Let's be honest. The saves record isn't the most impressive record in baseball. It's incredibly team dependent, and as a measure of who is truly a great reliever, single season saves don't show you very much.

But, it's not every day you see records that have stood for more than 10 years get broken. This will not go down as Frankie's best season. This will not go down as the best relief season in history. Frankie has arguably not been the best reliever in baseball this year. But he is a very deserving holder of this record. Probably, when careers are accounted for, more deserving than Roger Maris was when he set the single season home run record.

Maris had three seasons with more than 30 home runs, and the only one with more than 40 was the record breaking year. He was a good hitter, a 127 career OPS+ is nothing to sneeze at. But without those 61 homers in a park that played easy for lefty sluggers, he's an afterthought in MLB history.

Frankie is still early in his career. He's only 26, but he has over 200 saves. He's been one of baseball's best relievers from the day he was called up into the big leagues. He's been one of baseball's best closers since he took over for Troy Percival four seasons ago. It's the type of record where you may pick out three or four guys who are deserving, and he's certainly in the picture.

There will be a lot of talk about Frankie this winter. My thoughts are fairly clear. I think that the closer role is somewhat overrated, but Frankie Rodriguez is unfairly maligned because of his status as a closer. Look around at how many relievers have been dominant over a similar stretch of time. Baseball is littered with reliever who looked great for a year or two at a time. Very few have done it year after year after year. You would be hard pressed to find four or five relievers who have been better than Frankie since he came into the league.

As for next year, you can argue all you want about opportunity costs. What position is the most valuable, and how important is it to go after a reliever when you have a first baseman and possibly another starter to sign. But the market, imperfect as it is, is the market, and Frankie will have a few teams willing to offer him what he wants. Personally, a 15MM per contract is simply a raise over what he's currently making (it's not 15MM over their current payroll), and they're financially successful enough to sign Teixeira and re-sign Frankie. He's on pace for another excellent season. He's added a pitch to his repertoire, and he's even starting to throw that change up against righthanders with success. And I have no doubt that he'll learn a splitter or cutter (or both) over the next five years. On top of that, he's an Angel lifer, and 10 more solid seasons makes him a nearly automatic hall of famer, and he'll go in with an Angels cap, something you currently can't find in the HOF.

So congratulations, Frankie. You've earned it. Now you can rest and get ready for the post-season.

Cross posted at my site.

This is cross posted at my site, but I figured there's more discussion here, so I'm cross posting.

My last two posts (regarding the impact of the Teixeira trade) have prompted comments regarding the potential (probable?) departure of Frankie Rodriguez following this season. MSS thinks his leaving will be good for the Angels, as he is apparently no longer the "great reliever he once was". Meanwhile Anonymous thinks we won't miss his antics after all of those saves "he almost blows".

So for MSS, is a 26 year old closer with almost 200 career saves who, by the way, just learned a new pitch no longer dominant, even while still saving well over 90% of his chances? He just dropped his ERA to 2.42, saving a 1-0 game, while retiring the games best player, and one of the AL's best hitters in the process. He made A-Rod look stupid on a 3-2 change up, a pitch he didn't even know how to throw before this season. Does anyone doubt that in a year or two, he'll probably also add a splitter to he repertoire? He is not only still dominating, he's learning while doing it. Oh, and for good measure, one of the guys you'd probably list as dominant, Mariano Rivera, he couldn't get it done tonight. Big L next to his name in the box score.

And Anonymous, does this count as one of the saves he "almost" blew? I mean, he did throw three balls to A-Rod before making him look stupid in the process. And those two fly balls he gave up were only about 70 feet from going out.  Yes occasionally Frankie makes things more interesting than we'd like.  What closer doesn't?  Troy Percival, God love him (heck, I sponsor his B-R page) wasn't always without drama.  Bryan Harvey seemed like he always walked the bases loaded before striking out the side.  But I think there's a tendency to remember the drama, and unfortunately the failures, more than the successes.

You can count on one hand the guys who have been dominant over Frankie's tenure in his role. Rivera, maybe Wagner, Nathan, and who else? Frankie has been part of that group for four years now, and he's much younger than all of them. Though his save totals have been high, his work rate hasn't been outrageous. You have to ask yourself, why are there so few guys on that list? It's because it's not easy to perform at that level year in year out. That's why guys like Derek Turnbow and Joe Borowski can look great one year, and get cut the next. There are very few closers with long track records of sustained success. And of those three mentioned above, Wagner's got an ERA over 8.00 in the post-season.

So you can cheer the departure of Frankie all you want, but it will, without a doubt, weaken the Angels. They will be worse without him.

I've said this so many times I may as well get it tattooed on my forehead, but here it is again, in boldface. The comparison is not between what Frankie is and what Frankie could be, or was for one great season, or what you wish he would be. The comparison is between what Frankie is and what currently exists in the game. Regardless of the fact that he no longer mows through three innings in 25 pitches with six strikeouts, like he did in 2002, he's still at the top of an elite group of players who, night in and night out, answer the bell in the last inning and deliver their team to victory. If you can't see that, then I guess I can't help you. But facts are facts, and the fact is Frankie is one of a select few that turns the vast majority of games he enters into eight inning affairs. And yes, that's a very, very valuable commodity. The Angels will regret the day he signs with someone else.

Bumped. Congrats to our boys for bringing home Bru-103. Click on the graphic for official recap. GO BRUINS. -N

Amazing finish.  UCLA led Stanford by three with Erik Flores on 18 and Kevin Chappell on 17.  Flores bogeyed 18.  Chappell dunked it in the water on 17.  He dropped, hit his next shot into the rough, which is about four inches deep where he hit it (more on that below).  Chappell stepped up and holed his chip for bogey.  They took a one shot lead to 18 where Chappell smoked his drive down the middle, knocked his second shot on the green, and two putted for the team and individual championship.

