By Jeff Flinn – AngelsWin.com Contributor
Thumbs Up
*Weaver recovered from a high early game pitch count, and was able to pitch 7 innings for the win on Friday night. Santana had solid stuff, just made 2 bad pitches to Cano and Rodriguez; ditto for Piniero to Teixeira.
*Walden looked good in the 9th inning on Friday night. Downs had a solid inning on Friday night. Thompson had 2 more solid innings on Saturday night. Bell looked solid in an inning on Sunday.
*Abreu had a great series, going 6-9 with 4 BBs and 2 SBs. He had raised his average 34 points in the past 6 games (.259 to .293). Trumbo was 4-11 with another SB (6th already), along with one K and a walk. It’s time to have him hitting higher in the order! Callaspo had a solid series, going 5-12. Bourjos went 4-10 with 2 SBs, one walk, and only one strikeout. He seems to be figuring some things out at the plate and on the bases. Izturis finally emerged from his past 16 games slumber with 2 hits on Sunday. The Halos stole 6 bases in the series, and were caught just once.
*The defense was rock solid with 0 errors. Trumbo made a heads up play Sunday, covering second base on a double by Jorge Posada which led to Posada being tagged out on a rundown. Aybar continues to play smart baseball on the throws trying to catch would be basestealers, by continuing the tag all the way through.
Thumbs Down
*The RISP hitting was PUTRID, going just 5-28 and leaving the bases loaded multiple times. This wonderful offense is now hitting UNDER .200 with the bases loaded. The 1975 team thinks that’s horrible!
*Special recognition goes to two people. Kendrick has never figured out how to hit when returning from even just a 15 day DL stay. It’s like he needs 2 weeks to return to form after missing a similar time. That won’t get it done Howie! Finally, to you Torii Hunter, here’s recognition for your 16 GIDPs already, as well as for your 0-18 stinking it up in the past 5 games to shrink your BA from .249 to .229. You may have indeed left HALF of the free world on base so far this season! Why are you still hitting cleanup? You STILL just never know what this offense is going to do from game to game. I yearn for the day where the hitters have the pitch recognition and power that at least half of the other AL teams have.
Here’s to not selecting so many hackers at the plate early on anymore. Ric Wilson alluded to looking for more physical hitting, which hopefully means more batters who can actually have pitch recognition and actually hit the ball a ways. Too many toolsy speedsters with little pitch recognition and little power have been taken in the past several drafts.
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