Angels Dust

While the Angels are playing a series of night games, all I get to watch are MLB.TV’s condensed games, which means all RBI, strike outs and a frustrating random selection of other at-bats. In the first year, they showed each and every at-bat, but since then have gone over to make all condensed games about ten minutes long, so that sometimes, the record jumps from a based loaded situation to another inning. Very annoying!

However, the worst thing is that I can’t really enjoy good performances (like today’s gem by Lackey, Mosely and Shields) while bad performances are nearly as disappointing as they are live.

Speaking of disappointing, what is wrong with Chone Figgins? He is now 6 for 54 on the year (with 4 walks) and currently 0 for his last 15. Figgins’s graphs at fangraphs.com suggest he is doing only slightly worse at the plate than last year and thanks to the small sample size, I could not find anything else conclusive, so he may just suffer from bad luck. His ridiculous low (especially for a guy with so much speed) batting average on balls in play of .143 certainly supports this. For example, he has yet to get an infield hit this season.
However, while we probably can expect him to bounce back and put up numbers comparable to last year (which wasn’t that great to begin with), the team hardly needs another player who strikes out twice as much as he walks with only a hint of power. I’m comfortable with him in a utility role, filling in at 2nd, 3rd, OF and pinch running, but I don’t see Figgins as a starter any more. His 2004 and 2005 season were promising, but he neither improved his patience nor his power since then and instead has seen his average drop over the last years. He might have another .300+ season in him, but he can also hit .250 (like he probably will at the end of this year), in which case his value is very limited, especially since he’s not a defensive wizard.
So all in all, trading for a third baseman should still be a priority, but who could be available?

1. Troy Glaus - He’s most likely available and probably the best option as he has serious home run power, but does he want to come back to the Angels? His contract runs until 2008 (plus a player option), which might be a year to long (unless Wood moves back to SS) and he comes with health questions, but my guess is most fans would love to see him back. Rumors have it the Dodgers are intested, too.
2. Morgan Ensberg / Mike Lamb - I don’t know if one of them is available, but why would the Astros want to keep them both and they could use a pitcher. They are hardly without question marks, but both would be an improvement at 3B.
3. Russell Branyan - If Kevin Kouzmanoff can adjust to the majors, Branyan could become available. He brings big time power, but not much else. This only happens if Figgins continues to stink badly.
4. Andy LaRoche / Wilson Betemit - If Glaus goes to the Dodgers, at least one of them becomes available. However, they are not proven and why would the Angels want them if they believe that Wood will be ready soon.
5. Miguel Cabrera - Cabrera would be perfect, but as cheap as the Marlins are, they are not letting Cabrera go anywhere.
6. Aaron Boone - That’s the guy the Marlins are going to shop. He provides only league average offense at best, but that could still be a substantial improvement.
7. Melvin Mora - He might be a bit better than Boone, but he’s not the guy we want from the O’s.
8. Miguel Tejada - He is having a down year so far, he does not want to play 3B and the O’s owner does not want to let him go. However, since Baltimore is not going anywhere this year (again), they might come to their senses and finally deal Tejada.

Personally, I’m pulling for Troy Glaus coming back, but my guess is that nothing is going to happen after all. You know, I’m not a big fan of guys like Boone or Mora, but they could actually help the team and they should be fairly cheap, so I’d rather see such an uninspiring deal be made instead of switching from Figgins to Izturis and back for the rest of the year.