The Angels are starting to get a little upset with Ervin Santana. A pitcher with his type of arm should be dominating at the major league level. But, ability doesn’t always turn into results in the majors. Santana has now pitched in 84 games (82 starts) in his major league career and he is 35-30 with a 4.84 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. Santana needs to throw more first pitch strikes as he makes big mistakes when he falls behind in the count often grooving pitches right down the middle that result in dingers for the opposition. Santana has allowed 64 homers in only 487.2 innings in his career to date and that will need to change if he ever wants to be a consistent winner at the major league level.

Ervin Santana, Bartolo Colon and Darren Oliver have all had rough first halves to the 2007 season. Ervin Santana is 5-10 this season with a 1.54 WHIP so far this season. In 104 innings this year Santana has allowed 122 hits and 23 homers! That will need to change soon or Santana will be replaced in the starting rotation. Bartolo Colon has also had a rough first half of the 2007 season. He is now 6-4 with a 6.44 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP so far this season. He has allowed 107 hits and 15 homers in only 79.2 innings this season and that can’t be tolerated much longer. Darren Oliver is the only lefty in the bullpen for the Angels and he is 0-0 with a 5.79 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP. The Angels have been using him as a mop up man and that’s all he will likely be as he can’t be trusted in pressure situations.

Manager Mike Scioscia is getting upset enough at Ervin Santana that he might wind up sending him to the minors if he doesn’t straighten out soon. In 10 starts, Santana is 3-6 with a 6.00 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP so far this year. In 57 innings, he has allowed 68 hits, 13 homers and has walked 25 batters. Santana has whiffed 44 batters so the stuff is there. He just needs to get his head straight as he’s been throwing too many fat pitches.

Hector Carrasco hasn’t pitched near as well as he did last season for the Angels so far this season. He’s 0-1 with a 4.96 ERA and a 1.84 WHIP this season. Carrasco’s main problem is that he’s been pretty wild so far this season as he’s walked 12 batters in only 16.1 innings. If Carrasco can fix his control he will get back to being a good pitcher out of the bullpen for the Angels.

In the Angels neverending search for a lefty reliever they signed Darren Oliver who pitched pretty well for the Mets last season. But he’s been just as bad as J.C. Romero was last season for the Angels so far this season. Oliver has pitched in 6 games so far this season and he’s 0-0 with a 12.50 ERA and a 3.33 WHIP! In 3 innings this season, Oliver has allowed 6 hits, 4 earned runs and 4 walks. If Oliver doesn’t straighten up soon he will be relugated to mop-up duty for the Angels.