Angels Lose 9-5: Eliminate Themselves From Playoff Contention

Playoff Contention is a fickle thing. For the Angels to make the playoffs, they needed outside help. The Angels needed 6 games to go their way in 3 days. It would take a miracle to pull off. Texas did their part by beating Houston somehow, so it was up to the Angels to survive until tomorrow.

Blowing their chance

Andrew Heaney was on the mound vs Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw was kind enough to give Mike Trout a low meatball. He also allowed a Hot Pocket home run, perhaps a bit too obvious. It was a golden opportunity that the offense jumped on. 4 runs off Kershaw!

Dodgers offensively tried to hide the cover up by actually scoring. First by stealing home by Mookie Betts since he is a former Boston player so he had to make the Angels hurt. Then by hitting a lot of home runs. To be fair, they were asking to be hit a long way.

Both starters didn’t even get through 5 innings. Not what was expected at all. A bullpen game starting in the 5th put the Angels to a huge disadvantage, well, a bigger one to be more specific. To make matters worse, Luis Rengifo left with a pulled hammy.

The game turned into a home run derby. Jared Walsh hit a home run off the Dodgers Bullpen. Justin Turner hit 2 off of the Angels pitching, which to be fair, is like picking on AAA pitchers. Speaking of that, it was the debut of a career MiLB player for the Angels thanks to the injury to Rengifo. Welcome to the show, Elliot Soto!

MLB debut

Angels pitching does what the Angels pitching has done all year, blowing it. The team had the lead that was squandered by the bullpen, 4 runs in 4 innings. Heaney allowing 5 of his own in only 4 innings is what really killed their chances though. Not just this game, but the entire season. Even Mike Mayers, the best reliever in MLB this year by Fangraphs WAR, gave up a 2 out 2 run home run in the 8th.

Now What?

With the Angels eliminated from playoff contention all that is left are two games at Dodger Stadium, then a sad wait until the playoffs are over for awards and a new GM maybe. Expect pieces from the CtPG staff and the top 10 Angels once the season is over.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this site. Even though the team is bad, this community has been great. We hope you stay around. 2021 looks to be exciting! We hope.

What could have been…

Drink responsibly.

74 Comments
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MH252525
Trusted Member
3 years ago

This season was lost when the Angels made the decision to again play Pujols. It’s no shock he once again put up an OBP of under 300. He’s been doing that for quite awhile. What this season has proved, like the ones before it, is you simply can’t play anchors on your team simply because of their name value. Pujols is bad at baseball. This season also showed, when you give guys shots that are young, some of them might surprise you. We can’t settle for a 278 OBP. I think it brings the team down too. The Angels must feel like a little league team with the coach’s non-athletic son playing SS and Cleanup. How do you develop a winning culture when it’s 100% obvious the culture the Angels are trying to cultivate is let’s sell a few more Pujols jerseys to fans who still think he’s good.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
3 years ago

Tonight’s lineup includes Adell, Ohtani, Jam Jones, and Soto. Trout with the night off.

Fansince1971
Legend
3 years ago

Arte has got to be peeved. My guess is he was looking for a reason to raise ticket prices for next year so that the folks who bought seasons tickets for 2020 and left their money with the team (for 2021 credit) had to pay additional monies for 2021 season tickets. This season’ gave Arte the best chance of that (compared to the last few seasons) with a playoff appearance since so many teams were set to make the playoffs. Without the playoffs as a reason to raise prices, Arte is going to be hard pressed to raise prices after 5 straight losing seasons, which is not a great thing from a revenue stream standpoint.

Last edited 3 years ago by Fansince1971
Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  Fansince1971

He shouldn’t raise ticket prices, but that doesn’t mean he won’t. Arte may be great with billboards, but he’s certainly shown he’s ineffective at building a winning culture with his baseball investment

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Well. I seriously doubt Arte’s going to sell the team. I think the easiest path for most of you is just to become LA Galaxy fans. Also I hear the Lady NBA is super cool. Full of dribbling and lay ups and yelling. Also, I hear the Yankees are always taking new fans, and you’d still be totally at home in the Big A. Gotta try something cause if Arte’s your problem then it’s only gonna get worse. Maybe start drinking spritzers at 10am? It works for my boss’s wife.

Fansince1971
Legend
3 years ago

Arte is not selling. He’s going to make a fortune as a land developer with a new stadium on the Anaheim land he just purchased and a baseball city built around that stadium. So anyone who gets really peeved at the idea of Arte as an owner is going to continue to be upset for a long time.

