Baseball Chick

08Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Freeway Series: Winners and Losers

Well, that didn't go as we had hoped! This year's freeway series is over and the result is that the Angels now sit 3 games behind the Oakland A's in the AL West. Who were the winners and losers of this 4 game series? See my thoughts below. The Losers: Los Angeles Angels: The Angels lost the series 3-1 and at the very least should have split it. Lack of offensive showing and errors proved to be part of the reason for the series loss. The Angels were outscored 14-10, but more so they only scored 1 run in the last two games (AT HOME) with a combined 7 hits. The Angels have been great at the Big A this year but apparently the Dodgers didn't get that memo.…

06Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Operation Beanball

Baseball

Last Friday, Paul Goldschmidt was hit by an Ernesto Frieri pitch which fractured his hand and landed him on the DL. Then, despite pre-game warnings (which really mean nothing) the next day, Randall Delgado went "tit for tat" and threw right square in the back at Andrew McCutchen, landing him on the DL. There are several problems with this entire scenario. First, who in their right mind thinks Frieri has enough control to hid someone in the hand (cue rim shot). Second, if you watch the pitch, it's clear he was trying to throw a bit up and in but Goldschmidt actually moved his hands INTO the pitch. It was not intentional, nor can anyone get me to believe it was unless Ernesto himself fesses up which is about as likely…

05Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Santiago vs. Kershaw vs. Santiago Factor

Angels, Rankings

It's not even fair to compare their stats so I won't. The Angels CAN win this game. They have the offense to get it done and the bullpen to hold it down. Looking at the offense you have Puljos who has a career .444 against the Dodgers ace. Adding to that a .565 OBP and he has basically owned him. Kendrick also has a career .417 against Kershaw which is pretty amazing as well. However, no one else other than McDonald has hit better than .300 off him and if McDonald starts the way he's been hitting this year then.. Hamilton, Trout and Calhoun are all unknowns with no career stats against Kershaw and Aybar has a respectable .273 though he's been off lately. Strategy - The Angels need to…

05Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Masterful Richards

Angels, pitching

Richards was brilliant last night. There is a reason I moved him up in the power rankings last week. Despite what looked like not so great pitching - this kid still has his stuff, and now he has his first career shutout. I have to admit, I thought he was finished after the 8th inning and during the commercial break I was contemplating who would pitch the 9th. It was pretty excited to see him go back out on the mound, even if Street was in the pen "just in case". The Dodgers are not a weak hitting team and they even loaded the bases early on Richards. A tough situation that he pitched his way out of. Giving up only 3 hits though 7 innings, Richards ended the game…

04Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Power Ranking – Pitchers – August 4th

Angels, Rankings

My rankings include the entire 40 man roster - not just the active 25 man. These rankings were compiled with the help of MLB stats, FanGraphs, misc. data, personal opinion, and some fairy dust I found hidden in Shoemaker's beard. Last week certainly had it's ups and downs in the pitching department and there were a metric crap ton of roster changes. Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Huston Street 1 - 1 4 3 save appearances = 3 saves AGAIN. Almost blew one of them by allowed the bases to load up but pitched superbly to get out of the jam. If only he can maintain in zero ERA with the Angels for the rest of the season. 2 Joe Smith 3 +1 2 3 Smith…

04Aug 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Power Ranking – Position Players – August 4th

Angels, Rankings

My ranking include the entire 40 man roster - not just the active 25 man. These rankings were compiled with the help of MLB stats, FanGraphs, misc. data, personal opinion, and some fairy dust I found hidden in Shoemaker's beard. Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Mike Trout 6 +5 1 6 Back to his usual superstar self last week with another home run and 2 stolen bases. He still boasts a 100% stolen base success rate this year. 2 Albert Pujols 3 +1 2 2 No home runs last week but 3 doubles and a .300 OBP 3 Josh Hamilton 7 +4 4 7 Has he found his power again? Let's hope so. He belted two last week and led the team in RBIs. 4 David…

29Jul 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Return of Wilson

Angels, pitching

CJ Wilson should be back in the rotation by this weekend and Santiago should be back where he belongs. Santiago pitched great last week but continues to have problems lasting more than 5 innings which makes him an excellent choice for middle relief. Wilson, who now has a 1.000% win rate in AA this year, threw 81 pitches over 5.1 innings for Arkansas last night. He struck out 7 and gave up 2 runs, 2 walks and 4 hits (one of which was a home run) The Travelers 15 hit offense was led by Kaleb Cowart who went 3 for 4 with a triple and 4 RBIs on the way to their 9-3 win over the Naturals.

28Jul 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Power Rankings – Pitchers – July 28th

Angels, Rankings

My rankings include the entire 40 man roster - not just the active 25 man. This week was tough since pitching was pretty great (for the most part). The Angels had 4 pitchers with at least 2 appearances that all gave up zero runs. These four (Jepsen, Rasmus, Smith, Street) combined for 13 strikeouts, 2 hits, and 1 walk in 11.1 innings. 4 of the 5 starters (Richards had an off weak) all had ERAs below 3 and WHIPs no higher than 1.06. It was definitely a great pitching week for the Halos. These rankings were compiled with the help of MLB stats, FanGraphs, misc. data, personal opinion, and some fairy dust I found hidden in Shoemaker's beard. Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Huston Street 4…

28Jul 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Power Rankings – Position Players – July 28th

Angels, Rankings

My ranking include the entire 40 man roster - not just the active 25 man. These rankings were compiled with the help of MLB stats, FanGraphs, misc. data, personal opinion, and some fairy dust I found hidden in Shoemaker's beard. The top 3 players for the Angels this week were all youngsters with Navarro, Calhoun, and Cron sporting the top 3 averages for a team that had a mediocre offensive week. The Angels only scored 19 runs in 7 games with 3 home runs. Lackluster for such an offensive powerhouse of a team. Fortunately, the pitchers were mostly on and the Angels ended the week 4-3. Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Efren Navarro 9 +8 1 11 Holy on fire. Navarro has been tearing it up…

25Jul 2014 by Jessica DeLine

Speeding up the Game

Baseball

The independent Atlantic league has made some rule changes to speed up their games. Some reasonable and some just plain strange. The question is - which if any of these rules could MLB potentially adopt? The game is getting longer for sure. The average time to complete a nine-inning game in the 1970s -- not including on-field delays -- was two hours and 30 minutes. That increased to an average of 2:57 in the 10-year span from 2000-09. Through Thursday, this year's league average was 2:51, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In that same article, Bud Selig mentions that it's the pace of the game - not the length of the game that matters and I tend to agree with that. There probably are some things that can be…