There is another three way deal on the horizon, this one involving the Phillies, the Blue Jays, & the Mariners.  Philadelphia would get righthanded ace Roy Halladay from the Blue Jays & pitching prospect Phillippe Aumont (plus another Seattle youngster, yet to be named) from the Mariners, Seattle gets Cliff Lee from the City of Brotherly Love, and Toronto picks up superstar phenom outfielder Michael Taylor, sky’s the limit starter Kyle Drabek (Son of Doug), and minor league catcher Travis d’Arnaud from the Phils.  In a deal involving two former Cy Young Award winners switching uniforms, the third party player might end up being the big winner, that’s how good Michael Taylor might end up, he’s that good!  Trader Billy Beane jumped into the frey to make it a four-way deal, sending 1B-3B Brett Wallace, a 2008 1st round pick out of ASU by the Cardinals who was traded to Oakland in the Matt Holliday trade, to Toronto for Michael Taylor.  While Wallace has some serious power 20 or more homers in each of the last two seasons, he also swung & missed 106 times in the minors this past year.  To me, the A’s look to be the big winner getting the highly skilled outfielder Taylor.

This three way deal was probably made possible when the Red Sox inked John Lackey away from the Angels.  Once the Bronx Bombers knew Boston was no longer in the hunt to pickup either Halladay or Lee, the Pinstripers could relax and let the trade proceed without outside interference from NY.

In another move, not made by the Yankees, World Series MVP Hideki (Godzilla, but you can call me Shemp) Matsui headed west to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.  The Orange County team needed to bring somebody on board after losing leadoff man Chone Figgins (now with the Mariners) & ace starter Lackey (over in Bean Town) already this offseason.  Still I don’t know if it’s much of a consolation prize, seeing the Mariners added Figgins & Lee, while on this day the Halos, in effect, swapped Lackey for Matsui.

Tags: angels, athletics, blue jays, Brett Wallace, Cliff Lee, Hideki Matsui, john lackey, Kyle Drabek, mariners, Michael Taylor, phillies, Phillippe Aumont, Red Sox, Roy Halladay, Travis d'Arnaud, Yankees

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Posted in: Free Agents, Hot Stove, Prospects, Trades by Teddy Ballgame
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A nice touch by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim players. 

The team, who made the playoffs this year, voted deceased pitcher Nick Adenhart a full share of the playoff winnings according to the LA Times Blog.  That comes out to roughly $138,000.  The cash goes to Adenhart’s family, of course. 

Nick Adenhart gave all he had for the Angels.  Unfortunately, it for just one game when he pitched six scoreless innings in his MLB debut in April.  That night, he was killed in an accident by a drunk driver. 

Tags: angels, Deaths, Nick Adenhart

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Posted in: Deaths by The Baseball Zealot
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Jim Tracy took over for Clint Hurdle in Colorado, guiding a struggling Rockies team to a 74-42 finish, and a postseason berth.  It’s hard to argue with the selection of Tracy as the NL Manager of the Year.  Twice before teams he’s managed have finished with 90+ wins (2004 Dodgers finished 1st), while three times his teams finished with 90+ losses (2007 Pirates finished 6th).  So it just goes to show, being a successful manager has alot to do with being in the right place at the right time, and having the horses.

Mike Scioscia won the AL Manager of the Year Award.  It was the 2nd time he’s won the award, the first coming in 2002, when his Angels won the World Series.  Scioscia has averaged 90 wins per season in his ten years as the Angels skipper, and has finished in 1st place five of the last six years.  The Angels have built a winning baseball philosophy around their manager’s belief in fundamentals, speed, & defense.

Tags: AL, angels, Jim Tracy, Manager of the Year, Mike Scioscia, NL, Rockies

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Posted in: Awards by Teddy Ballgame
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The Angels gave them a pretty good fight considering the outcome of the first two games.  But the Yankees won.  They won their 40th AL pennant.  In a league that is barely a century old, that is quite a feat. 

As was the ALCS, yesterday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a whole lot closer than the 5-2 would lead you to believe. The Halos were within one at 3-2 with runners on base in the top of eighth inning.  The Yankees were helped by two errors in the bottom of the inning to seal the fate of the Angels and put New York into the World Series for the first time since 2003. 

For the series, yeah yeah, there was Alex Rodriguez.  9 for 21 with 3 homer and 6 rbis.  The Angels caught on quick to him because he also had eight walks.  Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon contributed also to the Yanks’ victory.  Both had 2 dingers and Damon had 5 rbis while Jeter scored 5 runs. 

