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Vlad is back tonight (updated with lineups)
August 4th, 2009, 2:20 pm · 42 Comments · posted by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
CHICAGO
Vladimir Guerrero is in the lineup for tonight’s game against the Chicago White Sox, his first since straining a muscle behind his left knee on July 7.
Third catcher Bobby Wilson is headed back to Triple-A Salt Lake to make room for Guerrero’s activation from the DL. Another move will be made after the game in order to clear a spot for Sean O’Sullivan. Angels manager Mike Scioscia confirmed this afternoon that O’Sullivan will start Wednesday against the White Sox.
Tonight’s lineups:
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins
2B Maicer Izturis
RF Bobby Abreu
DH Vladimir Guerrero
LF Juan Rivera
1B Kendry Morales
SS Erick Aybar
CF Gary Matthews Jr.
C Jeff Mathis
RHP John Lackey
WHITE SOX
CF Scott Podsednik
3B Gordon Beckham
RF Jermaine Dye
DH Jim Thome
1B Paul Konerko
C A.J. Pierzynski
LF Carlos Quentin
2B Chris Getz
SS Jayson Nix
RHP Jose Contreras
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Why mess up the chemistry?
Who needs him? He’s probably 40, at least in leg years, and way past his expiration date.
batting Vlad cleanup is ridiculous. the 3 guys (Rivera, Morales, Napoli) that are hitting in the middle of the order right now are the ones that need to be there.
Vlad should be batting 6th AT BEST. his place right now would probably be 7th.
Hitting in front of those guys is a great idea in my opinion especially if he’s patient and waits for something he really likes. He’ll get more good pitches hitting in front of Rivera and Morales, than he will hitting behind them. Scioscia wants to give Vlad the best chance he can to get his motor revving, and this lineup should be good for that.
“especially if he’s patient and waits for something he really likes…”
you do know we’re talking about VLAD, right? chances are, those guys will get on base, he’ll hack at the first pitch he sees and ground into a double play.
I’m sure he understands that he can afford to be more patient hitting in front of a couple hot swingers. I imagine that Contreras will try to get him to swing at junk out of the zone. If he does and Vlad does lay off, then he’ll certainly something in the zone, because he can’t afford to pitch around Guerrero with Juan and Kendry swinging the bat the way they are.
Holding my breath….
Does the ‘best manager in baseball’ put Vlad in the clean up spot or down in the line up (where a ’smart’ manager would) while Vladdy gets his timing back?
With the Angels having so many baserunners lately is it possible for Vlad to hit into three double plays in one game?
hahaha, that or lets hope he can a least let a pitch go by him. First pitch Vlad.
I think that will be easy for him to accomplish.
Batting 4th, fantastic….
Have you noticed that Mike will go against all conventional wisdom if all the internet managers are screaming for him to go that route? The only way Mike bats Vlad down in the line up is if everyone was screaming that he should be batting clean up!
As long as the team wins it doesn’t much matter where Vlad bats. They way this team is playing they could win with Hatcher batting lead-off.
Welcome back, Big Daddy…
I think that’s a coincidence. Scioscia is too busy screwing up the bullpen, shanking the batting order, plotting against Brandon Wood and cramming that archaic running game down the Angels throats to actually spend time listening to any blogapotamus. For years he has refused to listen to Plunkett, Saxon and I and for some reason thinks that winning the most games of anybody in baseball since 2005 is justification for his ignorance. Now he thinks that leading MLB in runs gives him even more credence. Yet for some reason he is allowed to run amok.
LMAO!!!
Sorry to see GMJ in there in CF and not Sean Rodriguez. S-Rod seems to finding a hitting stroke, and it would be nice to keep him in the lineup. As for Vlad batting cleanup, that was almost guaranteed to happen. Maybe someone out there knows whether Vlad has ever batted in a spot other than third or fourth while with the Angels.
