After a recent loss to the Baltimore Orioles (Sunday, May 5) Angel Manager Mike Scioscia called his pitcher’s collective performance both “terrible” and “absolutely awful.” Why stop there when the entire team including starters, relievers, middle relievers, hitters, fielders and base coaches has been horrible?
How does a team that pre-season was rated on paper by Las Vegas experts to be one of the favorites to win The World Series now have an 11-20 record and be amongst the worst 5 of the 30 teams in MLB?
Consider this:
* A few games into the season, their best pitcher, Jared Weaver, falls off the mound and breaks his arm. Granted he was trying to avoid a hit ball, but in all your baseball life when was the last time you saw that happen? The last time I saw anything resembling this incident was many years ago when the Angels signed free agent first baseman Mo Vaughn (from the Boston Red Sox). Literally, on the first pitch of the entire season, the gentle and graceful Mo went after a foul ball near the 1B stands and tripped and fell into the dugout. He missed that game, much of the season and never starred again. The Angels subsequently installed a dugout railing that kept the opposing players safe all year.
* One of their biggest disappointments, Josh Hamilton, is hitting .208 and is close to leading the league if you read the batting stats upside down. Hamilton says that he has given his entire life to the Lord who controls 100 percent of his being. Maybe Josh should ask for 50 percent back to devote to baseball.
* Why is it that Vernon Wells, who couldn’t hit the broadside of a fence with the Angels, is now one of the leading hitters with the Yankees? Perhaps he feels less clubhouse pressure to perform because the Yanks don’t pay much of his huge salary – the Angels do!
* They have already traded almost all of their young minor league pitching prospects and received basically nothing in return. They are out of trade bait.
* The way I look at it is the Angels need three new pitching coaches: One for the dugout to watch the pitchers in the game; One for the bullpen to watch and correct the pitchers warming up. These are the ones that need coaching BEFORE not AFTER they get into the game. Oh–and one trained in sports medicine as Angel pitchers are always hurt.
* The Angels need an injection of spirit and energy. I’ve seen more life in some cemeteries than the Angel dugout. Maybe we should hire Tim Salmon as hitting coach, Mark Langston as pitching coach and Rex Hudler as bench coach.
* You won’t agree with me but maybe it’s time for Mike Scioscia to resign as manager. Owner Arte Moreno and GM Jerry Dipoto have tried hard and replaced almost everyone (but Scioscia) and everything without much luck. Yes, somewhere there’s a place for him, a time and place for him, but no longer on the bench with the Angel players.
* Finally, on second thought, maybe we should partially follow Josh Hamilton’s suggestion of letting the lord help us. For the Angels to come out of this storm it will take a mighty wind!
Michael Arnold Glueck, MD, Newport Beach, is an ornery curmudgeon who has written extensively on medical-legal issues. He can be reached at drglueck@roadrunner.com.
