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It occurs to me I need to admit that Jered Weaver is no longer Ace Commander. Not saying he is not a great guy, a gamer, a veteran leader. Not saying that he doesn't have an LAA HoF legacy. I am saying that he needs to master his inner Jamie Moyer if he wants to play a serious role anywhere throughout MLB beyond his current contract.
Last night, deep into 2015 crunch time and with 3 starts left in his tank, Weaver went only 5 2/3 innings and still gave up 5 runs. It took him 108 pitches to get even that far and only 67 of those were strikes. Of his 67 strikes, 18 were changeups. Only 4 times did anybody swing at one of those changeups and miss. He threw 18 fastballs and none of those reached 87mph. Only 1 time did anybody swing at one of those fastballs and miss. He threw 21 sliders and none of those hit 80mph. Only 1 time did anybody swing at one of those sliders and miss.
Jered's abilities are now at Jamie Moyer levels. He needs to re-master how to leverage those abilities if he wants to extend his career in any meaningful way. Weaver is only 32. After the age of 32, Moyer pitched another 2957.1 innings in 480 games, winning 210 of those. So it's possible, even though last night didn't make me feel that ti was probable.
have some Legacy Links!
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Angels Baseball
Ducets: Get your checkbooks ready everyone! Post-season tickets go on sale Thursday morning at 10AM PDT!! Imagine the lines. I mean, what are we talking here? Star Wars Episode VII kinds of crush?? Oh wait. No. Angels.com only, folks. Actual human lines will be day of game only..............
Joe Smith: I busted both my ankles in High School basketball. Shattered them, actually. Life-long fail. They still hurt to this minute. So every time I read about some athlete turning an ankle my feet ring with phantom pain. And when I read that Joe Smith went in for an MRI and that his return is questionable, I just fall back on my own experience and admit that if we see Smith again in 2015, it will be because we made the playoffs to extend our season, AND he is doped up out of his mind............
Taylor Featherston: Featherston is new to this whole pennant-race thing. I have one solid suggestion: relish it, kid. You are here because you are a Rule 5. This much fun might never come back into your life again...........
Erick Aybar: Ever the knucklehead.
Mike Trout: Stats cannot tell us whether Mike Trout or Josh Donaldson should be MVP.............By the way, you can always keep up with Trout via his home town (ish) fans here.............By the way, Trout is skilled in a 6th tool: Trout Pen............
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Elsewhere in Baseball
Matt Harvey: The Matt Harvey situation in New York is a gargantuan mess, and one that only gets worse by the day. But I noticed something. This is a season-long situation, not just something that has happened in the last couple of weeks. Notice, for example, how many innings the LAA starting rotation has pitched this year. Now take a look at the same data for the NYM. The Mets have a very real chance for 4 of their starters to pitch more than 180 innings in the regular season. A quick survey around the other playoff contenders finds that the Mets stand alone in the depth of their starter workloads. I might be wrong, but if that survey is correct this is something they could have solved back in April..............
MLB Trends: Welcome back offense! ............
Dizzy Panda: This is awesome. Pablo Sandoval took himself out of a professional baseball game. Why? Because he had run all the way around the bases to score a run, and doing that sort of thing makes him dizzy............
AL West: Yeah. It's gotta be said. The AL West has not acquitted itself very well over the years in the playoffs............
No Jack Sparrow?: The Pittsburgh Pirates, at that time of year when we would expect rookie hazings, took the whole team into the act and dressed up as super heroes..........
NO-strodamus: That guy who penned that ridiculous gag about the Cubs' 2015 WS win in Back To The Future, part 2? Yeah, Cards fan............
Sorry. Wrong Number: Seattle placed a call to the bullpen, and the wrong guy ran out onto the field...........
Barry Zito: I'm telling ya', I worry that there is some kind of inherent destiny with Barry Zito making one last career stand and the Angels seeing Oakland in their near future as they strive to hang on to a playoff chance...........
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