Mike Scioscia

I worry now some harm might come to the Rally Monkey, as mad as Angry Arte must be paying these losers. I picture his Angel Stadium suite already littered with stuffed monkeys ripped to shreds. Bill the Waiter at the Mini Gourmet in Yorba Linda is so upset with his Angels, he's saying Sunday morning: "If you can't win with Secretariat, it's time to get a new jockey. " Hard to imagine Mike Scioscia ever being mistaken for a jockey, but then who thought the Angels would just fold?

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia believes baseball can expand the playoffs and avoid November World Series games without reducing the 162-game regular season. To do so, said Scioscia, who has considerable input on such issues as a member of the game's special committee for on-field matters, baseball needs to condense the regular season by streamlining travel. As an example, Scioscia cited the team's next trip, dubbed the "Four Corners Trip," in which the Angels go to Seattle, New York, Florida and back to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers.

Mike Scioscia is the Angels' problem. And no one wants to say it, let alone hear it. After all, Saint Mike is as loved as they come around here in sports. The daughter bought a refrigerator from Howard's because Mike says that's where you should shop. He might wear red but he's been true blue Southern California since making his plucky debut with the Dodgers in 1980. He's the rock-solid former catcher, nitty-gritty and a roadblock at home plate willing to sacrifice his body for the good of our favorite team.

Within seconds of Mike Scioscia's latest decision-gone-horribly-wrong Saturday night in Kansas City, when he pulled starter Zack Greinke in the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead and closer Ernesto Frieri gave up two home runs for a 3-2 loss, fans began spewing vitriol toward the Angels manager on Twitter. Again. It has become a typical, predictable and somewhat tiresome pattern: key move doesn't work out, scream at television, go to keyboard, type "fire the manager!" hit send button. While Jerry Dipoto may not agree with what seems to be a growing number of fans clamoring for Scioscia to be canned in this season of unfulfilled expectations, the Angels general manager can empathize with such anguish and frustration.

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Although two prominent managers recently have called for a ban on collisions at home plate, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said he is not convinced a rule change is in order. "It's a tough thing to legislate with any kind of rule," Scioscia said. San Francisco Giants Manager Bruce Bochy and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny — former catchers — each has advocated such a ban, citing an unwarranted risk of injury. Bochy's Giants lost catcher Buster Posey for most of the 2011 season after a collision; Matheny's playing career ended because of concussions linked to collisions and to balls fouled off his mask.

Angels Manager Mike Scioscia is not getting the job done. He has been bulletproof until now, and maybe as secure as any manager in baseball, but there are now questions about his effectiveness as a leader. Those who cover the team regularly say the team appears flat and lifeless. How can a team fewer than 20 games into a season be flat? Isn't it the manager's job to make sure such a thing does not happen? But then Scioscia is nowhere near the carefree, fun-loving manager with the quick quip he was when just starting.

Mike Scioscia said he had never seen anything like it. No, the Angels manager wasn't talking about Howie Kendrick's ninth-inning walk-off bunt Wednesday at Angel Stadium, something of a novelty in itself. He was referring to a second-inning called strike on a pitch by Cleveland's Jake Westbrook that bounced and nearly hit Hideki Matsui . Matsui nearly fell down trying to get out of the way of the pitch, and replays appeared to show his bat crossing the plate.

Mike Scioscia doesn't need fancy statistics to tell him what he sees with his own two eyes: The Angels have not played very good defense this season. In case the manager needed some numbers to support his belief, there are plenty. The Angels have a .979 fielding percentage, fourth-worst in baseball, and they've committed 16 errors, leading to 12 unearned runs. They have an ultimate zone rating of minus 9.0, second-worst in baseball.

No one anticipated the Angels would coax the superstar first baseman away from the only team he had ever known, from the fans that had adored him. Yet the Angels swooped in, signed him to the richest contract in franchise history and set sail for October. Then the season started. Soon after, so did the defeats, the dissension, and the dismissals. Albert Pujols, meet Mo Vaughn. This could be 1999 all over again. By the time the debacle of Vaughn's debut season was over, the players had staged a mutiny and the ownership had cleaned house.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — During pregame stretch Tuesday, shortstop Erick Aybar embraced Fernando Rodney and playfully tugged at the Tampa Bay Rays closer's goatee. Rodney shook hands with Albert Pujols and hugged several Angels relievers. There were no such pleasantries between Rodney and Angels Manager Mike Scioscia , not after Rodney, the former Angels reliever, fell out of favor with Scioscia and was buried on the bench in August and September. "I haven't talked to him, I won't seek him out," Rodney said of Scioscia.