SB Nation User Blog: The Limey

Postcard From... well, Just Around the Corner, Really

The Limey — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:18:25 -0000

So, after a brief interlude (the last game I attended at the Big A was August 1990), I finally stepped foot on hallowed ground again last night. Some thoughts...

The Big A is an entirely different beast to the one I remember. The food and beer were both excellent (especially the enormous bottles of Mexican stuff they were serving upstairs) and the view of the game was superb.
I'm developing an unnatural fondness for Mike Napoli - If I was a girl, I'd probably be stalking him (at least until my flight next week)
Failbar and the trap - Erick Aybar is lulling us into a false sense of security about his perceived inadequacies. His arm is something to behold - he's wielding a bona fide howitzer. The trap will be sprung one of two ways - either he'll be traded or we'll be snared into loving him through his excellent play. The first trap is worth avoiding.
Red Sox fans - at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really don't like them. They're like herpes - they're unsightly, they spread, they prevent you from having a good time and worst of all they're hidden until the time you least want to see then. I had this hugely irritating woman behind me who just wouldn't STFU the whole game. Papi - WOOOOO!, Jason - WOOOOO!, I love you Wakefield - WOOOO!. Sometime in the bottom of the 6th I got this exchange: Boston Trollette no.1 - Who the hell is this guy pitching? Boston Trollette no.2 - No idea... Boston Trollette no.1 - RED SOX PITCHING GUY - WOOOOO! They went home in the middle of the 8th, to everyone's great relief.
Back home in Blighty, away fans are quarantined into one area of the stadium (if they buy tickets in any other part of the ground they're thrown out by the stewards) usually in a bit with a terrible view - I'd like to see that rule implemented here for Boston and New York games.
Speaking of fans in general, there's an entirely different feel about the fanbase now to 1990 - everyone is wearing red (or a majority seem to be) and people seem genuinely energized by the team. I seem to remember 13,000 fans and a general sense of "whatever...". How times change.
Very funny moment when the kiss-cam came on and this somewhat tubby fella just mauled his girlfriend. Repeatedly. And then the cameraman went back for seconds. If he'd gone back for thirds they'd have been half-dressed.
Matt Palmer - tremendous display of wily pitching. He's got skills. I like him.
I've probably visited 20 different countries since last I was in Anaheim and I have to say nowhere (without exception) does breakfast as well as you guys. If you're ever in the neighbourhood at that time of day, the Filling Station in Orange is worth a visit (and it's near a roundabout, so I felt right at home) - their Ham and Eggs cut the legs out from under a potentially life-threatening hangover.
Mannygate - the single most annoying thing that has happened since I arrived in the US happened about an hour after I got off the plane. I got this message on my phone asking me to accept an image (which I did in a travel-weary moment of foolishness), upon which a large picture of Manny Ramirez in 'Mannywood' deposited itself as the background on the phone, with some banal strapline - This Is My Town - and refused to leave, which enraged me (though in retrospect, bearing in mind the ban, it's actually quite funny). I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure Manny jinxed my phone because the following day I left it on the Amtrak from LA to Anaheim - it is now lurking with some ``bloke called John in La Jolla.
If the organization wants to do something about drink-driving around game time, they really need to look at some public transport solutions and lobby Orange County to help. It's tricky getting to the game without a car...
The red jerseys are no longer unlucky (even if they remain a little ugly).

And on that note, I'll sign off. Was going to head to San Diego today rather than tomorrow, but since a certain young man called Ervin is making his season debut today, I might just wander down to the ballpark...

Ramblings on the AL West, Kendry Morales

The Limey — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:04:27 -0000

Some rambling early season thoughts on the AL West / Kendry:

As I grind out the last couple of jet-lagged hours until dawn, I thought I might ramble a bit at you lot on some things I've liked / disliked so far. That's what a blog is for, right?

The rest of the AL West - I have to say that whenever I read a report banging on about how incredibly inept out division is, it does cause me to twitch - I see it as an unwarranted criticism of the Angel's success, particularly with respect to last year when we were an equal opportunity distributor of mayhem to ball clubs up and down the league. This year however, they may well be right:

Oakland GM Beane's much vaunted off-season manoeuverings have been exposed as the desperate fumblings that they so patently appeared to be to those of us without our heads duct-taped, mouths agape, to his inner thighs - the preferred position of most lazy baseball journalists. Holliday and Giambi are slugging .383 and .343 respectively, OC (gawd bless 'im) has jumped the shark and their new young dynamite rotation looks like it is populated by 14 year olds (which it pretty much is). The Emperor is running around naked. Everybody point and laugh.

Seattle, for all that their strong start promised, are reverting to type - they still can't hit for toffee and once Wash remembers it's 2009 not 2002, their rotation will be 60% Emmental. Defense alone won't help (no matter how good it is) if you can't hit or pitch. Quite like their new manager though.