No can deny C.C. Sabathia’s role in the ALCS.  In two starts and 16 innings,  he only allowed 2 earned runs giving up nine hits.  

Vladimir Guerrero overcame his putrid Game 1 to put up some good series numbers.  He was 10 for 27 (.370) with 5 rbis.  But Jeff Mathis had some interesting stats.  He was 7 for 12 (.583) but with only one rbi.  He made his one rbi count, though as it was the game winning hit in Game 3. 

The award for most least productive for the Yankees goes to Nick Swisher who not only went 3 for 20 (all singles) with 0 rbis, but didn’t come through in key situations. 

As for the Angels, the goat is Chone Figgins.  He started out with a 0-18 streak for the series.  Before the dust settled, he went 3 for 23 (again, all singles) with 1 rbi and 2 runs scored. 

A frustrating LCS for me.  This is going to force me to root for the Phillies. 

Tags: alcs, angels, arod, C.C. Sabathia, chone figgins, derek jeter, johnny damon, nick swisher, Postseason, vladimir guerrero, Yankees

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As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.  And as my buddy Don, who is an Angel fan said late night, “If Brian Fuentes had walked Swisher, I think I would have jumped off my roof”. 

Fortunately for the Angels (and Don S), he didn’t.

I learned my lesson though.  I watched the game on TV at home till the beginning of the 7th.  John Lackey had been pitching brilliantly up until then and had a 4-0 lead.  Thinking that Big John had things well in hand, I decided to head to local coffee shop and watch the rest of the game on Gameday while I got some work done.

It’s a 6 block walk to the coffee shop and I was away from the game for 15 minutes, 20 tops.  Logging into Gameday, I was rudely greeted with a 7-6 Yankee lead.  Refreshing the browser didn’t seem to help. 

Looking back at it, I had a sneaking suspicion that Lackey was tiring.  Mid-inning, the camera crew show him in the dugout and boy, he really looked spent.  I remember commenting on that to my kid.

But thanks to a 3-run seventh fueled by back-to-back base hits by Guerrero and Morales, the Angels got back on top for the final score 7-6.

I’d like to say that was the end of the excitement but the Yankees made the Halos earn their pay Thursday night.  Angel reliever Brian Fuentes made things a little too interesting.  After a two-out, bases empty intentional pass to Alex Rodriguez, Fuentes followed that up with a Matsui walk and a Cano HBP to load the bases.  If that weren’t enough, Nick Swisher took him to a full count before popping out to short for third out to end the game. 

Fuentes line looked good.  One inning, no hits and a save.  But that sure didn’t tell the story of the game.  However, he got the job done.

The Angels got their miracle.  Three-Two sounds a whole lot better than Two-Zero or Three-One.

 

Other Postseason News:

 

• The MLB is panicking calmly reacting to the controversial calls that some of the umps have been making and readjusting the World Series lineup.  Is this a PR move or a logical move on their part?
• One analyst in, one analyst out.  ESPN’s Steve Phillips is taking an “extended leave of absence” after admitting to an affair with another ESPN worker. 
  Over at Fox Sports, they’ve decided to hire Sox manager Ozzie Guillen as a pre- and post game analyst for the World Series (The Baseball Zealot’s opinion:  Good on them… he’ll at least be interesting)
• Is MLB doing a little damage control?  The same day an article came out in the Washington Post entitled Phillies Want Shot at Yankees, MLB.com came out with an awkwardly titled article, Series Opponent Doesn’t Matter to Phillies.  Not that we as fans really care a whole lot but image is a big deal to Major League Baseball.

Tags: alcs, angels, arod, brian fuentes, john lackey, nick swisher, Ozzie Guillen, Postseason, steve phillips, umpire, Yankees

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The Sporting News has announced the American League All Stars as selected by a panel of 31 major league general managers and GMs.  Joe Mauer received votes from all 17 AL executives who participated.

C Joe Mauer appeared in 138 games for the Twins, 109 behind the plate, leading the league with a .365 batting average (he also topped the league in average the year before with a .328 mark), while getting beat up at catcher.  Joe hit 28 homers, 30 doubles, and drove in 96, leading Minnesota to the postseason as Central Division champs.

1B Mark Teixeira powered the Yankees offense leading the league in homers (39) & RBIs 122, while batting .292, with 43 doubles, scoring 103 times, he also topped the Junior Circuit in total bases with 344.

2B Aaron Hill came back after suffering a concussion, which allowed him to only play 55 games the previous season, to have his best year ever.  Aaron batted .286 with 36 home runs & 37 doubles, driving in 108 & scoring 103 times.

