58 Is Great

Angels' closer, Francisco Rodriguez recorded his single-season record breaking 58th save last night in the Angels 5-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.  Rodriguez now has more saves than 3 major league teams have wins (Seattle, Washington, and San Diego).  It was kind of ironic that K-Rod got the record breaker against Seattle, the team many "experts' had picked to win the division - or at least give the Angels a run for the Western Division title.  I'll have to look into this a little more to see if a closer has ever finished the season with more saves than a team has wins...stay tuned.

Okay, a lot of people feel that saves are an over-rated stat, and I agree.  But that shouldn't take away from the fantastic job Rodriguez has done this year.  Yeah I know, I've written here many times about how shaky he is when closing out games.  How he allows too many base runners and always seems like he's right on the edge of blowing the save, but you got to give him credit, he did get 58 saves and will probably finish the season with at least 60.  Congratulation K-Rod!

I'm really getting excited about the Angels middle infielders Brandon Wood and Sean Rodriguez (but not in the same way Jill is).  If these two players continue to develop as projected, the Angels are going to have a log-jam in the infield.  Log-jams aren't necessarily a bad thing, especially in this case since the Angels may be looking for another starting pitcher next year.  Figgins or Aybar would be a good base for dealing for pitching.  There are so many questions that pop up each off-season, the Angels are no exception.  Will they sign Sabathia?  Will they offer Garland arbitration, and will he accept it?  Will Teixeira stay in Anaheim?  How will Escobar respond to shoulder surgery?  Its good to have depth, which is one of the main reasons the Angels are so good, proven by this year's team and its ability to handle injury (Kendrick, Izturis, etc.).  I know I'm getting way ahead of myself.  This season's not even over yet and I'm looking toward next year, especially with an exciting October coming up in a couple weeks.  But getting back to my main point, Wood and Rodriguez are fun to watch and should only get better.

Daily Notes:

• In the race for home field advantage, the Angels are 2 games ahead of Tampa and 4 games in front of the