First of all, congratulations! I only wish the Yankees were in the
playoff mix.

Looking at your line-up, I decided to figure out how the Angels could
have the best record in baseball. Nothing was particularly
outstanding about your line-up. Vlad and Garret are having good years
but much less than what they are generally capable of. Figgins,
Hunter and Kotchman seem to be having average years at best. At .
236, Matthews is woeful. Kendrick, at .308, is the only .300 hitter
on the club. The club's power is fairly weak. So the Angels are
definitely not relying on their offense to win.

Once I looked at the pitching, it was obvious why you just clinched
the AL West. You have had only 7 starters all year! Wow! I can't
imagine the last time that has happened for the Yankees -- probably
never. Now, I'm not taking anything away from you -- winning is a
matter of staying healthy and being an athlete in optimal health is
probably the surest way to success provided you have a repertoire of
pitches and enough control. It's pretty amazing really. Have
Santana, Garland or Saunders missed a start all season? I guess when
the Yankees lose 60% of their starting rotation for almost the entire
season, we can't expect to still win. But clearly, the Bombers should
be investing more in conditioning for their pitchers because this
isn't the first time it's happened in recent years.

paintedjazz@gmail.com wrote:
> Have Santana, Garland or Saunders missed a start all season?

Yeah, Saunders missed one, but not due to injury. Moseley started for
him in Oakland just before the ASB because Saunders and his wife had a
baby.

On Sep 10, 9:24 pm, paintedj...@gmail.com wrote:
> First of all, congratulations!  I only wish the Yankees were in the
> playoff mix.
>
> Looking at your line-up, I decided to figure out how the Angels could
> have the best record in baseball.  Nothing was particularly
> outstanding about your line-up.  Vlad and Garret are having good years
> but much less than what they are generally capable of.   Figgins,
> Hunter and Kotchman seem to be having average years at best.   At .
> 236, Matthews is woeful.  Kendrick, at .308, is the only .300 hitter
> on the club.  The club's power is fairly weak.  So the Angels are
> definitely not relying on their offense to win.
>
> Once I looked at the pitching, it was obvious why you just clinched
> the AL West.  You have had only 7 starters all year!  Wow!  I can't
> imagine the last time that has happened for the Yankees -- probably
> never.  Now, I'm not taking anything away from you -- winning is a
> matter of staying healthy and being an athlete in optimal health is
> probably the surest way to success provided you have a repertoire of
> pitches and enough control.  It's pretty amazing really.  Have
> Santana, Garland or Saunders missed a start all season?  I guess when
> the Yankees lose 60% of their starting rotation for almost the entire
> season, we can't expect to still win.  But clearly, the Bombers should
> be investing more in conditioning for their pitchers because this
> isn't the first time it's happened in recent years.


>I guess when the Yankees lose 60% of their starting rotation for almost the entire season, we can't expect to still win.

This is a cop-out. A 200 million dollar team should have enough depth
to overcome injuries. Not to mention that with such a potent lineup,
I should be able to start for them and pick up a few wins. I assume
you are including Hughes and Kennedy in that 60%. They both sucked
before they got hurt. Both had ERA's around 8.50. Losing them only
helped the team. Your only real loss was Wang. Chamberlain was
mishandled, that is why he got hurt so don't blame that either.
Girardi is no Torre and Hank is not George. I am not sure if you
would EVER hear George making excuses like Hank did about a month ago
when he blamed injuries for the poor season. He gave the team their
excuse right there.

On Sep 10, 7:13 pm, ho...@boardermail.com wrote:
> On Sep 10, 9:24 pm, paintedj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
>
> > First of all, congratulations!  I only wish the Yankees were in the
> > playoff mix.
>
> > Looking at your line-up, I decided to figure out how the Angels could
> > have the best record in baseball.  Nothing was particularly
> > outstanding about your line-up.  Vlad and Garret are having good years
> > but much less than what they are generally capable of.   Figgins,
> > Hunter and Kotchman seem to be having average years at best.   At .
> > 236, Matthews is woeful.  Kendrick, at .308, is the only .300 hitter
> > on the club.  The club's power is fairly weak.  So the Angels are
> > definitely not relying on their offense to win.
>
> > Once I looked at the pitching, it was obvious why you just clinched
> > the AL West.  You have had only 7 starters all year!  Wow!  I can't
> > imagine the last time that has happened for the Yankees -- probably
> > never.  Now, I'm not taking anything away from you -- winning is a
> > matter of staying healthy and being an athlete in optimal health is
> > probably the surest way to success provided you have a repertoire of
> > pitches and enough control.  It's pretty amazing really.  Have
> > Santana, Garland or Saunders missed a start all season?  I guess when
> > the Yankees lose 60% of their starting rotation for almost the entire
> > season, we can't expect to still win.  But clearly, the Bombers should
> > be investing more in conditioning for their pitchers because this
> > isn't the first time it's happened in recent years.
> >I guess when the Yankees lose 60% of their starting rotation for almost the entire season, we can't expect to still win.
>
> This is a cop-out.  A 200 million dollar team should have enough depth
> to overcome injuries.

Hate to break it to you but all MLB teams have a roster limit of 25.
You're pretending that the 5-man rotation is somehow an 8-man rotation
for the Yankees. Just because you have 25 highly-paid players at the
MLB level doesn't imply you have several blue chips in the farm system

> Not to mention that with such a potent lineup,
> I should be able to start for them and pick up a few wins.

Maybe but not likely if the opposing pitcher is Santana or Saunders.

> I assume
> you are including Hughes and Kennedy in that 60%.  They both sucked
> before they got hurt.  Both had ERA's around 8.50.

Yeah, I'll agree ... for the few weeks that they were with the club.
I personally favored the trade of both of them for Johan Santana but,
in any case, you're just being an armchair quarterback.

> Losing them only
> helped the team.  Your only real loss was Wang.

So the Angels have never started a season using rookie pitchers in
their rotation?

> Chamberlain was
> mishandled, that is why he got hurt so don't blame that either.
> Girardi is no Torre and Hank is not George.

I'd take Girardi any day over a manager who used to take naps during
the game.

> I am not sure if you
> would EVER hear George making excuses like Hank did about a month ago
> when he blamed injuries for the poor season.  He gave the team their
> excuse right there.

Inconsequential to the discussion.