I don’t understand why everyone is so outraged about Vlad batting fourth. So now, instead of having our hottest hitters all bunched together, they are spread out more evenly, and instead of protecting Vlad with someone like GMJ or Mathis so that he doesn’t see a strike all game, we have Juan and KMo behind him so that pitchers have to pitch to him, which is probably the best way to get him going again post-injury. You all really think Vlad will “get his timing back” seeing nothing but junk because nobody batting behind him scares the pitcher even remotely? And I don’t want to hear any more about disrupting “chemistry.” These hitters are professionals - you really think any of them are worried that Vlad being in the lineup again is going to make them hit poorly all of a sudden? If that actually happens, it’s their own fault, not Vlad’s. Has anyone considered the opposite possibility - that Vlad might actually benefit from being inserted right into the middle of a scorching hot lineup? It’s just been kind of shocking how Vlad has had two serious injuries this year (following yet another ho-hum 25+ HR, .300+ season) and everyone is ready to proclaim him DONE. I’m not saying he’s aging overly well, but he might not be as terrible as everyone immediately wants to assume, either. I recall everyone saying Chone was DONE last year (during an injury-filled year, of course). Now that he’s healthy, I can’t go two days without reading a “Re-signing Chone should be the Angels’ #1 priority!” article. Maybe Vlad is indeed DONE. But maybe he’s just been hurt a lot this year, and everyone is just too trigger-happy with the eject button. I sat in the left-field bleachers for the Rockies game about a month and a half ago where Vlad just annihilated a double off the CF wall and a laser HR (off All-Star Jason Marquis). He certainly isn’t ‘04 Vlad, but he didn’t look done, that’s for sure.
(This is Paul from the blog fantasy league, by the way. Too many other Pauls on the blog recently - had to switch it up. And Earl - to follow up on my long Pirates ramble from a few days ago: I also approved of the Grabow/Gorzo trade, and I don’t think that will change no matter what Gorzo does in his first Cubs start.)
Okay, I’ll be the Angels fan who actually roots for Vladi to do well tonight.
I would love to see Vlad do well tonight. He’s been a great Angel, and I’ve always appreciated his quiet persona. Plus, I want to see the Angels do well, of course, and if Vladdy gets a couple of hits he’ll be helping the cause. I think people are concerned, though, that the injuries have taken a toll on Vlad, and it might be asking too much of him at this point to provide middle-of-the-order production. Still, he’s earned the right to win or lose the clean-up spot himself, so let’s see what happens.
That was kind of a lame comment. Nobody is wanting Vladdy to do poorly. We are shocked that he is being inserted into the lineup at cleanup his first game back. A prudent move would be to slot him at 7 and ease him back in.
However, I think Scioscia knows more than we do, maybe Vlad has been mashing in batting practice? Even though I’m scratching my head, I believe Mike is making the right decision.
Go Vladdy and show us all that “Mike knows best” but most of all … GO HALOS!
He won’t see as many strikes hitting in front of Matthews and Mathis. You can afford to pitch around him in the 7the slot. You cannot pitch around him when you have Rivera and Morales on deck and in the hole. Just my $0.02 worth. But it makes “cents” to me.
Dude! Name one pitcher that throws strikes to Vlad. It doesn’t matter who is batting before or after Vlad. Every pitcher in the game knows to throw the ball either in the dirt or a foot off the plate when facing Vladdy. In his youth his super skills meant it didn’t matter. Age however, has apparently taken the edge off his abilities. Time will tell if he has the wisdom to compensate for the difference.
BTW, we are not anti-Vlad. Baseball is a production business and it is unfortunate to see fragile egos dictate lineup decisions.
Swing and a miss on a ball in the dirt…..
“We” are shocked?! No, YOU are shocked. You speak for yourself, no one else.
Sorry, I had been reading in several places where at least 15 other posts were wanting Vlad to bat 7th or so. There was even a poll here where quite a few were hoping he’d be at the bottom of the lineup. It was fairly considerable. I said “we” when speaking for the percentage of us idiots who want Vlad to bat at the bottom of the lineup.
In his first five games back, Vladi’s AVG/OBP/SLG are .350/.409/.650 with two homers.
Okay, all of you who wrote him off, step forward and admit you were wrong.
Okay, i’ll admit it: you’re still a moron
aaaaaaand there’s no Naps tonight. wonderful.
