If This Is Best Start, He Must Be Stopped

According to “Angels Report” on May 28, Garret Anderson is off to “his best start in six years as an Angel,” despite a “subpar” .257 on-base average. Subpar? .257 is an embarrassment! I perused the stats elsewhere in Sunday’s paper and found that there is only one category in which Anderson is near the league leaders. Outs. He is just off Jose Cruz’s league-leading pace in outs (though at least Cruz draws a walk now and then). And I’m not even counting the double plays that Anderson so prolifically grounds into.

This got me wondering: Can a man be vying for the Out Crown and still get 125 RBIs, as his current pace projects? Yes, in the run-happy baseball of 2000, he can. He bats behind players like Erstad, Vaughn and Salmon, who are almost always on base, and a high percentage of his hits are homers. He ought to be on a pace for 140-150 RBIs.

Your report fails to note that his pace for runs scored projects to only about 85. In 2000, in the heart of a lineup that may score 850 runs, and batting ahead of a genuine slugger like Troy Glaus, that is a horrendously low total.

Garret Anderson swings at anything because he has no clue about the strike zone and this makes him a rally killer. When he gets good wood on the ball, it sometimes goes far, but what about the rest of the time? The sooner the Angels get him out of the heart of their lineup, the better the offense will be.

MATTHEW SHUGART

Carlsbad