Posts tagged JeredWeaver at FanHouse

Since the Angels have had the AL West in hand for a while now, manager Mike Scioscia has been able to use the last few weeks to start figuring out what he wants to do for the playoffs. Aside from making sure he gets players some rest, the biggest decision facing Mike was how he was going to set up his starting rotation come playoff time.

Teams usually ditch their five-man rotation in favor of a four-man rotation in the playoffs, which meant that Scioscia had to figure out which one of his starters he was going to be delivering some bad news too. Luckily for Mike, Jon Garland just about made the decision for him.

"If it was my decision, I wouldn't be a starter, not with what I've seen from Ervin Santana, John Lackey, Joe Saunders and Jered Weaver," Garland said before [Thursday's] game against Seattle.

"Whatever Mike wants me to do, I will do. I'm not going to complain. I'll do whatever he wants me to do, the best that I can."

Now, to be fair, Garland was probably going to be the odd man out anyway. Of the Angels five starters, he's been the "worst." While he's second on the team with 14 wins in 2008, he's also had ten more starts than John Lackey, and Garland's ERA is .57 points higher (4.90) than any other starter in the rotation and he has the highest WHIP of the five.

He'll likely be used as a long man out of the bullpen should any of the other four struggle early.

Since the Angels have their division wrapped up and are just playing out the final few weeks in preparation for the playoffs, the front office has been able to spend some time thinking about the 2009 season. Team owner Arte Moreno doesn't plan on going too far beyond the $120 million payroll the team has this season, and considering the free agents on the roster right now, I think it's safe to say that the Angels will look a bit different in 2009.

Mark Teixeira, Francisco Rodriguez, Jon Garland, Garrett Anderson, and Juan Rivera will all hit the market this winter, and I wouldn't be surprised if the only one of those four to return to Anaheim next season is Teixeira. Of course, with the departure of all those free agents, that would leave room in the budget for the Angels to still make a splash, and Moreno has his sights on one pitcher in particular.

Part of that commitment is expected to be a pursuit of the top pitcher on the market, Milwaukee left-hander CC Sabathia, speculation Moreno did little to shoot down Tuesday.

"We always try to stay very focused on pitching, and right now we think we have a solid one through four," Moreno said, referring to John Lackey, Ervin Santana, Joe Saunders and Jered Weaver.

"But do you go out and get a No. 1, or do you look for a 2, 3 or 4? We have a wish list of things we think will improve the team. But what you go after could affect your flexibility."

Adding Sabathia to their rotation would make one of the AL's strongest rotations even stronger, and would go a long way to making sure the Angels run away with the AL West again in 2009. Of course, I'm still of the opinion that Sabathia would probably prefer staying in the NL where he's dominated and he gets to swing the stick occasionally.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Oakland Athletics (53-55) at Boston Red Sox (62-48)- 7:05 PM EST
As debuts go, making two nice catches and scoring both of your new teams' runs in a 2-1 win that helped end a slide of 5 losses in six games is a pretty nice way to start off a career with a new team. That's exactly what Jason Bay did last night with the Red Sox. The thing is, anyone that follows the Red Sox can tell you that it's going to take a whole lot more than that from the guy that's replacing Manny Ramirez in the lineup.

Tonight, he gets his second start in left field at Fenway while the Red Sox try to stave off the Yankees (who they're 2.5 games up on) and/or catch the Rays (who they're three) games behind. Whatever happens to the Red Sox down the stretch, Bay's going to play a huge part in it.

Back in 2004 the San Diego Padres used their first pick in the amateur draft to select shortstop Matt Bush. There was some concern with the pick at the time, because many people felt the Padres would have been better off going after Stephen Drew or Jered Weaver. The Padres were concerned about the bonus it would take to sign either of those guys, though, and instead went with the local product Bush.

They then gave Bush a team record $3.15 million signing bonus. Bush, then only 18 years old, then went out and celebrated his newfound wealth by getting into a fight at a nightclub in Peoria, Arizona. Bush was suspended for the incident but came back after a month off courtesy of the team, and after he plead guilty to disorderly conduct, trespassing, and underage possession of alcohol.

Well, last week Matt was in a bar that was only a block away from where the fight in 2004 took place. Bet you can't guess what happened.

Padres minor leaguer Matt Bush, drafted first overall in 2004, recently was involved in an off-field fight in which he suffered bodily harm, according to persons close to him. It happened near a pub/grill in Peoria, Ariz., across from the Padres' compound.

The Los Angeles Angels are in first place in the AL West, and are about to start a very important (okay, as important as a series can be halfway through the season) series with the Oakland Athletics in Anaheim tonight. They're only 4.5 games ahead of Oakland at the moment, and they're coming off a series against the Dodgers in which they lost two of three and couldn't hit their way out of a paper bag.

For goodness sake, Jered Weaver threw a damn no-hitter on Saturday and the Angels still lost. In the three games against the Dodgers, the Angels hit .161 and managed to score one run. That's why hitting coach Mickey Hatcher is going to be a little more assertive in today's hitters meeting.

"When we get home, we're going to have a meeting and figure out how many of these guys are trying to get me fired," Hatcher said.

"The last few days in that locker room, I don't know how to describe it, but it's not the same team. The energy level is real low. Sometimes that happens when you travel coast to coast. I don't know why."

Of course, I don't know that things will get much better against the Athletics this week. After all, the A's pitching staff does have the second-best ERA in baseball at 3.42 (just behind the White Sox who check in at 3.39), and they're not going to make it any easier on the Angels lineup.

