Chronicles of the Lads

MISCELLANEA
-- Here is some nonsense on loan from the LA Times, as reported by Ben Bolch:

"Mike Scioscia, responding to a reporter's question Sunday morning, included seven-game winner Jarrod Washburn and dominant reliever Francisco Rodriguez on a lengthy list of Angel players he thought deserved All-Star consideration."

Um, Jarrod Washburn? Mike, what the hell is wrong with you? Ace Washburn has a 5.63 ERA. Who cares about the flippin' seven wins? Don't you think that has something to do with his run support of 8.63 runs per game, good for second in the majors?

To Ben Bolch's credit, he uses this as a springboard to discuss Kelvim Escobar, who despite an ERA of 3.27 has "only" 4 wins. Is this maybe because his run support, 3.75, ranks 93rd out of 105 amongst qualifying pitchers in the majors? It also ranks last amongst the Angels' top four starters.

While we're on the subject, here's our BARTOLO COLON'S RUNS PER INNING AGAINST OUR 1B OPS AND WALLY JOYNER'S CAREER SLUGGING PERCENTAGE:

Player -- R/IP, OPS, or SLG
BColon -- .747
Erstad -- .627
CKotch -- .563
WallyJ -- .440

(By the way, I erred last time I did this for Colon. It was really .725 at that point. So Colon (aka BCS [standing for Bartolo Colon Sucks]) is getting worse!

-- As expected, Darin Erstad was called up and Casey Kotchman dispatched after Sunday's game. The Punter was in midseason form in his three games at Salt Lake, going 2 for 11 and putting up a 182/250/182 line. The Times also reports that he committed an error that led to three unearned runs. What this means is that Jeff DaVanon and Tim Salmon, either of which can hit, will be losing playing time.