Except For Jered Weaver, Angels Have Just Given Up

Final Score in Anaheim: Boston Red Sox: 4, Angels 2

This is a game that if the Angels had played fundamental baseball (like Mike Scioscia gets props for imparting) they would have won. This team has flat out given up except for Jered Weaver. (Long rant after poll)

Hugo Chavez subject Juan Rivera couldn't find it in his abilities to run at regular speed and field a flyball. Juan Rivera couldn't run home on the contact play that Mike Scioscia has encouraged since before Rivera got here after the 2004 season. If the Angel with the most career Plate Appearances has decided to phone in his season with less than 60 games left, you can bet he is not alone.

Just look around: The most listless team of the Scioscia era cannot be coached any longer. They are playing at 3/4 speed. Howie Kendrick would win a batting title if he were only up with two outs and nobody ever on. He is so terrified of striking out on the low outside pitch that he is gutlessly concentrating on fouling off fastballs rather than swing and miss - this induces his trademark grounder to whatever part of the infield can do the most damage.

And something is brewing, because in the 7th inning, Jeff Mathis hit a gapper that was fielded quickly and the slow mo replay showed that when Jeffo turned to run back to first base, his whole career was flashing before his eyes. Why did he reveal the ashen face of fear when successfully avoiding being picked off? Because he knows the change is coming and he was flat out terrified... It would seem that a player would love to get off this lugnut-free bus before the wheels beat to the bottom of the roadside ditch, Mathis and may Angels know that their pampered status as Scioscia's chosen pets will not translate were they to get sent to another team

Hopefully, hopefully there will be many current Angels getting gelded (look up that word and pray there are not pictures on the website you find its definition) and the sooner, the better. It is apparent that the Angels front office cares, but after playing the patience game two weeks too long, the deficit is too great and this gutless bunch of lazy me-firsters don't deserve a division title, let alone the reinforcements that Tony Reagins is scouring for at this very moment.

Torii Hunter is the team leader but ask him to swing for a single with men in scoring position instead of trying to hit a glamor shot HR... he won't take no mess for a measly ribby. All or nothing is gonna get Torii to an early October tee time. His idiotic check swings on bad pitches are the mark of a guess hitter inviting the ump to give him a quick trip back to the bench.

In the locker room where the "press" gets its vaunted access you hear lies like "this team isn't quitting" and then you see more defensive miscues in a game than occurred in a week of the recent 90+win seasons, more quitting on the basepaths and more phoned-in sloppy At-Bats by every single player in the lineup.

Angels fans know a cruddy product and are staying home from the "premium" the inbred Bostonian paste invasion, assuring that the less than sellout houses are now over fifty percent full of bandwagoning aryans and their moustachioed cousin wives.

The stupid promo-every-minute-cacaphony FSN television broadcast, after years of pretending to be classy but now desperate for any life in their lowly-rated telecasts, turns on the field microphones to amplify Angels fans booing John Lackey leaving the field in the eighth inning. Now that you are desperate for the ratings you turn MMA on us after more than a decade of Steve Physioc reminding us to wash our hands before dinner.

Oakland A's fans, your team can have this division when Texas does its annual meltdown. The Angels showed tonight that the wouldn't bother sticking their gloves out for it if the AL West fell right into their path.

There is more... much more... but why bother?

UPDATE: Just saw the first inning replay on FSN and ball four of the walk to Youklis was borderline, but it was the same pitch that Torii and Howie got called strikes later in the game.

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