Landestoy Luke
By Landestoy Luke
Can we all agree the Home Run Derby should be taken ‘round back and sent to the glue factory? At least with the Slam Dunk contest in the NBA, there’s some variation. In baseball, a home run is a home run. Yeah, a 500 foot homer is impressive, but most of the time it all looks the same: Guys hits ball, ball goes far….whoopie. Don’t look for anything to change, though, as there’s nothing to take its place and MLB doesn’t want to give away that revenue. As long as people will watch the likes of Vernon Wells and Chris Young try to hit the ball far, they’ll keep putting on the show.
Buried here: The Angels 2010 season. Granted, the Rangers just got swept by the pathetic Orioles, but this Angels team just has too many holes and not enough thumbs. The pitching staff is among the worst in the AL and outside of Jered Weaver, who can they rely on? It’s tough to know which Ervin Santana is for real. Joe Saunders doesn’t miss enough bats and his middling stuff gets knocked around as a result. Scott Kazmir has been a disaster, with him bottoming out by giving up 13 ER’s in 1 1/3 innings vs. Oakland last week. The bullpen is an even bigger mess and while the perception has been that closer Brian Fuentes is the biggest problem, he’s actually been their best reliever this year. What? Don’t believe me? Look at these WHIPS: Fernando Rodney (1.52), Scott Shields (1.68), Kevin Jepsen (1.47) and Jason Bulger (1.57) have been horrible compared to Fuentes (a respectable 1.22).
It isn’t just the pitching. The offense has been subpar as well. 11th in OBP and 10th in slugging forecast an even sharper decline in run production is coming. There has been talk of getting Nationals slugger Adam Dunn. He would definitely help out, but he may help this offense be average at best. An average offense can’t sustain a terrible pitching staff. Sorry Halos, just the messenger here.
On top of that, Texas ’s acquisition of Cliff Lee takes away any margin of error the Angels may have had. He’s a 2-3 game improvement in a division where they already lead the Angels by 4 1/2 games. Are the Angels going to play 8 games better than the Rangers from this point on? Uh, no. But hey, take heart Angel fans, at least you took 5 of 6 from the Dodgers.
Don’t think I’m only putting the 10 count on the Angels. The Dodgers aren’t going anywhere this season either. I’ll explain that tomorrow along with a recap of the All-Star Game. Nah, then it means I have to watch that thing.
Landestoy Luke is a former semi-pro baseball player in the California-Nevada Independent League. According to Luke, one of his most memorable accomplishments was giving up the 12th run of the game vs. the Carson City Johnnies, which allowed everyone attending in Carson City to get a free dozen donuts from a local donut establishment. After spending some time as an advance scout in the Mexicali League, Luke now spends his time as a freelance writer.
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