Vlad Guerrero Injury Deepens Angel Woes
by Rev Halofan on Apr 17, 2009 8:21 PM PDT
in News
24 comments
If it wasn’t for bad luck, the 2009 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim wouldn’t have any luck at all. The bad news just kept coming on Friday to a team that has seen the tragic death of a pitching prospect gloomily obscure some deep problems on the field.
All Star slugger Vladimir Guerrero was placed on the 15 Day Disabled List on Friday with a torn pectoral muscle. While Vlad can hit just fine, he still fancies himself a Right Fielder and cannot throw without pain. The Angels seem to be humoring him here, as a retiring to Designated Hitter might be in order anyway given Guerrero’s 35 years. For the time being the Angels will rotate a combination of Maicer Izturis and Gary Matthews. Light-Hitting Izturis started at Designated Hitter on Friday, going 0 for 5, but reached base on a dropped strikeout and scored a run, as well as contributing a groundout RBI.
But neither Matthews nor Izturis nor any Angel replaces Vlad when it comes to batting. Catcher Mike Napoli would make a good candidate to try at Designated hitter, with a 3rd catcher replacing Guerrero on the roster. All of this discussion would be moot if the Angels had already brought in Brandon Wood at the beginning of the seaosn, but Wood was sent down to the minors to slug it out while Izturis and Erick Aybar slapped little singles around the infield.
Meanwhile, Dustin Moseley, who has graduated from 6th man to 3rd man in the Angels rotation, left Friday night’s game with obvious pain in his elbow. Moseley had offseason surgery to repair the ulnar nerve in his pitching arm and appeared to be unable to move his elbow while leaving the dugout after the 3rd inning.
With pitchers John Lackey and Ervin Santana a month away and Kelvim Escobar dealt a shoulder-tightening setback in his return and now penciled for no earlier than June, the Angels can ill afford to lose Moseley for an extended period of time. Without Him, their rotation is Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver, journeyman Shane Loux, 38-year old reliever Darren Oliver on a 40-pitch limit and an open slot.
Open for who? Down at AAA Salt Lake City:
- Starter Anthony Ortega has given up 7 Runs in 9.2 IP
- Starter Matt Palmer has given up 10 runs in 7.2 IP
The AA Arkansas Travellers have seen:
- Starting Pitcher Sean O’Sullivan surrendered 6 ER in 11.2 IP
- SPJordan Walden give up 6 ER in 6.2 IP
AAA Reliever Rafael Rodriguez made his major league debut on April 15, but if he is the best the Angels minor leagues have to offer, a trade or free agent signing is in order here.
And all the while, Brandon Wood languishes in AAA with a 1.065 slugging and nowhere to fit in the crowded Angels lineup. Of course, if the first ten games of this Angels season are any indication, Wood may be First on the infield depth chart before June.
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Is Wood injured?
I saw he wasnt playing for SLC tonight so I wondered if he was enroute, But I realized he did not play in the Wednesday Doubleheader or the Thursday game either
by msuspartan on Apr 17, 2009 8:39 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Where did you hear that Escobar
won’t be back till June?
by humdinger on Apr 17, 2009 8:52 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Do the math
Monday is April 20, a month is optimistic, ad a week and a half and it is June.
by Rev Halofan on Apr 17, 2009 8:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Well, there's my confusion.
A month is optimistic, which means it’s unlikely but still possible. But you said he’d be out until no earlier than June, stated as a certainty.
by humdinger on Apr 18, 2009 10:44 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Explain this...
While Vlad can hit just fine, he still fancies himself a Right Fielder and cannot throw without pain. The Angels seem to be humoring him here, as a retiring to Designated Hitter might be in order anyway given Guerrero’s 35 years
Wait, he can hit just fine even with this injury? Or does this injury effect his hitting as well?
If he can still hit despite this injury then this is kind of BS. Stop playing right Vlad and spend a year DH’ing. We can see if RF is available for ya next year.
(yeah right…)
Do it for Nick '09
by BryanHarvey'sMoustache on Apr 17, 2009 9:07 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
bring up wood
move figgy to left, naps full time DH, mathis full time catch. send down bulger/rodriguez, and call up budde
Nick Adenhart- Forever a true Angel in Heaven. RIP 1986-2009
by AnaheimHalos61 on Apr 17, 2009 9:33 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
I thought "Bulging ERA" is out of options...
If so, he’s a goner.
RIP Nick Adenhart - Angel fans will never forget you!
by Downing Rules on Apr 17, 2009 9:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I have no problem with that...
…he’s been a disaster whenever he’s played with the big club
I see red people
by The Limey on Apr 18, 2009 11:09 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
oh yeah great idea...short staff our bullpen.
…and move a potential gold-glover to left.
im all for bringing up Wood but your suggestions are ridiculous. Most teams carry 11 pitchers. We usually carry 12. You suggest we have 3 catchers and 10 pitchers?
Smart, very very smart.
