SB Nation User Blog: 101halo

Cliff Lee to Mariners falling apart?

101halo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:28:44 -0000

Cliff Lee to Mariners falling apart?

LL kinda freaking out over there. Please, oh, please...

Why the Angels can't let the Mariners sign Bay

101halo — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:22:12 -0000

Thanks to the pending Mariner signing of Figgins, the Angels are in line to receive the #18 overall pick in the draft next year (thank you, Seattle!). Should Seattle also sign Bay, this really screws us over, as Bay is ranked a higher Type A free agent according to Elias Rankings, which means that now the d***** Red Sox would get Seattle's #18 pick, and we'd only get Seattle's 2nd round pick. By signing Bay, Seattle in effect would help Boston out while simultaneously screwing the Angels.

Additionally, we don't really want the M's to sign Lackey, either. If they sign Lackey and Figgins, we do still get their #18 pick, but then again we get their 2nd round pick, as opposed to another team's first round pick.

We get sandwich picks between the 1st and 2nd rounds for both players either way, but losing potential 1st round draft picks suck.

And this is just the way Seattle signing Bay or Lackey would affect our draft next year. If they were to sign either, you'd have to actually start considering the Mariners contenders for the AL West...

So, that said, here's to hoping the Mariners get neither. They can trade KC for Jose Guillen if they want, though...

The Angels Need YOU!

101halo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:44:48 -0000

Update: I woke up to big car trouble this morning on the way to work, and it's going to be expensive. So as much as it breaks my heart, I really can't afford to go or to organize this anymore.

For anyone that still wants to go, I would highly recommend watching StubHub throughout the day today and even tomorrow morning, as I would expect after yesterday that prices will drop significantly. So, use this FanPost to organize any fans that can go, I would love to hear about a meetup! I'll be cheering all of you on from home!

---------------------------------------------------
Who were Torii and Lackey quick to credit with the ALDS wins?

The FANS.

This Thursday's game could not be more important for Halos fans. Down 3-1, every game is a must win. There is no room for error.

Which is why it is imperative that every true Angels fan that can, be in a seat Thursday. I'm organizing what is hopefully a huge gathering of Angels fans, all there to cheer their team to victory. I'm not willing to go quietly, why should you? At worst, we watch the final Angels home game, and give them credit for every ounce of joy they've given us all year.

I'm going to buy up as many tickets as I can for game 5. If you can go, email me at cchurch@hottopic.com with your max ticket price. I may eat some of the cost if I have to, but we need the diehards in the seats, those willing to cheer whether it's 1-0 or 0-9. If you're not willing to stand in the face of adversity, please don't bother. We need the true fans. And for that, after the way this year has gone, I'd do almost anything.

This is no scam. I'm asking no money in advance, I'm trusting you all as Angels fans to come through. If you email me, I'll do my best to get you with the group, and you can pay for your ticket on Thursday in person. Please in your email post your HH name, so I can at least verify you're a fan, that's all i ask. I believe in this team, and I hope you will too. Let's make this happen.

GO HALOS! This ain't over, and Nick wouldn't want it any other way then in dramatic fashion!

Who needs to be hitting for the Angels to win?

101halo — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:12:45 -0000

Seems like a lot of stories recently have been questioning who the Angels MVP is this year, and whether we have multiple candidates for league MVP. So, I thought I'd take a look at who it takes to be hot for the team to win. Using www.baseball-reference.com, I'm comparing all of our starter's stats during wins and losses. Here is what we see (sorted by OPS in wins):

In wins:

Player AVG OBP SLG OPS

Mike Napoli .320 .405 .598 1.003

Vlad Guerrero .376 .398 .602 1.000

Bobby Abreu .368 .454 .545 .999

Kendry Morales .320 .369 .613 .982

Torii Hunter .315 .361 .564 .925

Juan Rivera .335 .368 .553 .921

Maicer Izturis .348 .388 .512 .900

Chone Figgins .335 .414 .445 .858

Howie Kendrick .313 .341 .500 .841

Erick Aybar .335 .377 .463 .840

Jeff Mathis .247 .339 .423 .762

Gary Matthews .252 .333 .331 .664

In losses:

