Lost and Found

I hate losing things, I really, really do. Unfortunately it happens to me ALL THE TIME. I suppose there's a number of factors involved, small apartment, lots of toys for the rugrat, daddy's brain doesn't function as well as he'd like it to on occasion.

BUT WHEN YOU LOSE A WHOLE BINDER OF CARDS, that's just bunk. It's here somewhere. I know it is. I just can't figure out where. It's my Allen & Ginter Binder, which also has Topps Chrome and Political cards in it. It's a standard 3 ring view binder with both A&G Wrappers in the front cover. I know it's here. I just don't know where, and it's driving me absolutely bonkers. I've got like 7 packs worth of cards to put in the damn thing, and I can't do it. Is there ANYTHING more aggravating?

I suppose there is; such as crappy replacement redemptions, or that really awful co-signers card that Treasure Never Buried pulled out of his expensive box (note to self: do NOT buy boxes of Topps, ever), or starting Minnesota's Defense over Philadelphia this last weekend in Fantasy Football.

There are two positives though, yesterday I got a nice package of mostly Vlad Guerrero's from Mario at Wax Heaven which reminded me that I'm supposed to send him the Red Hot Rookie Redemption #7 and a bunch of Marlins for his collection. I would have done that on Monday, BUT, I've been sick all week with some sort of nasty upper chest/cough bug that DOES appear to have finally gone away. Unfortunately for us, my wife got it though. The other positive was that in my search for the binder I did find a small box of cards that I had been sent a little while ago, and it contained a pack of Allen & Ginter that I had purchased and completely forgotten about, and there was a Jermaine Dye Jersey in there as well!

The other day I went looking for Upper Deck Baseball Heroes packs, but came up short, because the card shop (which isn't one I normally frequent) didn't get any in (which is why I think I don't frequent them that often). I did buy a couple more packs of A&G and pulled a David Ortiz Jersey. I've pulled something like four jerseys out of A&G packs now, that's pretty darn good odds, considering I don't think I've bought anywhere NEAR four boxes worth of that product.

Normally I would give you a Kevin Jepsen update since he pitched last night, but, err...he stunk last night, so I'll save it for another time. I'm also still working on the 2002 Angels Playoff Review, which I should post before the week is out.

Speaking of playoffs, the Halos are having a couple of nifty celebrations to celebrate their winning the AL West. First on Saturday, September 27 they're doing Fiesta Angels at the Big A from 10 am to 5 pm, with free parking until 3 pm. Actually I think this was planned a long time ago, so it's not PART of the playoff celebration. However, Monday they're holding A Rally at the Big A from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM, and that is certainly a celebration. I want to attend both, but will probably attend neither. Gas is pretty darn expensive these days you know. Sigh.

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.

Angels Playoff History Part 3 - 1986

The Angels new logo for 1986, their 25th Anniversary Season, would be used until 1992. Borrowed from SportsLogos.net

Previous Installments:
Part 1: 1979
Part 2: 1982

In 1985 MLB expanded the first round playoff games from best of 5 to best of 7, a move that was long overdue. Unfortunately after 1993 they went right back to the first round being best of 5, because they effectively doubled the number of teams that made the playoffs. After coming in second in the AL West for two seasons in a row, the 1986 version of the Angels seemed poised to break out and enjoy post-season success. They improved their record by two games, winning the AL West by 5 games, which was a club record at the time (their current best is winning the West by 7 games in 2005, which will be broken this year obviously).

The ’86 Halos were the first team since 1979 not to have Rod Carew starting at first, the HOFer having retired at the end of the ’85 season. In his place was a 24-year-old rookie out of BYU who coined the phrase “Wally World” with a few monster shots out to left field. The venerable Bobby Grich at 2B joined Wally Joyner at 1B, though it would be his last season, Dick Schofield at SS and team veteran Doug DeCinces still at 3B. The starting outfield was Brian Downing still at LF, the speedster Gary Pettis who was in his prime and won a Gold Glove in CF, and an almost-retired Rupert Jones started in RF. Reggie Jackson typically was the DH as he was also in his penultimate season in the bigs, and last with the Halos. Perennial Gold Glover Bob Boone was still behind the plate. Pettis and Joyner were the Angels All-Stars in 1986, Joyner becoming the first rookie in 16 years to start in the All-Star game.




The starting rotation for manager Gene Mauch consisted of 41-year-old Don Sutton, and 25 year-olds Mike Witt and Kirk McCaskill. The trio was joined by John Candelaria, Ron Romanick, Joe Slaton and Ray Chadwick who all started games as well. Sutton, Witt, McCaskill and Candelaria all won 10+ games each, Witt leading the squad with an 18-10 record, with McCaskill right behind him at 17-10. In only 16 starts the Candy-man won 10 games and lost 2. The closer for the Halos was Donnie Moore, who led the team with 21 saves. Such luminaries as Chuck Finley, Doug Corbett and Terry Forster joined him in the bullpen.