3B Evan Longoria was the Rookie of the Year who was one of the leaders of the Rays who made it to the World Series last year, now he’s the best player at the hot corner.  He batted .281, with 33 longballs, 44 two base hits, drove in 113 & scored 100 times.

SS Derek Jeter is the captain & leader of the New York Yankees.  Jeter batted .334 with an OBP of .406, it was his job to get on for the big bats, steling 30 bases at the ripe old age of 35, he ripped 18 homers to go along with 27 doubles.

OF Ichiro Suzuki is known simply as Ichiro.  Since coming to the States all he’s done is hit, a lifetime batting average of .333, over 200 hits every season (9 years), and leading the league in hits the last four years.  This year Ichiro batted .352 with 225 hits, 31 doubles, 11 homers, and 26 steals.

OF Torii Hunter just missed batting .300, finishing the season with a .299 batting average, 22 homers, 90 RBIs, despite missing significant time due to injury.

OF Jason Bay has quickly found his Fenway Park stroke since coming over to the Red Sox, socking 36 homers, driving in 119, while scoring 103 runs.

DH Hideki Matsui joins three other Yankees on this year’s all star squad.  Due to injuries Matsui took over the team’s fulltime DH duties to keep him healthy and to keep his potent bat in the lineup.  It worked as Hideki hit 28 home runs & drove in 90 for the Bronx Bombers.

SP Zack Greinke seems to have it altogether for the Royals, being named Pitcher of the Year.  16-8 with a league best 2.16 ERA and 242 strikeouts in 229′ innings, doesn’t begin to tell the story of this youngster’s dominance, with any kind of run support at all he certainly would’ve been a twenty game winner.

RP Mariano Rivera There are closers, then there is Mariano Rivera.  He is that good, he is a step above every other closer in the game, and like a fine wine, he just keeps getting better with age.  He has this cutter, a gift from God, the hitters know it’s coming, but can’t do anything to hit it.  He has taught his famous cutter to a few pitchers throughout the league, to the chagrin of many hitters.  This year Mo, at the age of 39, had 44 saves to go along with a 1.76 ERA, ho-hum.

Tags: Aaron Hill, AL, All Stars, angels, blue jays, derek jeter, evan longoria, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki, jason bay, joe mauer, Mariano Rivera, mariners, mark teixeira, Rays, Red Sox, royals, Sporting News, Torii Hunter, twins, Yankees, Zack Greinke

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Posted in: Awards by Teddy Ballgame
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The Sporting News has announced the winners of the Manager of the Year award as Mike Scioscia of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Colorado Rockies Jim Tracy.

This was the 10th year Mike Scioscia has been the Angels skipper, averaging exactly 90 wins per year.  He is a two time Manager of the Year award winner, winning the award in 2002, when his ballclub won the World Series.  Although LAA won three less games (97) than the previous year (100, his only 100 win season), Scioscia had one of his best seasons at the helm.  Early in the year an up & coming rookie pitcher Nick Adenhart was tragically killed in an automobile accident, Scioscia’s steadying influence kept the Angels focused.  But the biggest thing Mike brings to the table as manager is “Angels baseball”, it starts in the minors, and everybody in the organization knows what’s expected of them.  If somebody doesn’t do their job, they’re are pulled out of the ballgame, and reminded of what’s expected.  It’s a throwback brand of ball, where the little things are expected, little things produce big results.

Jim Tracy took over from Clint Hurdle as the Rockies manager on May 29th.  In only 116 games at the helm, he turned Colorado around, with a 74-42 record, winning a wild card playoff berth.  Under Tracy the team lost their first three games in Houston, and he came in that next day and said, “Guys, I want to just let you guys play the game.  But if you all force me to come out here, I’m going to come out here”.  Jim Tracy has experienced success before as a big league skipper, in 2004 he guided the Los Angeles Dodgers to a first place finish with 93 victories.

Both Scioscia & Tracy are the one and only winners of the Manager of the Year award in their ballclubs history.

Tags: angels, Jim Tracy, Manager of the Year, Mike Scioscia, Rockies, Sporting News

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Posted in: Awards by Teddy Ballgame
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Game 3 of the ALCS started ominously (and quite familiarly) for the Angels.  Shortstop Derek Jeter led off the game with a homerun off Halo pitcher Jered Weaver.  It was Jeter’s 20th postseason dinger which puts him third behind Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers and postseason superman of lore, Bernie Williams. 

Down 3-0, in the 5th inning, things weren’t looking much better for the Angels.  Things started to click with the help of some questionable decisions by Yankee skipper Joe Girardi.  With a decent lead going into the homestretch of of the game, some of his calls just didn’t go his way. 