Player AVG OBP SLG OPS

Mike Napoli .245 .314 .425 .738

Vlad Guerrero .202 .250 .245 .495

Bobby Abreu .246 .357 .317 .674

Kendry Morales .252 .300 .497 .797

Torii Hunter .292 .403 .550 .953

Juan Rivera .280 .331 .477 .808

Maicer Izturis .221 .280 .284 .565

Chone Figgins .258 .366 .340 .705

Howie Kendrick .206 .287 .247 .534

Erick Aybar .276 .314 .386 .700

Jeff Mathis .136 .239 .153 .391

Gary Matthews .230 .269 .322 .591

A couple of clear callouts:

Vlad has over a .500 OPS difference in wins versus losses. When he's mashing the ball we win, and when he's struggling, we don't. If he's going to be hitting in the cleanup spot the rest of the way, it's imperative that he's playing at a high level or we could be in trouble.
Torii Hunter is remarkably consistent at a .925 OPS in wins and a .953 OPS in losses (also the only guy in the lineup with a better OPS during losses). This is probably "the gamer" in him. He'll put up good ABs for us whether we're in the game or not.
Napoli, Abreu and Morales all have significant gaps in OPS during wins vs losses as well. This backs up the obvious "we're winning this year with our offense" talk.
Has anyone ever seen a worse line than Mathis has when we lose? A .136 average and a .391 OPS? That might be historically bad...

Not sure this definitively means anything (could be the classic chicken and the egg argument: which hitters lead the team to wins when they're hitting well, and which simply hit well when those around them are hitting), but still found it interesting anyway.

Update: Thanks to CKOD for noticing that I somehow missed Howie. He's included now. I'm still going to exclude Willits and Quinlan due to A) Laziness and actually getting busy here at work, and B) They really have played very little this season, and project to play even less going forward, so their impact should be marginal.

Minor League Report: COBY SMITH Credit where credit is due

101halo — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08:59:07 -0000

While I'm admittedly a huge Sean Rodriguez and Brandon Wood fan, every once in a while you have to acknowledge insane performances from unlikely candidates.

And that is exactly what happened today when 29 year old AA Arkansas Traveler CF Coby Smith hit two home runs. In one inning.

Coby Smith 2HR in 1st Inning of tonight's game

While the Angels were busy putting together another come from behind victory, our minor league teams were busy saying "Hey, don't forget about us. With all the talk of how barren the Angel's farm system is now due to promotions, we still have what it takes."

Anyway, not groundbreaking news, just thought I'd give a shout out where it was deserved!

Angels have no power in the minors!

101halo — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 03:54:43 -0000

Our whole farm is entirely devoid of any kind of decent hitting prospects. Oh no! Whatever will we do!?!

Oh, except these guys today:

AAA SLC:
S-Rod 3-4 today with his 19th HR in 206 AB. That projects to 55 in 600 AB (granted, this is the PCL, but that's still impressive). That all with an avg/obp/slg line of .310/.412/.660. After seeing his defensive skills earlier this year in the majors, is there not at least a shot we see him starting at SS for the Angels in 2009?

AA Arkansas:
So I went to look at Rancho, and noticed that 1B Mark Trumbo didn't play today, so I had this sneaky suspicion he'd been promoted. Sure enough, he had! Just today! In his AA debut? Try 5-5 for 2 HR and a double. That puts his MILB season total at 28 in 412 AB. Oh, and if that wasn't enough, Chris Pettit, who missed most of the beginning of the year hit 2 tonight as well. Both were back to back with Trumbo.