Do it for Nick '09
by BryanHarvey'sMoustache on Apr 18, 2009 1:51 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
I hope that Ninja is going to his desk
and pulling out his emergency plan. Now here is what i say we do. I outlined a list of possible free agent pitchers in an earlier fanpost. For a quick sum up of all the FA pitchers
The noteworthy starters that are still free agents are: Odalis Perez, Pedro, Jon Lieber, Kenny Rogers, Chuck James, Traschel and Byrd.
Kenny Rogers id rather not have to deal with, and im skeptical on Pedro and James. Traschel doesnt offer much upside, more of a please god dont screw up. Chuck James has upside, but has pitched absolutely dreadfully lately. If we can convince Byrd to come back from retirement, then we got a solid starter. But what id really like to see is for us to sign Odalis Perez. No hes not a great starter, but he has been serviceable the last couple of seasons, and according to Fangraphs, he has been worth 1.5 wins for the last 4 or so years. Obviously getting him up to speed might be an issue, but with Oliver already on a strict pitch count, would it really take him that much longer?
If healthy, our rotation is Lackey/Santana/Saunders/Weaver/Moseley. Now Lackey will definitely be back in a few weeks. Santana should be back but might no longer be very affective and perhaps will require TJ surgery. With Moseley and our bullpen shaky, we could give some starts to Odalis, then when our starters are healthy, shift Odalis and Loux into the bullpen/AAA as spot starters and we should be set.
That'll only happen if that one prospect is the second coming of Christ and redemption for mankind can only be achieved by smacking many balls out of the yard.
-The Limey
by anaheim angels on Apr 17, 2009 9:54 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Completely agree with Perez
I think people tend to overlook him because too many people here remember him as the fat lefty who wasn’t that good for the Dodgers a few years back. Serviceable strikeout rate with an excellent K:BB ratio should limit the damage even when he doesn’t have his best stuff, which is all we’re looking for anyway. The one thing that I’ll say is that the dude is 32 and has pitched his whole career in the NL, so we should except a bit of regression.
Quite frankly, I don’t know why we haven’t really made a move yet – we can’t expect to win with a rotation of Saunders – Weaver – Loux – Oliver – Green, or anything of the sort.
replacement level analysis
by 442 on Apr 17, 2009 10:38 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Agree completely
Oliver should not be starting and Green is not yet ready. I advocated all of ST and earlier that we needed to pick up a pitcher like looper (1 yr/ 4.75 M from the Brewers). There are still one or two FAs that could help as starters, but we really could have swooped in and gotten a quality pitcher on the real cheap if we had taken advantage of the market
That'll only happen if that one prospect is the second coming of Christ and redemption for mankind can only be achieved by smacking many balls out of the yard.
-The Limey
by anaheim angels on Apr 17, 2009 11:05 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
GREEN?
Nick Green is GONE. He was claimed off waivers by Milwaukee in February.
by Rev Halofan on Apr 17, 2009 11:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
442 is envious.
RIP Nick Adenhart - Angel fans will never forget you!
by Downing Rules on Apr 17, 2009 11:32 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
On the bright side
at least well see more Willits
That'll only happen if that one prospect is the second coming of Christ and redemption for mankind can only be achieved by smacking many balls out of the yard.
-The Limey
by anaheim angels on Apr 17, 2009 9:59 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs
How is that a bright side
Sean Rodriguez...the Rodriguez for a new Millennium
by HaloDutch on Apr 18, 2009 12:08 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
sarcastic
its really hard to convey it on the internet though
That'll only happen if that one prospect is the second coming of Christ and redemption for mankind can only be achieved by smacking many balls out of the yard.
-The Limey
by anaheim angels on Apr 18, 2009 12:12 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
It seemed to me that he was not feeling too good when he was hitting too.
I got to see the Seattle series on TV and he looked like he was in pain. I bet that is the reality, not just that he cant play the field. I mean really, a torn pec . Ouch. That has gotta hurt when swinging. At the very least he will favor it, and we all know where that leads.
But hey, the bright side is when he comes back healthy, he’s really gonna rake, it is a contract year for him. He may pull a 2004, you never know
by Big Bad, 'Vlad'! on Apr 18, 2009 1:21 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
There goes his chance to break Gehrig's record.
I brought sexy back, but they only gave me store credit....
by PhiSlamma on Apr 18, 2009 1:39 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs
Gehrig's record
was he still on that streak when he retired?
by HALO_86 on Apr 18, 2009 10:05 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
Yeah.
Just watched Pride of the Yankees on Hulu (I recommend it!) and although it is a very Hollywood version of the story, I read more about it after, and yes, he was.
…Gehrig had just played his 2,130th consecutive Major League game. On May 2, the next game after a day off, Gehrig approached McCarthy before the game in Detroit against the Tigers and said, “I’m benching myself, Joe”, telling the Yankees’ skipper that he was doing so “for the good of the team”… Gehrig stayed with the Yankees as team captain for a few more weeks, but he never played baseball again..
Though isn’t Cal’s record the more relevant one?
Let's do this for Nick Adenhart, Courtney Stewart, and Henry Pearson.
by AlanFalcon on Apr 18, 2009 11:06 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs
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