Archive for the 'Chone Figgins' Category
July 3rd, 2009, 5:40 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
ANAHEIM
Angels right-hander Ervin Santana returns from the DL — again — tonight to make his first start since June 11.
But he has yet to demonstrate he has recovered all of his velocity or movement since sitting out the first six weeks of the season with an elbow injury. The Angels now seem resigned to asking Santana to figure out how to pitch with his lesser stuff and not expect him to be the dynamic pitcher of 2008.
“The first thing is how his mechanics are which will bring him to the velocity and command he needs,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said of what he will be looking for tonight.
“If he’s in his mechanics a couple things will happen. He’ll be pitch efficient and that will allow him to get a point in the game. … If he has that good hip turn generating velocity without throwing just with his arm — if he does that, I’ll think you’ll see the kind of (stat) line from him we need.”
Tonight’s lineups:
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins (5 for 8 in past two games after 1-for-21 slump)
RF Bobby Abreu (31 RBI in past 30 games)
CF Torii Hunter (hits in 20 of past 22 games)
DH Vladimir Guerrero (only 10 of 44 hits have been extra bases)
LF Juan Rivera (Happy 31st Birthday)
1B Kendry Morales (extra-base hit in 11 of past 16 starts)
2B Maicer Izturis (17 runs, 14 RBI in past 15 games started)
C Jeff Mathis (hitting .293 at home, .107 on road — largest differential among major-leaguers with minimum of 40 at-bats this season)
SS Erick Aybar
RHP Ervin Santana
ORIOLES
2B Brian Roberts
CF Adam Jones
RF Nick Markakis
1B Aubrey Huff
LF Nolan Reimold
DH Luke Scott
3B Melvin Mora
C Matt Wieters
SS Robert Andino
RHP David Hernandez
Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • Ervin Santana • Jeff Mathis • Juan Rivera • Kendry Morales • Maicer Izturis • Mike Scioscia • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | Post a Comment »
July 3rd, 2009, 6:35 am by Earl Bloom, staff writer
 As promised Thursday, here are some thoughts on how the Angels can get better this season, and beyond. They are out there, but all mine, so don’t blame anyone else …
1. Get some more relief pitchers who can get major-league hitters out on a reasonable basis — If you are going to carry eight pitchers in your bullpen, it should be mandatory that at least five of them fit that description.
Let’s review: Brian Fuentes? Check. Darren Oliver? Check. Jason Bulger? Lately, most of the time. Matt Palmer gets a pass because he hasn’t been in the pen that long.
The other four? It might be the first-time in major-league history a contending team has carried FOUR mopup men. While that might be harsh, it’s what I see. And that’s 16 percent of a roster.
I look at the Dodgers’ retooled bullpen and, before you get to Jonathan Broxton, you see Ramon Trancoso, Ronald Belisario, Guillermo Moto and Brent Leach. Mota has been around a long time, and still has a great arm. But who ever heard of the other three before this season? Someone over there is doing a great job identifying pitchers who can execute pitches.
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Posted in: Angels • Brandon Wood • Brian Fuentes • Chone Figgins • Darren Oliver • Dodgers • Gary Matthews • John Lackey • Kendry Morales • Mickey Hatcher • Mike Scioscia • Philadelphia Phillies • Reggie Willits • Robb Quinlan • Sean Rodriguez • Seattle Mariners • Vladimir Guerrero • Adrian Beltre • Brent Leach • Guillermo Mota • Jason Bulger • Jonathan Broxton • Matt Palmer • Ramon Trancoso • Rodrigo Lopez • Ronald Belisario • Terry Evans | 31 Comments »
July 2nd, 2009, 1:57 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
 The Rangers celebrate Hank Blalock's walkoff HR Wednesday ARLINGTON, Tex.
Hank Blalock’s walkoff home run overshadowed what was the theme of the night to that point — how dumb could the Angels be on the bases?
“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “That was not the best of baserunning tonight and we paid the price for it.”
Let’s relive the magic:
Second inning — After leading off with a double, Vladimir Guerrero was trapped off second base when Juan Rivera bounced a ground ball back to the pitcher. Guerrero stayed in a rundown long enough for Rivera to round first and commit to going to second — but not long enough for him to get there safely. Guerrero was tagged out and Rivera was thrown out easily at second for a double play.
Sixth inning — With one out, Guerrero at third and Rivera at first, Maicer Izturis hit a pop up to shallow center field. Marlon Byrd raced in and made a nice sliding catch. Guerrero tagged up at third and headed home — but Rivera had already rounded second and was easily doubled off first. Guerrero barely beat the play home so that his run was recorded. The score was 2-1 Texas at that point.
