Tribe @ Los Angeles of Anaheim 5/6/11

[Prosecutor]

Team ERA of 3.04. When Kendrys Morales and his career .828 OPS gets back they'll be even better offensively. They'll win the West with no problem and in a short series with Weaver and Haren they'll be very tough.

[skatingtripods]

Team ERA of 3.04. When Kendrys Morales and his career .828 OPS gets back they'll be even better offensively. They'll win the West with no problem and in a short series with Weaver and Haren they'll be very tough.

"With no problem"? Really?

Texas is a better team.

[Prosecutor]

Team ERA of 3.04. When Kendrys Morales and his career .828 OPS gets back they'll be even better offensively. They'll win the West with no problem and in a short series with Weaver and Haren they'll be very tough.

"With no problem"? Really?

Texas is a better team.

Maybe. It's early; we'll see. I've been impressed by the Angels so far in watching them win 3 of 4 from the Tribe. They have pitching, speed, and defense, plus they're a veteran bunch. They have a terrific 1-2 punch in Weaver and Haren, and this Chatwood kid has given up only 12 runs in his last five starts.

They'll be even better when Morales gets over his ankle problem. But I'll acknowledge that Texas may give them a run for it.

[peeker643]

It's tough playing on the west coast against the two best pitching staffs in the AL with both Grady and Choo buried in slumps. We might have to settle for going 2-4 on this trip, but that's not bad because I don't see any of our competition in the Central doing better when they have to play these guys.

Everybody in the Central lost yesterday except the Twins, so the division as a whole continues to suck, except for the Tribe.

I can see the Angels in the World Series this year with Weaver, Haren, and Chatwood. Chatwood is only 21 and I expect him to get better as the season goes along. Plus the Halos are a veteran team with speed and defense to go along with those starters and a great bullpen. Not much power but they seem to have everything else.

I don't expect to beat Weaver but let's see how White does in his second start tonight.

I am not sold on the Angels. Many of these younger pitchers, such as Chatwood, tend to really struggle after going around the league one time, and especially seem to go south after the All Star game. Speaking of that, from 2006-2009, Haren did significantly worse in the second half than first half. Last year was an exception, though.

Exactly. In fact, the ones that don't are typically HoF guys. they better have more than Haren and Weaver.

I imagine this same conversation is had by people wondering who the eff Tomlin, Masterson and White are too

Christ- 90% of the people on these boards didn't know who Chatwood was until this week.

[peeker643]

Team ERA of 3.04. When Kendrys Morales and his career .828 OPS gets back they'll be even better offensively. They'll win the West with no problem and in a short series with Weaver and Haren they'll be very tough.

"With no problem"? Really?

Texas is a better team.

Maybe. It's early; we'll see. I've been impressed by the Angels so far in watching them win 3 of 4 from the Tribe. They have pitching, speed, and defense, plus they're a veteran bunch. They have a terrific 1-2 punch in Weaver and Haren, and this Chatwood kid has given up only 12 runs in his last five starts.

They'll be even better when Morales gets over his ankle problem. But I'll acknowledge that Texas may give them a run for it.

They'll be excellent shape when they look at the ankle again in July.

[Prosecutor]

Good point about Chatwood possibly struggling the second time around the league. I'm assuming that he'll get better seeing as how he's 21 years old, but it could go the other way.

The Angels are 19-15 in a division where every team is within two games of .500, unlike the AL Central. The Indians are 20-7 in games against teams other than the Angels. At this point the Angels have won 3 of 5 against a 20-7 team. All five games were in Anaheim, but the Angels are actually playing better on the road so I'm not seeing a home field advantage so far.

Having watched the Angels win 3 of 5 from the Tribe, I'm impressed with their team. Morales was the team leader in OPS last year so when he gets back, even if it's in July, they'll be that much better.

It's early but they look like a team to be reckoned with, especially if they make the playoffs and can start Weaver and Haren four times in seven games. I believe that good pitching usually beats good hitting. They have Weaver and Haren up front and the Tribe still hasn't come close to scoring off their bullpen. They have six relievers with ERA's under 2.00.

Maybe Texas will prove to be the better team in the long run but I've been impressed with the Angels so far.

[Bigfist]

A couple of points. First, while I like Morales, he only played in 51 games last year, so it is hard to extrapolate his less than 1/3 of a season to a full one. We really have no idea if he will be the same player when he returns from his rather freakish injury.

Secondly, again, Haren tends to fade in the second half. Additionally, it would be nearly impossible for Weaver and Haren to both start four out of seven games in a seven game series, without coming back on short rest. With few exceptions in the last 30 years (Orel Hershiser and Josh Beckett come to mind), those that do get rocked.

[Bigfist]

Correction...going through the math, it certainly would be possible for both Haren and Weaver to pitch twice in a seven game series. Not sure what I was thinking.

[GodHatesClevelandSport]

Irony alert:

Chatwood's first career start vs. Indians on 4/11: 5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 K, 3 BB
Chatwood's sixth career start vs. Indians on 5/6: 8 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 5 K, 5 BB

[British_Pharaoh]

Irony alert:

Chatwood's first career start vs. Indians on 4/11: 5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 K, 3 BB
Chatwood's sixth career start vs. Indians on 5/6: 8 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 5 K, 5 BB

And the irony would be in what?