The 17th hole is a par three, and it looked like they were playing from the back tee, which puts it around 220.  Water all down the right hand side, Pete Dye railroad ties and the whole bit.  It's a really tough hole, but it looked downwind today.  The wind usually blows the other direction.  He need a par on 18 to win, and 18 is about a 470 yard par four.  Again, it's manageable when it's downwind, and impossible when it's into the wind.  Walking away with par there is quite a feat, especially with two championships on the line.

Full disclosure, I'm about a four handicap, and I play all over the Chicago area (my avatar is tee shot on #13 at Cog Hill).  I get down to West Lafayette to play the Purdue course about twice every summer.  I played there two weeks ago right before they closed the course to prepare it for the tournament, and they were promoting it as a chance to play it under the conditions they have at the NCAAs (in retrospect, it may have actually been a warning).  The rough was practically unplayable.  The first cut was over three inches, and a few yards in, it was about seven inches.  Just brutal.  It already has a course rating of over 76 from the tips (7,450 yards), and it was probably playing 2.5 strokes above that with this rough.  On the first day, the second player of the day to tee off hit his ball five yards into the rough.  Three players, and two spotters (who are out there to do nothing other than find balls in the rough) couldn't find his ball, and he had to re-tee with a two stroke penalty.  I hit one in that rough two weeks ago, lost it, dropped, hit that ball about 30 feet, and almost lost that one too.  It's that deep and thick.  There are five par fours over 470.  Under those conditions, it's probably the toughest course I've ever played.  For Chappell to play it two under for the week is awesome.

Mike Montgomery signed the deal with Berkeley too soon.  Trent Johnson is leaving Stanford and taking the LSU job.

Continue reading this post »

Bumped. -Menelaus

UCLA just put out a release stating that Walker is staying as defensive coordinator.  

UCLA head football coach Rick Neuheisel is announcing that DeWayne Walker has agreed to be a part of Coach Neuheisel's first UCLA staff as defensive coordinator.

In addition, defensive line coach Todd Howard and linebackers coach Chuck Bullough will continue in their current positions.

Other staff decisions have yet to be made.

Linebackers coach Chuck Bullough is also staying, so I'm not quite sure what this means, if anything, for Norton.  

Personally, I stand by what I said before.  If Walker has agreed to work under Neuheisel and isn't going to rock the boat, then this is good news.  First and foremost, the whole staff has to be on the same page.  And if this is an indication that these two are on the same page, then this is an excellent development.  Either way, the "I hate Walker" contingent, and the "I wanna have Walker's babies" contingent will need to learn to live with one another for a while.

Thought I'd get some thoughts down on this one before I get too drunk to remember what happened:

Continue reading this post »

NFL Adam over the Hater Nation, long time Angels fan and Dodger not-liker, has come up with a novel way to show your support this post-season:  The Playoff Mustache.

Continue reading this post »

Moved Over From The Diaries...

Just a quick lesson for the chicken littles in the game threads.

2005:
May 7-9: Three game losing streak against the crappy Tigers (2) and decent Indians (1).
July 7-10: Four game sweep at the hands of the crappy Mariners.
July 24-28: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by the below average Blue Jays.
August 25-30: Five game losing streak, including a sweep by Tampa Bay. Tampa. Freaking. Bay.
September 12-15: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by Seattle, and a loss to the Tigers.

2004:
April 18-20: Three game losing streak
May 24-28: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by the Blue Jays who were even crappier than they were in 2005.
June 4-9: Five game losing streak against mediocre Cleveland and crappy Milwaukee.
June 16-18: Three game losing streak against Pittsburgh and Houston.
June 29-July 1: Four game losing streak, Dodgers and Oakland.
July 18-21: Four game losing streak, Boston (1), Cleveland (2), and Texas (1).
September 21-24: Three game losing streak, Seattle and Oakland.

2002 - Not even counting the awful start:
June 15-19: Four game losing streak, St. Louis and Dodgers.
June 24-25: Three game losing streak, all Texas, two in one day.
July 13-15: Three game losing streak, two against Kansas City.
August 7-9: Three game losing streak, Chicago and Toronto.
September 21-25: Four game losing streak, Seattle and Texas.

Sometimes a team goes through a rough stretch. Even very good teams. It's not the end of the world.

Per MLB.com and they've got something up on Athletics Nation as well.  Apparently he had a bit of a dust-up after the game last night.

Continue reading this post »

Jeff's career got off to a pretty impressive start (if you stop counting at 14).  So did Jered's. Since Jered just finished up start #25, I figured that would be a good time to compare.  Couple of caveats:

1. Jeff was a year younger when he made his debut.
   
2. Jeff's first 25 starts all came in the same season.
   
3. Jeff pitched for a really crappy team.  

Jeff:  25 starts, 8-10, 5.23 ERA, 144.2 IP, 101 K, 1.304 WHIP, 22 Homers
Jered: 25 starts, 13-5, 2.79 ERA, 155.1 IP, 135 K, 1.127 WHIP, 18 Homers

If we dig a little deeper, we find that Jeff was 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA after 14 starts.  Jered was 9-2 with a 2.33 ERA.  Both look pretty damn good.  But one of the main cries of the skeptics has been "wait 'til the league sees Jered twice".  Assuming that MLB teams actually have an advanced scouting budget, I'm guessing that most teams are prepared for Jered at this point.  So let's see how each fared over his next 11 starts.

Jered: 66.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 9 HR, 61 K
Jeff: 58.2 IP, 8.59 ERA, 16 HR, 40 K

So, how many starts until we stop hearing the "Jeff got off to a great start, too" argument?  30?  50?  100?

Does anyone out there still think Jered is destined to be another Jeff?