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Posted in: Angels • Chone Figgins • Juan Rivera • Maicer Izturis • Mike Scioscia • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | 1 Comment »
July 1st, 2009, 4:10 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
ARLINGTON, Tex
Through the first five games of the road trip which ends tonight, you can count Chone Figgins’ base hits on one … finger.
The Angels’ leadoff man is 1 for 21 on the trip.
“I’ve just kind of gone out of my zone a little bit,” Figgins said. “More times than not (when he’s slumping), it’s not my swing. It’s that I’m going out of my zone.
“Like last night in the second inning. Runners on first and second, 2-and-1 — I swung at a pitch in the dirt. I was, like, ‘Man, why did I swing at that?’ If I don’t swing at that pitch, it’s 3-and-1. That’s a different at-bat.”
Figgins struck out in that at-bat, one of two Ks on the evening for him.
Figgins has started 75 of the Angels’ first 76 games this season but says fatigue is not an issue in his recent slump.
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Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • Jeff Mathis • Jered Weaver • Juan Rivera • Kendry Morales • Maicer Izturis • Mike Napoli • Mike Scioscia • Texas Rangers • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | Post a Comment »
June 29th, 2009, 3:49 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
ARLINGTON, Texas
Torii Hunter makes his home near here in the high-rent district of Prosper, Texas. When the Angels play in Texas, he opens his house to some teammates.
This morning, Hunter said he was awakened at 5:30 a.m. when he heard someone leaving the house. It was Chone Figgins, heading out to do some fishing on the three-acre lake located on Hunter’s property. The lake is stocked with brim, bass and crawfish.
“It was great,” said Figgins who has stayed with Hunter before. “I couldn’t wait to get out there.”
Tonight’s lineups:
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins
RF Bobby Abreu
CF Torii Hunter
DH Vladimir Guerrero
LF Juan Rivera
1B Kendry Morales
2B Maicer Izturis
C Mike Napoli
SS Erick Aybar
RHP Sean O’Sullivan
RANGERS
2B Ian Kinsler
3B Michael Young
LF David Murphy
CF Marlon Byrd
RF Nelson Cruz
DH Julio Borbon
C Taylor Teagarden
1B Chris Davis
SS Elvis Andrus
RHP Vicente Padilla
Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • Juan Rivera • Kendry Morales • Maicer Izturis • Mike Napoli • Sean O'Sullivan • Texas Rangers • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | Post a Comment »
June 28th, 2009, 12:26 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
 PHOENIX
Torii Hunter gets the day off in Arizona to rest his legs for the heat of Texas.
“Just a general day off,” he said. “My legs are a little heavy. Just kind of give them a little rest before we go into Texas and play that team we need to run away from.”
Hunter said he’s still “feeling it” from his multiple run-ins with outfield walls over the past month or so — but nothing specific.
“I’m not really hurting anything. Just soreness,” he said. “Hurting and soreness are totally different things.”
Today’s lineups (with Ervin Santana scheduled to pitch in an Arizona Summer League game at 7 tonight):
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins
2B Maicer Izturis
RF Bobby Abreu
LF Juan Rivera
1B Kendry Morales
CF Gary Matthews Jr.
SS Erick Aybar
C Jeff Mathis
RHP Matt Palmer
DIAMONDBACKS
2B Felipe Lopez
SS Stephen Drew
RF Justin Upton
1B Mark Reynolds
CF Gerardo Parra
C Miguel Montero
LF Alex Romero
3B Augie Ojeda
RHP Max Scherzer
Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • Gary Matthews • Jeff Mathis • Juan Rivera • Kendry Morales • Maicer Izturis • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | 3 Comments »
June 27th, 2009, 12:24 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
PHOENIX
It’s “70s Day” at Chase Field today which means a handful of people dressed in afro wigs and tie-dyed shirts (those would be ballpark employees) and a pre-game assault of 70s music.
Angels manager Mike Scioscia has put together a lineup appropriate for the pre-DH days. With Maicer Izturis getting the day off, Erick Aybar moves into the second slot. Scioscia had already dropped Bobby Abreu from second to third with Vladimir Guerrero out of the mix in this series.
(Robb Quinlan and Sean Rodriguez also get starts against Diamondbacks left-hander Doug Davis.)
“We’re really getting into more of a National League lineup,” Scioscia said.
(I’ll pause a moment for the indignant laughter and hoots of derision.)
What does he mean by that?
“A second hitter in an American League lineup has a 9th hitter who’s really not a hitter,” Scioscia said (referring to the pitcher batting, not Jeff Mathis). “Hopefully, they’ll set the table for the middle of the lineup better than a pitcher would.
“You really want to set the table for him (Abreu) as much as he sets the table for the guys behind him. It makes sense to have two hitters in front of him as opposed to one hitter and a pitcher.”
