Watching Jeff DaVanon

There's nothing terribly interesting that happened over the weekend. Jeff and Tim continue to show that they are basically interchangable as far as hitting goes, as they both pinch-hit for doubles on Sunday. Of course, Salmon's came with RBI's.

I'm buried in work at the moment, and will be untill I go to Europe next week for business. So consider Watching Jeff to be on vacation untill July 19th or so. If something exciting happens this week I'll post, but otherwise it'll be quiet here. 'cause I'll be in Berlin. ~Maya

No Jeff in yesterday's loss. No Jeff the day before either in a fun win for the team, the absence of Jeff in that lineup was particularly sad, as it was a RHP.

My husband said that they appear to be trying Josh Paul at 3rd base, clearly the latest in their series of 3rd base experiments.

He also said that Modesi (who?) was working out and looked fine and healthy and like perhaps his "tear" had been more of an "owie".

But the real story (other than Mr. 0-fer, Tim Salmon) was the bizarre incident in the stands. The pipes over the heads of one section of fans broke in the middle of the game, spewing sewage on the unlucky spectators (and anyone who was passing by). The confused ushers relocated the effected fans to the aisles, creating an unpleasant experience for many. Although, I can't help but think about what a lovely lawsuit and/or settlement will come out of it. For the record, I've been told that shit does indeed roll downhill (and down stairs).

Jeff started at DH against the A's. He was hitless with no walks and more strikeouts than I've ever seen from him untill he got a nice double in the bottom of the 8th. He then got thrown out advancing to 3rd on Benji's single. The Angels are all about agressive baserunning, so even if Jeff had a choice about whether or not to run, he didn't have much of a choice. He seemed kind of angry that he got thrown out though, but moments later he was joking with Figgins, so I guess he got over it.

The home plate ump had a really bizarre strike zone, and Jeff, in particular, seemed confused by what the ump was calling as strikes.

The most important thing about the game was that Jeff was in the starting line-up. According to the broadcasters, Salmon really wanted to play this game, but Mike told him they were going with Jeff.

I feel for Salmon, transitioning into a new role is never fun. But he needs to get over himself. And also, he needs to shut up. Whining to the media just never ever looks good. Future professional athletes of America, hear my words, whining to the media never looks good. Whine to your friends. And your friends are not the media.

This also sucks for Jeff. He always seems to do well when the rest of the team doesn't, which obscures his accomplishments, or when the team does well he hits a slump, making him look like the weak link in the chain.

On Saturday, Jeff was subbed in but didn't get to hit and didn't see any action in the outfield. However-- spotted wearing high socks was Jose Guillen. And he had a homerun. Just saying high socks= good play.

Jeff celebrated his first Father's Day as an actual father (son Luke was born earlier this year)by being in the lineup, playing Left Field. He took 2 walks, had no hits, and looked pretty decent in the outfield considering that the Lemonade Stand has the most f-ed up outfield ever!

His dad was supposedly there for the game. He was also kind enough to record a "happy father's day" message thing for them to air during the game.

We shan't speak of the game except to say. Quinlan at 3rd continues to be a good thing. Now with even more hitting!

So Jeff is called on to pinch hit with 2 men on and 2 outs. Classic clutch situation. I am so nervous *for him* that I have to stand up and go to the other room and peek around the corner to watch the TV. It's the same thing I have to do during scary movies. God I hate this game. I hate the stress. I hate pinch hitting.

And he takes strike one.

And he likes the next pitch and hits it high, and deep, and it keeps going ang going and going, and it goes deep into the uperdeck of the stands-- foul.

This sucks. This game sucks. This all sucks.

So the count is 0-2, but my Jeff works himself into a nice 3-2 full count, showing that discipline that we all love in him and love to see.

And then he does something that to me betrays a tiny character flaw...

he takes the 3-2 pitch looking, and is certain that he was walked and way pissed when it is called a strike.

This tells me that he doesn't want the pressure, that he's a buck-passer, that he isn't in the right frame of mind to be a pinch hitter. In this situation, with 2 outs-- if you can hit it, shouldn't you hit it? If you are going to go down, don't you go down swinging, fighting, trying to make something happen?

Even if that last pitch had been a ball, I still don't think he made the right call.

