VS.
FRIDAY, 8/16: Jerome Williams vs. Brad Peacock: Bi-polar Baseball!
Jerome Williams has been incredibly erratic this year, going 5-8 with a near 5 ERA on the season. Williams nearly tossed a quality start his last outing against the Cleveland Indians before getting burned for 5 runs and blowing a 5 run lead. Peacock has been pretty lousy himself in limited major league work, but he has been excellent in Triple-A this year. With both of these starters exhibiting extreme bi-polar pitching tendencies on the mound there is no telling where this will go.
SATURDAY, 8/17: Garrett Richards vs. Dallas Keuchel: Don't let me down
Richards is on a roll after a solid start against the Rangers followed by a great complete game performance against the Yankees. Richards has struggled with his focus in his career, so it will be interesting to see if he comes into this game sharp or if he perhaps takes the lowly Astros too lightly. Seeing how terrible the Angels are and all the trouble they've had with these Astros, let's hope it is not the latter.
SUNDAY, 8/18: Jason Vargas vs. Brett Oberholtzer: Happy trails?
This might very well be Jason Vargas' last start with the Angels. He is known to be on the trading block but one would think that if he doesn't get moved after this start, then the Angels might opt to hold onto him since his value goes down with every start.
MISERY INDEX
The index reading for this series is: we really can't be this bad the rest of the season.
After the ugly series against the New York Yankees the Angels really have nowhere to go but up. It's going to be an uphill climb to get to .500 this season, but it'll be something well within the Angels grasp if they try hard enough. The Astros will be a great place to start this uphill climb, though it'll be up to the Angels to take the hard steps to get there.
GOOD NEWS
The number of lefties tossing in this series should allow Calhoun to get the appropriate amount of playing time, even if Scioscia has shown his faults in creating a proper lineup sometimes. If the Angels had been playing smart baseball instead of flashy baseball they wouldn't have to worry about Calhoun's playing time in 2014 over Josh Hamilton. He deserves more than the bench, but I'd hate to see him get traded. He provides fantastic power and consistency against LHP, something the Angels struggle mightily against. I think it might come down to Bourjos vs. Calhoun this offseason, and I'm not sure who will come out on top going into 2014.
BAD NEWS
You're an Angel fan and you're stressing about them taking a series against the Astros. Yes this is really happening. This is your world now. Enjoy it.
AMBIVALENT NEWS
Even though the Angels and Astros are horrible this season it's always fun to see them go up against each other. To me it's mostly the novelty behind the Astros moving to the AL West and generally being the worst team in a baseball. The Angels should be pouncing on them every game, bu they can never seem to get a hang of the Astros. That makes me feel bad. Real real bad.
CLOSING STATEMENT
As a collective fanbase I think it's our duty to pour all of our savings into funding cryogenic research, that way we can freeze ourselves until Opening Day 2014. No one wants to see the Angels struggle for the next few months and we all know the Angels will win in 2014 once they pick up prominent pitching. Let's just hope the next 7 months fly by!
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