After spending the first half of the season dueling with Texas for first place in the West, the Angels took over for good after the 92nd game in the season. With 9 games to go they held a 10 game lead over the Rangers and a 90-63 record. They would win only 2 of their remaining games, going into the post-season on a downturn that would ultimately be their undoing.

Game One showed a lot of promise however, with the Angels jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the second after two walks, a single, a double and another single. Turns out that is all they would need, cruising to an 8-1 victory. Mike Witt got the win over Roger Clemens in his first post-season appearance. Brian Downing had a stellar game at the plate going 2-5 with 4 RBI and Wally Joyner knocked two doubles to go 2-4.

Boston would come roaring back in Game Two with Bruce Hurst on the mound against Kirk McCaskill. The game was extremely close for the first 6 1/2 innings, but the Sox, who held a 3-2 lead going into the bottom of the 7th blew the game wide open with 3 in the 7th and 3 in the 8th, winning 9-2. Wally Joyner was the lone bright spot for the Halos with a solo homer in the 5th.

Splitting the first two games at Fenway was a great outcome for the Halos. They rolled into Angel Stadium and won the next two games 5-3 in Game Three with HRs from Pettis and Schofield behind a gem pitched by John Candelaria (7 IP, 1 ER, 5 hits, 3 BB, 5 K) and mopped up by Donnie Moore who got the save. Oil Can Boyd took the loss for the Sox. After the game Wally Joyner would sit out the rest of the series with a staph infection, moving Grich from second to first, and Rob Wilfong getting more playing time. No doubt that had Joyner been healthy, the outcome of the series would have been drastically different. Joyner was the Halos rally-spark that season, and had become a fan favorite.

Game Four was a come-from-behind affair, the Angels winning finally 4-3, after trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the 9th. Clemens started the game, going 8 1/3rd innings. The Sox scored a single run in the 6th and two in the 8th, and were one inning away from tying the series at two games apiece, but Clemens gave up a leadoff solo shot to DeCinces in the bottom of the 9th, and was yanked after giving up back-to-back singles to Schofield and Boone. With runners on 1st and 2nd, and 1 out Pettis delivered a double off of reliever Calvin Schiraldi that scored Schofield and put Devon White (running for Boone) on 3rd. With the bases loaded and two outs, Schiraldi hit Downing with a pitch scoring the tying run.

In the extra frames, the Angels blanked the Sox; Doug Corbett got five straight groundouts and didn’t give up a hit or a walk. In the bottom of the 11th new Catcher Jerry Narron led the inning off with a single. Pettis moved him over to second on a bunt. Rupert Jones was intentionally walked and Bob Grich in his 6th AB of the game finally got a hit, scoring Narron. The Angels were one game away from their first world series ever, and the Red Sox were reeling.

The Angels took a 5-2 lead into the 8th inning in Game Five on homers by Boone (solo) and Grich (two runs) and RBIs by Wilfong and Downing. Starter Mike Witt would be pulled in the top of the 9th in favor of Gary Lucas after he gave up a 2 run HR to former Angel Don Baylor. With the Angels ahead by only 1 run, with two strikes, Donnie Moore gave up a two run shot to Dave Henderson giving the Sox a 6-5 lead. The game would end up going to the 11th after the Wilfong drove in Jones to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th. Unfortunately for Moore he couldn’t keep the Sox off the scoreboard, and they won in the 11th 7-6 off of a sac-fly by Henderson.

The two teams flew back to Boston, with the AL East Champions behind 3 games to 2. Boston dominated every aspect of Games Five and Six, winning them by a combined 13 runs. Game 6 ended 10-4 and Game 7 was over in the 2nd inning, ending 8-1. For all intents and purposes the series really ended with Game Five, as the Angels never really recovered, and neither did Donnie Moore, who had signed a huge 3-year contract extension (avoiding Free-Agency) after the end of the ’85 season where he became one of the league’s pre-eminent closers.

