This Is Fun

Daily Notes:

• Let's see, 10-5 Friday and then 11-4 Saturday.  Does that mean the Angels will win on Sunday by a score of 12-3?  It's definitly possible with the way this team is playing.  They're 30 games over .500.  This means if they play .500 for the rest of the seaon, they'll finish with a record of 96-66 which would be the second best win-loss record in Angels history (in 2002 they had a 99-63 record).  If they keep up their current pace of .629, we'll witness the first Angels team to finish with more than 100 wins (102-60).  Here's an interesting tidbit.  Its been over 30 years since a team has won exactly 102 games.  The Kansas City Royals went 102-60 in 1977, but then lost to the Yankees in the playoffs.  That was the World Series when Reggie Jackson hit 3 home runs on 3 pitches in game 6 to earn the name Mr. October.
  
• Once again the Angels were held down by another rookie pitcher.  The Yank's starter Saturday was Dan Giese (born in Anaheim) who was making only his 3rd career start.  Maybe the guy was pumped up pitching in his hometown.  There's a lot of incentive to do well when mom and dad, grandma, brother and sister, the chick who turned you down for the prom, the kid who used to throw you in the dumpster everyday are in the stands watching.  As I wrote, he did well, but the bullpen didn't back him up.
  
• The Orioles called up a relief pitcher yesterday.  Why do I mention it?  The dude's name is Rocky Cherry.  Man, talk about the kid who got thrown in the dumpster everyday.  You just know he got a lot of crap for that name.  Should have chosen a career in porn.
  
• The Yankees were 51-1 in games they led after 6 innings.  That's pretty impressive.  So is giving up 8 runs in an inning.
• Cool article about Mark Teixeira in the LA Times.  I was sceptical about the trade that brought him to the Halos, mainly because I really like Casey Kotchman.  But I have to admit, this is a whole different team with Teix and the recent results prove that.  A quick quote from the article: 
  Torii Hunter noted that when Teixeira came to the team, the Angels cautiously observed their new slugger, unsure how he'd fit in. "We watched him come up to Vladdy and shake Vladdy's hand and introduce himself," Hunter said. "It was like, 'OK, he's open and confident, he's not going to sit on the sidelines or separate himself from us.' Then we saw how he was in games. He's sitting next to me and we're talking about pitchers and tendencies. It's like, 'OK, this guy is a baseball player. All business. Loves the game.' This guy is perfect for this team."