Extra Innings

Good win by the Halos today. They bring their magic number for the AL West down to 6. Of course, it is the AL West so their magic number at the beginning of the season was 162. But even though their competition is pitifully weak, the Halos deserve credit for their solidly built team.  Unlike the Dodgers, who started the season with uber prospects and veterans on the downside of their careers, the Angels combine veterans that are in the prime of their careers with young scrappy players and make it work. This formula may be more effective, as the young players aren’t too cocky and feel too much pressure to carry the team. The veterans are talented enough to carry the load and produce allowing the youngsters to relax and produce. Of course, while the lineup is important, it all comes down to the pitching staff. The Angels have developed a great rotation one built around their ace Lackey. But it doesn’t end there, as the Angels have one of the best bullpens in the game led by potential saves record holder K-rod. But to make a point about K-rod, he isn’t all that’s cracked up about.  He’s good alright, but not great. But the Halos plus Texiera, a awesome move at the deadline, is a formidable opponent to all teams.

Great game by the Dodger pitching staff today. Although I find that the Giants have probably exhausted their entire supply of runs for the series yesterday, it was still a very good effort by a no name starter and two very solid bullpen arms.  To make things more impressive, Jim Johnson had to go up against the promising Matt Cain, who would be the Giants ace of the future if not for Lincecum.  Kemp continues to amaze us with his potential, and speaking up Kemp there have been trade rumors involving Man-Ram. Amazingly, many of these rumors have also focused on Andre Ethier. If we could get Man-Ram for Ethier, I would go for it. It would put us over the top in the NL West and with a streaky bat such as his in the playoffs, you never know.

Speaking of trades, the big one involved the Angels today. Great move by them as they are no longer “Stonewalled” by their GM. They are definitely the World Series favorties now. Their lineup is very solid all the way around and their pitching is amazing. Lackey nearly no-hit the BoSox tonight. The Angels also aided the Dodgers in stealing Tex from the D’backs, making this deal a win-win for SoCal.

The good: Man-Ram Rumors.

The bad: Did anything bad happen in SoCal today?

The ugly: O yea, there was this thing called an earthquake.

Those Halos continue to roll don’t they? They are a Major League best 62-39, and with a 10 game lead in the AL West are the only locks for the playoffs in all of the divisions. Every other division is incredibly competitive with the second place team at least 2.5 games behind the leader. The success of the Angels proves a couple of things. First off, the AL West is just as pitiful as the NL West. Texas, Oakland, and Seattle are all horribly run ball clubs. Second off, does it help the Angels that they play in a division that is only made up of 4 teams? Last and not least, it just proves that the Angels are a very great team that can scrap their way to the the top of the hill. Sosh is their heart and soul and he brings it game in and game out. The Angels have a complete team with very solid starters that are led by Lackey. They have a sweet bullpen highlighted by K-rod. And they have a superstar in the middle of the lineup in Vlad. Yes, they do seem like they don’t have enough pop, but its been shown that pitching wins playoff games. They can do without the hitting.

Great pitching performances the past two days by the Dodgers and Angels. Both games resulted in a 1-0 victory for both sides. Of course, the game that everyone is going to remember and talk about is the “unofficial” no-hitter by the Angels. The no-hitter was “unofficial” because the Dodgers didn’t need to bat in the 9th inning with them winning 1-0 and all. The only score of the game came due to an error by Jered Weaver on a slow roller hit by Matt Kemp. This lead to Kemp stealing 2nd and advancing to 3rd on a errant throw by Mathis. Kemp scored on a sac fly by Dewitt. Great game called by Vin Scully as he pointed out some of the flaws in Weaver’s game. Weaver was especially prone to stolen bases and is also a fly ball pitcher. Both weaknesses in Weaver’s game led to his loss in the no-hitter.

The good: Pitchers ruled the weekend freeway series. Props to Weaver, Lackey, Billingsley, and Lowe. Although I do have to mention that both offenses blow hard.

The bad:  Losing when you’ve thrown a no-hitter.

The ugly:  Maple bats. They are dangerous and don’t seem to help Dodger and Angel hitters at all.

Some thoughts on interleague rivalries and the Dodgers and Angels “rivalry.”

Compared to other cross town rivalries such as the teams in Chicago and New York, the Dodger and Angels have absolutely nothing on them. Some possible reasons as to why it isn’t nearly as intense.

So Cal is way too relaxed. The crowds at both stadiums are way too easygoing. At Dodger stadium they are too busy gobbling down all you can eat Dodger Dogs while the Angel fans are too busy being amused at the Rally Monkey. Speaking of the Rally Monkey, New Yorkers and Chi-town fans would murder that thing if their team ever brought out such as lame mascot.

We don’t play in the same city. Contrary to what Arte believes, the Dodgers are “of LA” while the Angels are “of Anaheim.” Heck sometimes the traffic is so bad, the Angels are “closer” to the Padres. Maybe they can be called the Los Angeles Angels of San Diego from Anaheim.

The Angels own the Dodgers. Yea I don’t have a problem admitting it. The Angels just simply dominate the Dodgers in interleague play. The Halos have won 9 of the last 11 meetings and have scored almost twice as many runs as the Blue Crew over this span. The Angels play a brand of National League ball that is brought from Sosh. In fact, we could just say that the Angels and Dodgers are the same team except the Angels have better players.

Lets compare:

Catcher: Martin v. Mathis/Napoli. Martin takes the cake here as hes going to be a yearly all-star.

1st: Loney v Kotchman. Even as both players are essentially the same contact but low power hitters.

2nd: Kent v Kendrick. Even as both are clutch hitters but Kent sucks on D and Kendrick sucks on the DL.

3rd: Dewitt/Laroche v Figgins. Figgins has shown to be a solid player day in and day out. Absolutely don’t know about Dewitt and Laroches yet.

SS: Blank v Blank. Berroa brings nothing. Furcal has never been consistent as he’s shown he can get hot and go cold or be injured as is the present case. The Angels platoon Izturis and Aybar, siblings to other major leagues. But they are scrappy and agressive players that fit Sosh’s game.

OF: Kemp, Pierre, Ethier v Vlad, Hunter, Anderson. Here’s the difference maker. All 3 Angel OFs are consistent, solid, and proven performers while the Dodgers have unknowns.

Pitching: Dodger pitching is in disarray while the Angel pitching has supported their team. It’s as simple as that.

Ah… the Angels. How do they do it? Well first off they have a former Dodger in Sosh. Man, we should have handed the job to Sosh instead of going through Davey Johnson, Jim Tracy, and Grady Little. Its amazing what the instability that occurred after the transfer from the O’malleys to FOX did to the Dodgers. We lost Sosh and Vlad to the Angels because of the indecision and turmoil that occurred during that time. Imagine what these past years would have been like. We probably wouldn’t run through so many GM’s as well because we would actually be good!

But kudos to the Angels for being one of the premier franchises in this decade. I know they only won one world series but they have been consistent contenders every year. They have done a great job building upon a solid foundation and plugging in gritty players that match their aggressive style, along with a solid defense up the middle.

Good luck to them this season.