Abreu is batting .311 (23 for 74) this month with 21 RBI (26 in his past 24 games) after batting .232 with only nine RBI in May.
Today’s lineups:
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins
SS Erick Aybar
RF Bobby Abreu
CF Torii Hunter
LF Juan Rivera
C Mike Napoli
1B Robb Quinlan
2B Sean Rodriguez
RHP John Lackey
DIAMONDBACKS
2B Felipe Lopez
SS Stephen Drew
RF Justin Upton
3B Mark Reynolds
CF Gerardo Parra
1B Tony Clark
C Miguel Montero
LF Alex Romero
LHP Doug Davis
Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • John Lackey • Juan Rivera • Maicer Izturis • Mike Napoli • Mike Scioscia • Robb Quinlan • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | 2 Comments »
June 26th, 2009, 3:54 pm by BILL PLUNKETT, OCREGISTER.COM
PHOENIX
Vladimir Guerrero will apparently have plenty of time to concentrate on growing his hair back this weekend. The shorn Angel’s pectoral injury has not healed enough for him to play the outfield yet and there will be no DH in this weekend’s interleague series at Chase Field.
Today’s lineups:
ANGELS
3B Chone Figgins
2B Maicer Izturis
RF Bobby Abreu
CF Torii Hunter
LF Juan Rivera
1B Kendry Morales
SS Erick Aybar
C Jeff Mathis
RHP Jered Weaver
DIAMONDBACKS
2B Felipe Lopez
SS Stephen Drew
RF Justin Upton
3B Mark Reynolds
LF Gerardo Parra
CF Chris Young
1B Tony Clark
C Luke Carlin
RHP Billy Buckner
Posted in: Angels • Bobby Abreu • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar • Jeff Mathis • Jered Weaver • Juan Rivera • Kendry Morales • Maicer Izturis • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | Post a Comment »
June 26th, 2009, 10:19 am by MARK SAXON, OCREGISTER.COM
For a team that has hovered near .500 most of the first half, the Angels have a lot of candidates for the All-Star game. Torii Hunter looks like a lock. Chone Figgins should be.
You could make arguments for Juan Rivera, Brian Fuentes and Joe Saunders.
One player who is deserving, but possibly cruising for a snub, is pitcher Jered Weaver. He ranks third in the AL in ERA (2.53), tied for second in complete games (3), tied for eighth in quality starts (10) and fourth in WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched): 1.08.
What more does he have to do? Especially if Weaver doesn’t pick up his eighth victory tonight in Texas, Joe Maddon might have a hard time fitting him on his roster. It might look funny for a team just a few games over .500 to have three All-Stars.
The transformation of Weaver from a player drifting _ after a meteoric arrival _ into mediocrity has been one of the unsung stories of this Angels season. Weaver was one game over .500 last year with a 4.33 ERA.
Until this season, he never had completed a major-league game.
“For the first time, he feels like he has a chance to finish any game he pitches,” Manager Mike Scioscia said.
Weaver has done it by reclaiming the command he had as a rookie, when that and his deception were his greatest assets, and by continuing to refine his changeup. It has become one of his most effective pitches.
That’s impressive for a 26-year-old pitcher in just his fourth season. Weaver began throwing the changeup at Long Beach State.
“I didn’t learn to throw a changeup until 4-5 years into the big leagues,” his older brother, Jeff, said. “Things like that impressed me. I saw how quickly he developed.”
Posted in: All-Star Game • Angels • Brian Fuentes • Chone Figgins • Jered Weaver • Joe Saunders • Juan Rivera • Torii Hunter | 1 Comment »
June 23rd, 2009, 10:00 pm by MARK SAXON, OCREGISTER.COM
The Angels talk about putting pressure on the other team’s defense all the time.
It’s not often that little guys running down the line cause a major-league defense to crack this wide open with the game on the line.
Erick Aybar and Chone Figgins each reached first base safely while trying to lay down sacrifice bunts during the decisive eighth inning of a 4-3 victory over the Rockies at Angel Stadium.
The Angels’ feet did what their bats could not. They got Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez _ and his 97 mph fastball _ out of the game.
It wasn’t as if Colorado has been playing sloppy baseball lately. The loss was the Rockies second in their last 19 games.
The Angels snapped a four-game losing streak and pulled into a virtual first-place tie with the Texas Rangers, who lost their fifth straight. It was a long time coming. The Angels hadn’t had a share of first place since opening day.
Colorado third baseman Ian Stewart made mental errors on both bunts, first hesitating too long while looking at second base and then failing to get his foot on the bag in time when Jimenez elected to try to get the lead runner.
