At least, that's what reading twitter on a nightly basis, or listening to Terry Smith take call-after-call on Angel Talk after the games would lead you to believe. Don't get me wrong. I'm incredibly glass-half-empty on a number of things, including my beloved Angels, but some of the stuff I've read and heard has been just silly. Between the Bullpen, Vernon Wells, Jeff Mathis, Scott Kazmir and our hitting with RISP, you'd think we were the worst team in baseball. We are 7-5... Is it great? No, but we are only two games back of the Rangers, who started 6-0. But I figured since its an off day, and I'm kinda bored, so lets play along!So, its pretty clear through 12 games that this team isn't ready for any kind of sustained level of success. The bullpen has been MISERABLE, costing Ervin Santana wins in all three of his starts, and Dan Haren a win in one of his. Its like we gathered the guys scalping tickets on Gene Autry, slapped some random jerseys on their backs, and tossed them into our bullpen to blow our leads. That is, if we even get a lead!
The Angels have been historically bad offensively... I mean, I've got no stats here to back me up, but from what I've seen, with my own eyes, this is a bad team with runners in scoring position. We never come up with the big hits, or any hits at all for that matter. Its like we are taking negative steroids or something. To be honest though, this offensive haphazardness really begins and ends with our "big" off-season grab, Vernon BLEEPING Wells!
I don't think its possible to have a worse start to a season than the one Vernon Wells is having... I mean, isn't he only hitting like .100 now? What a bum! We trade beloved fan favorites Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli for this guy, and he just craps out all over the field. I don't know why he ever got a gold glove, dude plays the same level of defense as 35-year-old Garret Anderson. The Vernon Wells trade might be the worst one we have ever made, if it wasn't for some douche name Scott Kazmir!
(Ok, in all honesty here, I do not like the Scott Kazmir deal, and to be honest, the best option for him at this point is to let him go, eat the final year (years?) of his contract and just wash our hands of the whole thing. Find some sort of starter-by-committee with Palmer, Thompson, Takahashi and Chatwood. The only way out of this mess is to let him go. No foolin..)
So really, at this point, we are actually hoping and praying for the return of Erick Aybar, Joel Pineiro and Kendrys Morales? One guy who plays about the most average defense of anyone on our team, another guy who hasn't even given us a whole season of solid baseball, and a third who broke his leg celebrating? Good Grief. We are going to be lucky if we can squeak past the Mariners for third place...
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This was fun, we should do it again some time.
Cot's says Kazmir has one year plus a $2.5M team buyout for 2012 if they don't exercise his $13.5M 2012 team option.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'm unclear about what they would have to do if they were going to just buy him out of the rest of his contract... would they give him whatevers left of the $12M they owe this year AND the $13.5M they owe next year, or just the $12M and the $2.5M?
ReplyDeleteIt's simply an option. In Scott Kazmir's contract, is says he's a free agent after this year, unless the Angels pay him 2.5 million dollars, which buys out next year and we'd pay him 12 million, so if we wanted him to play for us in 2012 without him being able to negotiate with any other team it would cost us 14.5 million.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say, the Angels probably will decline that option. He's a free agent after this year. If he can't get himself together, he's going to be a free agent sooner than that, the Angels will cut him. Granted they'll be on the hook for all but 200k of his 12 million dollar salary, but you gotta do what's best for the team.
Ok, thank you for clearing that up, Scott. I know a bit about contract details, but there are so many different buyouts, options, etc... It gets a little overwhelming.
ReplyDeleteJT, you said “Juan Rivera” and “beloved fan favorite” in the same sentence. I get that this was sarcastic and all, but didn’t you have to go wash your hands after typing that all the same?
ReplyDelete-- Kristen
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