General manager Tony Reagins came out last week and said he doesn't plan on making any changes come the trade deadline, but I have to wonder if he'll change his mind if his lineup keeps struggling to score runs. At some point the Angels will have to seriously consider sacrificing some of their pitching depth to add another bat to the lineup.

I remember when I was a kid I went to a White Sox game against the Yankees with my dad. It was a special game in history, because it happened to be the day that Andy Hawkins threw a no-hittter against the White Sox. Oh, and he also lost the game 4-0.

I was only nine years old at the time, so I didn't quite understand the significance of what I'd just seen, I just knew that the White Sox had one, and that it was a good thing. The idea of how Hawkins must have felt after the Yankees committed three errors in that 8th inning to lose the game never crossed my mind. Looking back on it now, though, I'll bet he was pretty pissed off.

Wouldn't you be? At the very least you have to figure Jered Weaver probably is.

Weaver held the Dodgers without a hit through six innings before being removed for a pinch-hitter and turning things over to Arredondo, who retired the Dodgers in order in the seventh and eighth innings. The game did not qualify as an official no-hitter because the Dodgers did not bat in their half of the ninth inning.

The Dodgers scored in the fifth on a pair of errors, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly. Weaver committed the first error when he couldn't cleanly field leadoff hitter Matt Kemp's dribbler up the first base line.

Kemp would go on to steal second base and move up to third after Jeff Mathis saw a cute girl in the stands and wanted to impress her* by playing catch with Torii Hunter in center field (*this is my interpretation, anyway). Kemp would then score on a sac fly by Blake DeWitt, and the Dodgers would win 1-0.

All of which means that in his next start, Jered will give up 15 hits in 7 innings of work, yet the Angels will win the game 13-7. Baseball just has a way of balancing this stuff out, so it's important that Jered not let this bother him going into his next start. Things could be worse, after all, he could be Jeff Weaver.

They say it's better to be lucky than good. At this hour, Joe Torre would agree with that statement. His Dodgers failed to record a hit against Jered Weaver and Jose Arredondo at Chavez Ravine this evening but still found a way to beat the Angels 1-0. It's only the fifth time since 1900 that a team won a game without getting a hit.

Weaver made an error on a Matt Kemp grounder and then catcher Jeff Mathis compounded it by throwing away a ball on a steal attempt to get Kemp to third. He scored on Blake Dewitt's sacrifice fly. Weaver left after six innings and Arredondo pitched the seventh and eighth but couldn't get any help from their offense, which got shut out for the second straight game. Chad Billingsley was the beneficiary of the Dodgers' good fortune.

Adding insult to insult for the Angel hurlers is that if they sit their grandchildren down in 50 years to show them that they once threw a no-hitter, they'll look crazier than Abe Simpson recounting his exploits in WWII. Because the Dodgers were at home and didn't bat in the ninth, the game doesn't go into the record book as a no-hitter. The last pitcher so dishonored was Matt Young, who no-hit the Tribe for the Red Sox in 1992 but lost thanks to seven walks and a Luis Rivera error.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

Cincinnati Reds (35-41) at New York Yankees (40-35) - 1:05 PM ET

A friend of mine ... a Yankee fan no less ... said to me on Friday afternoon that he fully expected the Reds to win two out of three in this series in the Bronx against his Yankees. A pretty amazing statement from a fan of a team who had just won seven in a row. That's how impressed he was of the young pitching the Reds had. Although I think he expected the two wins to be against Edinson Vólquez on Friday, and Johnny Cueto today, and not against minor league call-up Daryl Thompson on Saturday. Instead, the Reds have a chance to sweep the Yankees in the Bronx (just like the Series in '76), ensuring that the Yankees last win over the Reds at Yankee Stadium will forever be Game 1 of the 1961 World Series, before The House That Ruth Built (and The House That Griffey Hates) comes down for good.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

San Francisco Giants (30-40) vs. Detroit Tigers (32-37) - 10:05PM Est.

It's been a very odd year for the Detroit Tigers. After getting off to a horrible start this season, there have been times when they seem to be getting their act together and then suddenly they're horrible again in the blink of an eye. As Joe Morgan would probably say if you asked him about it, "I'm friends with Gary Sheffield." "They're consistently inconsistent."

Still, after sweeping the division-leading Chicago White Sox last week, I asked the question if this was the start of the Tigers turnaround. Was it a sign of things to come?

Well, the Tigers didn't stop there as they followed that sweep with another one against the Dodgers this weekend, and they've now won six in a row to creep back into the race.

Spot Jobs takes a look at fantasy baseball gambling via sitting a usual starting pitcher for the week and/or starting a usually unused starting pitcher.

Five Up

Ted Lilly -- He's struggled on several different occasions this season, including his last start against what was left of the Rockies' lineup. Still, the wind was screaming out and only one HR appeared it would have left without said wind. Now he gets the Padres in San Diego. Last time he faced them he picked up a win while striking out 11. Now they are in spacious Petco. He's an absolute must-start.

Glen Perkins and Boof Bonser -- No AL squad has scored less runs than the O's. Perkins was dealing until the hiccup at Yankee Stadium last Friday, so you can expect a bounce-back this Wednesday. For Boof, it's a huge gamble because he's been awful. I've just got a hunch he'll make good on his chance this week.

Jered Weaver -- He's struggled to fulfill his promise since a stellar rookie campaign. He's also only 4-6 for the first place Halos. This week, though, he visits the anemic Mariners offense in Safeco. I like him to deal and pick up a win.

Johnny Cueto -- Coming off a good outing, he figures to have success in punching out some Marlins Friday.