Last edited 3 years ago by Fansince1971
2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago

If Mike Mayers is so good then why was he signed off the street?
On November 1, 2019, Mayers was claimed off waivers by the Los Angeles Angels. Source MLB.com.
he was going to implode eventually just like every other Billy Eppler dumpster dive ( remember Hansel Robles? Or have we already forgot about his meeting with George Springer almost 60 days ago? ). SMH….. 😣  😣 

jcstein
Trusted Member
3 years ago

Mediocrity, and yet we still can’t get a top draft pick. Another annoyingly awful year.

Rallymanatee
Trusted Member
3 years ago

Julio Teheran, a.k.a Aybar’s Revenge. We sure pulled one over on the Braves sending Aybar there for him to immediately implode. Now the Braves got even.

tanana40
Super Member
3 years ago

It was only a 60 game season. If the Angels end up 27-33. then perhaps in a 162 game season the team would have played .600 ball over the next 102 and ended up 88-74. The team played better in the last 20 games. The team was buried in the first two weeks. My guess, however, is that this was a .500 team over 162 games.

Some good things: Walsh, Ward, Canning, Sandoval, Barria, Mayer, and others showed promise.
Rendon was fine, Trout’s BA was lower (but he played what 50 games?) but he hit lots of dingers.
Fletcher is the real deal and probably our shortstop next year.

Ohtani’s awful batting average and more arm problems is a worry. Simmons is going to be gone. Upton is a worry.

Adell is not ready and needs a year in AAA. We never did see Marsh.

Maybe Albert will opt out of the last year and be a coach? He passed Mays on the home run list, he won’t pass ARod, time to retire.

More questions were raised than answers provided. Not sure about next year to be honest.

losangel
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  tanana40

I guess when your pitching strategy is to throw crap on the wall to see what sticks, you’re bound to have some growing pains early in the season wading through the muck.

Rallymanatee
Trusted Member
3 years ago

I appreciate you CtPG. I haven’t been around since the school year started. Teaching 6th grade remotely is sucking all my time away. But keep up the good work!

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
3 years ago

Almost time to revisit our pre-season predictions (from July). I had us at 24-36, I believe, so we’ve done better than I expected, kind of. Two wins would be nice now, just because.

Fansince1971
Legend
3 years ago

Two wins now are like whipped cream on top of a shit sundae.

I actually want Houston to win tonight so I will feel less crappy about last night’s loss.

Jim Atkins
Super Member
3 years ago

Got a good feeling about the team going forward. Lot of good indications, latter part of this season make me optimistic. Whoever the new GM is, he has to be able to resist Arte’s bogus moves. Isn’t it time for Carpino to retire to Maui?

Total kudos to the staff and contributors here at CtPG. This turned out to be the craziest of all possible times to start something like this, but you made it work. Thanks, to all the writers, oldtimers and newbies both.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Jim Atkins

I think that if Ward/Walsh turn out to be the real deal it could really be a big positive from this season. The teams we wish we were are full of guys like Kike Hernandez and it looks like maybe the two Ws may be those types of players. I also think Rengifo’s all jacked up from the weird season and will still be useful. I think our bench has moved a long way past the Featherstone era though and that’s nice.

admkir
Trusted Member
3 years ago

We can only hope that the penalty clause tied to the stadium sale is due to the feeling from Anaheim that Arte may still sell the team snd the new owner will move it

Jessica DeLine
Admin
Super Member
3 years ago

The Angels have the lowest draft pick in the AL of teams who didn’t make the playoffs. Sounds about right.

JackFrost
Super Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Jessica DeLine

We knew that was coming didn’t we?

John Henry kept saying we can’t win properly and we can’t even lose properly. That says it all.

FungoAle
Super Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Jessica DeLine

I understand why people want to talk about it but not fan in playing for draft position, we should try to win each and everyday. No tank talk. Geeeze. Go look back 5 years and tell me just how many studs came from the top 15 positions. In the NBA, I understand the tank. With only 5 players making up a team, one stud can turn a franchise around.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

A good read from Sam Miller

https://es.pn/340PFL9

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

The team was eliminated from playoff contention the minute Arte Moreno bought the franchise.