But what the heck do I know? I couldn't even watch.

The only good thing was seeing Quinlan at 3rd. I think I like it, it seems good. Now if he could just hit something.

Jeff pinch hit for Jose Molina in the top of the 8th. He hit the first pitch deep and it was summarily caught. If you blinked or (like us) accidentally hit the 30-sec skip on your TiVo once too often, you missed it. Not that there was anything to miss.

I wish I had skipped the whole game. There was nothing worth seeing. Well, GA actually broke a sweat. Otherwise, all suck, all the time.

I hate interleague play.

I hate Pittsburgh.

I am reminded of why, despite my childhood spent in Northern Illinois, I was never all that much of a Cubs fan-- it so happens that losing is not all that enjoyable.

Having just switched to Firefox, I see now that this site looks awful on it. If it looks awful on anyone else's browser, I apologize. I'm tweaking it when I can to make it look purty, or at least not-ugly

Further adventures in the Hello experiment:Jeff steals

Posted by Hello

You can tell this is a picture from last year because the name on the back of the uniform doesn't sport the now-beloved-by-me "little a". On his current uniform, the first "a" in DaVanon is still uppercase, but is noticibly smaller than the other letters. Haven't we already established that I'm obsessed? I think the "little a" is cute. Cute in the way that the old Angels logo with the lowercase "a" and the sideways halo was cute. Cute in the way that typography can be cute.

There was the teasing possibility of Jeff action, but no actual Jeff action.

So there was nothing to watch.

I can't even begin to discuss the rest of the game. It hurts too much. Should such rampant suckiness really be rewarded with my continued loyalty?

I have $2 in my pocket, maybe we should take up a collection to get some real pitching? Or would the money be better spent on a 3rd baseman? Or possibly a voodoo priest to ward off future injuries?

And for goodness sake send his errorness, Alfie, and his .SUK batting average far far away. I've been forgiving of the average because he seemed to have excellent defensive instincts, but I am so over that now. Go away Alfie!

Watching the game on ESPN was a trip. The game felt like it was being televised by a high school... badly framed shots, cut-aways to nothing, and (my favorite) simultaneous, *overlapping* tickers running along the bottom of the screen. You'd think after 25 years, they'd get some of this stuff right.

So Jeff gets called on to pinch hit in the top of the 9th. There are 2 people on base, 1 out, game tied up. Nice little RBI opportunity (and Jeff, you could use some more RBI's.)There are a lot of things Jeff could do here, lots of options, let's go over them and play along:

a) Hit a home run. Hey, I can dream OK? This would be nice, lots of RBI's, game won, Jeff ups his pinch-hitting stock.

b)Hit a fly ball that drops in a gap

c)Hit a deep fly that gets caught.

d)Hit a nicely-placed line drive or other bouncing hit with lots of velocity

e)Hit a wimpy bloop directly to the second baseman who is so going to throw your ass out on the clean-up end of a double-play, thus ending the inning

So with all these options, why not pick e right? (edited to add: "pick" is a misleading term perhaps, implying an absolute level of control over the outcome that doesn't really exist, I get that, no one else is allowed to e-mail me about it. )

Which Jeff does.

Only Kennedy, not relishing the idea of (at best) facing extended innings for the 3rd time in a week, and probably thinking of all the angry dart fans who were pissed on Sunday when their televised game/match/whatever you call a pro dart contest/thing was pre-empted on FSN for the extra innings of the baseball game, took it upon himself to save Jeff's bacon, save the team's bacon, and save his own bacon (since he's still not hitting what I like to call "well")and do this kick-ass, semi-late slide into the ball-weilding shortstop, who then **couldn't complete** the double play, which had been inevitability embodied up to that point.

Kennedy gets a free pass from me this week. He can bat .000 and I won't say a word except "Go A.K!" "I Love You AK!"

Then Chone, having completed his detailed study of "3rd base line drives that I haven't been able to catch", passes his final exam and hits a 3rd base line drive that he wouldn't be able to catch, and neither can the Pirate 3rd baseman.

2 runs score (including Jeff). And then Frankie holds off the still-threatening Pirates for the rest of the inning to end the game with the Angels' win intact.

