Basking in the afterglow and other random thoughts

Okay, so you might be wondering… when is True Grich going to have a new blog post? Well, let’s just say that I’ve been basking in the afterglow of the Albert signing and really haven’t had much to say; at least not until now (not that what I’m about to post is earth-shattering or anything).

Fair warning… this post will be totally random at times…

I was asked recently by Sam Miller of the OC Register what move I would make to ensure the Angels overtake the Rangers in 2012. I was participating in a survey of sorts for him and the answers from various bloggers and writers can be found HERE.

My response was “"To me the most important thing is that Kendrys Morales is healthy. That's not really a move or a strategy, but an important component in this year's season. He has to be in the middle of that lineup, hitting behind Albert. :”

"I know most people will say that the Angels need to sign Ryan Madson and that would be a good move, but not my choice. The thing that concerns me the most is the dwindling offensive numbers of Bobby Abreu. He cannot be the Angels DH in 2012. It all hinges on Morales. If he's healthy -- he can DH and they can move Abreu (although unlikely with his contract). If not -- they have to play Mike Trout and let Torii DH."

And that brings me to today’s post.

The news on Kendrys Morales is encouraging. Morales has been cleared to ramp up his rehab activities.

I have to tell you – the whole Kendrys Morales thing makes me nervous. I honestly believe that without him contributing in the middle of the Angels’ lineup – the Angels will have a hard time climbing back on top of the AL West. Until I see him on the field in a game I’m going to be a little anxious about his situation. He’s just too critical to any hopes we have for big things in 2012.

So – even though I’m tremendously excited about Albert as an Angel, I’m not ready to be my normal exuberant self. I need to know that Kendrys is also going to play regularly before I can really dawn my rose colored glasses and go all crazy.

Speaking of Kendrys – I have to tell you something else that weighs on my mind. Let’s say he comes back as a DH and has a monster season. What happens if the Angels get to the World Series? More specifically – how does Morales get in the lineup when the Angels play in a NL city, where there’s no DH? I know, I know – I’m getting way ahead of myself, but the idea of having a key offensive weapon in a DH makes me nervous.

It makes me believe that at some point – Morales might become trade bait. In my fantasy world – Morales would be part of a deal for Evan Longoria, but that’s highly unlikely. If you know me at all, one of the things I hate the most is when fans come up with trades that are about as realistic as Jeff Mathis hitting .300 (ooh, I got a Mathis jab in even though he’s not on the team anymore).

Since I’m venturing into the shady world of speculation (okay, it’s not really shady) – let me bring up a very popular rumor. Yadier Molina is the final year of his contract with the St. Louis Cardinals. They haven’t been able to work out a contract extension as of yet. Molina to the Angels in 2013?

It’s easy to see this one is gaining popularity. Molina will be a free agent in 2013. His best friend is Albert Pujols (reportedly). His brothers have both played for Mike Scioscia. Yadier Molina could be an Angel in 2013.

I have to admit, the idea brings a smile to my face. Molina is easily my favorite catcher to watch. He is an unbelievable defensive catcher and would be a perfect fit in Anaheim.

Speaking of smiling… I’ve been doing a lot of that since Albert signed. I still catch myself feeling a bit stunned and very blessed to know I will get to watch Albert on a regular basis. It just blows my mind.

Since today’s post has lots of random elements to it – let me talk about some other random thoughts I’ve had.

I have a concern about C.J. Wilson. Wilson is happy to be back home and that makes me nervous. Will he have a little too much fun (even though he doesn’t drink, smoke, take drugs, etc.)? I mean he’s going to be surrounding by his friends and all that. Will that hurt his focus? I don’t know Wilson enough to formulate a real answer – but the thought has crossed my mind.

This Sports Illustrated piece made me wonder… In it, Wilson said, “You meet people all the time. But it's harder for me to socialize and go out during the season. And all my friends live in L.A. or New York, so during the season, I'm mostly kicking it by myself.

Ummm, C.J. isn't alone any more. Just saying.

Oh and in case you’re wondering… I know I wasn’t keen on the idea of the Angels going after Wilson, but now that he’s here, I’ve come to accept him as one of us.

It certainly didn’t hurt when I went back to read about what he had say about the fans in Oakland this past year. He said, “I hate pitching there. The mound sucks, the fans suck. There’s no fans there. It’s too bad because the fans that are there are really adamant and they’re really stoked on the team and they play drums and they wave flags and that’s cool. But, you know some games you go there and there’s like 6,000 people there. It’s kind of sad because it’s a major league team and there’s guys out there that are obviously pretty good players.”

That works for me.

While I’m here… every now and then people will ask me for advice about spring training. I usually refer them to a blog post I did about the subject: A fan’s guide to the cactus league. It’s still pretty relevant.

Program note: I have several things that I had planned to write about over the past couple years and never got around to them and I hope to get to them between now and spring training. Some of it may be dated material, but I hope they'll still be interesting pieces. So stay please stay tuned.

Happy New Year and thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. I'm always humbled when I meet people who tell me that they enjoy this site.

