Oh, lay off, already.

This is ego stroking. Team knows it. Felix and Erik know it and almost certainly don’t care.

The only people who care are nitpickers–there’s plently of stuff that McLaren does that’s TRULY bad, so don’t carp on the stuff that’s actually OK, like public stroking of your talent.

I guess I should have included a link to a picture of my tongue, because it was firmly in my cheek.

Dave, I think there are some hockey fans in Buffalo who would care to differ.

Poor Buffalo — that awful weather, rusting factories, and nobody knows how to spell.

I don’t know who should be more offended, Batista because this is condescending, Felix & Bedard because it implies they’re no better than Batista/Washburn/Silva/Dickey, or me because it insults my intelligence so grievously.

they are pitchers; they have all been brought up in the ‘there is no no. 1 after opening day’ school of thought

1) When he says he is going to give a player the day off, he doesn’t mean “a day off from starting”. That player might as well not suit up that day. Scioscia is a real believer in the need to rest veterans and get them off their legs. The Angels have a travel day today before opening for 3 in Boston and Scioscia was going to stick to his plans.

2) He is going to respect the veteran until said veteran shows he no longer belongs in the lineup. He will occasionally do defensive replacements in the bottom of the 9th, but otherwise he won’t pull a veteran hitter for a pinch hitter. It isn’t the way he deals with veterans.

3) If you believe in the value of situational stats so early in the season, Anderson had hit .270 in 2-out-RISP situations (3 for 11, 5 RBI) and Hunter hit .125 (1 for 8, 0 RBI), which indicates Hunter was not a lock to create magic at that moment. Scioscia most likely wasn’t even taking that into consideration.

Furthermore, I haven’t seen Anderson’s “ego” displayed, despite all the conjecture here that Scioscia is simply managing GA’s ego instead of the entire team. Anderson has pride, as does any veteran, and no player wants to be pinch-hit for, but he isn’t going to pout or trash the locker room.

Finally, no love at all for Rowland-Smith? The posts here act as if his pitching had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. He ran the count full, threw him one fastball early and the rest all off-speed, set up Anderson well on the outside, and got Anderson looking, expecting Ball 4. Rather than assume that Hunter would have guaranteed a loss for the Mariners, why not assume that R-S is good enough to have struck out either of them?

Let’s say McLaren had a really good righty on the bench in the late innings (say that Beltre had the day off), would McLaren ever pinch hit for Raul?

I can’t imagine Scioscia’s reasoning was quite that bad, but it’s something to consider.

I don’t know who should be more offended, Batista because this is condescending, Felix & Bedard because it implies they’re no better than Batista/Washburn/Silva/Dickey, or me because it insults my intelligence so grievously.

Oh, lay off, already.

This is ego stroking. Team knows it. Felix and Erik know it and almost certainly don’t care.

The only people who care are nitpickers–there’s plently of stuff that McLaren does that’s TRULY bad, so don’t carp on the stuff that’s actually OK, like public stroking of your talent.

I suppose I’d have to see a larger sample of Scioscia’s work, but I don’t think I’ve heard any Angels fans complain too loud.