Baseball Chick

18May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Backstops – Winners and Losers

Angels

Angels fans are all too aware of the struggles Chris Iannetta has had in 2015. Iannetta's 2015 season has pretty much been a disaster so far, with a 15% caught stealing rate, a .123 AVG and a strikeout every 3 at bats. In 2014, Iannetta has his second best career season even since his best effort in 2008 for the Rockies. Of course, I'm talking about offensive numbers since he has never been a strong catcher and has a career 24% caught stealing rate. Given his success in 2014, it would have been no surprise to see his numbers drop a bit in 2015, but they pretty much exploded in a disaster of epic proportions. Fortunately for the Angels, there are a couple of great catchers waiting in the wings…

12May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Week 6 Angels Power Rankings – Pitchers

Angels, pitching, Rankings

My rankings include the entire 40 man roster, not just the active 25. 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. *** Salt Lake Bees Roster ** Arkansas Travelers Roster Changes: Cory Rasmus Removed - DL Ryan Mattheus added to 40 man and called up from minors Chad Smith received from the Oakland A's (for Drew Butera) Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Garrett Richards 2 +1 1 8 Two ace worthy performance last week including 6 no hit innings on Sunday. 15 total strikeouts in 13.2 innings iwth a .128BAA and a .67 WHIP. ACE! 2 Jered Weaver 12 +10 1 14 Weaver proved us all wrong last week by…

12May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Week 6 Angels Power Rankings – Position Players

Angels, Rankings

The Angel's offense continues to struggle with a few glimmers of hope last week! My rankings include the entire 40 man roster. 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. *** Salt Lake Bees Roster ** Arkansas Travelers Roster Changes: Carlos Perez called up from minors Efron Navarro sent down to AAA Drew Butera DFA then traded to Royals for Chad Smith Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Mike Trout 1 - 1 1 Soon we will have 25 man roster full of Mike Trout's, once Dipoto finishes his cloning technology. Trout had 3 home runs last week and his first caught stealing of the year. 2 David Freese 5…

11May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Angels / Astros Series Recap

Angels, Game recaps

The four game series with the red-hot Houston Astros ended in a split yesterday. A few important things to take away from this series are that the Angels tamed the Astros mostly (outscoring them 12-10 overall), we saw some pitching brights spots, and there were (small) glimmers of hope in our offense. The Good: Mike Trout batted .357 against the Astros with 2 home runs, though sadly no one was on base for either of them. Carlos Perez went 3 for 7 with 2 RBIs. For bonus points, Perez thew out Jose Altuve on an attempted steal of second base. David Freese made the highlight reel for an amazing grab at third, plus he hit .417 with two multi hit games. Jered Weaver was amazing on Friday night as he…

06May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Carlos Perez makes History

Angels

Newly called up Carlos Perez made history last night by being only the FOURTH player in MLB History to hit a walk off home run in his debut. Not only that, but he laced a nice hit up the middle in his first at bat. That's what I call a debut! I have been saying all season that we have some great talent in AAA and one of the cures for our offensive woes is calling up the likes of Carlos Perez. He sure didn't disappoint. A few questions: How much will he play? (My guess is he doesn't even start tonight - Scioscia will go back to Iannetta - yes I have that little faith in Scioscia) Will he replace Iannatta as our primary catcher this season? If so…

04May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Week 5 Angels Power Rankings – pitchers

Angels, pitching, Rankings

My rankings include the entire 40 man roster, not just the active 25. 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. *** Salt Lake Bees Roster ** Arkansas Travelers Roster Changes: Cam Bedrosian sent down to the minors Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Huston Street 1 - 1 10 Almost blew a save last week but it was probably not mostly his fault since he went in fairly cold. Thanks to Trout's game saving catch, Street was 2 for 2 in saves last week. 2 Garrett Richards 2 - 2 8 Solid Richards in our outing last week, giving up only 1 run. 3 CJ Wilson 8 +5 3 12 Apparently…

04May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Week 5 Angels Power Rankings – position players

Angels, Rankings

Wow. Last week was rough offensively! My rankings include the entire 40 man roster. 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. *** Salt Lake Bees Roster ** Arkansas Travelers Roster Changes: Efron Navarro called up from minors (Salt Lake) Grant Green sent down to minors 6 Rank Player Last Week Change High Low Comments 1 Mike Trout 1 - 1 1 If only we could have 2 Mike Trouts on the team, let alone a bunch of them. Another week in the life of Trout and he racked up 2 more homeruns, .400OBP, a stolen base, 3 doubles, and a game saving catch. Whew! 2 Kole Calhoun 2 - 3 12 Calhoun's .423OBP was pretty…

04May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Swept in San Fran – The Pain Continues

Angels

To say the Angels season has been not pretty so far, is an understatement. But not to worry right? The Halos always start off slow, so who cares? A slow start this year amounts to 11-14 through the first 25 games. That record puts them 2.5 games BACK from the 2014 Angels who started off SLOW but were still 14-12 through the end of April. Never mind that our "ace" has no idea what's wrong with his pitching, or that Matt Joyce received the worst hitter of the month award with Chris Iannetta getting a dishonorable mention. The Angels pretty much have problems all around, though most notably in offense. It's a long season but if you had to predict based on the current roster and their performance, you are looking at…

01May 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Angels Win / Dipoto Spins

Angels

Thanks to an unnecessary game saving catch by Mike Trout, the Angels pulled off a tight win yesterday in the final games of the series in Oakland. I say unnecessary since the Angels went into the bottom of the 9th with a 4 run lead. A combination of a Cron error, some bullpen mistakes, and Street probably not being fully warmed up, led to the spot where Trout catching that ball = Angels win and Trout missing that ball - Angels lose. Fortunately, the Halos put 6 runs on the board which is certainly more than they have been scoring lately. Jerry Dipoto put his spin on the Angels' offensive woes saying that there is no market right now to add offense and that everything is "fine". He further…

30Apr 2015 by Jessica DeLine

Game 21 – A Halo Victory!

Angels, Game recaps

Last's night's game in Oakland gave a glimmer of hope to Angels fans, though there are still some ginormous gapping holes that need fixing. The Good Mike Trout HAMMERS this home run that looked like 500', Statcast stated 454' and hittracker called it 438'. Either way, it was a monster and he also hit a key two RBI double. Matt Shoemaker held it down for 5.2 innings giving up only 1 walk and 3 earned runs. Not spectacular but good. One of the runs he gave up may have stayed on base if not for a throwing error and a Cesar Ramos bad pitch. Erick Aybar has been struggling but hit a key two RBI blooper in the top of the first, giving the Angels an early two run lead. Johnny Giavotella…