13 First Half Shutouts (42/81)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Angels first half success in the starting pitching department, racking up 12 shutouts in the first half of the season. Apparently Angels spot starter, Brad Mills, took offense to my premature article.

The Angels blanked the Baltimore Orioles for the second straight day with a score of 6-0 to add to their league leading 13 shutouts of opposing teams this season.

Mills got the spot start for an injured Dan Haren, who went on the DL earlier this week for the first time in his career, and lasted 5 innings while only giving up 3 hits and striking out 6. Mills was pulled from a start in Triple-A Salt Lake earlier this week in order to start for the Angels, explaining the short outing on short rest.

What's interesting of note is that has 3-3 record with a 7.38 ERA in 10 big league starts over a four-year span, but 3-0 with a 1.56 ERA in three starts against the Orioles. The Angels definitely knew his success versus the Orioles when they called him up, and it paid off in a big way Sunday.

Hopefully Mills can add some pitching depth to a suddenly struggling rotation until Jerome Williams can get back after the All Star break and Haren heals up. Until then, the Angels are hoping their starters can keep putting up blanks. Have a great All Star break everyone!

Angels 1st Half Shutouts (41/81)

Remember earlier this season when the Angels were leading the league in shutouts? I'm talking about the futility of an offense rather than the dominance of a pitching staff. Two and a half months later, my how the tables have turned. How many shutouts do the Angels have this season?

The offense turned around, and Angels pitchers had a stretch of some kind of amazing as they racked up wins and blanked opponents and now lead the league with 12 shutouts of opposing teams after Jered Weaver's 3-0 win against the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night.

Here, I'll break down the Angels 12 shutouts, a team record before the All Star break.

*Update: Angels spot starter, Brad Mills combined with LaTroy Hawkins, Kevin Jepsen, Jordan Walden, and Ernesto Frieri to toss the Angels 13th shutout against the Orioles on Sunday.


April 6, Opening Day vs. Kansas City Royals

Angels got off to a great start to the season by shutting out the Royals 5-0 at home for Albert Pujols debut as an Angels. The highly paid slugger didn't get a hit, but Weaver managed to go 8 innings, racking up 10 strikeouts and Scott Downs came in to close the door. Sound familiar?

April 16, Oakland As, Weaver's 1,000th Strikeout

Weaver was on the mound for this one. He didn't go the distance, pitching 6 and 2/3 innings, but struck out 6 batters, one of which served as his 1,000th career strikeout, as the Angels beat the As 6-0 at home.


May 1, Minnesota Twins, Jerome Williams 3-hitter

Nothing more than a journeyman the past couple of years before finding success in the back end of the Angels pitching rotation last year, Williams has really felt a comfort level in Anaheim that he has experienced in few other places. He showed his confidence by dominating a weak Twins lineup 4-0 with a complete game, 3-hit shutout, his first complete game since June 27, 2003 (his only other shut out).

May 2, Minnesota Twins, Weaver's No-Hitter

The very next night after Williams 3-hitter, Weaver mastered the Twins 9-0 by throwing the 10th no-hitter in franchise history. It was only the second no-hitter since 1990 (Ervin Santana had thrown his no-no the year before), and was only one walk and a strikeout/passed ball away from a perfect game. Weaver struck out 9 and continued to show his dominance as one of the elite pitchers in baseball.


May 15, Oakland As, Santana Finally Gets Run Support

After leading the league in lack of run support, the Angels had been shut out in 5 straight of Santana's starts earlier in the season, Santana discovered the best way to make up for lack of run support: shut out the other team. Santana combined with Downs and Ernesto Frieri to drop the As, 4-0 at home.


May 22, at Oakland As, CJ Throws 1-Hitter

Up until this point, all of the Angels previous shutouts had come at home. CJ Wilson decided to take the show on the road,  combining with Frieri to one-hit the As for the third shutout over the team this season. Wilson went 8 innings and racked up 7 strikeouts allowing only 1 hit and 2 walks en route to a 5-0 win. He would have been allowed to finish the game had he not had a pitch count over 125.

May 24, at Seattle Mariners, Dan Haren Strikes Out Almost EVERYBODY

Haren tore apart a Mariners lineup, racking up 14 strikeouts in a complete game, 4-hit shutout. The Angels won 3-0, and Haren struck out every member of the Mariner's lineup except for lead off second baseman, Dustin Ackley.