That’s about it for now… 41 days till pitchers and Molina’s report.

Dead man walking

Okay, so I’m listening to the Angels/Mariners game on the radio last night (Tuesday) and the Angels and Marines are scoreless in the 7th and I hear Terry Smith say “The Angels need a two out hit from Jeff Mathis” and it hits me… I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more demoralizing line than that one.

And with that one line, this blog post was born.

Every time Mathis comes to the plate, my expectations drop considerably. Any hope I might have for a rally or just a simple single disappears completely. After all, Mathis has just five hits in his last 51 at bats and he’s hitting .193 on the season.

It would be one thing if Mathis actually made up for his horrible offense with outstanding defense, but that’s not the case, at least not in my opinion. I don’t understand Mike Scioscia’s man crush on Mathis; I just don’t. I know that Scioscia knows more about catching than I could ever dream of, but I still don’t see it.

The easy thing to do would be to just accept the idea that Scioscia knows more and shouldn’t be questioned, but that’s just not how I roll. I wish someone would ask Scioscia the questions that would clarify exactly why Mathis is his guy.

The way I see it, Mike Napoli is for all intensive purposes a “dead man walking.”

Napoli is uncertain about his future in Anaheim. He told Bill Plunkett of the O.C. Register “I have no idea,” Napoli said when asked what he thought the waiver news signaled about his future with the Angels. “I don’t know what my future is here. “I think it could go either way. I want to be able to play every day. I feel I have the potential to help the team out being in the lineup every day. … I’d just like to play.”

Plunkett goes on to write that Napoli said he has talked with Scioscia about playing time in the past and the conversation always turns back to “not getting it done on the defensive side.”

I’m sure smarter people than myself can tell me what it is that makes Mathis better; at least I assume as much. I’ve read all kinds of things over the past few years and none of it jives with what I see when I watch games at the stadium or on television.

My image of Mathis is of a guy who can’t throw runners out and is more likely to air mail a ball into the outfield when trying to throw someone out. He can’t hit and he can’t throw. What else is there? I guess he calls a whale of a game because I can’t imagine any other reason why he’s on a major league roster, let alone getting consistent starts over Mike Napoli or even Bobby Wilson.

Prior to the 2009 season I read about how his brother helped convert a barn on his property into a batting cage and how he worked on his hitting in the off season. The 2009 season rolled around and Mathis still couldn’t hit worth a darn. He then teased us with glimpses of a major league hitter by doing well in the play-offs and we were duped into believing he finally figured it out.

Enter 2010 and he comes out of spring training and looks as if he might pick up where he left off in 2009. After 10 games he was hitting .324 and then he suffered an injury to his wrist that put him on the DL. He never recovered and when he came back on July 19 his average continued to go down steadily (occasionally going up a point here and there) until he found himself hitting .236 on July 11. On July 15 he had three hits and his average jumped to .258 and then it was over. From July 16 on, his average never went above that .258 mark and plummeted all the way to where it is today at .193.

How bad is Jeff Mathis? A member of Halos Heaven named Suboptimal articulates just how bad Mathis is in his piece titled Jeff Mathis Making History Backwards.

If you take the time to read Suboptimal’s piece you will see that Mathis is monumentally bad. We are talking bad in epic proportions. I mean he’s one of the worst hitters in the history of baseball. Yes, he’s really that bad.

At the time that piece was written Mathis had a career batting average of .200 which ranked him 7th worst in the history of baseball for batters with at least 1,000 plate appearances which includes more than 3,000 players (a point hammered home by Suboptimal).

I’m thinking if your offense is that bad, your defense better be among the best in major league history. I’m thinking it better be more spectacular than Hall of Famer Johnny Bench. I mean we’re talking about defense that would put Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez in his prime to shame, right? His defense shouldn’t just be good; it should be Molina good as in Bengie, Jose or Yadier good.

Well, that’s not the case.

So as we look to the 2011 season (what Angel fan hasn’t done that?) I can’t help but believe that the catching situation is foggy. That being said, I also can’t help but believe that Napoli will be playing for a different team, thus the phrase “dead man walking.”

Napoli is making $3.6 million this year and despite his lack of playing time, leads the Angels in homeruns and is due for a pay increase. Regardless of whether or not that increase comes voluntarily from the Angels or via arbitration, Napoli’s salary is going up. I find it doubtful that the Angels will keep a guy making more than $4 or $5 million on their roster if they view that guy as a part time player.

If ever there was a candidate to be traded, it’s Napoli and even though his own manager might not like his game, he does have value. He can catch, play first base and DH and has Paul Bunyanesque power. His trade value is high right now and the Angels will deal him, in my opinion. It’s not something I’d like to see, but I believe it’s inevitable.

Of course the thought of Mathis as the man behind the plate makes me uneasy and it doesn’t make me feel confident about 2011. The hype behind Hank Conger seems to have faded somewhat after a good, but not great season at AAA and it seems likely to me that the Angels will keep him at Salt Lake City for another year, especially since I haven’t read any glowing reports about his defense (he’s made 13 errors). If defense is the main requirement for Scioscia, it’s likely Conger has more work to do.