Closer Brian Fuentes stayed on his roll, striking out two batters after hitting Chris Iannetta with a pitch to lead off the ninth. Fuentes earned his league-leading 20th save, pulling it off in his first appearance against his former team.
Posted in: Angels • Brian Fuentes • Chone Figgins • Erick Aybar | 1 Comment »
June 18th, 2009, 3:48 pm by MARK SAXON, OCREGISTER.COM
Why did Mike Scioscia let Chone Figgins swing away after the first two batters had reached base in the eighth inning and the Angels trailed by two?
My suspicion is Sicoscia would have told Figgins to bunt a few years ago, but the way he has been swinging the bat this season, went for the win. It worked out when Figgins smashed a double off the second baseman’s glove and into right field.
Here’s what Scioscia said:
“Our guys were a little bit tired and Figgy wasn’t a high double-play threat,” Scioscia said. “We wanted to give him a good full at-bat to see what he could do. Chone had a good at-bat, obviously the at-bat of the game right there.”
Posted in: Angels • Chone Figgins • Mike Scioscia | 4 Comments »
June 17th, 2009, 3:24 pm by MARK SAXON, OCREGISTER.COM
OK, now it’s a big deal.
The Angels ran off five straight victories before Wednesday, but they were against an assortment of struggling pitchers. On Wednesday, they got to to one of the best, rallying for three eighth-inning runs to defeat 2008 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.
Pinch-hitters Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero got it started with a pair of singles. Chone Figgins doubled off Matt Downs’ glove and Maicer Izturis drove in a run on an infield single.
Closer Brian Fuentes struck out two of the three batters he faced for his 18th save.
Posted in: Angels • Brian Fuentes • Chone Figgins • Torii Hunter • Vladimir Guerrero | 1 Comment »
June 15th, 2009, 3:55 pm by sammiller
 Chone,
I’ve been pretty hard on you. I tried to trade you for Jermaine Dye. I tried to trade you for Ian Kennedy. I tried to trade you to the Dodgers. I said the Angels shouldn’t re-sign you in the offseason. I wanted you to bat eighth. If I had any power, I would have put you on the bench and given your spot to Brandon Wood. I thought you were done. I compared you to Pets.com stock. I wrote, “Remember what Branch Rickey said: ‘Better to trade a player a year too early that a year too late.’ Too late. Better not wait until two years late, though.”
I declared that if I was wrong, I’d eat my words, quite happily.
Dude, was I ever wrong. And happily so.
Two weeks ago I went on the radio and argued that your hot streak was just singles falling in, and that I wanted to see it continue before I bought in. Since then, you’ve hit over .400. You’ve reached base in half your at bats, and you’re slugging .660 (!) on the month. You have as many extra base hits this year as you had all of last year in twice as many at bats. At first I was shocked half the balls you hit were falling in; now I’m shocked half aren’t. I once sat down and figured out what you had to hit to be worth a spot in the lineup; I don’t remember exactly what I came up with, but it was something like .280/.360/.375. Now you’re at .326/.402/.415, which means even if you revert to last year’s awful numbers you’ll still finish above my hypothetical break-even line.
Your fielding — which I raved about, but worried might have been a one-year fluke in 2008 — has stayed excellent, and is part of the reason guys like Joe Saunders, Jered Weaver and Matt Palmer have been so good. You do all the things I like — you take walks, see pitches, stay in the strike zone, and you’re one of the best baserunners in baseball. It’s sure not easy to be a valuable third baseman hitting one home run in half a season, but you’re doing it, and it’s not really even close — 2.2 Wins Above Replacement this year, which puts you in the top half-dozen among all ML third basemen. I love Brandon Wood, but I admit it’s a stretch to expect he would have been worth more than two wins in two months.
I said you were declining because you no longer hit extra base hits at all. Now you do. I said your stolen base rate was getting worse, but now it’s not. I said teams wouldn’t let you walk so much if you couldn’t at least threaten to rope line drives down the line — now that you do, they will. You were right. I was wrong.
This game will fool us, and it fooled me. After 600 at bats of futility, it was prudent to assume your decline; even now, after 150 at bats of awesome, I still have a hard time fully accepting it. But even longshots pay off sometimes, and prudent can be stupid. You’re going to hit free agency and get a lot of money thanks to these at bats, and I’m starting to think you’ll be worth every penny you get. Of course, I still think the Angels should talk to teams about trading you — you are blocking Wood, and now that you’ve propped up your value you could actually bring back a pretty sweet return. But if they don’t, at least the Angels will have the highest OBP in the leadoff spot in all of baseball and one of the 10 best-fielding third basemen, all at a very affordable $6 million cost.
I’ll shut up now.
-Sam-
Posted in: Chone Figgins | 5 Comments »
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