THURSDAY ANGELS ROUNDUP: John Lackey Goes For Win #100, Angels Go For Sweep

by WiHaloFan on Aug 20, 2009 7:52 AM PDT in Angels News

Up next for Angels: Thursday at Cleveland -- latimes.com
John Lackey goes for career victory No. 100.
John Lackey vs. Justin Masterson

Los Angeles Angels vs. Cleveland Indians - Preview - August 20, 2009 - ESPN
Since dropping the opener, the Los Angeles Angels have been unbeatable on their 10-game road trip. The AL West-leading Angels look for a sixth straight victory while trying to complete a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Thursday night.

Angels' Jered Weaver stands tall against Indians -- latimes.com
Weaver threw a seven-hit shutout in a 3-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians in Progressive Field on Wednesday night, and he now ranks third in the American League with four complete games. Weaver had no complete games in his first three seasons.

Lackey sets sights on win No. 100 - angelsbaseball.com: News
Chuck Finley, Nolan Ryan, Mike Witt and Frank Tanana. It's an exclusive club -- Angels pitchers with 100 or more victories -- and John Lackey is on the verge of joining. With a victory in the series finale against the Indians, Lackey will reach triple digits in wins in his career: 100, on the nose.

Team Reports - CBSSports.com
Before this season, RHP Jered Weaver had never pitched a complete game in the major leagues. His seven-hit shutout Wednesday was his fourth complete game of the season (tied for third in the American League). He is also tied for third in wins (13) and tied for first with two shutouts.

Team Reports II - CBSSports.com
2B Howie Kendrick drove in two of the Angels' three runs with a single in the fifth inning. He was the only player in the Angels' starting lineup Wednesday who was not hitting .300 for the season. He started the night batting .275 -- but is now 36 for 102 (.353) since returning from Class AAA in early July.

The .275 club lineup? - OCRegister.com
Angels hitting coach Mickey Hatcher got one of the clubhouse attendants at Progressive Field to take a picture of the scoreboard showing that .300 lineup. Before Wednesday’s game, Hatcher was taking the photo around the clubhouse to each player, having each of the players autograph it for a keepsake. He plans to get copies made for each player.

rallymonkeys: Angels' defense amazing, too
The Angels' sizzling sticks have been the talk of that segment of baseball not obsessed with the Yankees and Red Sox. But just as impressive as the offense has been a defense that has been close to flawless of late, committing just one error in eight games and carrying a 52-inning errorless streak into Wednesday's contest.

Figgins is the Gold standard - Angels Unplugged - Los Angeles Times
It's time to give Chone Figgins more than a hand. It's time to give him a glove. A Gold Glove.

LA Angels Roll A Perfect Game - Bleacher Report
This is the same team that used to flail away at pitches in the mold of Vladdy. Yet a strange, and beautiful, transformation has overtaken them. Is it because of Bobby Abreu? Tori Hunter? Watching Teixeira last year? Or just the evolution of a message that has finally sunk in. Work the count, wait for your pitch - and hit the hell out of it.

Resorting to old pitchers isn't new and isn't smart - MLB News - FOX Sports on MSN
"How does a man decide in what order to abandon his life?" asked Cormac McCarthy in No Country for Old Men. If you're a big-league pitcher, the hitters will generally tell you when it's time to abandon the career part of your life. They will beat you into submission. And the long, hot, daily grind of a pennant race is no country for old men.

Sources: D-backs P Garland clears waivers - FOX Sports on MSN
Garland is 6-11 with a 4.42 ERA in 25 starts with Arizona this year. Despite his statistics, he has some appeal because of his postseason experience with the White Sox in 2005. He has a 3.60 ERA in six starts after the All-Star break.

Smoltz = Weaver (The Good One) - FanGraphs Baseball
Over the last couple of months, there’s very little separating how Weaver and Smoltz have pitched. Their FIPs are nearly identical, even if they’ve gotten there slightly different ways. Both of them have been stung by the longball, which has outweighed strong BB/K rates. And neither have deserved results as bad as what they’ve gotten.

August 20 - BR Bullpen
Events, births and deaths that occurred on August 20.
1972 - The Angels score nine runs in the 4th inning but Detroit counters with eight runs in the 6th to win the wild affair, 11 - 9.
1974 - Nolan Ryan of the California Angels whiffs 19 Tigers in a 1-0, 11-inning loss to the Tigers. It is the third time the 'Ryan Express' has struck out 19 batters in one game this season. Ryan throws a ball clocked at 100.9 miles per hour making it the fastest pitch ever thrown in major league baseball.

Poll

Jon Garland is available.

So what? Not interested.

234 votes

Reagins should look into acquiring him! The rotation needs help.

