playoffs, outside of maybe Game 1 of the ALDS. they were shutout for six-plus innings by Carl Pavano and baffled by Nick Blackburn. Lackey would’ve had similar numbers had the guys behind him not been so sloppy. the Yanks have had the ball bounce their way a lot in the last two weeks and eventually the breaks are going to go the other way.
i think the Angels will be fine as long as they stop shooting themselves in the foot.
by SBakerTheTouchdownMaker on Oct 18, 2009 5:20 PM PDT up reply actions
I think that's the point
They’re winning despite most of the offense being flat. If the offense comes around they would be that much more formidable if their pitching keeps it up.
Daniel52 - from what I've seen the last few years
A quintessential Yankee game involves them losing to the Angels….
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you." - Woody Hayes
by johnnyangel101 on Oct 18, 2009 5:34 PM PDT up reply actions
York Beaters
Before the ALCS started I picked the Angels to win in 5 games, including three straight at home. I am now revising my pick to Angels in 6. The only major change in my perspective is that previously I did not want the ALCS to return to New York and now I do.
The Angels can win four straight. Post season series that I have been to that saw a team go from down 0-2 to winning 4-2 were the 1978 World Series (New York Yankees over the Los Angeles Dodgers) and 1985 NLCS (St. Louis Cardinals over the Los Angeles Dodgers). Both of those series saw the eventual winning team lose the first two games on the road. The 2009 Angels have just dropped two games on the road. I would now be more pessimistic if the Angels had lost the first two games at home. To win this ALCS has always required the Angels to win at least one game in New York. Winning or losing a series is not black and white until the series is history and in the books. Until then it is various shades of gray. To be a black or white (all win or all lose) fan is a symptom of a manic depressive personality. It is better to be optimistic and look for a silver lining in the clouds.
The term “York Beater” refers to my 1979 University of Hawaii at Manoa roommate named Ace. He had been beaten up once while visiting Seattle. Afterwards he carried a baseball bat with him as security. One of our UH beer drinking friends was from New York and nicknamed York. No, Ace never hit York with a baseball bat. On Ace’s 21st birthday (May 1st, 1979) we had a party at our Hawaii Kai house. That was one of three occasions that I drank 14 beers (Heineken on that occasion). Two touchdowns of beer bottles is my limit!
13 is my personal record
but I also had I believe 4 shots. I think I took four years off my life that night.
I just hope we win.
R.I.P. Nick Adenhart, Marquis Cooper, Steve McNair, and Frank Grimes, or Grimey, as he liked to be called.
FUCK TEIXERIA AND THE YANKS.
Thanks for this post...
Ive avoided HH all day to keep from getting to depressed, but couldnt help myself. Nice to see Im not alone in thinking that our team can still win this thing. GO HALOS!!!
That made me laugh.
I admire your optimism, but in my opinion you have no chance. Good Luck! If we for some odd reason lose, then I’ll root for you in the WS. :P
I plan to live forever. So far so good.
The only thing funnier than thinking the angels can win this series
is paying homage to Melky Cabrera in your screen name.
What do you need a fancy suit for, Charlie, you ain't got no job to wear it to.
by clover_black on Oct 18, 2009 7:43 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
seriously, out of all yankees
you pick that goon. LOL…
rec’d.
Do it for Nick '09
by BryanHarvey'sMoustache on Oct 18, 2009 10:01 PM PDT up reply actions
I don't get it...
If this series is really over, why do they bother having any more games?
Whatever happened to the old adage… “You haven’t really won until you win on the other guys field?”
God needed a starter. RIP #34
Not in this series
Yanks don’t need to win in LA. I’d prefer if they did, but really NY just needs to protect home field.
Allow me to quote a famous Yankee player
“It ain’t over till it’s over”. — Yogi Berra
Angels baseball. We do what we must, because we can -- HaloDutch
Well then I guess it's "over" for the Dodgers too huh?
They got their asses handed to them by the Phils tonight. True, the Dodgers won a game, but the law of averages tells me that the Angels are likely to pick up one tomorrow.
At least the Angels went toe-to-toe with the “mighty” Yankees for 13 innings who only won by a single stinking run. The juggernaut lineup of A-Roid, Tex, Jeter, etc. barely scratched up 4 runs in 13 innings. What a terrible return on investment.
God needed a starter. RIP #34
all i can say is
let’s go fuck some fat yankees this home stand.
i can’t go to the game on monday because I have to work and i just can’t afford playoff tickets. but if you are going to the game, please be loud and cheer the team for all 9 innings. I have faith. go angels!
