Chronicles of the Lads

BIG D VS. BIG RED
As my relatively regular readers may be aware, I was a bit inactive last week, as my work schedule conspired with Blogger's planned and unplanned outages to keep me from posting. As such, I had some material stored up, in my brain anyway, to get into this week.

Much of this material would have been of an optimistic bent, as we were in the midst of winning five straight series. I had intended to write about the terrific year being enjoyed by Orlando Cabrera, and there was even a nifty article about him this past Friday in the LA Times to use as a springboard.

But you know what has happened in the intervening days; a sweep at home at the hands of the Mariners (the Mariners!) has dispatched us to last place. These three "games", to use the term loosely were characterized by offensive, defensive, baserunning, and pitching breakdowns up and down the roster. A very off-putting series, and total buzz-kill after our team had spent a few weeks giving a glimpse of how they should have been playing all along.

So imagine my joy when I open up the paper this morning to discover this headline: Erstad Could Be Back in the Lineup Tonight

The Punter is of course a marvelous defensive player, and as we've been committing more than our fair share of defensive miscues of late, that seems welcome. What is not welcome is his impotent bat, and the fact that he's only been 3-for-33 during his AAA rehab assignment.

What seems even more disturbing is that Erstad's return likely means a decrease of playing time for Dallas McPherson, whom I think is actually deserving of more playing time. For Erstad in center returns Legs Figgins to third, meaning that Big D gets forced into a crowded DH picture along with Tim Salmon (who hits well, but can only play a couple times per week) and Juan Rivera (who has hit poorly thus far this year in his irregular playing time).

D-Mac, however, is starting to come on. His 0-for-3 yesterday brought his June AVG/OBP/SLG line down to 333/360/667, and his season line is at 256/273/465. That's not a very impressive overall line, but he's starting to have some good at-bats and is hitting the ball consistently well when he makes contact. He's sitting back and whacking line drives (usually right at or over the first baseman, it seems) -- the Hardball Times reports that 22% of his balls in play are line drives (the league average is 19%) -- and nearly one-in-four of his flyballs go over the fence.

I mean, he strikes out a ton, and could always fall flat on his face. But I think he has at least a chance to help us out offensively, which Darin Erstad can't really do. And whether or not he needs to be platooned against lefties is a totally open question, no matter how much Mike Scioscia wants to keep Robb Quinlan fresh.

I'm not saying Erstad shouldn't get any playing time when he's ready, but if he takes substantial playing time away from Dallas, it will demonstrate that the Angels don't really have a plan to win this year or to find out who can help us win next year. And unless this past weekend was the aberration and the previous two or three are the norm, we're going to need a better plan than no plan at all.