Well I've been more popular today that I would have expected.
(perhaps, like Jeff, I will experience a brief surge in popularity followed by an inevitable backlash)

Thanks to the lovely folks at The Chronicle and Pearly Gates for linking to me. There was blushing and stuff when I found out, really, I swear.

I spent a good long time yesterday trying to figure out what the heck OPS was. When I asked my husband he was all "do you mean OBP, 'cause that's.." at which point I stopped him because I know what OBP is. He didn't know OPS either, so we looked it up together, and I've already forgotten because it didn't seem all that useful. No wait, I remember, it's OBP plus Slugging % (had to have husband explain slugging percentage again.)

Anyway, in Pearly Gates' post about my sad little site here he mentions the following stats:
OPS
VORP
RC/G
GPA

tell me you are making some of that stuff up! And who cares what his GPA was-- hasn't he graduated already? Seriously though, I have no idea what you are talking about, and I'm not even sure I want to learn because this is all starting to look like math and how can anything with this much math in it be fun? Do you know why girls aren't into baseball? This is why! Just when we think we know what is going on, you create a new stat just so we can be lost again.

VORP-- is this Victim Of Red Pony? Velocity OR Percentage? Victory Over Role Player?
RC/G-- Racing Catches per Game? Running Cats per Grandma?
GPA-- Gross Pimple Antidote? Good Plate Apperances?

The Angels' Depth Chart shows something interesting. Listed as the #5 pitcher in the rotation is Jenks. He hasn't been officially called up yet, but B. Molina was put on the DL yesterday and no one has yet been announced to fill his slot. Interesting... especially since he is supposed to be injured.

Many people (after they say "Jeff who?") have asked why I have chosen to focus on Jeff DaVanon. He's not remarkable, some think he's nothing short of useless, he doesn't have a band on the side, there is nothing that should really draw my attention to him.

But that overlooks the simple, personal, fact that Jeff may have saved my marriage.

I'll come back to that, let's look at reasons to like Jeff that have nothing to do with my marriage:

1) Underdog factor Who doesn't like an underdog? Jeff isn't a starter or a star. Every time he contributes to the team he's standing in for the everyman. He's just another baseball player. Even when he does do amazingly well, he tends to do it quietly.

2)Excitement Jeff is an exciting player to watch. He has flashes of brilliance and flashes of stupidity. He has speed and power, but not enough of either to make you feel safe about what he's going to do. He's a competent outfielder, and could have been very good if he'd ever been given a chance to settle in at one position. Jeff steals bases, gets hits, takes walks, and dives/jumps for balls

3) Higher stakes Jeff is usually playing for his life. The starters and everday players can have a slump, or coast through a period on their bright names and good looks. Jeff needs to produce and perform whatever is asked of him. This adds a dimension to games, usually you are just rooting for a team to win, but now I am not only rooting for the Angels, I am rooting for a single player to perform well and be noticed.

4) Goofy Dork factor Jeff isn't really a traditionally good-looking guy. Except for the recent, ill-advised flirtation with facial hair, he's a cute guy, forgettable, everyman. But he has a few things that make me think he has a goofy dork inside him. First, there is the high socks. He's the only Angel to consistently wear high socks. He also seems to have big shoes, but maybe that's just the high socks making his shoes look bigger. Then there is his swing, which was wackier last year but is still sort of odd. Lastly, there is the smile. Jeff rarely gives a complete smile, he gives this half smile, like he's afraid to be too happy that he got on base.

So lets get back to the personal reason that I like Jeff. My husband is a life-long Angels fan. I didn't even like baseball. He went to the playoff and World Series games with his dad in 2002. I suggested that he and his dad get season tickets. I was so oblivious about baseball that I didn't understand how many games that would be and how impossible it would be to have a real marriage where one person has season tickets and the other doesn't even like baseball. I mean, football is once a week, there is still time to have a life built around the other 6 days. Baseball is basically the reverse. So I started going to a game or two and tried to show support and understand and *catch up*. But it was hard. I was getting down the basics of the game (you can't foul a third strike) but my learning and enjoyment was hampered by all this damn history. "That's so-and-so, he did such-and-such in game whatever of the series against the whoozits." I was losing my mind, every player had this elaborate history that I couldn't begin to learn.

