Blogs

Jeff Gordon

Good and Bad Angels

July 21, 2007 2:20pm CDT

The Angels would normally be a terrific shopping stop for fantasy general managers looking for starting pitchers.

This is a legitimate pennant contender with an outstanding closer and a potentially dominant offense. The environment for starting pitchers seems very, very good.

Kelvim Escobar brought great numbers (10-3 record, 3.04 earned-run average, seven-game winning streak) into his start at Tampa Bay. John Lackey has rolled to a 12-5 record and young Jered Weaver is 5-2 with a 2.97 ERA, with just four earned runs allowed in his last four starts.

But this team has suffered two significant breakdowns in its rotation.

Ervin Santana got battered this season this season – all the way back to the minors – and would-be ace Bartolo Colon is getting shelled, as well.

As result, fantasy GMs must track the Anaheim, er, Los Angeles situation very closely.

Santana, 24, has been an acute disappointment this season. During his last four starts, his earned-run average was (gulp!) 11.64 ERA.

Overall, he was 5-11 with a 6.22 ERA when the Angels sent him down to Salt Lake City. He led the American League in home runs allowed (23), runs allowed (82) and earned runs allowed (76).

Last year he was 16-8 last season with a 4.28 ERA. As a rookie, he was 12-8 with a 4.65 ERA. So how could Santana fare so horribly during his third season?

He apparently has no idea. "To me, I don't know what I'm going to do different," Santana told the Los Angeles Times. "To me, I'm totally fine . . . The results are different and I don't know what's going on, so I'm just going to go there and try to find it."

Colon's issues are more understandable. He opted not to undergo shoulder surgery during the off-season, preferring to rehab the injury instead.

He has just one victory in his last nine starts, going 1-5 with an 8.67 ERA and 11 homers allowed during that span. Overall, he is 6-5 with a 6.28 ERA and 15 homers allowed in 15 starts.

Colon claims the location of his fastball – not decreased velocity – is the root of his trouble. Angels manager Mike Scioscia will keep running Colon out there as long as he believes he is still healthy enough to compete.

"Our objective with Ervin was to fix him all along," Scioscia told reporters. "When it came to a point where it looked like it wasn't going to be productive for him to stay and try to work things out up here, we made a move.

"We're nowhere near that with Bart. I think as long as Bart's healthy and he maintains his stuff, he's going to pitch well the second half."

In the near term, fantasy GMs should keep an eye on pitcher Joe Saunders, just up from Salt Lake City. He was 3-0 with a 2.97 ERA in five starts for the Angels this season, but was just 4-7 with a 5.11 ERA with the Bees.

"He's been working on some stuff," Scioscia told MLB.com. "We're got a lot of confidence in what he can bring."

If Saunders falters during this trial – or if the Angels see the need to shut down Colon for a while -- long reliever Dustin Moseley appears to be next in line to join the rotation. He threw very well in two fill-in starts earlier this season.

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