Angels 5, Rockies 2
Jared Walsh broke a deadlocked tie in the top of the eleventh inning and sent the Angels to victory. With two men on and one out, Walsh proved that he is, at least for the moment, the right man for the two-spot in the lineup.
Jared Walsh is crushing dingers left-and-right. #Angels lead it 5-2. pic.twitter.com/v5MR1aNxX2
— Brent Maguire (@bmags94) September 13, 2020
Jaime Barría got the start for the Angels and pitched 5.1 solid innings, allowing five hits and two runs while striking out two and walking two. This was an impressive performance at Coors, considering he didn’t get many whiffs.
The Angels were unable to muster much offense off Kyle Freeland, with the only two runs coming on a Max Stassi sacrifice fly and an Albert Pujols double. Pujols now has 669 doubles and continues to climb the all-time list.
Matt Andriese got the save.
With the Astros winning earlier, this was a much-needed win.
Really nice to see Walsh doing this. Brings some fun to this otherwise meaningless short season
Where to improve this team moving forward?
If you look at Fangraphs and our team positional rankings, the areas in which we rank in the bottom half of baseball, per position:
2B (21st)
RF (29th)
LF (21st)
DH (19th)
Interestingly, our pitching is actually in the top half of the league for both SP and RP (albeit barely for SP, as they are #15).
The easiest way to improve a club is to find league-average type replacements for areas of significant weakness.
I think it’s fair to say that we have CF, 3B, and SS (whether it’s Simba or Fletcher moving forward) very well covered.
1B, if Walsh’s mini-break-through turns out legit, should be covered too.
For C – it’s hard to say, but if Stassi can maintain his level of play that we’ve seen this year, I think Stassi/Bemboom would be a league average catching combo. We could always explore re-signing Castro to a 1 year deal, too, depending on other moves that are made.
So the question is – how do we improve the other positions?
RF – Well, we will likely sink or swim with Adell in one of those OF spots. He’s been truly atrocious this year, and I wish they wouldn’t have rushed him so quickly. I think he has enormous potential, but he likely arrived a year too soon, and it’s hard to say how it’ll impact his long-term development. Still, I think it’s reasonable to expect internal improvement in this regard, whether he plays RF or LF moving forward.
DH – if this is Ohtani moving forward (it likely will be, but I do think there is value in having him learn to play a corner OF spot), then I have to think there’s reason for hope in terms of internal improvement, too. He’s been much worse this year than the last two years. A simple return to either his 2018 or 2019 offensive form should be more than enough to improve our DH production.
LF – Upton has played well the last week, but I don’t have much faith in him long-term. I think, ideally, we’d see Marsh take over RF, and Adell pushed over to LF, with Ohtani mainly as DH, and Upton getting some ABs along the way (when we face LHP or when Ohtani takes time off to pitch). This may continue to be an area of weakness, depending on how things play out.
2B – This is tricky. I think it’s too soon to give up on Rengifo – he is only 23 and has a good batting eye. He is struggling this year, but the Dodgers, who are a notably progressive and opportunistic franchise, wanted him in a trade. Personally, I’d give him the first shot next year, as I am assuming Simba won’t be re-signed. Between Rengifo, Jones, Barreto, and (maybe??) Thaiss, we should have enough internal competition to, hopefully, see a decent option emerge.
What’s interesting as well is the area that tends to get the most grief (our bullpen) is actually ranked #11 of #30, in large part due to Mayers and Pena.
The bullpen is comfortably above the middle tier this year in terms of production. Just watching the games and seeing all the blown saves, that does seem surprising.
You’re making my argument against analytics……THANK YOU!!
I don’t care what a statistical number says as opposed to what I’ve just witnessed with my own eyes.
Our pitching sucks and is deplorable sans Dylan Bundy and Felix Pena. 😫
Mayers has been fantastic man. He’s been our best reliever.
Heaney has been solid on the whole, too.
uh oh here we go again….LOL!!
Not again….SMH! 28 yr old Mike Mayers pitched for the St Louis Cardinals. In 2018 he appeared in 50 games and had a WHIP of 1.432. He’s the best we got RIGHT NOW…….and were obviously going with BP by committee and just riding the guy with the hot hand. How bad would this be if this was a regular 162 game season? Andrew Heaney doesn’t pitch well on the road either. Mike Mayer’s is this season’s Hansel Robles and I fully expect to see him get lit up like a Christmas tree in February come 2021. These scrubs are still scrubs dude and Billy Beane knows it.
Mayers has allowed a whole lotta inherited runners to score. He is good if he starts an inning or comes in with nobody on.
And where did our soon to be replaced GM rank in this survey and who are the replacement candidates
Fletcher at 2B solves that problem, no? Rengifo is serviceable as a backup IF and legs off the bench.
With Walsh flashing some usefulness and Thaiss allegedly looking good in LBC I dont know how the team can keep Albert on the roster next year if they’re truly desperate to compete.
If they don’t want to outright release him, trade him to the Cardinals and eat the salary for a feel-good way to get him off the roster.
Is Jared Walsh Superman?
Why yes, yes indeed he is.
2021 line-up,
Fletcher 2b-4
Marsh LF- 7
Trout CF-8
Rendon 3b-5
Walsh 1b-3
Ohtani DH-10
Adell RF-9
???? C-2
Simmons SS-6
We still have Upton and Pujols next year, yes? I would think we won’t see Marsh until after a few weeks (to protect his service time) and Walsh/Pujols platoon for the foreseeable future.
