Chronicles of the Lads

ODDS, ENDS
- I'd love to talk about Kelvim Escobar's apparently splendid effort yesterday, but unfortunately my new HDTV cable box/DVR decided to freeze up yesterday while I was at work, leaving me with zero recorded minutes when I got home in the bottom of the seventh. Needless to say I'll take a 10-strikeout, two-walk game any day of the week, and it's great to see Kelvim pitching well after a fingernail-impaired lackluster outing last week.

- In other Angel news, a minor league "prospect" named Karl Gelinas has been suspended for 50 games for a first violation of organized baseball's steroid abuse policy. I have no shame in admitting that I had never heard of Gelinas before this; he entered this season with a career 4.47 ERA in the minors, with 147 strikeouts against 38 walks in a bit over 240 innings. As a 47th-round draft pick who strikes out less than six guys a game, the odds were long against him already, and there's no way this can help.

- Who would have guessed that, two weeks into the season, Legs Figgins would have as many home runs as stolen bases? If this keeps up, I'll have to change his nickname to "Slugger" Figgins.

- Later today, the Angels will face Kyle Lohse, who enters the game with an 8.44 ERA and has issued as many walks as strikeouts in this young season.

Naturally, I expect our offense to sputter, and Ervin Santana should prepare himself to have only two or three runs with which to work. For his part, Ervin has allowed an absurdly low .105 batting average on balls hit in the field of play this season, which will of course come up. His "batting allowed" line (or whatever you call it) includes a goofy-looking 174/224/478 AVG/OBP/SLG line. Except normalcy to set in at some point.