He’d spend the rest of his career with the Angels, being released after his contract expired in 1988. The post ’86 seasons weren’t kind for Moore; he blamed himself for the Halos not making the World Series, and spent a lot of time on the DL. After his release he tried to make one of Kansas City’s minor league squads, but was eventually cut. According to his obituary on July 19, 1989 he had an argument with his wife Tonya whom he was legally separated from. He shot her three times in their Anaheim home, and after she fled with two of their three children, he turned the gun on himself, ending his life at age 35, a tragic reminder of how seriously people take sports. Of course it’s impossible to tell, some almost 20 years later, how much that one pitch factored into the decision that Donnie Moore made to end his life. Reports are that substance abuse and depression over the end of his baseball career were just as much of a factor, as were continuing marital strife and allegations of spousal abuse. Accounts of the shooting also vary depending on the source.



The Red Sox would go on to play the Mets in the 1986 season; a team that many would say was a team of destiny. The Sox would have their own bad luck to overcome, and perhaps a greater goat in Billy Buckner who allowed a slow roller by Mookie Wilson to pass between his legs letting Ray Knight come in to score the winning run. The Sox had been one out away from winning their first World Series since 1918. They would have a long wait in between opportunities, even longer than the Halos. The Sox wouldn’t get another chance at a World Title until 2004, only two years removed from the Angels next chance at a World Title in 2002.

The intervening 16 seasons were a grab bag of middling success for the Halos. They would come in 2nd in the AL West three times during the 90’s, but their combined record between 1987 and 2001 was 81 games under .500 with 9 losing seasons out of 15 with nine different managers between Mauch and Mike Sciosia who took over the managerial duties in 2000.

Since 1986 the Angels and Red Sox have played twice in the Playoffs, the Sox sweeping the Halos 3-0 both times (2004 and 2007). If the Angels end 2008 with the best record in the league and the Red Sox make the post-season as the Wild Card, then they’ll play again this season, and the Halos have won 8 out of 9 against them this season. Both John Lackey and Joe Saunders have two wins against them, and one of those two should start two games in a five game series (probably Lackey).

Next time we’ll look at the Angels historic 2002 run to the title, a feat that we can only hope that they’ll be duplicating this season.

Post Season Starters (Games Started)

1B – Wally Joyner (3), George Hendrick (1), Bob Grich (3)
2B – Rob Wilfong (3), Bob Grich (3), Rick Burleson (1)
3B – Doug DeCinces (7)
SS – Dick Schofield (7)
LF – Brian Downing (7)
CF – Gary Pettis (7)
RF – Rupert Jones (5), George Hendrick (2)
DH – Reggie Jackson (6), Rick Burleson (1)

Rotation
1. Mike Witt (2)
2. Kirk McCaskill (2)
3. John Candelaria (2)
4. Don Sutton

If I were Mike Sciosia

I posted a blog over at Halos Heaven containing the Halos playoff roster if I were in charge. Check it out and either comment there or here wouldya?

EDIT:

I have since removed said post from Halos Heaven because it got several unintended hostile comments, one from the BOARD OWNER, Rev Halofan, which was especially uncalled for. So I have removed the blog and if I could figure out how to do it, I would remove them from my SB Nation account. In fact, I will probably just terminate said account, since the other "blog" from them, Bruins Nation is just as hostile, if not more so.

Here's what I don't understand about all of this, we're all fans of the SAME TEAMS/COLLEGE, why does there have to be so much hatred and hostility? I don't know, but what I do know is that I'm not hanging out somewhere where I'm not wanted.

In any case, here's the playoff roster for the Halos that I would use if I were their manager:

My Playoff Roster


1. C Mike Napoli
2. 1b Mark Texiera
3. 2b Howie Kendrick
4. 3b Chone Figgins
5. SS Erick Aybar
6. RF Vladimir Guerrero
7. CF Torii Hunter
8. LF Garrett Anderson
9. C Jeff Mathis
10. IF Brandon Wood
11. IF Kendry Morales
12. IF Robb Quinlan
13. OF Gary Matthews Jr.
14. OF Juan Rivera
15. OF Reggie Willits
16. SP Ervin Santana
17. SP John Lackey
18. SP Joe Saunders
19. SP Jon Garland
20. RP Frankie Rodriguez
21. RP Scot Shields
22. RP Darren Oliver
23. RP Jered Weaver
24. RP Jose Arredondo
25. RP Kevin Jepsen

Kevin Jepsen Update - Game #4

I actually watched the game last night and remembered suddenly why I'm so interested in this pitcher; he's a great story after all. FIVE years at Class A mostly because of injury, and when he gets his first opportunity in the bigs, he shines like no one else has in QUITE a while.

Jepsen relieved starter John Lackey last night with one out in the 6th inning and a runner on second. Lackey had just given up his 4th earned run and had started to get wild, so the call went out to the kid. He got Jack Hannahan to strike out swinging and Cliff Pendleton to fly out to center to close out the inning. His line consists of 2/3rds of an inning, no runs, no hits, 1 strikeout and stranded the runner on second, and he showed a lot more promise than the next reliever, fellow youngster Jason Bulger, who started the 7th inning, gave up 3 walks, a hit and 3 earned runs, WITHOUT recording a single out.

