The Angels' new search

Mark it down on your calendar. June 22. The date the Angels officially began the search for another starting pitcher.

No, you won't get anyone connected with the team to confirm it, but the circumstances at this point speak for themselves.

You begin with the club announcing Ervin Santana has been placed on the disabled list again, lending doubt as to when, or if, he'll regain his form this season. Then you add the fact Matt Palmer has come crashing back to Earth after his, uh, surreal start.

And suddenly, you have two possible holes in the five-man rotation that seemed so promising just a few weeks ago. Sean O'Sullivan, who threw exceptionally well in his first big league start, will get another one tonight. But it is asking a lot of a young man who spent all of last year in double A to make this kind of jump in one season.

If, as you suspect, both he and Palmer prove to be stop-gap starters at best, the Angels need to go out and find a proven veteran who can come in and stabilize the bottom part of the rotation. He doesn't have to be a star, just a .500 pitcher who can eat some innings, allowing Mike Scioscia to not overwork an already depleted bullpen.

Assuming Pedro Martinez is either a) too expensive, or b) just a shell of his former All-World self, they'll need to look elsewhere. As usual, good pitching is at a premium and it won't be easy to come by. 

But don't let Tony Reagins or anyone else kid you. The Angels' search has officially begun.

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Some quick minor league updates:

Hank Conger, the young catcher Scioscia said "could hit in the big leagues right now," apparently is not quite ready to do that. He's hitting .265 and slugging just .352 at double-A Arkansas.

Trevor Reckling, the polished left-hander many teams are inquiring about, continues to pitch well. He's 3-2 with a 2.78 ERA, giving up 47 hits and striking out 47 in 58 innings since moving up to Arkansas.

As for the latest Brandon Wood report, he entered last night hitting .305 with 15 homers, 43 RBIs and a .606 slugging percentage in 203 at-bats at triple-A Salt Lake City.

-- Steve Bisheff

  

Comments

[Scott C. Worden]

Forget about starting pitching. Look at the AWFUL bullpen: Jepsen is on his way to an ERA of 14.00, Bulger has good stuff but seems to allow runs in every other start while lacking confidence, and Rafael Rodriguez would still be in AAA if it weren't for our lack of depth in the bullpen.

[shaun]

Paul Byrd anyone? I still can't fanthom why they aren't looking in the independent leagues or looking for a vet. We can't keep relying on guys from the farm to come through. Please don't tell me that once Shane Loux gets healthy that the Angels will be ok.

This season has slight shades of 1996 and 2003, when injuries banged up the rotation and they went through lots of SPs.

[J in Vegas]

Well, the Angels certainly wouldn't be alone in seeking starting pitching. There's a long queue for that. If they can cobble together the pieces, though, who's even willing to give up pitching right now?

The only impact guy that I keep reading about is Cliff Lee of CLE. They're going to lose him to FA, and they know it. So, the Indians have to weigh any offer against the value of the two draft picks they'll get for him. From what I've read, though, it would have to be a substantial offer. However, I've been saying for a while now that if the team isn't going to play B. Wood, then they ought to trade him while he has value.

Offensively and pitching-wise this team is kind of a mess. It's a small miracle that they are in contention right now. I'm just about at the point where I would rather see them getting a long look at their younger players then see them limp their way into the playoffs to face yet another first-round exit.

Tell guys like Wood, O'Sullivan, Palmer, S. Rodriguez (Until Howie's ready to come back) that they're going to play for the time being and see what they can do.

[Greg]

The Care And Feeding Of Rookies - AKA Mike Scioscia "Who Gives A ----" My prediction is that this season is going to slowly slip away with an "we're this close to a run, don't worry everything's fine, when we get back ??? we'll be much better".

Significant change needs to take place. We need at least one pitcher, one infield bat and one outfield/DH bat. I'd say bring up Wood but holy crud, look at the way Scioscia's handled Sean Rodriguez. If you bring up the PCL's leading hitter, you need to play him. You can't pinch hit one game, sit one, play one, sit two, and pinch hit again and hope a rookie can perform well. Pinch hitting is the worst thing a rookie can do. So go ahead and leave Brandon Wood in the minors if that's how Scioscia will utilize him. The O's brought up Nolan Reimold, stuck him in their lineup very consistently and he has paid off big time for them.

The Three Amigos things has to come to an end. Chone Figgins stays in my mind, but one of Izturis or Aybar, preferably both, has to go. Trade one of Izturis, Wood, Aybar or Rodriguez for a pitcher. Trade with Boston and get a relief pitcher - unless it's Wood, in which case trade for Buchholz or Bowden (may have to throw in a Double A pitcher). Trade for a bat. Seth Smith (who had a fantatic game last night) is rotting on Colorado's bench. Aubrey Huff is available in Birdland. For the right price you could really do right and pick up Luke Scott who is SMOKING hot.