But then, in the end of May, someone was playing that had high socks and a funny swing and also had no history. I said to my husband "who is that?" And all he could answer was "I don't know." "I like him" I replied. Soon, the player no one had heard of was hitting well and looking good and I could just watch him develop a history. It also gave me a starting point to understand the game. I asked questions based on what happened to Jeff, we could use Jeff as an example when I needed to know about some finer point of play. If a player was traded or something in the off-season, I could ask "how does this effect Jeff?"

And when my husband wanted to sell me on a vacation to see Spring Training, he knew that all he had to do was say "you'll get to see Jeff close-up" and I would be sold. And I was.

My thoughts after attending the 2002 pennant game

Red Laundry: the life and death of a baseball widow

Autograph: my story from Spring Training

The "A" team lost another marathon outing yesterday. Jeff played left field, and didn't make a very compelling case for himself going 0-for-6 and whittling his batting average down to an overlookable .326. He did have a nice walk and stolen base though, which put him in position of being the winning run, but he was left on base. The upside is that Salmon didn't look any great shakes either. By my count, Jeff didn't see any defensive action at all untill the game went into extra innings. I sometimes wonder if ballplayers sing "I'm here in right field, watching the dandelions grow" to themselves when stuff like that happens. Considering that's a Peter, Paul, and Mary song-- maybe not.

Quinlan looked really awesome filling in at 3rd, giving a lot of us ideas. Figgins was generally awesome (and as I told my husband when he came home from the game, "yes, the guy really was safe"). Vlad looked injured. Not just hurt, injured. I can't believe that his botched catch doesn't get charged as an error because of the sunshine. This whole "scoring" thing that is overlayed on baseball makes me long for my figure skating days when arbitrary judging could be counted on to make some kind of sense.

The boys are off today to travel to Pittsburgh and a National League park. Don't look for Salmon to do much more than pinch hit. Don't look for Jeff to start unless one of the regular outfielders needs a day of rest (Vlad, I'm looking at you.) I don't like interleague play.

That's right, Jeff had the kiss-of-death job last night and caught the honorary first ball. This is because the Cubs starting pitcher was left handed, and as we all know, Jeff is completely incapable of batting against a left-hander. He can't bat right, he just can't, he's partially blind in his left eye or something. Sometimes when I'm bored I try to come up with legitimate reasons for never letting Jeff bat right and that's the best one I've come up with. Salmon went about trying to prove that he's not getting "enough" at-bats and was unimpressive.

The Angels lost. Halter started at first which gives me hope that Kotchman is going to be sent back down and we'll get to see more of Quinlan/ Halter/ or maybe my cat. Any one of which would be an improvement. If my cat were the son of a scout ( and a little taller) I have no doubt he'd be playing first right now, and doing a better job. I think Kotchman will eventually be very good, but right now we all have a nickname for him that should be self evident. And he just doesn't seem focused, he doesn't play with intensity. He reminds us a bit to much of Garrett Anderson, and not in the good way, but in the lollygagging way.

for the dogs
edited because I am calendar-challenged

Jeff is the proud owner of some breed of dog that you wouldn't want to encounter in a dark alley. I guess he is totally nuts about this dog. His neighbor sat behind us at one of the spring training games we attended and all he talked about with his companion was Jeff's dog (to the point where I had decided it was his letter carrier and not his neighbor, but my husband says neighbor). There was a cute picture in the paper of Jeff petting one of the fan's dogs when the team played the White Sox on "take your dog to the ballpark" day. On Saturday I spotted him taking a break from his warm-up to pet one of the police dogs that was parading around the track as part of "salute to law enforcement" day in Anaheim.

Jeff is over 30. That lends a certain quality to his character that serves him well. He seems to know that each and every game he plays in, and each year that someone pays him to play baseball, is a bit of a gift. But he probably wonders if the success he is enjoying now might have come to him sooner were it not for the injury he suffered during Spring Training of 2000. He had a labrum tear on his left shoulder and was out the entire season. He is lucky it was on the left, since he throws right. All the same, there is an article about the labrum and how important it is in baseball here

To the Times after the game against the Brewers Thursday:

"I'm just glad we were able to win the game and get off the losing skid and get back to winning ways," DaVanon said.

link

Mike Scioscia's quote on Tim vs Jeff

"It's tough to keep Tim out of the lineup, but it's probably even tougher to take a guy out who's hitting .350 like Jeff is."

