One of the things I love about baseball is that in small sample sizes, you can see some rather strange things. This season is no different as there have been more than a few oddities creeping their way into the Angels season. Sounds like a perfect topic for Top Ten Thursday.
Sometimes baseball can be just plain odd, but isn’t that why we love it?
- Howie Kendrick = Walk Machine. Somehow Truck already has five walks in a mere six games despite a general reputation for being allergic to taking pitches. To put this odditiy in perspective, consider that only once in his entire career has Kendrick drawn more than five walks in an entire MONTH (his high is 8 free passes in September 2010).
- You Can’t Stop Alberto Callaspo, You Can Only Hope to Contain Him. Guess who leads the team in average so far? Callaspo. Guess which unlikely infielder already has two homers? Callaspo. Guess who is tied for the team lead in RBIs? Callaspo. Not too bad for a guy who was shaping up to be the forgotten member of the Angel infield before the season started.
- D-Fence. This obviously won’t last, but the Angel defense is playing MUCH better this year. They’ve committed a scant two errors in six games, one of which was committed by Jason Bulger (so it really shouldn’t even count) and the other was a Jeff Mathis passed ball.
- Balk This Way. The Angels lead the Majors in balks. Given the erratic state of their pitching, that only seems fitting.
- A GIDP Per Game. Hitting into six double plays in six games isn’t all that odd for the Angels, after all they grounded into 125 last season. What is odd is that they’ve done so despite no longer having GIDP magnets Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli on the roster.
- Izturis is Fine, Aybar is Not. Who would have ever guessed that Maicer wouldn’t be the first Angel infielder to get hurt this year? Now that is an oddity.
- BLOCKED! An Angel that will remain nameless blocked me on Twitter. That in and of itself isn’t the oddity, the fact that it took so long for one of them to block me is.
- Trum-bust? Bust as a player? Probably not. But the Trumbo hype machine certainly is busted. He was supposed to have at least 39 homers by now, not zero.
- Radio Silence. I haven’t seen SI’s Jon Heyman rip the Angels on Twitter in like a week. That has to be a new record for him. I hope he didn’t fall into a well or something.
- Rain, Rain Go Away. Believe it or not, the Angels’ home opener has a good chance at being rained out. Has that happened ever? Stupid climate change. I blame Al Gore.