With under .800 OPS I present the following: Abreu .798, Aybar .693, Izturis .690, Vlad .658 (HOLY CRUD), Kendrick .636, Matthews .604 (check for pulse, pleeeeze), Quinlan .552, and Mathis .532. Six of those guys are getting very regular playing time and one (Kendrick) was.

On a team of table setters who's going to bring the beef?

So go ahead, leave the guy who plays a very good shortstop, besides third and first, with the .1000+/- OPS in the minors because if Scioscia is going to play him like Rodriguez he's better off there.

Thank goodness for Hunter, Rivera, Napoli and Morales (way to go Kendry). Do you realize that of the six OPS players I mentioned above who are still with the team who play significant time that those six only have a combined 10 homeruns this first half of the season.

Trade from strength - trade one or two of the Three Amigos (not Figgins) for some relief pitching or package Wood and get a real pitcher.

[Brian]

I hear Paul Byrd is available. And he'll take a deal that only pays him based on performance. If he doesn't do his job he won't cost much. If the Angels are desperate enough to even look at Pedro they have to at least talk to Byrd.

Does This Angels team even care though? I'm starting to not care. I sure don't see a good playoff team out of this bunch. If they make the playoffs they'll be done after three games. That's why I say put Vlad back on the DL. Call up Brandon Wood. Get some excitement in this offense. At least give us fans what we want. The Angels were better when Vlad was on the DL. At least the offense was. Vlad was brought back way too soon.

[Buffalo Rob]

I've never understood any of the Conger hype. His numbers aren't even that good for a catcher. Given the Angels' track record with developing hitters, I'm not expecting Hank Conger to amount to much.

Meanwhile, Ervin Santana's elbow is giving me ulcers. They keep insisting there's nothing wrong with any tendons or ligaments, and that Tommy John surgery won't be necessary, but Santana's velocity hasn't been good all year and he's clearly not himself. Obviously we can HOPE that it's just because he missed spring training and is trying to get into game shape, but I'm not confident that's all it is.

All the more reason to re-sign John Lackey. If the Angels let Lackey walk and it turns out Santana does need surgery, what kind of rotation do we have next season? Reagins will need to be at the top of his game these next 12 months if the Angels are going to continue to contend.

[Tom S]

Ah Yes and Manager Mike continues to make the same mistakes over and over as he did last night.
1. Leave the starter in too long
2. Continue to hit pathetic Vlad 4th. The rest of MLB sees the decline why doesn't Mike?

[Brian]

"All the more reason to re-sign John Lackey."

I'm not impressed with the 2009 version of John Lackey. The 2008 version was nothing special either. The Angels should re-sign him if he doesn't expect ace money but no way should they give him a huge contract. This is two years in a row he started the season on the DL. I don't want to see that every year.

[Fred Fredrix]

Our offense isn't much different than last year. It's the pitching that's killing us. Remember the '06 Tigers? Great pitching staff, went to the world series. In '07 their pitching fell apart and so did the team. Our guys are not going to hit when they see our bullpen constantly give up runs. We're probably giving up a run an inning in the pen, so the guys see our starter yanked in the 4th with the score 5-1 and realize that by the 9th inning the other team will have 9 or 10 runs, and it's just too much psychologically.

If we had a bullpen like the (please don't hit me) Dodgers, that our guys were confident could keep us in the game, maybe we could come back from 4 runs.

Trade Kendrick, Aybar and Figgins for some relief.

[Terry Crow]

Reagins will have to be at the top of his game? As far as I can tell, he has no game. I remember his winking and grinning about Tex last year as if it was a done deal. He also let John Garland go. He would look pretty good right now. Maybe Arizona, a team going nowehere, would be willing to trade him back to the Angels. Paul B yrd was a fan favorite when he was with the Angels before. Why not give him a look. What can it cost? Oh yeah, I forgot. Reagins is enthused about RUDY SEANEZ.

[Buffalo Rob]

Give Reagins some credit. His first move was to bring in Torii Hunter (correcting Stoneman's mistake the previous year in signing GMJ). His second move was trading Cabrera for Garland (shoring up our rotation and correcting another Stoneman mistake). The Tex trade gave us a superstar 1B for the playoffs and two high draft picks this month for just Kotchman (currently outplayed by Morales) and Stephen Marek.

He was better in his first year than Stoneman ever was. Now he needs to be even better than that.

[J in Vegas]

I don't think bringing in OC was a bad move at all, if that's the mistake that Buffalo Rob is referring to. He played an excellent SS, was a solid hitter, and was a great clubhouse guy. I think the ChiSox got the better end of that trade, though, as Garland was barely even effective. Which brings me to my next point:

Terry Crow was suggesting that Garland would look pretty good right now. I don't think he would. He has an ERA of 4.99 while pitching in the NL against lineups that are generally inferior to those in the AL. He's also walked one more batter than he's struck out. I wouldn't be interested in him. Maybe Doug Davis (whose K/SS ratio is not that great either.), but not Garland. If that's indicative of what is available on the pitching market, then I'm quite content to let Palmer and O'Sullivan play out the string.