You know the old saying, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me” Well, that’s how I felt about the LA Angels' lineup the last few years.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that they are such perennial contenders, and the victory over the Boston Red Sox in the 2009 playoffs was fantastic. But the way they played against the New York Yankees brought back bitter memories of disappointment, and quite frankly, I’m tired of seeing the Angels look undermanned in the playoffs year after year.
They need to make changes, and I would start at third base.
I know, I know, Chone Figgins had a great regular season. No one was more impressed than me with his patience at the plate and his on base percentage. But Figgins has a history of disappearing in the playoffs, and there’s no reason to think it won’t continue. He has fumbled away opportunities both in the field and at the plate when put in maximum pressure situations, and it’s time to go.
The Angels need more variety in the lineup, instead of players that seem like clones of each other.
Chone Figgins, Erick Aybar, Maicer Izturis. All nice ball players, but all the same.
They have speed, and can get on base. But to score with them, the Angels need at least two hits, maybe more. It’s fine in the regular season when they face average pitchers on a regular basis, but in the playoffs, against the best, it requires too many things to go right and only one thing to go wrong.
Even when they beat Boston this year, they didn’t do much at the plate. In their first two victories, they scored all of their runs in one or two innings.
All of which brings us to the person who should replace Figgins. No surprise, it’s Brandon Wood. If he tanks, he tanks. But after all these years of expectations, after all the years of him tearing up the minor leagues, I would hate to see him sent to another team without ever knowing what he can really do.
It’s time to put him to the test.
With their present make-up, there’s no reason to think the Angels will get back to the World Series. They are turning into the Atlanta Braves of the American League. You’re always on the date, but you never get the girl.
Given a full season without the pressure of being benched or sent down, Brandon Wood could turn out to be like Kendry Morales. And how great would that be to have authentic power hitters at both corner positions?
Figgins was supposed to be a stop-gap measure at third anyway, just until Wood was ready. Then Chone played hard, worked hard, and made himself into an everyday player. Good for him. He’ll get his big contract somewhere, and Wood had time to develop.
But now it’s time to set things straight. And quite frankly, if Wood doesn’t pan out, you can always put Izturis at third, let Howie play second base every day like he should, and you wouldn’t miss a beat.
As much as I love the personality of this present Angels team—great guys all of them—I don’t want to have a National League style team trying to out-run the power teams of the American League anymore.
Snap and crackle is fine, but only if you have a little pop.
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