Gee Mike, I'm glad you noticed.

Jeff on Thursday's game and his spot on the team:

"It's nice to still be playing every day," DaVanon said. "Nobody likes to sit on the bench"

link to nice story at Angels' site

Friday was a pretty good day for DaVanon fans. He had a respectable showing in his start at Center against the Cubs, including a beautiful bunt that rolled right along the foul line without going over. This was also his first hit of the year from the right (mostly because he usually gets pulled if there is a lef-handed pitcher). I was distressed to spy him in the outfield spitting repeatedly, making me think he switched off his usual bubblegum for dip. Bad move Jeff! He also had a nice steal.

Jeff's well-deserved start and Anderson's return to the lineup has left Salmon in the unusual predicament of not being an everyday player. He isn't thrilled about it. As he told the LA Times:

"I've been an everyday player. I'm the type of player who needs to get at-bats and then I come around...I know what kind of player I am, and hopefully I'm given the opportunity to be that kind of player. If I'm not used as that kind of player, then I'll reevaluate the situation."

I'd expect that sort of unintelligable quote (5 imaginary points if you can tell me what the hell he means in that statement) in a live interview on TV or the radio, but print journalists are actually really forgiving about going for what you intended to say instead of what you actually said. So the above has probably been edited to make it as understandable as the reporter possibly could, and it is still a mess. But is he threatening something at the end there? What a cheesebag.

Jeff had a very lovely little game yesterday. He started in Left Field, moving Guillen to DH and leaving Salmon floundering with no spot on the lineup (ha!)

He was 1 for 3 with a walk, a run scored, and (oh yeah) he drove in the game winning run.

So it was a very good day to be a Jeff fan. It was also (I imagine) a good day to be Jeff.

When he drove in the game winner, the commentators were sort of surprised that he wasn't being asked to bunt. But one of them said "when you've got a hot hitter, and a rookie coming up behind him, just let him swing away."

Respect Watch

The return of Garrett was the story of the night and he was made the "player of the game" for some bizarre reason. However, it was Jeff in all the highlights, and he got some long-due attention even without being "player of the game." Also the commentators were forced to admit that he is kicking ass in hits right now, several times calling him "red hot", and complimenting him on his plate discipline.

Nice article about Jeff's impending return to the bench is here

Great quotes (see below) and background on his "plate discipline"

"It wouldn't be human not to be disappointed, because you want to be competitive," said DaVanon, who started at DH on Wednesday. "It's something I'm not worried about because it's not in my control. If I'm in the lineup, I play. If not, I cheer. I have to be realistic. I'll never be as good as Vladimir Guerrero or Garret Anderson, who are on a whole different tier in baseball."

I love that quote. You have to have respect for an athlete who can say something like that and honestly believe even a portion of that. Such a nice change when you have guys in the media complaining about playing time and position and everything else under the sun.

Raul Mondesi tore his quadracept in Tuesday's loss to the Brewers, and while he might be back before the end of the season, no one is counting on that. So I don't have to fume about him anymore for a little while. the full story

Jeff was back to form in yesterday's otherwise embarrassing loss to the Brewers. He went 3-4, had a perfect bunt, stole 2 bases, and scored on an error at 1st. He also had a few lovely outfield plays in Center. Salmon, back from injury, was the DH for the game, and Jeff provided him excellent protection in the lineup. Kennedy was in Jeff's old #2 spot in the order, and I'm not sure what crack they were smoking when that decision was made. In the 8th, Jeff moved over to Right to take over for Vlad.

And congrats to another favorite player of mine, Josh Paul, on finally getting his first hit of the season.

It is worth noting that Kennedy, who has been outstanding defensively this season and the complete opposite of outstanding offensively, seemed to be off his game altogether yesterday.

I'm still working on the layout here, I promise that my goal is to make it actually readable.