Putting Jerry Hairston in left field is somewhat questionable.  But the fact that it required removing the designated hitter is beyond me. 

Girardi (left) also replaced David Robertson in the 11th after he got the first two outs only to bring in Alfredo Aceves.  Girardi  justified his move saying that Robertson threw 33 pitches on Saturday.  True but many of those pitches on Saturday were on intentional walks. 

Too much micro-managing.  Girardi just needs to relax and let his boys play ball.

When all was said and done, the Angels came up with the big ‘W’, thanks to a game-winning double by Jeff Mathis off Aceves.

Box Score

Howie Kendrick was 3 for 5  with a homer and 3 runs scored.  Vladimir Guerrero went 2 for 4 with a homer and two rbis.  Reliever Ervin Santana got the win. 

So the Los Angeles Angeles, on the brink of a 0-3 deficit, buck up and take advantage of some weaknesses as the Yankees did the first two games.  Now it’s 2-1 and a whole new ALCS.

Tags: alcs, angels, derek jeter, joe girardi, Postseason, Yankees

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Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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The New York Yankees will hope to continue their 2009 playoff dominance today against the LA Angels.  They have yet to lose this year in the postseason.  It was close on Saturday… real close. 

Yankee fans can thank Alex Rodriguez for keeping the Bombers in Game 2.  In the bottom of the eleventh inning, he hit his third homerun of the postseason to keep the Yankees tied with the Angels.  Before 2009, ARod had one homer in his last 13 postseason games.  

Yanks fans can probably also extend a little gratitude towards Macier Izturis.  Thanks to his errant throw in the bottom of the 13th inning, ex-Cub Jerry Hairston Jr scored to break the 3-3 tie and brought the Yanks their second win of the ALCS.

Box Score

That’s five errors in two games for the Angels for those counting and a lot out there are.  LAA has come into the postseason with one of the best defensive teams in the majors yet it’s one of their facets that has let them down.

They wasted a great outing by Joe Saunders who allowed just 2 earned runs in seven innings and pretty decent work from the pen by Kevin Jepsen and Darren Oliver. 

One more interesting key stat from the boxscore:

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Guerrero 7

Yikes!

 

So right now, the Yankees are up by two (and already up 2-0 in the 4th inning of the 3rd game as of this writing).  It’s nice to say that anything can happen in baseball but not every team can pull off what the Red Sox did in 2004.  Is the writing on the wall for LAA?  It is unless they can pull away with a comeback today. 

Tags: alcs, Alex Rodriguez, angels, darren oliver, jerry hairston jr, joe saunders, macier izturis, Postseason, Yankees

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Posted in: Postseason by The Baseball Zealot
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Sloppy.

That’s the adjective I keep seeing repeated in the headlines regarding the Los Angeles Angels play last night in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.  The Angels, who bested their error record during the regular season with only 85 miscues, made some pretty nasty and costly ones in Friday night’s game.  Like a botched routine popup that ended up to be an rbi single. 

I’ll admit I was rooting for Big John Lackey.  But it’s hard to give that kind of edge to the Yankees and expect to win because you know the Yanks will step in and seize the advantage.  With the way C.C. Sabathia was pitching last night, that was kiss of death.  True, Sabathia has had issues with the Angels during the regular season (0-2, 9 ER in 13 1/3 innings though he did strike out 11).  But that was all ancient history and as they say it’s a brand new season when it comes to the playoffs.  Sabathia went 8 innings last night against the Halos allowing only 4 hits and just one run (an rbi single by Kendry Morales).  Sabathia walked one and struck out seven. 

Torii Hunter had begrudging praise for Sabathia (in reference to the mid-40s temperature):

"CC was the cold weather.  He was pitching his butt off. CC’s the real deal, man."

Box Score

 

Other ALCS Bits:

 

• Speaking of mid-40 degree weather, yes, it was that cold.  And we’re only in the beginning of the League Championship Series.  The MLB Postseason schedule is set till November 5 (assuming all games are played).  It’s going to get a whole lot colder unless the Angels and Dodgers pull it off. 

  Jim Caple of ESPN has a tongue in cheek article about how HE feels about the postseason schedule.

   

• Apparently, singer Ronan Tynan was a late scratch for singing God Bless America in last night’s game for making an anti-Semitic remark.

   

• Anyone care what Nick Swisher has to say?  If so, check out MLB.com’s Q&A with him posted today.

Tags: alcs, angels, C.C. Sabathia, Kendry Morales, nick swisher, playoffs, Yankees

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