The Texas Rangers are as bi-polar as ever. A wrecking ball with the bat, the condemned building on the mound. Having said that, this team is clearly on the up and the only team likely to run us close in the AL west this year. If they can ever find a pitching staff that keeps the ball on the ground, they'll be a very good team indeed. We should offer their hitting coach a King's ransom to more to Southern California for what he's done with Andruw Jones. We could use him.

I truly believe that despite our awful first month (and what Fangraphs have to say on the matter), we'll win this by 6-10 games, going away from the field - we're hitting better than expected, the starting pitching is strong and likely to improve and the 'pen cannot get any worse. Now if someone could just drag the defense back into the 21st century (or even the 20th would be an improvement), then everything will be hunky-dory.

Kendry Morales - I have to say he is growing before our eyes as a genuine major league ball player (and we should all give a quick pat on the back to his one man booster club, Acuda - there's at least one more in the club now).

His current batting average of .280 is about what was expected by most projections, as is his OBP, but he's certainly hitting for more power than most gave him credit for - and we need a 1B who can drive the ball. Hopefully that will translate into a bit more respect from pitchers and help his OBP as the season progresses. His OPS+ is 115. I'm pretty positive about his future, particularly now he's getting proper playing time. And despite the more positive spin from his metrics, I think he has plenty of upside, not just for this season but for years to come

On the down side, his glove is still a little ugly and having watched Kotchman playing for Atlanta last night in a bar after I got in (which I have to say, is far superior to watching baseball on my crappy laptop in London), I did feel a brief pang of regret.

I'll sign off here, before this turns into an unreadable wall of text, but I'm quietly confident about this team (in this division) for 2009 - we'll be there or thereabouts.

Very much looking forward to my trip to the Big A on Wednesday. It's been a while…

Some Foxsports love for Figgins

The Limey — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 16:20:59 -0000

Some Foxsports love for Figgins

Some love for Chone from Rosenthal, who asks the question - "what should the Angels do with the Figgins / Aybar / Wood logjam?"

Hicks / Rangers in trouble...

The Limey — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:02:19 -0000

Hicks / Rangers in trouble...

Tom Hicks' holding company for his US sports investments (including the Rangers and the Stars) defaulted on $525m of loans today. Without further investment, he seems to be in a spot of bother.

What will this mean for the Rangers?

Some Kendry love from ESPN

The Limey — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:20:16 -0000

Some Kendry love from ESPN

ESPN have named Kendry as one of their potential break-out stars for 2009.

Interesting read...

Top 10 Worst Angels

The Limey — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:47:12 -0000

So, in the latest countdown of the 100 greatest Angels, there have been a couple of people speculate during the off-season as to who the 100 worst Angels were. While we’ll probably struggle to find 100 that we care enough about to truly hate, I’m pretty sure that together we can find a Top 10 (and it’ll help kill a couple of the 20 days or so until we start in earnest, and let’s face it, it’s been a little slow around here this past week). I suspect there will be a fairly high crossover with the Top 100 – it’s only natural that love and hate go hand in hand. That’s why divorce lawyers make so much coin.

As a correspondent from far afield, and of relatively recent vintage compared to the club, I’m not going to presume to come up with a list from which to pick – I’ll miss some truly detestable players, and no doubt some great players who have done detestable things. This first part is the nomination phase. Should we get a decent rogues gallery at which to take aim, I’ll do a top 10 vote. Feel free to recommend posts as a way of helping the shortlisting process.

The reasons can as far reaching as you like, you just have to justify it. I suspect most of them will fit into six categories

1. Clubhouse Cancers - you can pick from your common-or-garden asshole type or your irritating show-pony variety

2. Chokers, those that just didn’t have the guts when the chips were down.

3. Over-rated – came with a reputation, or as a trade-piece for one of the beloved and stunk the place out. Or even a player who, to your mind, was loved for no good reason at all – incompetence should not beget love.

4. Hopeless waste of money – I present to you as an obvious recent example this fella (though I suspect this might be a hotly contested category, with plenty of historical precedence)

5. Irrational hatred – we all have players we just can’t stand. I’ll admit it here (knowing that this will be unpopular), I just couldn’t abide this bloke and I can’t begin to properly explain why. Perhaps because in his latter years, when I first start watching baseball, he was the face of the club and I wanted him to be exceptional. If you’re going to be the face of the club, you need to be exceptional, and compared to the leaders of other teams, he just wasn’t. My fault probably for coming late to the party, and my inability to understand the nuances of the game back then in my tender years. And yes, I know, not fair at all.

