Good morning Angels fans! Hope things are going your way today. Have some links! They go good with tacos.
Angels News
The Angels have again been in the rumors for possibly trading for Francisco Lindor. A shortstop. For a team that needs pitching. I mean it is Arte’s MO but…
Some nobody on Twitter said that Mookie Betts is the true star of this generation because he is a winner. Baseball Reference dunked on him. Hard.
Around Baseball
So the Dodgers win the first game of the 2020 World Series. Teams that won Game 1 of the World Series win the whole thing 72% of the time. The Angels lost game 1 in 2002 but still won it all anyway. Just saying.
Mookie Betts stole a base so everyone gets a Taco! On October 28th. Tacos!
One of the worst takes ever, the Boston Globe on why you shouldn’t root for the Rays. TLDR: Old man yells at cloud in Boston.
Rob Manfred has said that he hopes the changes he made stick long term. In other news, more proof that Rob Manfred hates baseball.
Jessica Mendoza became the first female analyst in the World Series. That is a win for the Cubs.
The 2020 NLCS Game 7 was the most watched game of 2020. 9.66 million viewers.
Jeff Passan sings in his Elmo voice about Rays player Randy Arozarena. Elmo is very happy to see you, yeah!
Alex Cora and Carlos Beltran may get back to baseball by next season. Christian Vasquez loves it for some reason. There is no justice in this world.
Clayton Kershaw just had his 9th postseason game of 6 innings and 1 or fewer earned runs. That is the most in MLB history. Huh, makes you think.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
analytics will save the world….ARRGGGG!!! 😂 😆
A-Rod sed that Dave Roberts went with his instincts……result, the Dodgers are in the WS again. Eyeballs do work. 💪
both taken after CJ Cron in 2011 MLB Draft…..but not by us!! 😣 😥
Who TF are these people?
I believe the guy above is Tom Brady and the other guy is funnyman Carl Reiner.
You’d know them if we had drafted them! 😎
On our GM situation.
If I ran a business and had decided to fire an important member of my staff I’d already have a good idea of who the replacement should be.
Maybe the Angels will move quickly but I doubt it. We have a history of not having anyone in charge at critical moments like draft day or free agency.
Bill Stoneman is definitely getting on in years and there is no telling when Tony La Russa is out of here. If there are any analytically minded assistants around I could see Arte being distrustful of them to the extent he doesn’t understand what they are talking about. I think we need to brace ourselves for dysfunction.
The GM meetings are coming up real soon.
https://twitter.com/BauerOutage/status/1318974027164168192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1318974027164168192%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3%2Ccontainerclick_1&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fmlb
Trevor Bauer will be live on his YouTube page watching game 2 of the World Series and signing virtual autographs on your images for free using @FangageInc
I hung out with him and his mom for a few innings last night.
Had opinions on everything of course, including his HS teammate Tyler Glasnow’s control problems and pitch selection. Interesting take on Robo Umps as well.
Also, his offseason training regimen must include a Budweiser sponsorship, as he was wearing the logo shirt with a case strategically placed at camera right.
I really don’t understand why MLBTR would include the Angels as a trade for Lindor since there are so many options for ss, If the Angels were to discuss a trade with the Indians one would hope it would be for pitching, also I don’t see 1 year of Lindor worth the priice
Because Arte
Only way it makes sense to me is a package type deal. They get one of Adell or Marsh plus some other prospect capital in exchange for Lindor and a young arm. Their 10th prospect, Ethan Hankins would be awesome but I doubt we could reach that high. Maybe a bullpen piece. We’d need more than just Lindor back.
As JJ says, any potential trade would need an arm, and a good arm analyst (see Moneyball) coming back in addition to Lindor. Not happening.
