Week 19 Halo Recap: the good, the bad, the meh (Grinding on)

These weekly recaps are getting hard to write.  There is really not a lot of good around the team, especially when even Mike Trout is slumping.  Do I need to start focusing on things like how has a player helped us get a good draft pick next year?  Incidentally,  we are now the second worst team in the AL.  Tampa Bay currently is one game up on the Angels and the Twins are 2 games back.  With the Angels and Diamondbacks now tied, the only other team worse than the Angels is the Atlanta Braves who are 7 games more sucky the Angels.  I think a second round draft pick in 2016 is a very real possibility.  Cling on to the that hope!

If you think Mike Scioscia is at least partially to blame for the Angels horrible record, the bad news is that he not going anywhere and no on is surprised.  Both Billy Eppler and Arte Moreno came to his defense this week, saying he's done a good job and blamed it on injuries.  We all saw that one coming.  Never mind that there are teams fighting through injury plagued seasons that aren't nearly close to being the worst team in baseball.

Someone also needs to tell Arte Moreno that it's not 2002 anymore.

"I’m not going to say anything (definitive) because I haven’t sat down with Billy (Eppler) or Mike, but I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be (back)," Moreno said. "Mike has been the winningest manager (in Angels history) and he won a world championship. ... He has a contract. My expectation is he will be here, but I haven’t sat down with him."

The Halos DFA'd Johnny Giavotella, sent Choi back to Salt Lake, called up Kaleb Cowart, put Escobar and Soto on the DL, and signed another pitcher pitcher nobody wanted.  Along the way, the managed to win 3 out of 7 games

Transactions:

DATE PLAYER POS. TRANSACTION

8/21 A.J. Achter P Called Up from Minors

8/21 Manny Bañuelos P Signed to a Minor League Contract

8/21 Ji-Man Choi 1B Sent to Minors

8/20 C.J. Cron 1B Removed From 15-Day DL, (Broken left hand)

8/20 Kaleb Cowart 3B Called Up from Minors

8/20 C.J. Cron 1B Recalled From Minors, Rehab Assignment

8/20 Yunel Escobar 3B Placed on 7-Day DL, (Concussion)

8/20 Johnny Giavotella 2B Designated for Assignment

8/17 Carlos Perez C Called Up from Minors

8/17 Geovany Soto C Placed on 15-Day DL, (Right knee inflammation)

Here's this week's list, and just for fun I've included an overall ranking (1-24)

THE GOOD

1. Matt Shoemaker notched a win after throwing a strong 7 innings and allowing only 2 runs.

2. Before he bunted a ball into his forehead, Yunel Escobar was hitting .471 with a 1.029 OPS through 5 games.

3. Albert Pujols finally had another good week.  He hit 2 home runs, drove in a team leading 7 runs and hit .296 with a .345 OBP.

4. Deolis Guerra held his opposing hitters to zero of anything, unless you are talking about Ks, of which he racked up 3 over his 3.1 innings of work.

5. Jose Valdez has had a rough go since being called up, but threw 3.1 scoreless last week in his 3 appearances.

6. Jose Alvarez pitched 3 scoreless innings and struck out 2 with 2 hits and no walks.

7. After a rough start, Brett Oberholtzer did well in the pen last week with 4.1 scoreless innings along with a 2 Ks, a walk, and 3 hits.

8. He was far from perfect, with 1 run allowed, but JC Ramirez struck out 6 over 5 innings and had a 1.80 ERA with his 1 run allowed.

THE MEH

9. Hard to give Mike Trout a good rating when he stuck out 8 times and only hit .263.  He DID put up an impressive 483 OBP though.  He was also caught stealing in his one attempt.

10. Jhoulys Chacin pitched a good game on Sunday though he only lasted 5.2 innings.  In his other start, however, he only lasted 4.2 innings and gave up 4 runs.

11. Gregorio Petit batted .300 but only had 10 AB.  Like Cowart, it's not really enough AB to rank him higher.

12. Kaleb Cowart only had 3 AB so it's not enough to really rate him, but he did get one hit.  Yay!

13. He didn't get a loss or a blown save, but Fernando Salas did have a 4.50 ERA in his 4 innings.  He allowed zero runs in 3 of his 4 appearances, but almost blew the game on Thursday.

14. The Red Baron, Kole Calhoun made an amazing catch against the Mariners, but at the plate he hit only .217.  He had a decent .379 OBP, but like Trout, also struck out a lot (7 times).

THE BAD

15. Ricky Nolasco was close to a quality start on Monday, but was bumped out after 5.1 innings.  He allowed 8 runs and gave up two homers last week in 11.2 innings.

16. Jefry Marte hit a mere .235 with a .222 OBP.  Yes his on base was worse than his batting average.  That's how much he sucked last week.

17. Not much production from behind the plate this week.  Jett Bandy had a .211 average and OBP.  He only had 4 hits and 2 of them were home runs though, which is pretty cool.

18. Nick Buss was ice cold to the tune of a .208 average.  He also struck out 6 times in 7 games.

19. Mike Morin had a .357 BAA and gave up 2 runs over his 3 innings of work.  Like Salas, his bad mojo all came in one game.

20. Sadly, Tyler Skaggs had the worst start of the week with 4 runs and 8 hits allowed over 3.1 innings

21. Jered Weaver got destroyed and gave up 10 hits and 5 runs over just 4.2 innings.

22. Our shortstop can sure play defense, but Andrelton Simmons' continues on his cold run with a .160 AVG in 25 at bats.

23. Good thing we DFA'd Johnny G so Cliff Pennington could play and rack up a team leading 10 Ks last week with only a .200 average.

24. Carlos Perez, Ji-Man Choi, and CJ Cron all had 7 AB or less, and all managed to hit .167 or less (each had only 1 hit).