Random Ramblings on a Thursday Vol. 2

Hmmm, wonder what Mathis is doing lately. Miss ma’ boy!

Well… here we are again… the Angels are yet again 10 games under .500 and they just can’t seem to put it all together this season, at least not on a consistent basis anyway. And at this point, Mike Scioscia’s exhausted the usefulness of closed-door meetings. It’s simple economics… the law of diminishing returns. So what next, then?

Sure, I’d love to see this team to win every game as much as the next Halo Fan, but I can accept that won’t happen. What I cannot accept is quitting… not now, not at any point this season. So whatever you have to do to stay psyched up, you do that! I want this team to continue playing with fire, with passion, win or lose!

So to that end, I think the Angels could probably use a little Dylan Thomas right about now…

Eh hemmmm…

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
– Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas

Or… if that doesn’t do it for you… watch three Jerry Bruckheimer movies back to back to back, or Independence Day, or Al Pacino’s Speech from Any Given Sunday…

President’s Speech from Independence Day

Pacino’s speech from Any Given Sunday

So Angels, do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light… and against the dying of your playoff hopes… like you did in the last game of the Orioles series.

OK… changing topics… I’m starting to feel an inner conflict brewing. No, not from the Super Nachos at Alberto’s I ate very recently… a couple times the last couple days… but from Hammering Hank Conger and Chris Iannetta.

On the one hand, Iannetta represents stability and a statistically confounding OPS (.725) made up in very large part of walks. On the other hand… Conger has a slightly better OPS (.788) that comes from actually hitting the ball… and hit it far he did yesterday. King Conger’s blast

And as shaky as King Conger looks behind the plate on occasion, he very surprisingly is throwing runners out at a 38% clip whereas Iannetta is only throwing out 10% of base stealing scoundrels. Granted, Iannetta has had a heck of a lot more chances than Conger, and a big part of the equation is how slooooooow Tommy Hansen delivers the ball. Not picking on Big Red or anything but seriously… he’s slow.

CERA: The Jeff Mathis paradox

And how about fielding percentage and Scioscia’s favorite Mathisonian stat of all time, CERA? Conger sports a .974 fielding percentage and a 4.15 CERA, while Iannetta .997 fielding percentage and a 4.54 CERA. Well… they both suck when it comes to CERA. But again, Iannetta has caught Joe friggin Blanton way more than Hank has. To be fair, I’m singling out Blanton simply because he has been the worst of the Halos pitchers this season. Overall the rest of the staff combined hasn’t been that much better.

At this point I’m not completely sure what I want to see the Angels do with their backstops yet, but… maybe Hank needs a bit more playing time.