“I’m not saying a quality defender,” Cashman said Sunday. “I’m saying someone that, for an extended period of time, can still provide some kind of defensive component to protect us in the event we have injuries.

That was certainly some kind of defensive component.  Not a good kind, but some kind.

“Yanks use passed ball to walk off vs. Tigers.”

Like it was a strategy.

It was some kind of strategy.

MLBTR says Bobby Abreu is available. Does this solve the Iguana problem ?

[4] I’ll bet they’re a wash.  Even when washed they stink.

[4] ...and this time its not dependent on AJ Burnett exercising an opt out clause.

The Angels have flat-out released Abreu now.  Worth a MiL deal for sure if he’ll take it.

SG, I think you assessed this and liked Abreu, though that was for DH.  Of course, now it’s not projection, he’s had a rotten start.

How long til the Angels are in full-on fire sale mode ? Can we trade for CJ Wilson ?

[8] Pujols to back up DB/1B?

I imagine Abreu will return to the Philadelphia. Full circle and they need him.

It’s the world turned upside down in baseball so far.  Dodgers are winning, Nats lead the NL East, Angels suck, A’s in second, O’s playing well, Houston not in last place…

Article about the fielding equivalent of PitchFx.

So, I’m all for gathering the data. But the bit about measuring catcher framing ability to assign that defensive skill…well, there’s an unstated premise in there. For the catcher’s framing ability to mean jack doodly squat, it would only be in a context of fooling the umpire into calling balls as strikes. Which…PitchFx already allows us to do away with that.

So, aside from appreciating the irony of using two identical systems to measure the game effect of human umpire errors…that’s just more bullshit, man.

Pitch framing isn’t a skill that should matter for diggity. Other than in the reverse. A catcher who can setup and put the glove SOMEWHERE ELSE and still make the catch, to deke a runner on 2nd from tipping location, would be moderately interesting. Having the skill to fool the now twice-demonstrated useless umpire is barking up the wrong evolutionary tree, IMO.

You still run the umpire out there, of course. Let him use the system to understand where the strike zone really starts and stops. It will make them better in the event of a system failure where they have to revert to human calls to continue play. And to handle time out calls and balks and such.

But calling balls and strikes is not something we need a human umpire for any more, nor do we need another robot telling us how easily they are fooled and lump rewards on the players who are adept at maximizing on the umpire’s fallibility.

Good news - Iganez is not in LF today.
Bad news - The Scorpion King is on the mound.

Nova forgot to develop into our #2 last night. After all the worries about pitching after Pineda went down our starters haven’t given us comfort. I don’t see that trend changing today.