The Angels and the end of urgency

Lest anyone forget, the Tampa Bay Rays were 9 games behind the Boston Red Sox on the evening of Sept. 1 last season, with 27 days left in the regular season. On the same night, the St. Louis Cardinals were 8½ games behind the Atlanta Braves, and now the Cardinals' players have the burden of trying to figure out whether to wear their championship rings on a daily basis.


So late May is probably not the time to blow up a team.


There have been early-warning phone calls placed by general managers of some struggling teams. If their respective teams don't start playing better, they are saying, they'll probably be active before the July 31 trade deadline -- so they're suggesting that other teams evaluate them for any interesting possible targets now. "It's just a heads-up," said one general manager.


But the addition of a second wild-card team to each league may keep teams believing in their chances longer than they might have in the past.


Consider the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. In the first 49 days of their season, they saw their new Hall of Fame-caliber superstar have the worst start of his career; fired their hitting coach; demoted their closer; and lost a $21 million outfielder to a major injury. This was Murphy's Law, times two.


But in the aftermath of Dan Haren's dominant outing against the Mariners, the Angels are sitting a comfortable 3½ games behind the Blue Jays in the standings for the second AL wild-card spot -- not where they expected to be, but certainly not in a place appropriate for panic.

Albert Pujols has 13 hits in 40 at-bats (.325) in his last 10 games, with four homers and four walks; he hit his 450th homer Thursday, as Bill Plunkett writes. The injury to Vernon Wells was probably a blessing in disguise for the Angels, because it cleared some of Mike Scioscia's lineup complications and allows him to play his best defensive outfield possible. The Angels' starting pitching is turning out to be as good as expected: The LAA rotation leads the AL in starters' ERA. And the addition of Ernesto Frieri has been a spectacular success, stabilizing the Angels' bullpen: He hasn't allowed a hit in nine appearances, and 19 of the 26 outs he has registered have been strikeouts.



Source: Insider