147 votes

381 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Judy!!

RIP Nick Adenhart 4/9/09

by vlad IS my man on Aug 20, 2009 8:22 AM PDT reply actions

A decent Jon Garland is better than a decent Bell or O'Sulliven

"I am not impressed by your per-formence!" -GSP

by KubanKowbell19 on Aug 20, 2009 8:29 AM PDT reply actions

Nope. W6G!

W6G!

by Monkeyspanked on Aug 20, 2009 9:02 AM PDT reply actions

he works so slowly he puts me to sleep

probably has the same effect on our fielders. all I remember from him is his lousy Sept last year where it seemed like he was giving up 4-5 runs in the first inning of every start. no thanks.

by Fred Fredrix on Aug 20, 2009 9:03 AM PDT reply actions

Garland? No!

Pitcher A
FIP: 4.71
ERA: 4.42
K/9: 5.46

Pitcher B
FIP: 5.88
ERA: 5.91
K/9: 5.27

Pitcher C
FIP: 4.65
ERA: 4.42
K/9: 4.31

Pitcher D
FIP: 5.24
ERA: 5.91
K/9: 5.06

A is Palmer.
B is O’Sullivan
C is Garland.
D is Bell.

Garland is no better than what the Angels already have. His K rate is the worst of the bunch. Note that he compiled his numbers in the AAAA league. Tack on a half run to his FIP and ERA, which puts both metrics around five.

by Fan Since 1981 on Aug 20, 2009 9:30 AM PDT reply actions

If we can go

27-17 over the remaining 44 games we will tie our record from last year…
Most thought last year was ur best regular season all around in our history, I would have to say this year is better, we have had to overcome more, deaths, pitching issues etc. and actually had a team push us.
If we got anywhere near 100 wins it is our best year. 27-17 is very doable with this team
I say lets go for 101 wins!

Quit Bitching about Wood not playing, The guy does deserve his shot but quit pretending that we have Willie Mays riding the pine

by Sinatrasratpack on Aug 20, 2009 9:48 AM PDT reply actions

Some stats for you:

The last time we were at .500 was back in mid-June (29-29) right after getting smoked by Tampa Bay 11-1. After that game, Howie Kendrick was demoted to AAA.

Ever since then, we’ve went 44-16 (.733), and ever since the All-Star break we’ve gone 24-8 (.75)

If we continue going like this for the next 44 games (going about .700 which is 31-13), we’ll have an ending record of 104-58 (.642)

I could only imagine how great our record would be if we were playing this kind of baseball all season.

The Big Red Machine V.2 is coming this Fall 2009. Go Halos!

by Slyintine on Aug 20, 2009 11:02 AM PDT up reply actions

Anyone know what happened to Heath Bell

Put on waivers on Friday. Should have either cleared or been drawn back by now, right?

Check out these games:

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by matthiasstephan on Aug 20, 2009 10:19 AM PDT reply actions

from mlbtr

“Stark hears that the Padres pulled Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez back off waivers after multiple teams claimed them.”

by Fred Fredrix on Aug 20, 2009 2:45 PM PDT up reply actions

Thanks.

Check out these games:

Multiplayer Baseball: http://www.mmobaseball.com/createaccount.aspx?ref=9687

Multiplayer Football: http://goallineblitz.com/game/signup.pl?ref=16986650

by matthiasstephan on Aug 21, 2009 1:28 AM PDT up reply actions

Garland might be useful for the stretch...

But he has little value in the playoffs.

I realize we could put someone like Palmer in the rotation but then our bullpen is weaker. We need a pitcher but I don’t think a mediocre starter is helpful right now. I think a reliever would be much more helpful. I felt otherwise a month ago when Santana didn’t know how to pitch. Back then I would have said a starter was more important.

by Nashdiesel on Aug 20, 2009 10:35 AM PDT reply actions

At this point last year...

…from Aug 23 to his last start on Sept 24, Garland gave up 31 ER in just 38.2 IP

2009 Halos:
"Don't worry bout a thing,
Cause every little thing gonna be all right!"

by Quad Fin Rider on Aug 20, 2009 12:25 PM PDT reply actions

WHIP

Pitcher A 1.41
Pitcher B 1.48
Pitcher C 1.44
Pitcher D1.97

I wouldn’t say Garland (pitcher C) is any worse then the other 3, but definitely not a huge upgrade. We are still not sure how Joe will perform when he comes back, so we may need 2 starters out of the bunch. O’Sullivan has been piss poor lately and Bell still needs a little work. I feel comfortable with Palmer but he has been in the bullpen lately. I say give Garland a shot if it works out money wise.

by haloak on Aug 20, 2009 6:32 PM PDT reply actions