Rallymanatee
Trusted Member
3 years ago

Bro, that’s just ridiculous. He instantly moved the Angels out of the mid-level bracket to one of the top teams budget wise. Since he bought them in 2003, the Angels have made the playoffs 6 times. Before then, they made the playoffs 4 times since their inception in 1961. Keep some perspective please. I know baseball is a “what have you done for me lately” kinda thing, and we’re all frustrated. But c’mon.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  Rallymanatee

He inherited a good solid baseball operations team from Disney.
BTW I wanted to post a fanpost about why I thought Disney was better than Arte back at HH. Just because he’s spent more on FA and he got a big lucrative cable deal from Fox Sports West doesn’t mean that it was well spent.
He’s gutted and cut corners on the crucial baseball ops side of the team and spent monies on only hitting and next to nothing on pitching or scouting and player development. He’s never hired a experienced GM since he bought the team and really needs to in order to try to save the team…..however he spent big money on Joe Maddon and Billy Eppler is a known dud around MLB. 😠 

h27kim
Trusted Member
3 years ago
Reply to  2002heaven

I always thought the good and bad of Disney ownership were the same:. They were corporate, so they didn’t care and they kept their distance. The product could be meh and indifferent: the early Disney era was exactly that. But if a competent operation s regime takes charge, they can do their thing without interference, ie the Stoneman regime. No guarantee that an indifferent ownership regime is better than a meddlesome one, though.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Rallymanatee

Man, you really haven’t been around. Look, you need to tuck your cocknballs and keen loudly about how Arte should have found a way to sign the pitchers who didn’t want to sign here last year. Then say something about farms and development, but nothing really specific because you don’t really know anything about that. Then crawl back to your bedroom/closet under the stairs and continue working by candlelight on the pattern you are designing for a vest made of David Fletcher’s skin. That’s the way we do it baby!

max
Trusted Member
max
3 years ago

Well, really how good have they done since he fired Reagins?
/s

ihearhowie3.0
Super Member
3 years ago

Only upside to this season is maybe the emergence of Walsh forces some kind of bold action with Albert. Other than that, this was a humiliating year for Moreno. Someone who actually cared would be looking in the mirror and at his inner circle for transformative change. But we all know Carpino and Arte will be back doing the exact same stuff as always with the same results.

dontbatvlad4th
Member
3 years ago
Reply to  ihearhowie3.0

Yup. If he didn’t take a look in the mirror 3 seasons ago when it was confirmed the Angels were a disaster and would continue to be, he won’t now.

Arte needs a fundamental change if he truly wants to win baseball games (and not just turn a profit). Someone needs to shake him and let him know that if you spend money on the hidden people of baseball organizations: scouts, statisticians, coaches, etc. And spend money on new age electronic tools (like Rapsodo) and actually utilize it properly, you can build a strong group and win games.

And as much as having the big names like Trout, Rendon, Ohtani, and Pujols (meh) brings people to the stadium, winning brings more.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  ihearhowie3.0

Someone who actually cared would be looking in the mirror and at his inner circle for transformative change”…. holy shit man. Really? Man, the power of the Prius is strong with you here.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
3 years ago

Should Eppler go? Yes it is time after 5 losing seasons but the world of MLB should not judge this man to harshly as he had to work for a class 2 owner. Class one is a George Steinbrenner type guy, Class 2 is like Arte and then there our other levels. Arte is a meddler. Not in your face, but he tells you what to do or what he does not approve of. Constrains a GM to the point of complete failure and then holds you accountable. Does not matter he is a nincompoop and ignorant as he owns the team and can do that after all he surrounds himself with other nincompoops so together they think that they’re smart. Good luck on your next job Billy and feel good about getting out of Dodge. Next case!

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
3 years ago

The Good news is that Trouty had a very good year and pulled the wagon again. Fletch repeated last season and led the team in hits and 2b again. Cream rises to the top and the cream of the crop did rise in that Walsh and Ward showed what they can achieve by hard work and believing in themselves. Max did fairly well although he was just above decent in his “D”. Simmons was a .300 hitter (.297) and played very well in the field while still injury related issues. Rendon at least did not embarrass himself but not exactly showing superstar stuff. Bundy was a huge surprise and Mayers turned himself around and proved valuable. Pena and Barria showed they should return and Bedrock did the same. Team MVP is Trout once again and team CY is Bundy and ROY is Walsh. 2 more and we watch the others enjoy themselves once again. For me l hope the Dodgers win the whole thing and play against the the White Sox or Yankees in the WS.

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
3 years ago

Well here we congregate shaky our heads in disbelief that our team is not good, that it really stinks and by how bad we fell. OK so that is true but how bad does Billy Boy feel as he knows he is gone or Simmons having a team were he loved his teammates and knowing he is still one of the best but he has no job because they rejected him.Thaiss was sent back to limbo and is frustrated because in the last two seasons he has not been given a real chance and he too feels that he want to go show some other team what he can do. Adell must be asking himself how can l improve? Marsh is at the point of “Put me in coach, l’m ready to play”. Heaney has to be dealing with knowing he is not a winner. Well it was a tough year boys, have a good off season and stay in shape and hope there will be a ST to attend.

tommyshalo
Trusted Member
3 years ago

Well, 2020 season so be it.
The highlight of this short season was that there was CtPG to cover the Angels.
Thanks to all the staff and supporters!