Los Angeles Angels Tickets - Opening Day vs. Oakland

The Los Angeles Angels were second in the American League in attendance in 2008, bested only by the New York Yankees. Because L.A. returns as the clear favorite to once again win the AL West, the Angels should accordingly be one of the most popular teams in baseball in 2009. The popularity of Los Angeles Angels tickets for their opening day matchup with the Oakland A's goes to show that this team's fan base is not going to stop coming to Angel Stadium anytime soon. Let's take a look at what fans who look online to purchase Los Angeles Angels tickets for this opening day game will see at the ball park by going over the opening day starting pitchers and batting lineups.

Pitcher's Duel
The expected opening day starters for the Los Angeles Angles and the Oakland A's, barring any unforeseen events between now and April 6th, will be John Lackey and Justin Duchscherer, respectively. Who has the edge? Well, Duchscherer ended 2008 with an ERA of 2.54, went 10-8 and had 95 strikeouts. Lackey wasn't so bad either, ending 2008 with an ERA of 3.75, went 12-5 and threw 130 strikeouts. ERA-wise, Duchscherer should be the man, but he's been dealing with injury problems all throughout spring training, and Lackey's got a slightly better bullpen corps behind him.

In 2008 Anaheim's pitching staff had the third lowest ERA in the American League at 4.00. The bullpen, led by Francisco Rodriguez's 62 saves (best in the AL and a career high), was one of the best in baseball. Of course, he's gone to the Mets now so Brian Fuentes is presumably the closer. Scot Shields, Darren Oliver and Jose Arredondo provided excellent relief last year. Come to think of it, Oakland wasn't that bad at pitching, either. The A's actually had the fourth lowest team ERA (4.01) and some considerable bullpen workers, like Joey Devine, Brad Ziegler and closer Huston Street.

Batter's Battle
The Angels were an average team in terms of generating runs in 2008, but they got better immediately when Mark Teixera joined the team. The loss of Mark Teixera to the Yankees (plus the loss of Garret Anderson) will be softened by the addition of outfielder Bobby Abreu. Bobby has hit over 100 RBI in each of his past seven seasons, so fans can appreciate his ability to instantly help the team's run scoring ability. So the Angles should be alright from a hitting standpoint.

The A's weren't so hot at hitting last year, as they ended with the fewest runs scored in 2008. Jack Cust had 33 home runs, but for the most part the A's were lacking power and consistency. Matt Holliday joined Oakland over the offseason. But will Holliday spark an offensive revolution? Perhaps, but the safe money is on the A's coming up short of the Angels in terms of offense.

Prediction
When attempting to bet on individual baseball games, it's best to start off with something simple, like picking the winner. Here, the clear favorite is the Angels, who will have all the advantages- a better starter, a better bullpen and closer, a stronger lineup and home field advantage. But can we put some numbers behind this simple prediction? We're going with the Angles over the Athletics by a score of 7-2 because although the A's can pitch, the Angels will start slugging in the late innings.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.