For the playoffs the Angels should have at least one open bullpen slot that can go to one of the new guys. So far if you compare Bulger's numbers to Jepsen's numbers, Jepsen is the clear winner even though he hasn't pitched in nearly as many games.

Check it out:

Pitcher	Games	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	W	L	S	ERA
Bulger	10	11.1	9	8	2	5	12	0	0	0	6.35
Jepsen	4	3.2	1	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0.00

Most importantly, the Halos have won 3 out of the 4 games that Jepsen's appeared in so far, they've only won ONE out of the 11 games that Bulger's appeared in.

I'll continue to keep an eye on Jepsen and Bulger, I'm curious to see if either one of them makes the playoff roster.

Fantasy Footbal Update: Week Two

Good Afternoon Gents:

Sorry to be a tad late with this report, life as always intervenes, though nothing really that drastic occurred, I just didn't want to post an update yesterday because several of the games came down to Monday Night Football.

Which blew chunks for me. I went INTO the game with a lead AND a Tony Romo against Westbrook, T.O. and DeSean Jackson. I get outscored by 16 points and LOSE to Sharkey's because he scored the most points in the league this week. I scored the second most points. See that just SUCKS.

But in my OTHER league I won, so I'm 2-0 over there and have scored the most points so far.

BUT I digress.

This weekend's loss to Sharkeys' Fat Cats makes me 2-6 against them overall. James has my number I guess.

BTW - How are you all liking the 4 moves per week thing? I think it makes a nice deterrant to mass roster moves, and yet makes you think about your moves as well. Of course I gave everyone too many roster slots, but that's neither here nor there.

So we know what happened in MY game, let's look at the other four games in the WWFL:

The 49ers knocked off OmegaJaguars to pull his record to .500. Omega is now 0-2, and it doesn't help him that his best player is LT, and we all saw what happened to LT last weekend. Too bad he wasn't quick enough to grab Darren Sproules (and who did that I wonder?)

Kama Sutra Mallards ran through Best Team Ever, HOWEVER, the victory was by only three points, AND BTE's Kicker plays for Houston which had it's game postponed. I don't know how Yahoo is going to handle that one, perhaps whenever the game is played the points will go in retroactively. I don't know.

Actually, now I do know - I checked out the message boards, and the two teams Houston and Baltimore are treated like they had a bye week, so if you had a player on either team, they don't get any points.

Kind of sucks, but there it is.

That also applies to our next game: Pants Wearer showed that he certainly wears Electric Boogaloo's pants. Err, that didn't come out right. Anyway, EB has Baltimore's defense, that can be the difference in even a lopsided score. PW is now 2-0 and EB is now 0-2.

Pigskinz didn't need any unscheduled bye-weeks to kick AllDayEveryDay's you-know-what. To be fair, it's hard to win when your starting QB gets negative points. I'm playing you next week, and you had better bring the paint bud, 'cause I'm looking to make a statement here. A statement that my team is the DOMINATOR....of not sucking!

If you look at the standings, you can see a very alarming trend so far; the teams in the top six all have right around 200 points or more. The teams in the bottom four are all around 150 or lower. At least Omega is TRYING to get better, he's done 12 moves so far! Again, to be fair, it's been a VERY strange two weeks in the NFL, it should get a bit more stable in the next couple weeks. Someone who isn't on anyone's roster will have a career game and get snatched up via the waiver wire. Happens every year.

Grab the Broom - Halos Sweep Mariners

The Angels sure don't seem to be playing like a team that just clinched the division on the earliest date in their franchise history (and FOURTH earliest in MLB history, my blog the other day was incorrect because I didn't know what date it was. Today the Angels go into the bottom of the 9th tied with Seattle, Sean Rodriguez hits a one-out triple, and Figgy drives him home one batter later.

This just shows how good the Angels bullpen is this season: Reliever Jose Arredondo was credited with his NINTH victory this season, leading the majors. That's crazy. I noticed last week that he had 7 wins, which in of itself was awesome, but to get two more in a week, that's sheer madness. ESPECIALLY when you consider that Arredondo usually comes into the game with the Angels behind and runners on base. He now has 54 innings in 47 games, he's given up only 36 hits, 12 runs, 8 of them earned. His strikeout to walk ratio is 2.67 to 1!

Oh and he's a rookie.

His RC is a 2006 Bowman Chrome, which you can get for a couple bucks. I think I might have to do that.