Saturday, October 15, 2005
BACKS TO THE WALL
The Halosphere has these last two games pretty well-covered. To sum up:
Bad Pitching + MIA Offense + Umpire Ineptitude = Embarrassing Losses
The biggest of these problems has been the MIA offense. The Angels got away with having one substantially good hitter over the course of the season, but when Vlad goes dry, there's not really anyone to pick him up. Sure, Figgins, Kennedy, and Molina are on the good side of average (as well as Kotchman, when he plays), but only Garret Anderson and Juan Rivera have drawn close to the median out of the rest of the team.
I think an added problem is that Vlad can sense when he's needed, and tends to press. He can work through those slumps over a season, but if one hits during the postseason, someone else needs to step up. That hasn't happened. No matter what happens for the balance of this postseason, this will have to be addressed for 2006. Finding a way to work Kotchman into the lineup, along with a healthy Dallas McPherson, might be part of the solution.
As our rotation has been bailing out our hitters all year, it would be a bit curmudgeonly to start ripping on the likes of John Lackey or Ervin Santana now, so I won't. Obviously, neither had anything, and it would have helped if they had. But the offense has done them no favors.
There's a lot of negativity out there, and the missed calls tonight only serve to add insult to injury. The Angels have caught zero breaks in the ALCS, but also haven't done anything to create their own breaks.
But the Angels' own history is proof enough that things can change. The Angels had a commanding three-game-to-one lead in the 1986 ALCS, and we all know what happened there. This team is better than they have shown us over the last three games, and starting Sunday evening they have three games to prove it.
Will they? I have no idea. But they can. And if there is one thing I've learned watching sports, it's never to underestimate a team with its back to the wall.
The Halosphere has these last two games pretty well-covered. To sum up:
Bad Pitching + MIA Offense + Umpire Ineptitude = Embarrassing Losses
The biggest of these problems has been the MIA offense. The Angels got away with having one substantially good hitter over the course of the season, but when Vlad goes dry, there's not really anyone to pick him up. Sure, Figgins, Kennedy, and Molina are on the good side of average (as well as Kotchman, when he plays), but only Garret Anderson and Juan Rivera have drawn close to the median out of the rest of the team.
I think an added problem is that Vlad can sense when he's needed, and tends to press. He can work through those slumps over a season, but if one hits during the postseason, someone else needs to step up. That hasn't happened. No matter what happens for the balance of this postseason, this will have to be addressed for 2006. Finding a way to work Kotchman into the lineup, along with a healthy Dallas McPherson, might be part of the solution.
As our rotation has been bailing out our hitters all year, it would be a bit curmudgeonly to start ripping on the likes of John Lackey or Ervin Santana now, so I won't. Obviously, neither had anything, and it would have helped if they had. But the offense has done them no favors.
There's a lot of negativity out there, and the missed calls tonight only serve to add insult to injury. The Angels have caught zero breaks in the ALCS, but also haven't done anything to create their own breaks.
But the Angels' own history is proof enough that things can change. The Angels had a commanding three-game-to-one lead in the 1986 ALCS, and we all know what happened there. This team is better than they have shown us over the last three games, and starting Sunday evening they have three games to prove it.
Will they? I have no idea. But they can. And if there is one thing I've learned watching sports, it's never to underestimate a team with its back to the wall.
Comments:
Great thoughts... and I hope they can come back too.
But really, how can you win a series when the other team gets 30 outs, and the Angels 26? If the ump would have caught Finley's catcher's interference, that's bases loaded, one-out. Instead, double play.
A lot of it is the umprire's fault. In a major-league game, opportunities are rare enough as it is... you give one team extra opportunities and the other fewer, and you get an inept offense vs a team that hits in situations.
I don't think the umpiring is being blamed enough.
But really, how can you win a series when the other team gets 30 outs, and the Angels 26? If the ump would have caught Finley's catcher's interference, that's bases loaded, one-out. Instead, double play.
A lot of it is the umprire's fault. In a major-league game, opportunities are rare enough as it is... you give one team extra opportunities and the other fewer, and you get an inept offense vs a team that hits in situations.
I don't think the umpiring is being blamed enough.
# posted by 
: 8:07 AM
: 8:07 AM
Lets hope our boys of summer can steal just one more game after today! Play it one day at a time. YES WE CAN!
Yeah, it stinks that the umps have blown calls - some of them definite momentum busters. But the biggest problem for the Angels has been not hitting. Figgy has to get on base and Vlad has to quit trying to tie the game up with one swing of the bat (especially when there's no one on anyway).
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# posted by : 3:16 PM
: 3:16 PM