June 16, Arizona Diamondbacks, Santana Gets Advice from Joe Saunders

Santana had been struggling mightily this season. With the call up of Garrett Richards, and the imminent return of Weaver, there had been talks that Santana might get sent down to Triple A to work on his command. The day before the game, ex-teammate and Arizona pitcher, Saunders, met up with Santana to give him a little pep talk. Whatever Saunders said ended up working perfectly as Santana took a perfect game into the 7th inning and ended up tossing a one-hit shutout as the Angels won 2-0 at home. I don't think Saunders wanted Santana to use his advice until after his team had left town.

June 17, Arizona Diamondbacks, Richards Joins the Shutout Party

Angels shutouts this season seem to come in pairs. A day after Santana 1-hit the Diamondbacks, Richards combined with Frieri to throw a 4-hit shut out to beat the D-Backs 2-0 again. With the shutout, Richards became the sixth Angel starter to toss a complete game or combined shutout this season. How many rotations in baseball can claim to have six shutout-quality pitchers?

June 20, San Francisco Giants, Weaver Returns

Despite being on a VERY limited pitch count once returning from the disabled list due to a back injury, Weaver sailed through 6 innings and 78 pitches by giving up only 2 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 3 to combine with Jason Isringhausen, Downs and Jordan Walden to shut out the Giants 6-0. With the win, Weaver proved that, despite missing time on the DL, he is still in contention for his first Cy Young award.

July 2, at Cleveland Indians, Weaver Again

Who's the best pitcher in the American League right now? Without a doubt it's Jered Weaver. The guy combined with Downs for his 5th shutout of the season as the Angels beat the Indians 3-0 away. Of the Angels 12 first half shutouts, only 3 of them have come away.

July 7, Baltimore Orioles, You Guessed It, Weaver Weaver Weaver

Big bad Weaver once again combined with Downs to 3-hit the Orioles to pick up his 6th shutout of the season.

The Angels have 13 shutouts this season, 3 higher than the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants. Will Jered Weaver get the start for the American League in the All Star game? If allowed, he would probably shut out the best in the NL as well. Despite their recent struggles, the Angels have continuously demonstrated that they have the best rotation in baseball.

Which team's pitching rotation do you think rivals the Angels this season? Leave a comment in the comment section below.

TNT Connect, But Angels Fall Short (40/81)

Angels All Stars Mark Trumbo and Mike Trout (TNT) each blasted solo home runs, but it wasn't enough to overcome one mistake pitch by starter CJ Wilson as the Angels fell 3-2 against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Angels struggled to find their offense last night, but managed to do everything else right. Wilson threw only one mistake pitch to Oriole's first baseman, Steve Pearce, who turned it into a 3-run home run, but in a game where your offense isn't getting a lot of hits, one mistake can be costly.

You may or may not disagree with me, but for the Angels, their biggest problem right now is without a doubt situational hitting, more specifically hitting with runners in scoring position.

Over the past 8 games, the Angels are 13 for 69 (.188 average) with runners in scoring position. You stretch that out a few more games into June and that number only gets worse. The Angels aren't having trouble hitting home runs (even Peter Bourjos has a couple); they're having trouble hitting the ball when runners are on base. Granted, the numbers above don't take into account the Angel's trademarked small-ball like sacrifice flies, sacrifice bunts, and Trout scoring from first base, but the numbers are alarming.

If the Angels don't start hitting the ball in key situations, their luck is going to run out, their home runs are going to start decreasing, and they will start piling up loses because no team can sustain the Angels current winning percentage without being able to hit the ball in the clutch. We haven't heard from the guy in awhile because the offense had been so good for most of May and June, but its time to see what batting coach, Jim Eppard can do to turn this pattern around.

Angels Steal One in Their Return Home (39/81)

In what could end up being the AL Wild Card playoff matchup in October, the Angels erased a 4-run deficit to beat the Baltimore Orioles 9-7 in their return home to the Big A.

The Angels showed their resiliency last night after coming home from a roller coaster road trip, and the offense and bullpen refused to let poor starting pitching be the factor in this one.

There's a lot going on with the Angels right now, so I'll try to catch you up on the Hometown front:

Banged-Up Starters:

When the Angel's offense was struggling mightily in April and May, the starting rotation picked the team up with their powerful throwing arms and carried them until All Star outfielder, Mike Trout showed up to give the offense a swift kick in the rear.

Now that the Angels have found their bats, it puts less pressure on the starters to throw perfect games every time, but the end of the June and beginning of July have not been so kind to the rotation.

Dan Haren is on the DL with a sore back for the first time in his career. Jerome Williams is struggling in his rehab assignment and won't be back until after the All Star break. Ervin Santana is regressing after what looked like bounce-back starts, including a 1-hitter. And finally, despite the Angels bailing him out, Garrett Richards was optioned back to Triple A this morning after two terrible outings in a row.