Scioscia’s “I don’t care what you think about Mathis” article really kinda hit me the wrong way. talk about a stubborn person…
Huh?! He’s “stubborn” because he knows about baseball than an amateur fan posting on a blog?! He’s supposed to manage based on what clueless people post online?!
Your agression is going to chase people away from this blog.
Here is a better way to address “matt”:
Matt: Sorry to hear it hit you the wrong way. While I respect your opinion, I find that Scioscia’s way of dealing with fans and media opinions is quite fantastic. He did play under the tutleage of the Dodgers and was quite a backstop in his day. I tend to think that he may know the finer details about the catcher position and his opinion on Mathis’ abilities speaks volumes about Jeff’s game.
Scioscia didn’t write the article or the headline. I thought he effectively re-stated the obvious _ that the Angels pitch better when Mathis catches.
But, yeah, this just in: Scioscia is stubborn. John Daly is a little thirsty, too.
it sounded, in all honesty, foolish. i dont know if it was the way it was portrayed, or really just what he said, but it was stubborn to a fault. it’s foolish to play the weaker play as much as you play the better player, then shove it in everyone’s face. it came across as pig-headed.
Mathis’ CERA may be lower, but he can’t hit. period. he looks like a little leager up there. Napoli’s CERA may be higher, but his bat makes up for that, and then some. .900+ OPS catchers don’t grow on trees. actually, they are extremely rare.
Guess you didn’t read until the end, when Lackey and Butcher both talked of how good Mathis is behind the plate. Butcher (thanks to Jeff) pointed out that the umpires like working with Mathis better, which I hadn’t thought of.
Scioscia loves Napoli, believe me. But “the weaker player,” in your phrase, is the better player in the department that catchers are judged on most. That is obvious to everyone in baseball.Why this debate continues to linger over the years is mystifying. Both players serve a purpose.
nobody’s discounting Mathis’ defense. it’s been shoved down our throats throughout this whole thing. we all know he can play defense. it’s the fact that he’s a constant black-hole at the bottom of the lineup that’s a problem.
defense should only carry you so far.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is like when the Dodgers had Joe Ferguson and Steve Yeager in the 1970s. Ferguson was offense, Yeager was defense. Both played.
Yeah, Steve, and that was accepted. Fantasy leagues hadn’t started yet.
Which is why I prefer reality leagues.
Other than Morales batting 6th, nothing I wasn’t already expecting with the lineup.
Vlad will have 10 games to do something out the cleanup spot before Scioscia makes a move. Heck, Josh “white lines” Hamilton got plugged into the cleanup spot when he came back, and is now batting 7th or 8th. Vlad alone won’t kill the team, just as Howie Kendrick alone didn’t cause the Angels to lose any games.
Steve — the answer is No, Vlad has never batted anywhere but third or fourth when starting a game for the Angels.
In fact, the last time he hit anywhere but those two spots was 2002 when he started one game as the leadoff hitter for the Montreal Expos.
The last time he was in a starting lineup lower than fourth was 1999 when he started nine games as the No. 5 hitter in the Expos’ lineup.
This was a big topic of conversation in our pre-game meeting with Scioscia today and I’ll follow up on it in tonight’s notebook from the game. Check back at http://www.ocregister.com/sports
Slick stats work! Thanks!
Praise be to God, Vladdy drew a walk!
Forget Vlad… he can easily be replaced by two .150 hitters! A little trick I learned from Buzzie Bavazi.
Chemistry in a lineup is a joke. Joe Torre writes a different lineup every day (except for Furcal 1st and Manny 3rd), and the Dodgers have the best record in baseball. I have no idea why Matt Kemp bats 8th so often, but it works.
Second in baseball are the Angels, who many who comment on here believe have a nincompoop in charge — as colleague Mark Whicker so adroitly pointed out.
Manny didn’t come off a 50-game suspension and bat 7th, so not sure why some think Vlad should.
My bigger question: Why, every time things seem to be going so swimmingly for the Angels, do they have to play teams with Sox in their nicknames?
Well, it’s hard to swim with sox.
The Angels are not going to score double-digit runs a game and they will have to win close games like last night’s in order to keep the division lead. Their core problem hasn’t been solved. By the way, Joe Beimel got the Nationals to their closer last night.