That being said, Conger might be further along than I think and might play a signficant role in 2011. I suppose anything is possible.

What I do know is that the Jeff Mathis/Mike Napoli debate has been beaten into the ground on internet message boards and on AM 830’s Angels talk, but it’s a discussion that’s important to Angel fans. It’s murky. It’s volatile and it leaves Angel fans feeling uncertain and even confused.

I have no idea how it will play out, but I have to believe the catching “controversy” will have to be resolved this off season some how.

Is it safe to open my eyes yet?

Last time I checked the Angels had nearly blown all of their 6-1 lead and it was 6-5 Angels with Brian Fuentes coming in to face the White Sox in the bottom of the 9th.

So, I have to ask… Is it safe to open my eyes yet?

Cue the music…




“I don’t ask for much, I only want your trust, and you know it don’t come easy."

That about says it all.

Meanwhile, I tuned in yesterday just in time to see Erick Aybar steal second base and then turn around and get thrown out trying to steal third base. For those of you keeping score at home, Aybar has stolen six bases and has been caught five times; which goes right along with his career averages (including his minor league stats). He’s not getting any better folks. Let’s just say he’s never going to be confused with Rickey Henderson and leave it at that.

I know what you’re thinking… didn’t the Angels just win two in a row?

Why yes, they did and I’m quite happy about it. It’s just that nothing comes easy for this team and they continue to be hard to watch. Now, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop watching, but you’ll have to understand if I watch from behind the fingers in front of my eyes, won’t you?

It’s like watching one of those bad horror movies where the people decide to go into the house where the blood curdling scream just came from. You know what’s coming and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Common sense tells you they shouldn't be going into the house/bring in Brian Fuentes... Just saying. Now I know it's in the team's best interest to have Fuentes succeed; however, he just makes me as nervous as chiuaua.

The Angels head to St. Louis this weekend to face the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend and I’m looking forward to the series. It will be odd seeing a Cardinals team void of any ex-Angels for a change. I mean we’ve seen Jim Edmonds, Adam Kennedy, Troy Glaus, Scott Speizio, Troy Percival, David Eckstein and others I may be missing dawning the Cardinals logo in recent years.
One guy I wouldn’t seeing switch from a Cardinals logo to the Angels’ one is Yadier Molina. I just love watching him do his thing behind the plate. He’s a great defensive catcher; in fact, he may be the best in the game. I don’t mind telling you that I covet him for the Angels in the worst way – even though I know that’s not likely to ever happen. A boy can dream, right?

I just hope Erick Aybar doesn’t get any bright ideas about trying to run on Molina. He’s thrown out eleven runners so far while only allowing six stolen bases. So… runners beware.

Hopefully one day the Angels will complete the set and sign Molina some how, some way. Then, Cheryl and I can break out our “Thou shalt not steal on the Molina brothers" t-shirts again. We had these made when Bengie and Jose were Angels. Cheryl was even stopped during one game by Bengie’s wife, who asked where she got the shirt? One thing leads to another and we made some for the whole family…

I remember when we gave the shirt to Jose – he looked, smiled and said, “That’s right!”

Funny story about Jose – one of the 514 Fanatics – Kim (who is infamous for the unique way she helps start Angel rallies) tried to tell us there was a fourth Molina brother. When Cheryl asked him if that was true, he said, “Well, you never know with our dad – I will have to ask him.”

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, Angels vs. Cardinals. Let’s hope the Angels pitching staff can contain Albert Pujols over the weekend. The thought of Brian Fuentes coming in with a slim lead and Pujols batting with men on base might give me nightmares. I wonder how far Pujols could hit a softly tossed Fuentes fast ball. I shudder. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.

Interesting pitching match ups are on tap. Tonight Joel Pineiro goes against his old team and Sunday is going to be a potential pitching duel between aces Jered Weaver and Chris Carpenter. I’m looking for Weaver to rebound big from his last start.

Oh yeah, I skipped Saturday. That one has Scott Kazmir and Kyle Lohse going at it. Both are below .500 thus far… you might want to stock up on the munchies for that game as it could be a long one. Just saying.

One thing the Angels don't do well

The Angels do a lot of things well; maybe too well. Every year they sell quite a few season tickets. There have been seasons when they’ve maxed out at 30,000 and I believe they’ve sold as many as 26,000 in the last couple years. Clearly, they don’t really have a need to advertise as a result of this built in fan base.

It’s a shame – because some of the best commercials I’ve seen are baseball commercials. That's not to say the Angels never run ads on T.V. - it's just that, well, they're never as good as those you are about to see.

Here’s a few for your enjoyment.

First up, Todd Helton receives a lesson on “Twitter”



Next up is a great one with Eric Young, Sr. and Junior.




Found this old one of Torii Hunter when he was with the Twins:



Another good from the Twins in 2009:



This one is a couple years old, but it’s still pretty funny:



A creative one with Yadier Molina.