Watching the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim consistently feast off the New York Yankees is a work of art. How this team has not won more championships is more about timing than anything else. They have been a solid, if not an elite, team in MLB for more years than W. has been president.
Their pitching has always had quality starters and the bullpen, not so much this year, has been among the best in baseball. K-Rod is a quality closer despite his quirky mechanics. He has managed to stay healthy and consistent ever since his promotion several years ago.
Power has not been a mainstay for this Mike Scioscia managed team but don't let that fool you. They play situational baseball as well as any team in baseball and they score runs.
Base stealing, which they lead all teams in MLB, bunting, taking the extra base and challenging the defense is a characteristic part of their game. They are well managed and coached. There is only one player who swings wildly 100% of the time and that is Vladimir Guerrero. All he does is hit thirty plus home runs and drive in 120 RBI's on a yearly basis. By the way, his career batting average is .324. So swing away Vlad. Imagine A-Rod in this lineup.
Okay, that said, The Yankees continue to put up good offensive numbers 90% of the time but their pitching, still is their Achilles heal. Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens give them good quality starts and innings. So does Chien-Ming Wang, although he has slumped in his last four starts.
Mike Mussina is a huge question mark and not that reliable. He certainly will not get them innings and the bull pen has to be rested for his starts. Mike's performance can be a product of the home plate umpire. If the ump is liberal with his strike zone Mussina can have a good game. If not, it will be a short game for Mike and a long one for the Yankees and their bullpen.
Phil Hughes is going to be a solid pitcher and his mound presence is very stoic for a lad of twenty one. It would have been interesting to see how this staff would have performed if Hughes were not injured early on.
The bullpen looks different now than it did three weeks ago. The addition of Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez have given Joe Torre a diversity that was not there earlier this season. Joba throws strikes and has good velocity and a quality sinker. Ramirez has a career changing change up. Prior to these two young arms in the pen Joe was stuck with power pitching relievers with poor location, as the bullpen led the Majors in walks.
Luis Vizcaino, after a rough couple of months, has been much improved. Although the ability for Torre to overuse and abuse him still exists.
Then there is Mariano Rivera. Nothing needs to be mentioned here.
The rest of the bullpen is just awful. Kyle Farnsworth is a head case, Sean Henn is inexperienced and unpredictable and Ron Villone is the left hander no one else wants. Nothing to hang your hat on here.
The Yankees, with their injuries and inexperienced young rookie pitching replacements, early on, dug themselves a huge hole to climb out of. Add to that absolutely no offence, other than A-Rod and Posada, for the first two months and you have a formula for the possibility of no post season for New York. It is a realistic scenario.
This two week stretch where the Yankees play Anaheim, Detroit, Boston and Seattle is the make or break part of the season. So far the only thing predictable is their inconsistency. That won't make it. The Yankees need to win more than they lose. .500 baseball will not cut it for a chance at the playoffs.
Boston and Seattle continue to win. These are the teams who the Yankees are chasing. Seattle has surprised everyone. Their season is about to get harder though, as they come east to play the quality teams from both the East and Central divisions. Boston has too much pitching for them to fold. Unless they let Eric Gagne close all of their games.
It should be interesting. My guess? The Yankees make it into the playoffs as the wild card. I like this scenario as it puts less pressure on A-Rod and the Yankees to be the team to beat.
History is just that, history. Given thirty plus games to play it should be enough time for the Yankees to mold this energetic bunch into a champion caliber team.
I think the Angels are an elite team and to beat them would be formadable.
Alright, now I hope you know you can't write a blog about the Angels and the Yanks and not mention the Seattle Mariners baby! They are playing better than both of them. Slowly but surely we are catching the Angles, and the Yanks are in our rear view mirror. With Ibanez fully healthy for the first time in five years, with Adrian Beltre finally back on his game, and our pitching getting better daily, I think we have the tools to win the West.
What do you guys think? I'm telling you the M's are for real this year. Gotta love it!!
That's right Fox. That's where the pride will come into play. Because the Angels are very formidable. But they can be beaten. And I am sure there is a air of cockiness about them in reference to the Bombers. They think they can take their lunch money all the time. That will be their downfall.
Seattle has been the team flying under the radar until the Yankees approached them in the wild card race. Although they are getting rocked today they have got to be the surprise team in baseball.
Still they have a rough road ahead in the next couple of weeks as does New York.
The angels have owned the yankees for years now, remember the playoffs with the yankees, the year the angels won the world series, the angels hit like .450 as a team and routed the skankees like they did last night. If by luck, the yankees make the playoffs, Vlad and the rest will have them for lunch. We just can't beat KC for some unknown freakin reason.
Every team is owned by one other team through the course of a season,good or bad. The Angels have owned the Yankees for most of the Joe Torre years. They are the only team to have a winning record in all of baseball through the Torre years. That is tweleve seasons. You have a good reason to be confident.
The idea that the Angels will lose a series to the yankees because of overconfidence is absurd. If anyone is able to keep tabs on his team's emotions it's Mike Scioscia. The only people who might get overconfident are the fans. But can you blame us? C'mon, best record in MLB against NYY since 1996. 2 postseason series wins and 6-3 record this season against the hated yankees. Man, I HOPE we get NY in the first round.
