I'm a member of one of the most hated groups in society. No, I don't sell Amway products; I'm a "stat-geek". Many baseball fans will talk about stat geeks with a tone of distain in their voice, like when talking about their drunken uncle, but we stat geeks wear the label proudly. I'm a stats junkie and I'm hopelessly addicted to numbers. VORP? Yeah, I've done that. Isolated Power? Umm, I'll take a tall glass. Line Scores? I've devoured more lines than Amy Winehouse. The problem I have as a stats geek comes when I try to write interesting stories and those numbers get in the way. Sometimes I'll rely too much on the numbers and miss the big picture. My wife sometimes will read the things I write and when I ask her what she thought, she'll usually say something like, "Yeah, it fine, but I skipped the part with all the numbers". What? That's like reading Playboy for the articles! I subscribe to the addicts' credo, "Too much is never enough". That is, unless you're talking about the cough syrup of statistical analysis, the useless situational stats. I'm not really interested in situational statistics. I don't care if a player hits over .400 during day games that follow night games when the opposing team has a lefty on the mound. Or something like this stat I read in the LA Times; The Angels travel to Tampa to play the AL East leading Rays. The Rays are 20-2 when they play in front of crowds larger than 25,000 and 16-1 when they play in front of 30,000 at home. Does that mean they'd be undefeated if there's more than 35,000 fans at Tropicana Field? There was an interesting stat from the same article that stated the Halo's 4, 5, and 6 hitters were 0-31 in this past weekend's three game series in Cleveland. Guerrero, Hunter, and Kendrick stranded 19 runners during their hitless performances. Friday's game against this year's surprise Cy Young favorite, Cliff Lee, was understandable. Sometimes good teams get beat by good pitchers, and Lee has been very good this season.
But in losing their first series since June against a poor Indians' line-up, the Angels failed to get the timely hits with runners in scoring position. If it hadn't been for the shoddy Indian's defense who committed 4 errors during Saturday's game, the Angels may have been swept.
Everyone knows baseball is an up-and-down sport. What that means is even good teams go through down times when things just aren't clicking. The Angels are suffering through one of those times after losing 3 of their last 4 games, and their character will be tested when they go to Tampa. Statistics can't explain what's going wrong, especially situational statistics. This series could be a preview of this year's AL championship. Let's just hope the fans stay away.
Daily Notes:
- Maicer Izturis had surgery on his left thumb and will miss the rest of the season. There's a rumor the Angels are looking for a veteran shortstop and David Eckstein's name has popped up. Eckstein was a member of the 2002 Championship team, but he's not the answer. In fact, I don't think there's really a question. Erick Aybar is playing well and Sean Rodriguez will fill in when needed. Once the roster expands in a couple weeks, Brandon Wood will be with the big club after playing most of his AAA games at short.
- The games in Tampa may have to be postponed because of Tropical Storm Fay. If the games are postponed, they'll have to be made up during the remaining off days. The Angels' next day off is September 1st. If they have to play a game on that day, it'll mean the Angels will play 25 days in a row. I don't know if the bargaining agreement will allow that.
- Magic Number: 27
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