Remember when Angels had 6 elite-level starters a little over two weeks ago? Yeah, me neither.

Brilliant Bullpen:

If you asked me before the season started if I would have ever written this headline about the Angels bullpen, I would have given you a resounding "NO!" Not only would I have been wrong, but lately the Angels bullpen has proved that they're just as good as any in the majors. For 5 innings they shut down the Orioles lineup that managed to smash 7 runs off Richards in the first 4 innings.

Mike Trout, The Modern Era Rickey Henderson:

All I need to do is show you ESPN's graphic comparing Mike Trout vs Rickey Henderson as the only two players to hit at least .343, slug .551, with 10 home runs and 23 stolen bases in their first 60 games before the All Star break. Reminds you of how good The Man of Steal was and how good Trout is going to be.

All Star Trumbo:

In case you didn't already know, Angel's All Star LF/RF/1B/3B/DH Mark Trumbo will be participating in the home run derby and he's not worried about his swing. The young slugger spoke with Garrett Anderson, who won the derby in 2007 as well as the All Star Game MVP, and was reaffirmed that he needs to approach the contest just like batting practice and not try to pull the ball too much. While he has a good a shot as any to win, I doubt Trumbo takes home the crown. I do, however, think he'll hit the farthest ball in the park (and probably outside the park too).

Weaver Feels Great In First Complete Game of the Year (9/81)

Had a late night last night, but I was able to catch some of the recap from Saturday night's game. Let's see how the Angels did.

On the back of Jered Weaver's complete game, the Angels trumped the Baltimore Orioles for the second time in as many days, beating them 6-3 at Anaheim Stadium.

Weaver was in control last night, striking out 5 and walking none on a relatively low 114 pitches. His lone mistake was underestimating Orioles catcher Matt Weiters on a 3-0 count by throwing a fastball right down the middle. Weiters made Weaver pay by driving the ball into the stands for a 2-0 lead.

The Angels didn't give up though, and strung together enough hits for a 5-run 5th inning. Angels sent 11 men to the plate that inning including RBI singles from Mark Trumbo, Erick Aybar and Kendrys Morales with a big 2-run double hit by Bobby Abreu.

Bobby In The Lineup

Abreu got his sixth start of the season in left field last night, and, as mentioned above, delivered the death blow during that 5-run fifth. I have a few theories on Bobby playing as much as he has this season, and I'd like to list them here:

1. Mike Scioscia knows how much depth he has...

...so he's giving everyone an equal chance to prove themselves with the hopes that their numbers will not falter with inconsistent playing time. He's not doing this for a disgruntled player, as many of us believed was the case when Scioscia and General Manger Jerry Dipoto promised Abreu 400 at-bats during spring training. It's about seeing who's going to produce and who isn't early in the season so that you don't have to worry about it later. Scioscia was quoted after the game last night saying,

“The bottom line is, for a century they said, ‘If you want to play more, play better.’ … I don’t think our goal is to keep everyone happy. Our goal is to keep them productive.

2. Angels Are Trying to Trade Bobby

A productive player is always more valuable that an unproductive player. Yeah, the Angels could eat Abreu's salary and trade him for an obscure minor league player who will then be sent down to the Angel's farm system and never be heard from again, but what would they gain from doing that besides making another team better with a motivated Bobby Abreu.

If Abreu produces well, then it can only mean good things for the Angel's lineup if they decide to keep him, or he becomes more valuable if they opt to trade him. If Abreu doesn't produce, then the Angels will probably release or trade him and get nothing in return, but at least they can be content with the fact that they tried.

3. Scioscia Has Accidentally Switched His Manager's Rulebook with a Little League Rulebook...

...and feels the need to give everyone equal amounts of playing time regardless of talent or depth at any given position. After playing Abreu the minimum amount of innings required by Little League, Scioscia substituted Vernon Wells for Abreu just to be fair.

4. Bobby Abreu Knows Where The Bodies Are Buried...

...and is holding the Angels hostage for playing time.

Don't get me wrong, I love Bobby. He was one of the best things to happen to the Angels 2-3 years ago. However, I lost a lot of respect for him with all the public complaining he was doing about his expected playing time with the Angels this year and having Scioscia and Dipoto baby him to calm him down. His lack of defensive effort in the first series against the Kansas City Royals was the final straw for me. He needs to learn his role on the team, a veteran bat off the bench, and do what needs to be done to win a World Series. It's either that or get traded to a team like the Pittsburgh Pirates and lose all hope of ever reaching a World Series again before he retires.