Baseball is and always has been a marathon, not a sprint until this season anyway, so to compare two players based on one shorten season is difficult at best. I sometimes when time allows and I am home watch Christopher Russo and loud mouth piece from New York whose whole perspective of the MLB world is in how the Yankees do and how good a player is in Postseason. One Great player on an underachieving team can not carry a team to the MLB Playoffs. This is a team sport that has a lot of areas to cover with good to very good to great players with a lot of “Career Years” to be had. The Angels have always since Arte purchased the team lacked pitching. Sure we have had Lackey and Weaver and Shoemaker and Richards but not all at the same time having big years. On paper the pitching staffs going into the last 15 years having more than one or two guys having big years just does not happen. Maybe the starters have a good season and the Bullpen fails or vice versa. Mike Trout is and has been the Best Player in the sport for many years in a row until 2020, longer than Mays or Aaron or Gehrig or Williams or anyone else has been the best over all.
Yes – Betts over the last two games has been better than Trout who is not playing. Over a full season it’s not even really close. But folks today forget quickly.
Last night Joe Buck called Betts the ‘LeBron James of baseball’. That’s presumably his saying that Betts is the best player in baseball which is laughable. If Betts is LeBron, who is Trout?
Trout has averaged nearly 8 WAR per season including this shortened one (approx 80 WAR over 10 seasons). Betts is averaging around 6 WAR per season in his 7 seasons.
Betts has one 10 WAR and one 9 WAR season. Trout has three 10+ WAR seasons and one 9.6 WAR season.
Yes Betts has had two great games on the biggest stage while Trout has been watching from home. But that comment by Buck was over-the-top.
Your conclusion is right, but don’t sell Betts short. He didn’t just have 2 great games, he had an entire great 2020 that was probably better than Trout’s. But a weird, shortened season is hardly a victory. Trout’s greatness isn’t measured by short spurts, it’s measured by his consistent top performance over a lengthy career.
Betts has 7 seasons played. His 2018 and 2020 are arguably better than Trout’s. So Bett’s is 2-5 in the head-to-head competition. Also, Trout is only 1 year older but has 3 more seasons, so he deserves credit for 2 extra seasons. The final total is Betts 2, Trout 7.
Alternatively, let’s look at WAR/game. Trout has .061, Betts has .047, making Trout 28% better than Betts.
Of note, Pujols had .048 WAR/game with the Cardinals, so Betts is directly comparable to prime Albert.
Pujols has .006 WAR/game with the Angels, for a career WAR/game of .031.
Mookie is an incredible player, his speed in the outfield is fun to watch. But let’s not forget the 2018 were getting video aided tips a la Houston. There’s an asterisk next to that season for me, and his offensive numbers were way up that year.
Good point.
There’s a ton of casual fans that only watch the playoffs. So they’ve never even see Trout play really. Those natl. broadcasts are aimed at the lowest common denominator.
I’d bet there’s more people in the country that know who Mookie is than Trout.
To be fair, Mookie has now given America 2 Free Tacos.
Mike Trout knows that real fans would rather pay for Del Taco than eat free Taco Bell.
He is also a Five Guys over In-N-Out guy
I can allow him ONE flaw. And it’s not his fault he grew up on the wrong coast.
Lebron James in the sense of a great player going to a new team who subsequently wins a championship (pending).
Nice links. Kershaw is an absolute beast, the best pitcher of his era. If he played on the East Coast he’d be lauded as an all time great from all angles. Just remember how much love Andy “the glare” Pettite got and realize Kershaw is actually good.
The Cardinals had his number a couple of years back (wouldn’t be surprised if they found a tell) and the Astros managed to lay off all 51 of his breaking balls.
I detest the Dodgers but Kershaw is incredible, on and off the field.
Bauer likes him too.
I read some of the comments on those Betts better than Trout posts. People seem to think that only post season matters in baseball, which is funny because despite playing more games, Betts is only a .263 hitter in playoffs. I saw someone question if Ted Williams really was one of the best players because his teams did not win. Ted Williams being questioned about being one of the best players ever because his teams did not win the World Series is such an atrocious idea that I wish I never saw.