So during last night's marathon game (which reminded me of why I never liked baseball, and also made me long for the days when I didn't care about it) Jeff finally managed to get a little respect. During the telecast he was the featured player during the lineup announcement and later on, when Hud kept saying how excited the fans were that Vlad was due up next (Jeff DH'd and batted 2nd in the order between Figgins and Vlad), or how scared the Brewers must be of Vlad, or basically just saying something to the effect of "so after this nobody finishes his at-bat then Vlad will appear and save us," the other announcer would point out that Jeff is no slouch either, and fully capable of doing damage, and batting .400 in the last month.

And Jeff went 0 for 7, failing to drive in the winning run several times. Of course, the same could be said for every other Angel. Still, I really hoped for better from Jeff. Because I am strange and obsessive that way. So endeth the streak. Oh well, that's the thing about streaks, they end. And te Angels went down 1-0 in 16 OR 17 innings, I lost track. And now haven't scored a run since Saturday 30+ innings ago.

Personally, I also continue to be generally unimpressed with Mondesi. But I can't be objective because I look at him and see only a hothead whiny guy with bad hair who took Jeff's job (and Jeff's job was being a replacement for an injured guy).

The lead of the story re-capping the Angels' draft picks is

Before Monday's first day of the 2004 First-Year Player Draft, the Angels said they would look for the best available athletes with an eye on beefing up their thin outfield ranks.

I know they mean in the "organization" as a whole. But I still thought it amusing to see the phrase "thin outfield ranks" used in the same sentence as the Angels.

No game today. Doubtless so that the Angels can participate in the draft and acquire even more hitting outfielders so that Jeff can have even more competition for his job. Salmon and Anderson are both supposedly on their way back to playing condition, which would leave the outfielder/DH count at 7

Anderson
Salmon
Guillen
Mondesi
Vlad
Figgins
DaVanon

Figgins has been passable at 3rd, and Salmon should really be removed from the defense altogether. But that still leaves an embarrassment of outfielders.

So I say again. Why the hell was Mondesi required? Maybe Jeff doesn't speak spanish. Maybe he should learn.

Jeff was DH In Friday's 9-6 loss to Cleveland. He was 2 for 4, including one that was this close to being a home run. Admittedly, I wanted it to be a home run, so perhaps my eyes are biased. Jeff actually got to hit from the right side for one at-bat, he made contact but flied out. He had 1 RBI.

On Saturday Jeff returned to his old stomping ground in right field, and Vlad DH'ed. Jeff basically carried the bloody team, going 3-4, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, and officially catching up to Vlad during the course of the game for owner of best batting average on the team. (On Sunday, Vlad would continue to underperform and Jeff would pass him in batting average.) Despite this great performace (and twice being the tying run at third base)Jeff did not get even 1 RBI or get to score. This is primarily due to the bottom of the order sucking and Vlad and Guillen not being very good on Saturday.

In right field, Jeff made a bunch of easy plays, and slightly bobbled one ball which maybe resulted in a missed out but ultimately didn't effect the score. He hustled a lot, backing up plays at first and center (this is the first time I've attended a game where Jeff played right field, and I saw him in front of us a lot more than I've ever seen Vlad. He was amused by the crowd's antics, especially the right field beachers' "sudden synchronized beach ball unleashing" and was seen pointing to the crowd while making a comment of some kind to Aaron, the right field ballboy, which one can only assume was something along the lines of "check that out." He also hung out to collect Coco Crisp's homerun which the fans threw back on the field, operating under the mistaken assumption that Angels' Field is another name for Wrigley Field. Late in the game, Jeff made it to second by the skin of his teeth, just beating a throw. The Indian's went to the official to contest the call, and the umpire said "he just beat it." Media-wise, since Chone's home run created the only runs for the Angels, and since his botched play at 3rd didn't help matters, he was the star of the game, and the only thing any commentators talked about during it. Although they did make passing note of Jeff's hitting streak when they thought of it in between fawning over Figgins and Vlad.

Sunday's game saw a left-handed starting pitcher, so (of course) Jeff sat out and did not see any play during the game. His batting average is currently .352 and his on-base percentage is .438. He leads his team in both stats and were he eligable to be considered in league-wide stats (for some reason he isn't, probably not enough at-bats or at-bats per game played something) he would be 3rd in the AL in batting average and 4th in OBP.