Bullpen Sucks and Blows Another One (55/81)

Remember in the middle of the season when the Angels bullpen inexplicably turned their season around and began pitching lights out? With the acquisition of Ernesto Frieri and an innovative closer system implemented by Mike Scioscia, the Angels bullpen began holding leads for the first time in two years. All of that has gone away and the Angels bullpen is once again back to meeting expectations.

Angels were struggling to get back into the game, down 3-0 in the 8th inning when Albert Pujols came through with a clutch 2-run home run. With the score 3-2 going into the 9th, the Angels handed the ball over to relief pitcher Hisanori Takahashi. Takahashi then proceeded to give up 3 hits to 3 batters before being relieved by Jason Isringhausen. Not even the veteran Isringhausen could close the door on that mess as the inning ended with the Cleveland Indians up 6-2.

What happened? Recently asked about the team's struggles, Torii Hunter responded, "I can't talk about that," Hunter said. "I will never talk about my pitchers."

With a staff ERA of 6.67 in August, the worst in all of baseball, Angels have watched their name tumble down the standing further behind Texas and now fifth in the Wild Card standings.

Angels pitching coach, Mike Butcher, was thrown out of the game the other night for getting in the face of an umpire when he took issue over the umpire's strike zone against Jered Weaver. As a result, Butcher has been suspended one game by the league. It will be interesting to see if the Angels shutout the Indians tonight, and everyone makes a big stink about Butcher being the problem.

I'll stand by what I've been saying all year, the Angels need a breath of fresh air in their pitching approach. Despite their unquestionable talent, the pitching has struggled and someone needs to man up and accept the blame or turn things around.

Angels Series Versus Mariners: In Dire Need of Heat (52, 53, 54/81)

It's funny that during the hottest weekend of the year in Anaheim, the Angels couldn't find a way to turn up the heat. I'm going to be honest, I was on vacation at the river this weekend and wasn't able to catch any of the games, but on paper, it doesn't look pretty. I decided to bunch up the weekend series because: 1. It's easier for me this way, and 2. Because the farther Angels fall out of playoff contention, the less ink they deserve.

The key phrase here is "on paper." On paper, the Angels have one of the best, if not the best, teams in all of baseball. The Angels have 4 starters that could be aces on many of the league's pitching staffs. They have a Hall of Fame-level first baseman who could be spoken in the same breath as some of the best baseball players of all time. They have a versatile Rookie of the Year runner up who is exceeding even the highest of expectations in his power-hitting, sophomore tour. They have a deeper outfield than the Pacific Ocean, with Peter Bourjos and Vernon Wells coming off the bench. Their full-time DH is a switching hitting, ball crushing Cuban Missile and have one of the best defensive, double-play combos in baseball up the middle, and yet the Angels are 8 GAMES OUT OF FIRST PLACE! I still haven't even mentioned their historic 2012 Rookie of the Year, potential AL MVP, Mike Trout, yet.

The reality of the situation is that for all of the Angels talent, they have produced in the clutch. Their situational hitting has been atrocious all year. Their bullpen has been an up and down roller coaster of inconsistency, and, with the exception of Jered Weaver, the Angels starting pitchers have underperformed throughout large stretches the entire season.

The pitching situation is a mess, and Mike Butcher is starting to feel the heat. The Angels pitching coach got thrown out of the game last night for getting in the face of umpire Mike Estabrook for his strike zone on Weaver.

For those of you that don't play MLB 12: The Show, I'll confirm your suspicions. The Angels main three coaches (Mike Scioscia, Mickey Hatcher, and Butcher) have negative stat-modifier in every category that affects your team. The Angels have already done the right thing by axing Hatcher, which ended up coinciding with an immediate offensive spark plug with the call-up of Trout and the promotion of hitting coach Jim Eppard.

The Angels need another spark to light up the tail end of this season, and while getting rid of Butcher's negative statistics won't have any effect this late in the season, the Angels should really bring a fresh face and some clean air into the clubhouse. I hear Troy Percival will be throwing out the first pitch at the Angels game versus the Indian today. Maybe he can stop by and squint the Angels bullpen into shaping up.

I honestly don't know if the Angels will make the playoffs at their current pace, but they are by no means out of it yet. The teams that win the World Series aren't always the teams with the best record; they're the teams who get hot at the end of the season and ride it all the way through October. Angels just need to get hot in this final month and a half, but with the Angels lack of consistency, finding enough kerosene to keep it going might be tough.

3 Things Santana Should Do To Get His Confidence Back (27/81)

Ervin Santana got shelled for what seems like every time this season, and the Angels couldn't overcome an early deficit as they lost to the Seattle Mariners 8-6.

Mike Trout had four hits, 2 RBIs and a run scored but it wasn't enough to erase the 7 runs Santana gave up in the first 5 innings.

Santana has not been right this year. Whether it's control or focus, he has not been able to miss bats very often. Santana has had the rap of a good year/bad year type of player. He would always follow up a good season with a bad to mediocre season. Last year was the first time he had back-to-back stellar years, and it made us forget about the whole Jekyll and Hyde persona. However, Mr. Hyde has reared his ugly head and, like Bruce Banner and the Hulk in The Avengers, Santana needs to find a way to get it under control.

A couple of solutions that might help the struggling righty:

1. Skip a start:

Give the guy a break, skip his next start and see if he comes back with a fresh look. We often hear about streaks and slumps that a batter can get into, but the same thing happens for pitchers too. If you're beating yourself up, you're going to continue to do so until something messes up your habits.

2. Send Santana to work with a veteran pitcher:

Guys like Chuck Finley or even Clyde Wright, who works right down the street, immediately come to mind. Just like Mickey Hatcher and the Angels offense, whatever Mike Butcher is saying to Santana is clearly not working. He needs to hear something different from someone else, a fresh perspective, to get him out of his own head and maybe fine tune his mechanics some more.

3. Send Santana down to Triple A to get his confidence back:

This one is the one least likely to happen as Santana has been a fixture in the Angels rotation for a few years now, and the Angels don't have any depth at the starter position with Jered Weaver out, but sometimes all you need to do is beat up on someone lesser than you to feel better about yourself.