Angels 2009 WS Champs
On It
2009 Angels Season: Let's Do This For Nick
by trojanangelfan on Oct 19, 2009 12:52 AM PDT up reply actions
If we had played decent games, then you'd have to tip your cap to the Yankees.
The source of frustration – and optimism – is the Angels have only played about 2/3 of Angels baseball. The pitching has been pretty good, but defense has been poor at critical times, and the offense (hitting & base-running) has been a good cure for insomnia.
So, I remain part of the optimistic crowd. If the pitching remains decent, and if the defense reverts to seasonal form, and if the offense manages 4-6 runs a game, we still have a great chance to win this series. Yeah, that’s a lot of if’s…but far from the realm of the achievable.
Thank you.
Even so, you should still be tipping your caps to us. You weren’t horrible, but you could have done better
I plan to live forever. So far so good.
Game 1 was yours....
Sloppy defense on our side or not. We weren’t going to win that game the way CC was dealing.
Game 2? A bunch of missed opportunities. Our cleanup hitter failed to come through in the clutch. Again. Our closer choked. Our defense choked at the end of the game.
A win is a win for the Yanks, but we gave away game 2. The Angels’ just flat out played poorly in that game in every category.
Well...
…I don’t think the Yankees have yet to earn a tip of the cap.
So far, the Yanks have won 5 post-season games. They could just as easily have lost 3 of the 5 games. You haven’t earned it as much as the opposition has given it away.
OK…(this is somewhat painful) A-Rod has come close to earning a tip of he cap for clutch hitting, and Sabathia has been borderline dominant. That’s as far as I go.
If the Yanks play the same through the conclusion of the series, and if the Angels play to potential, I will be looking forward to a hat tip from you later this week (yeah I know…a couple more if’s).
one, no team has overcome the kind of adversity the angels did this year. game two’s loss was big but this team is better able to respond than most, if not all.
two, they didn’t have to play today and have three games at home in the warm california sun and not the cold and wet of new york. it’s no excuse for why they lost, but i have to think the conditions factored in why they played as poorly as they did.
three, i like the day game followed by a night game rather than a night game followed by a day game.
four, i like jered weaver in his game 3 matchup over andy pettite and john lackey over aj burnett in game 5. that leaves the critical game 4. given his performance in game one and just about the entire second half, you have to like cc against the angels, but scott kazmir matches up well with him and i have to think if cc is going to falter in this series (he’s due for a loss) it would be on three days rest and not his regular four.
five, i like brian fuentes, but really, really, really miss franky rodriguez. i’d even take kelvim escobar closing games about now.
“we’ll win with what we’ve got.”
one game at a time. one day at a time.
go halos!
Other side of the coin:
1) I assume you refer to the tragic passing of Nick Adenhart. I will say nothing negative or contradictory about that.
2) The Yanks also played poorly in the crappy weather. You can expect similar improvement out of them. They prefer 70 and sunny as well (who doesn’t?).
3) You like that setup better and so do the Angels and so do that Yanks. Angels have no advantage over the Yanks in this area.
4) Agreed on the matchup thing with one exception: CC isn’t “due” for anything. He’s just a really good pitcher. He’s shown he can be effective on short rest in the past, so that isn’t a concern. I have said from the beginning the Angels win games 3 and 5 and the Yanks take it in six.
5) Don’t give up on Fuentes just because a white-hot uber-clutch-in-the-playoffs ARod came through again. Fuentes is shaky but still led the majors in saves and, to be honest, is your best option out of the pen (unquestionably the biggest question mark on the team).
Good Replies but,
2) & 3) Sure both teams struggled in bad weather and both will benefit in good weather and on a nice schedule but now NY will be in our house.
4)While he may not be due, he has never performed well on 3 days rest in the post season. Actually, very poorly. This is a lot to ask of a pitcher on a big stage and away from home. I think the point could have been stated “If he is going to perform poorly, Game 4 is where it will most likely happen”. I for one think that this if we can manage to win Game 3 then Game for will be the x factor.
5) I’m not giving up on Fuentes. He has done fine and made a huge mistake to A-Rod which he should learn never to do again.
by RedAces on Oct 19, 2009 12:36 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions
We are more on the same page than you think
2&3)Yes, of course the Angels have an advantage at home, but it isn’t due to the weather or schedule. It’s because it’s the Angels. At home.
