Vargas to start Game 1

[kurtiebird]

Greetings Angels fans... Royals fan here, I thought I'd try to spark some friendly conversation between our two boards before the ALDS tomorrow. You can find our forum here (royals.scout.com).

 

Just wanted to chime in on the Vargas discussion. He has been pretty terrible lately, pretty much since he returned from getting his appendix removed. There had been speculation that he'd be the odd man out in a 4 man rotation, with the Royals going with Shields, Duffy, Ventura, and Guthrie. Guthrie hasn't been great either, but had a solid outing vs the White Sox in his last regular season start.

 

I was actually expecting Duffy to start game 1. He's been very good for us, except for 2 recent outings - 9/6 at New York, where he threw one pitch, and had to come out because of shoulder tightness, and his last start of the season 9/27 vs the White Sox, where he only went 2 innings and gave up 4 runs. The latest I heard on Duffy is he's slated for long relief, but could be named the game 4 starter. This is obviously pretty disappointing.

 

So our first 3 starters would be Vargas, Ventura, and Shields. For anyone who watched the Wildcard game yesterday, Ventura was the pitcher who came in and gave up the 3 run homer in the 6th. Yost has been blasted for bringing him in, both on twitter and the regular media - it just made no sense. A rookie starter, who pitched Sunday, and has only ever come in for a relief appearance once before, plus he's a righty (with two left handed bats coming up). We had several better options, at least in the mind of the armchair manager.

 

After Shields, (and assuming the series goes more than 3 games), I dearly hope that Duffy gets the start, though if he's slated for long relief, I don't hold out much hope, especially with Vargas going tomorrow. If Duffy gets used in relief, that leaves us with Guthrie as the only other game 4 option among our regular rotation, which IMO is not ideal.

 

I really honestly don't know what Ned is thinking sometimes. Many over at Royals Corner still want him fired, despite getting us as far as we've gotten (first postseason in 29 years). I'd much rather start Duffy in game 1, or even Guthrie, but as bad as Vargas has been lately, that turns out to be Ned's choice.

 

Well, here's to a good ALDS, and hope to see some of you over on our board.

 

-Kurt

[Ordos]

Glad to have you share the insight, and welcome!

[Ordos]

I like the guys over there so far. Sound a lot like us.

"kinsleycat wrote: angelswin.com

They had a 48 page thread on last nights game

thx.

Found another arrogant fan base who has won nothing. We know Detroit well enough and their loud mouths. They win t he central wooooohoooo and do nada in the playoffs. What has Anaheim done? They win divisions like Detroit with their bloated payroll. Time for a change

From that board-------Some of his career numbers against the Angels came against guys like Abreu, Trumbo, etc. Career numbers against a team are generally irrelevant. Especially for a veteran pitcher.

They scared of Vargy"

[stormngt]

We could have offered him a qualifying offer for one year.

the four year offer.came after the angels decline to offer a qualifying offer.

I liked Vargas when he was with us -- did everything we pretty much asked of him.

Angels didn't want to give him a FOUR year deal for the money KC gave him so we lost him -- not too upset about that -- but Vargas has pitched well for KC this year.

no hard feelings vs. Vargas..........we left him, he didn't leave us.........he got a better deal from KC an organization on the up-swing and do so at a time when not too many other teams (certainly not the Halos) was seeking to give him a FOUR year deal and the money he was asking........

good for Vargas, good for KC -- now let's go out and beat him Thursday night.

[Guest]

We could have offered him a qualifying offer for one year.

the four year offer.came after the angels decline to offer a qualifying offer.

 

This. The Angels should have offered him a qualifying offer then attempted to negotiate a mutli-year deal at a more reasonable average annual valuabe. .

[shellback]

imo vargas is a number 3, at best.

that being said, guys that come back to play/pitch against a former organization are motivated by alot more than just rah-rah b.s.

it would be interesting to know if there is any of the old grudge/hatred/ anger motivation that will enable v. to pitch over his head in this game.

never have been impressed with the guy and the angels made a good move in not signing him to that bloated (in years) contract.

yost's pitching choices are interesting, to say the least.

[Blarg]

laugh...looks like I'm wrong as it appears Ventura lines up for game 2....Still can't rule out the 6 man rotation though

 

It's a five game series.