The Angels' playoff roster and pitching rotation has been set, and Simi Valley's Jered Weaver will find himself in the bullpen for the first-round series with Boston.
After the Angels' regular-season finale Sunday, manager Mike Scioscia Manager his rotation: John Lackey will start Game 1 on Wednesday, with Ervin Santana pitching Game 2 on Friday and Joe Saunders starting Game 3 in Boston on Sunday.
That places Weaver in the bullpen along with the fifth member of the starting rotation, Jon Garland. Given the relaxed five-game-in-eight-days schedule in the first round, the Angels certainly had the option of dropping one of the starters for another reliever.
"I think what this look gives us," explained Scioscia, "is an opportunity to do whatever we need to do in nine innings, and not to hold anybody back. Because we have Weave and Jon Garland with enough length that they can pitch, and pitch deep if we have a game that gets into extra innings.
"So I think there's some things that depth is going to help us to do some things earlier, and I that's what we leaned toward those two guys."
Darren Oliver, Jose Arredondo, Kevin Jepsen, Scott Shields and Francisco Rodriguez complete the 10-member playoff pitching staff. The only surprise in that group may be Jepsen, a right-hander whose major-league experience consists of 8 1/3 innings in nine appearances (0-1, 4.32) since joining the team after the Beijing Olympics, where he had one save and an ERA of 0.00 in four appearances as the U.S. won a bronze medal. He makes it, at least for the first round, at the expense of veteran Justin Speier, 2-8 with a 5.03 ERA in 62 games.
"I just think where we are right now," said Scioscia, "that Kevin Jepsen brings something that could be important to our bullpen. He has a power arm with good stuff and he's throwing the ball well. There's still a possible role for Justin, but right now, Kevin has the type of arm that could grow as you get into the playoffs. So we're going to give him a look."
A young power pitcher with very little major-league experience on the playoff roster? Angels fans have heard this before, but Scioscia cautioned not to make too much of a parallel with Rodriguez, who burst onto the scene with a major role in the 2002 postseason and has since become the Angels' closer, setting a major-league record for saves this year with 62.
"I don't think it's fair to canvass anything Frankie did in 2002 and hope anyone's going to jump in and do what he did," said Scioscia. "But I think there are some similarities, with the power arm, a guy that probably has not gotten a lot of exposure. And we'll see if we can grow with him. He's shown enough, certainly, in his appearances, where his stuff plays in the big leagues. And we'll see where he is."
Most of the 15 position players on the roster are obvious. The borderline selection of note would be infielder Brandon Wood, batting .200 with five homers and 13 RBIs.
A "taxi squad" of Speier, infielder Sean Rodriguez, and catcher Bobby Wilson will travel and work out with the team but will not be on the first-round roster, which can be re-set before each round of the postseason. Three other pitchers, Shane Loux, Jason Bulger and Dustin Moseley will go to the Arizona Instructional League and continue to pitch in order to be ready if needed later in the playoffs.
Winning finish: The Angels' 7-0 win over Texas on Sunday gave them a final record of 100-62, the first 100-win season in franchise history as well as the first time they've finished with the best record in baseball. (The Cubs and Rays each finished with 97 wins.)
"It's a great milestone," said Scioscia. "As we talked this week, there were more important things to be accomplished, but as hard as these guys worked, and for everything these guys have put out since day one of spring training, 100's a nice round number and we'll get ready for Wednesday now."