ANAHEIM, Calif. — Here is a guy who can definitely use a raise.
Jered Weaver wasn’t the best pitcher in baseball this season, just among the best values. The Angels got 16 victories from the 27-year-old right-hander and paid him $465,000. Only the Rangers got more bang for their buck from a starting pitcher, paying Scott Feldman $434,680 for 17 victories.
If anybody is capable of bringing the Angels back within striking distance in this ALCS, it’s Weaver, who will be entrusted with the ball today for Game 3. Angels manager Mike Scioscia only has to look at Weaver’s numbers pitching at home this season — a 9-3 record with a 2.90 ERA — to know he made the right move in not sending the right-hander to the mound in The Bronx.
But Weaver also recognizes he’ll be facing a dangerous lineup, whether the game is played here or on the moon.
“I like challenges,” said Weaver, who limited the Red Sox to one run over 7 1/3 innings in Game 2 of the ALDS. “They’ve got guys 1 through 9 that can hurt you, but so did Boston. So any team you face going this deep into the season and this deep into the playoffs is going to be a good one.”
Weaver showed flashes of brilliance in his first two major league seasons, going a combined 24-9, but last year his ERA surged above 4.00 for the first time and there were questions whether he had the maturity to succeed as a big league pitcher. Those questions were largely tossed aside in 2009, as Weaver went 16-8 with a 3.75 ERA and even pitched two shutouts.
“Weaver, if you got to him [last year], he was all over the place,” an AL talent evaluator said. “Now he’s much more under control. That makes them a much better team than they had in the past.”
Scioscia said the Angels have the right pitcher going to the mound.
“He’s controlling some of the things that maybe became distractions to him when he was younger,” Scioscia said. “I’m going back two or three years now, not early in the season. He has been as consistent as any pitcher that has taken the mound this year in the American League. It’s been very important to us.”