But yes, this looks like a decent projection moving forward, and if (huge IF) we can get pitching (one/two more starters, better back end relief) we could have something.
We still need a lot more than there is room room for buy with creative financing there are 2 important pieces we need. First we have a glaring hole at Catcher and we need desperately a catcher. Frontline catchers are difficult to secure nowadays there is one available in the 2020-2021 Free Agent market,in Realmuto. very good defensively and swings a very good bat too. Projected cost would be 20 mil x 4 = 80 mil. Second one is similar but different to last year debacle with Cole, trying to bring home a local boy. Trevor Bauer with Bundy and heaney along with Sandoval, Canning, Pena, or Barria with a dash of maybe Ohtani would be interesting. Bauer stated recently that he would sign only one year contracts, so to take him at his word he could be worth as much as 25 mil per x 1 year. Resign Simba for 12 mil per x4 = 72 mil. Over the cap, yes sir, but only for one year with Pujols coming off the books. With Walsh emerging at just the right time and holding on to Ward for back up and banking on him to continue their progress we would look fairly good on paper. Hope you and others got all this, there will be a test later…..lol
My offseason desires and lineup:
Lineup: Fletcher SS, Marsh RF, Trout CF, Rendon 3B, Walsh 1B, Ohtani LF, Upton DH, Castro C, Rengifo/Jones/Thaiss/someone 2B
Bench: 1B Pujols, UTIL Thaiss, C Stassi, IF/OF Barreto
Rotation: Bauer, Bundy, Heaney, Canning, Barria, Ohtani** – Manning should be ready during the year, and Determs probably will be ready sometime in 2022, so we’ll have 2 young, very legit SP prospects ready to step in
Bullpen: Buttrey, Mayers, Pena, Ramirez, Middleton, Barnes, Reyes, Quijada, Sandoval, Naughton, etc..
I think this team would be a real competitive team
I would trade Bundy & Marsh in the offseason for somebody’s SS prospect.
Done with FA unless your all cool with 78-83 wins a year because we have no prospects year after year. Fire BE and everybody he’s responsible for bringing in with him and hire a tried and true ANALYTICS FREE BASEBALL MAN to fix this. 😣 😥 I know many of you have to really dig deep to try and find a silver-lining in BE’s body of work, but come on people we’re headed to our 5th straight losing season ( worst in franchise history ).
Why do we need someone’s SS prospect? We have Fletcher to play SS if you don’t want to resign Simmons, and we have three SS prospects of our own in the system (Paris, Vera, and Jeremiah Jackson).
Because they belong to BE….
Not trusting BE’s prospects after Jo Adell’s deplorable debut. Griffin Canning has been so so, and nobody has looked great so far. BE’s prospects are radioactive to me and it’s starting to look like they might have to keep Simmons. 😖 You know I kinda don’t dig BE by now!
Delighted with the arrival of Jared Walsh. Been waiting for this guy to get a legit opportunity for two years. He’s always had access to serious raw power – the question was whether he could get to it in games consistently.
Kid’s doing his best to answer that question in 2020.
To really ascend as a team like the As, we need guys like Walsh to come out of nowhere from the lower levels and make an impact. Just like Fletcher did 2-years ago. Unheralded, under the radar find. , If Walsh can keep his footing, this team is that much better overnight.
He’ll probably be traded, like Goodwin, or passed over for Thaiss/Pujols.
This team rarely embraces cost-efficient position players if it has expensive declining free agents or low ceiling first rounders to indulge.
But it’s great while it lasts.
I think Walsh is making a case to move ahead of Thaiss. Sure, Pujols isn’t moving, but having a viable 1B option to spell him and be his replacement would be a great thing.
The idea of moving Upton to 1B to preserve his bat has taken quite the hit the past couple of seasons.
I don’t think Goodwin is a good example, as it seems clear he was moved in favor of Adell/Marsh (cost-efficient position players – even cheaper with more time on the clock).
Yeah, I agree. Goodwin had 2 years of control left, but given that we have Trout, Upton, and Adell, with Marsh probably almost ready too, it was likely time to move on from Goodwin to create some space.
We have no 1B options really, so the fact that Walsh is emerging and comes with 6 years of control is huge.
With Trout, Rendon, and Fletcher – we don’t need a bunch of stars to surround them, as they are effectively already stars, but rather, we just need some solid, 1-2 fWAR type players, as opposed to having all these guys who are sub 0 fWAR players (Upton, Pujols, etc).
And he provides an affirmative answer to the question, “but can he pitch?”. I actually don’t know if he could, realistically. I hope, in a way, we let go of the illusion that we might sneak into the playoffs so that we can experiment, like creatively using Walsh, say, between 1b and the mound when “it can’t hurt,” even theoretically.
Ballsy calling on Butters. It’s like a box of chocolates-you never know what you’ll get.
Angels, tank or go for it?
Exactly
Come on – you know what’s going to happen. It’s the meh option. Win enough to draft 10th.
Which we’ll use on a below slot prospect so that we can sign a raw, athletic outfielder out of HS?
Love games like this, Pujols is on the pine more now with this Red Head that keeps blasting away and making the plays in the field.
Agree so much here. There is no reason to give Puljos anything other than pinch hitting duties. Let Walsh play 1st the rest of the way.
Amen!
We want him to hit his last major milestone, right? Take pressure off – and maybe (maybe maybe) he hangs it up/gets ‘hurt’ and ends up on the IL for his last season.
Only 13 games left. Wow. These have gone by quickly.