For all the talk of how our system has no good prospects left, I'm not sure I agree. And this is without even discussing our elite prospects Conger, Walden and Adenhart, nor those starting to show solid growth despite being a little to old to be considered star prospects, aka Sandoval, Matt Brown and Jason Bulger, nor the slightly-starting-to-be-kinda-frustrating-but-supposedly-elite-prospect Brandon Wood.

Update: To put this in perspective, I'm including a chart of S-Rod's age 23 season in AAA and D-Mac's age 23 season split between AA and AAA. It should help explain why this is so exciting. Also, if you include D-Mac's age 28 MILB season, you see that while he is hitting more HR, it's not drastically faster rate, and S-Rod has a much better AVG and actually draws walks, too! The only disclaimer here is that D-Mac kept this performance up over a much larger sampling of AB. All stats include S-Rod's performance today. A little crazy, eh?

	Age	Level	AB	HR	HR/600AB	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
D-Mac	23	AA/AAA	521	40	46	.317	.384	.670	1.054
D-Mac	27	AAA	340	38	67	.297	.403	.688	1.091
S-Rod	23	AAA	207	19	55	.319	.417	.676	1.093

Scioscia prepping Matthews for a trade?

101halo — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:21:02 -0000

Scioscia prepping Matthews for a trade?

That's my take.

He seems unhappy by his recent benching, but somewhat understanding, yet unwilling to continue riding the pine. Sounds like Scioscia is showing him what it will be like for the rest of the year if he isn't willing to waive his no-trade clause. It seems like a smart move to me, as GMJ clearly wants to play (and truthfully, probably should on a non-contender).

We can only hope... let's go Juan!

SLC puts the beatdown on Tacoma

101halo — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:57:08 -0000

Much like the MLB teams, Angels AAA affiliate SLC took down the Mariner's own very best (worst) Tacoma to the tune of 20-7 last night. Box Score Here. Wow, Seattle really can't catch a break recently, huh? Gotta love it.

Sean Rodriguez, not to be outdone by Chris Pettit's 7 RBI performance for AA Arkansas the day before, went 3-5 with a 3 run HR, a 2 run HR, a double, 4 runs scored and EIGHT RBI. (Yes, I understand I'm venturing dangerously close into Acuda MILB-mancrush territory with S-Rod. It's a slippery slope).

Also, Nick Adenhart picked up his 6th win of the season with the Bees. Unfortunately, it was the offense that caused the win, not so much his pitching prowess. He went 5 IP, allowing 10 hits and 7 ER with 3 HR to raise his ERA to a whopping 5.74 on the year. Something tells me he might benefit from repeating AAA in 2009...

Hiroki Kuroda, perfect game through 7

101halo — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:51:13 -0000

Hiroki Kuroda, perfect game through 7

No, really, Dodger Hiroki Kuroda pitching a perfect game through 7 innings. A perfect game. Literally. Like no hits, no walks. A perfect game.

Just saying, just saying... not that as an Angel fan one would want to jinx a Doyer PERFECT GAME.

Angels #1 Prospect?

101halo — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:44:25 -0000

It's a bit early to call this, maybe, but we might have a new #1 prospect after this year. Here are the numbers from 2008 so far, and what they project to based on 575 AB at SLC.

AAA - SLC	AB	R	RBI	HR	SB	AVG
2008	131	36	27	12	3	.305
Proj Full Season	575	158	119	53	13	.305

Want to take a guess who that is?

No, it's not Brandon Wood. It's our very own 23-year-old Sean Rodriguez. Think it's kind of fluky? Clearly he had a poor 2007, but go back and check out his 2006 MILB stats. He may not have 40-50 HR power, but the 30 HR potential is there with a decent average. He has also reduced his K rate from 26% of the time in 2007 to only 17% in 2008.

Towards the end of his time in the majors before Figgy and Howie came back he started showing signs of coming to life. While he's primarily played 2B this year in the majors and minors, in 2006 and 2007 he spent most of his time at SS. While Aybar is working to become our everyday SS, if S-Rod keeps this up, he might force the organizations hand in 2009 or 2010!

Thoughts?