4) Sure, CC has never performed well in the postseason on short rest. Do you know the size of that sample? One. He has pitched One game on short rest in his playoff career. Know why he struggled? He had also pitched the previous THREE games before that on three day’s rest (to the tune of ERAs and WHIPs under 1). He was just gassed. This year he hasn’t gone on short rest yet, so he will have plenty of energy.
That being said, I agreed both with the fact that if CC has a bad game, it will be game 4 and also that if you guys win game 3 then game 4 becomes a bit of a pivot factor (though LA will still need it more than NY).
We do agree a ton
The only thing where I kinda don’t is that you say a small sample of 1 is true for him but overall in baseball, pitchers on 3 days rest in the post season do not perform well. That is the Sample Size that I am referring to. Now he hasn’t and sure he might be better this time around but no matter how you look at it. NY is going against the odds by pitching him on 3 days rest in the post season.
And for the record I like your posts, your not trolly or an arrogant ass. And you actually make sense.
Oh and I also agree that GM 4 will be more important for us. But it will certainly swing the tide if we can take these next 2. Then we will have our Ace against AJ at home.
Well I guess we can just take 1 game at a time for now.
One last note on CC
he actually admitted that he will not have his fast ball available as usual but said that control is more important and will be they key factor for him pitching effectively.
This may be true but I like the fact that he has to give up a part of his game due to 3 days rest. There may be more also that he is compromising that he didn’t mention.
Dude! Who are you?
Amazing post! Well-written, thoughtful and positive! Thanks MIKE!
Do it for Nick '09
by BryanHarvey'sMoustache on Oct 18, 2009 10:00 PM PDT reply actions
Ladies and gents
if this were a football (soccer) game it’d be 2-0 and not even half time. I’ve played in and watched too many games of footy to know that it is far from over at that stage – think Liverpool over AC Milan in 2005. And furthermore, the Angels KNOW they’re going to get 5 chances to beat the keeper, just need to hit the corners and net 4 of them
Win game 3 and it is game on!
The only game that matters...
… is the next game. The Angels don’t have to win 4 out of 5. They have to win the next game. Focus on winning the game in front of you.
Play with brains AND nuts.
So if the Halos want to win the next game (in a little over 2 hours, folks), then they need to:
GENERALITIES
-Keep the offense loose but patient (look at the Phillies, kids. Won’t be surprised to see them in WS)
-Maintain a sharp and flexible defense (Halos did a great job Game 2 until the tiring 13th).
-Maintain the power arms from starter to pen (their best strength)
-Don’t let the Yuckees get into their heads.
SPECIFICS
-Switch Chone with Aybar if leadoff issues are a growing concern.
-Drop Vlad down the order and/or sub Howie as DH.
-Give Kendry the clean-up spot and then Howie as DH (left-right attack)
-Use Mathis/Napoli less for bats and more for defense and pitch calling (use Nap as DH if you want).
-Sub GMJ for Rivera as he appears sluggish and nervous. Will take his speed and defense at this point.
You can scoff at my suggestions and my name all you want, but the hour is getting late.
If you want to beat Murderer’s Row and go to the World Series, you have become Assassin’s Row and take the fight to them.
NO EXCUSES. ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE.
The comeback starts in a little over an hour
We can take this series. Every little thing that could go wrong so far has for our beloved Halos. The odds say it will swing back to normal, starting today. I feel good with Weav on the mound, and with Kaz going tomorrow and Lackey on Thursday. We can beat AP. CC won’t be nearly as strong as he was Friday. I hope everyone stays loose and plays like we did against the Chowders. Vlad is going to come through. 5-2 Halos today.
by Lompoc Angel Fan on Oct 19, 2009 11:44 AM PDT reply actions
GM 1 L to NY in 5 game series = GM 1 & 2 L in 7 game series
We have always lost GM 1’s to the Yanks and come back to win the DS series. While the math is not 100% equal in a 7 game series, the concept is. We can easily come back in this thing if we take it one Win at a time. Let’s be honest, won’t you feel a million times better if you knew in advance that we would win today. This 1 game here is huge. The Yanks held serve at home and we gave them GM 2. We can hold serve at home and we can take 1 from NY. Calling all you Angels!!!!!!!!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
In Association With
Big League Stew - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
- Josh Hamilton on public relapse: ‘It was just wrong. That’s all it comes down to.’
- Photo: The Marlins’ ridiculous-looking home run sculpture is almost complete
- Yankees GM Brian Cashman lures alleged stalker into police dragnet
- Report: Josh Hamilton had a relapse with alcohol
- Happy Birthday Boy! Wes Ferrell, the best-hitting pitcher of all-time, would be 104
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
