Go Dodgers! Go Rays! Go Not Red Sox!

Yup. Again. But, did you all see that last play? Here is an interesting article from ESPN about how pissed the Angels are about the whole thing.

This is what happened. Angels had a man on third with one out, and they were going for a suicide squeeze, meaning that the batter was going to lay down a bunt and the runner was going as soon as the pitch was thrown. As it turned out, Aybar whiffed on the bunt, leaving Reggie Willits completely stranded and in a pickle between third and home. Jason Varitek was running up the line to tag out Reggie Willits, and lunged at him to tag him out. He applied the tag and had the ball, but as he fell down the ball came loose. So the Angels are pissed about that call.

The thing is, this isn't like football where the ground can't cause the fumble. If a runner heading into home collides into the catcher, and the catcher drops the ball at any point during the play, then the runner is called safe. In another example, if an outfielder runs down a ball in the outfield, makes the catch, but runs into the fence and in that collision the ball gets dislodged, then the official ruling is that it's not an out.

Apparently there is no definitive rule on this play, but it seems like a legitimate gripe that the Angels have about the play. And they are seething.

Here are some of my quick observations on the Angels:

• Does Scot Shields always seem to give up the lead in these kinds of games? He definitely does not have the closer mentality. I feel like there are a lot of critical instances where he just blows it. I'm praying that they try and re-sign Frankie in spite of how shaky he looked throughout the series. I think Jose Arredondo is still a year or two away from being ready for that closer role. Or we're going to have to find some outside help. I'm worried that he might not get priority though because we have a lot of big contracts expiring.
• We absolutely positively must have can't lose out on signing Mark Texeira. Nobody within the organization is ready to step up, and there is no one else close to his caliber that we can get in his place. He is just about to enter his prime, and this is a guy that will give .300+ average, 30+ HRs, and 100+ RBIs, and can get walks for at least the next 5-6 years. If we have to sign him to a 10 year contract, so be it. The guy is top level talent.
• Lose Garret Anderson. Unless he's willing to take a massive paycut. He was making in the neigborhood of $14-15 million annually. Not anymore. Not worth it. Although I love his years of service, he just doesn't have it anymore.
• We don't have a true #2 pitcher on the staff. Ervin and Joe are good. They could develop into that next season if they continue to progress, but they're not it right now. Kelvim could be there if he's healthy, but he just hasn't been. He missed all of this year, and missed nearly all of 2006 too. Not sure if the injuries are related. His contract is also expiring, I think. Will be interesting to see what happens there. Will Jered Weaver ever max out on the potential he should while in college? Doesn't look like it so far.
• Did anyone else think it was an absolutely terrible idea for Willits to dive after that ball that turned into the double in the ninth? I know you can't fault the hustle, but if he would have just let that drop, it wouldn't have been anything worse than a single, and it would have taken at least an extra base hit, or two hits to get the run in. Plus, he took a bad route on that single too. He had to redirect his route to the ball as he was coming in. That kind of stuff matters in baseball, which is a game of inches. His throw was only late by a step as it was.
• Aybar has to feel awful about missing that bunt. The thing is, he had been trying to lay down any kind of bunt all series, and had missed on all of them. Oi.
• Even with all of those mistakes, when you actually play competitive sports, I don't think you point to those little things as much as other people might. While you and your teammates might recognize you missed those opportunities, everyone remembers their own mistakes as well as anybody. So when the inclination might be, he shouldn't have missed that bunt! An athlete also thinks, yeah, but there were fully 7 other innings where none of us did anything either. We should have done it then also.
• And when you're actually playing in the game, it never seems to register for them how big the game is as it is to anybody who is watching. I've heard this dozens of times from reporters who ask what it's like to play in the playoffs, Super Bowl, etc. and they always talk first about how much fun it is and they're too concentrated on actually playing the game that they don't think about all the pressure, expectations, etc. It seems like you're only really worried about that stuff if you can't have a direct impact on the outcome itself, i.e. you aren't actually playing or coaching the game.
• A buddy of mine had this on his status update on Facebook and I second it...none of you are from Boston, so stop pretending like you are. Jerks. Yeah, I'm bitter.