All eyes will be set on Southern California for the most anticipated return to the field all season…
Oh, right. I forgot about him.
OK, so maybe a few of those eyes will find their way to Anaheim tonight for the second biggest comeback story of the evening when Ervin Santana takes the mound tonight against the Baltimore Orioles in his latest effort to prove himself healthy. I for one will have my fingers (and toes and anything else I can) crossed.
As you might recall, Santana tried this little comeback thing about two months ago before having to shut it down again after a month of disconcerting performances. In his last go around, Ervin tried to gut out six starts despite having obvious control problems and a noticeable lack of velocity on his pitches. These are not typically things that give fans the warm and fuzzies about his latest return to the rubber even though Santana has proclaimed his arm to be feeling “bueno” after a recent rehab start in the minor leagues.
But “bueno” is what the Angels desperately need Santana to be. Having already lost Kelvim Escobar as a rotation option, Matt Palmer’s early season magic quickly disappearing, Joe Saunders battling inconsistency and no telling just how long Sean O’Sullivan can remain effective in the majors, the Halos desperately need Santana back and at full strength as soon as humanly possible. If Santana comes back tonight and falls on his face, expect the alarm bells to sound immediately in Tony Reagins’s office. Though the Angels’ GM claims that he is not in the market for pitching of any sort, he is going to have to change his tune in a hurry if Santana’s arm ends up feeling “malo” after his outing tonight.
Whether Santana throws a perfect game or gets shelled by the Orioles on Friday, the real story will be how his elbow responds when he wakes up Saturday morning. As much as he and the Angel medical staff insist that all the medical tests Santana has undergone show no reason to be concerned, another injury setback almost certainly will spell the end of Santana’s season. The Angel front office knows damn well that they are up a creek if Ervin ends up back on the disabled list. Why else do you think Tony Reagins recently checked in on the trade availability of Danny Haren? That’s an awfully big fish to be trying to reel in for a team that allegedly doesn’t even have a line in the water.
While Mike Scioscia and company will be anxiously awaiting to hear how well Santana feels after his start, I will be praying to the baseball gods during the game that everything checks out fine for Ervin during the game on the old radar gun. Even if Santana can’t tell that his arm is bothering him any more, it should be obvious early on Friday if his fastball is once again topping out at 91 mph instead of its typical 96 mph. If there is one thing that we learned from the Bartolo Colon era, it is that when a pitcher loses velocity, no amount of talking about feeling good is going to make a difference. It shouldn’t even really matter if Santana actually pitches well tonight as he is bound to have some rust to shake off, just so long as he is throwing gas, I’ll be happy. So, if anybody needs me the rest of the day, I’ll be preparing an offering to the baseball gods to see some high numbers on the radar gun from start to finish tonight. Does anyone know if it is legal to sacrifice a chicken anymore?
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