Various and Sundry

Kevin Jepsen Update: Game #5 & 6

Our budding rookie reliever, Olympian Kevin Jepsen got into two more games since last I blogged about him. He got into the game in the bottom of the 5th on Friday against the Rangers, relieving Darren Oliver with runners on 1st and 2nd. His first pitch was smacked to left by German Duran who scored on a wild pitch to Josh Hamilton who later doubled. Jepsen finally got out of the inning with a strikeout of Milton Bradley.

Fortunately he settled down in the 6th getting Hank Blalock to ground into a double play after Marlon Byrd singled. He struck out Nelson Cruz to end the inning and his night. His line, not very good, 1 1/3rd inning, 3 hits, 1 earned run, 2 strikeouts, no walks. The Angels ended up winning a wild one 15-13!

Jepsen pitched to one batter last night as well, getting Nelson Cruz to fly out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th to earn his second hold of the season. Jepsen's season line is now: 6 Appearances, 5.1 innings, 4 hits, 1 run, 1 ER, 5 K, 0 BB, 0 HR, 1.69 ERA, .75 WHIP and a 2.11 BAA. If he keeps pitching this strong in the next week, I can't imagine Scioscia keeping him off the mound.

Halos Sweep the Rangers

The Angels march towards the post-season has not had any let-down so far. Back-to-back losses to the A's on Tuesday and Wednesday this week saw the Halos struggling and fielding make-shift lineups in order to get some of our backups some playing time, and also to rest some weary bodies. Vladdy hadn't played for over a week and skipped the two losses, but he was back Saturday, and raised his BAA to .299 today. If all is right in the universe he'll get .300 for the season for the 12th straight time. Oh and Frankie got his 60th save yesterday.

Team Trading Update

I know I have a couple more packages to get out in the mail, both are leaving tomorrow. IF you haven't received anything from me and you're expecting something, please LET ME KNOW ASAP. My public email is wmnoe at yahoo dot com. My spam filter is quite good though, but I'll go through and empty it right now.

I've restocked most of my team packages, so if you're wanting to get rid of your Angels cards, and have a favorite team in mind, I'd love to trade with you. My collecting philosophy for the last several years is that I love busting packs, but unless the players are Angels, I don't really care to keep them. I also don't put together very many full sets. This year I'm working on a 2008 Upper Deck complete set, and I might do a Topps one as well. I'm also keeping all my Heritage, Bowman Chrome & Prospects and Allen & Ginter. Pretty much everything else I buy goes into team lots, and that includes super-stars. So for example, the Mariners lots will have Ichiro, Red Sox have Manny, Big Papi, etc. Currently MOST of the teams have a lots containing 40 - 50 cards. All I ask for in return are a similar number of Angels cards. I don't particularly care about doubles, though I'm pretty sure I'm good on the last several years of both base Topps and base Upper Deck, so I don't need those. I'll even take your junk 90's stuff, because I got rid of all my junk 90's stuff years ago.

Special Card Trading

I do have several "relic" and other special cards to trade on a 1-1 basis. I'd much rather trade than sell them on eBay because I know I won't get much value for them.

Here's the specials:

• 2008 Goudey Mini Black Back Dmitir Young #196 numbered 02/34
  
• 2008 UD Series 2 Dontrell Willis Jersey (Black swatch) UDJ-WI
  
• 2008 Upper Deck Ben Sheets Jersey (white swatch) 97-BS
  
• 2008 Upper Deck Mark Buehrle Jersey (white swatch w/pin stripe) 98-MB
  
• 2008 Topps Series 2 B.J. Upton Jersey (white swatch w/sweat) HR-BU
  
• 2008 Topps Red Hot Rookie Redemption #7 (Chris Volstad - Marlins)
  
• 2005 Topps UH Carlos Beltran All-Star Patches Jersey #42/60
  

If you'd like one or more of those, please feel free to make an offer. I'd like to get Angels cards in return.