The
Angels came oh so close to another
cinderella World Series run after knocking off the
Empire, but instead it was
Cleveland fans who got to rally around a stupid stuffed object and make loud noises, though thankfully not with big red sticks. The ingredients were much the same --
John Lackey,
Jarrod Washburn, a deep, multi-talented bullpen and of course the always-gritty
David Eckstein. But once again, the organization has
failed to upgrade even minimally, with the big-ticket addition being one
J. Lugo, and now they'll need more than a rally monkey to repeat last year's ALCS run.
Last year's bullpen featured five main pitchers --
K-Rod,
Percival,
Donnelly,
Rick White, and
Steve Green -- none of whom had an ERA higher than 3.53. Instead of searching for Joe Fuschia this offseason, the club should have been trying to figure out how they finished in the middle of the pack in run prevention despite such a strong group of firemen. Of course, this wasn't exactly the $64,000 Question, as a cursory glance of the stats made the answer plain as day. The
Halos received nearly 350 innings of sub replacement-level pitching from such luminaries as Bob Jenks, now out of baseball, Rhett Parrott, now squawking away in AAA, and one
Glendon Rusch, who's back for another 35-start whirl. Apparently his combined no-hitter on May seventh, one of just two in the bigs last year, provides for quite the ad campaign. I've no doubt that
Mr. No-Hitter will improve on his 5.55 ERA of a year ago, but any improvement may be negated by regression from "Big
Ben"
Howard, who's as much a 3.16 ERA pitcher as I am a tap-dancer.
A fifth place finish in run scoring is certainly attainable once again, as only
Reggie Willits in center field appears to be a below-average performer, but perhaps he'll ride the same lightning that 36 year old
Denny Hocking did last year. The journeyman's now probably a year from retirement, but for a half-year last year, he seemed anything but, flirting with .400 before slumping badly in the second half and finishing at a very empty .315. Nevertheless, an average of .315 or .215 from the eight spot won't matter much when the other two outfield spots are manned by "Mad
Vlad"
Guerrero and Hall of Very Good inductee-in-waiting
Garret Anderson, who posted career-highs last year with a .369 OBP and .891 OPS. Burly first baseman
Jack Cust hits in the middle of the lineup alongside those two and provides another 30 home run threat to drive in
Alfonso Soriano and
Justin Leone at the top of the lineup.
Soriano, a .462 slugger in the year past, is miscast as a leadoff hitter, but I suppose it's too tempting not to place his 50 stolen base speed at the top.
Leone, the 2005 Rookie of the Year, put up eerily similar numbers to his award-winning .306/.361/.420 campaign, but I suppose that's to be expected of a 28 year old. He'll also provide a fine mask to the defensive weaknesses of the king of scrap and grit,
David Eckstein, who set a team record by being plunked with 20 pitches last year.
Eck's flaws are many, and I'd be more likely to throw a gubernatorial vote to the underappreciated
Brian Schneider.
Schneider, an All-Star last year out of default, happens to be a fine backstop, excellent defensively and with enough power to provide a .700 OPS. With youngster Jeff Mathis perhaps a year away,
Schneider could be a trade possibility in a year or two, as could
Julio Lugo if I learn that I have sadomasochistic tendencies.
I like this team quite a bit more than I probably should, perhaps subtly understating their flaws. Maybe it's the bullpen, or maybe it's the soft spot I have for
The Hacktastic One. They're not in the class of the New York teams, and as you'll see, they're not even the class of their own division. But they should be in it to the end.