6. Betrayal – those players who left us behind, either for other clubs, or in more significant, personal snubs. This man is not wearing a Halo in the Hall. I hate that. (Though I’d probably still vote him number 1 in the 100 greatest list).

So, here you go…

1. Name your player (make sure it’s one we care enough about to hate)

2. Describe their sins

3. Make your case

Feel free to nominate more than one – not every Angel is without sin, and some of them have been downright evil…

Post-Abreu, thinking trade options...

The Limey — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:33:45 -0000

Whilst I’m delighted with the acquisition, (we’re stronger immediately, hallelujah) you’d have to look at the current roster / depth chart and think there’s either some serious juggling to be done by Mr Scoscia or there are more moves afoot.

Two serious options for next year, Figgins as rotating super-sub and Napoli as part-time DH, appear to have been taken off the table by this move, which really puts the squeeze on Wood and Mathis.

Here’s my take on the situation:

OF Current starters:

4-way OF/DH rotation: Abreu, Vlad, Hula-Dula, Johnny Rivers

Candidates for assignment / trade: Willits, GMJ

I’d be hugely surprised if this 4-way OF rotation doesn’t happen. There are still a lot of cheap FAs out there, so the trade value for these two is in the shitter (especially so for GMJ, who we can’t trade even if we want to), unless someone wants Willits just because he’s cheap and they need a lead-off. Either way, someone has to go.

IF Current starters:

3B/SS/2B/1B: Figgins, Aybar, Kendrick, Morales

The rest: Wood, Mice Tits, Quinlan, S-Rod, Brown

The right side looks nailed on – Howie and Kendry. Q will stay, because he’s versatile and seems to give Mike a boner. As for the rest, you’d have to say that the only one who’s untouchable is Wood (and perhaps Kendrick), but he doesn’t appear to have an opening at present, because Figgins won’t be playing super-sub, since Abreu is nominally taking up the DH. I would suggest Figgins, Aybar, Izturis, S-Rod and perhaps Kendrick are all possible candidates for trade, with Figgins most likely. But if so, who leads off…?

C Current starters:

Napoli, Mathis

The rest: Wilson, Budde

Since he’s got forearms like Popeye and is no longer going to be DHing 50 odd games (which is what I was hoping for), Napoli is the chosen one and Mathis is relegated to 1 start each time around the rotation. Which begs the question, can we find him another team with a CF for him to play catch with once a week while the runner advances to 3rd? Budde or Wilson can back up.

Rotation:

Lackey, Santana, Saunders, Weaver, A.N.Other (Adenhart, Moseley, Ortega, Loux?)

Here’s the gap that needs filling. Adenhart needs another year, Ortega and Moseley both fill me with a certain amount of suspicion.

Pen:

Fuentes, Shields, Oliver, ‘Dondo, Speier, Jepsen,

The rest: Loux, Moseley, Bulger, Thompson

Speier needs to have a good spring. Loux and Moseley are either going to be long man or starter, I would have thought. Bulger, Thompson look like possible trade bait.

So, what would you do if it was you running around in the dead of night, dressed in black, laying waste to Del Taco outlets with your katana and throwing stars?

Who do you start?

Who do you trade?

What do you want in return?

Abreu done at $5m + incentives

The Limey — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:35:47 -0000

Abreu done at $5m + incentives

1 year at $5m seems awfully cheap to me. Good deal.

Now, if Young Reagins could get to work on uncluttering our middle infield / finding a 5th starter, then I think his work is done.

Pedroia's brother on kiddy fiddling charge

The Limey — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:45:10 -0000

Pedroia's brother on kiddy fiddling charge

Add your own punchline here...

Morales and Wood in 2009

The Limey — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:33:13 -0000

So, as we struggle through the dark navel-gazing days of winter before spring training, bemoaning what we've lost (Mark Whatever-his-name-was, I could never spell it anyway) and bickering amongst ourselves over who we may still pick up (because after all, no team can have too many immobile ageing outfielders), the widest divergence of opinion on this site seems to be about our two new corner infielders

(For the record, I have Figgins back in the super-sub role in '09)

On the optimistic side we have the perennial uber-advocacy / man-crush from Acuda and the second coming of Evan Longoria at 3B.

On the pessimistic side, Wood is already a bust, an we should be trading for / offering a contract to any washed up but ageing 1B instead of Morales.

The truth, as ever, will lie between the two.

Bill James (via MLB.com) has the following projections (I don't have anything more useful that BA, HR and RBI, I'm afraid, because I'm too cheap - I'd like to see OPS and a broader array of other predictions)

Wood .253, 23 HR, 67 RBI

Morales .291, 19HR, 79 RBI

My questions to you, fine ladies and gentlemen of the Jury, are these:

1. What level of production would you be happy with from 1B and 3B?

2. What do you think these two gents will give us?