Angels superstar Mike Trout was hit by a pitch on his elbow pad in the fifth inning of a boring 8-2 Angels loss to the Houston Cheaters in CowTown, Texas. Maybe it is the fans with no sense of shame or the shame of the barbecue in Houston just not holding up to what they serve in Dallas, but Mike Trout was overheard saying he just doesn’t see the ball well at Minute Maid SugarWater park, formerly Enron Field to continue with the theme of cheating.
The elbow ouchie was the lowlight but Albert Pujols hitting his almost-antichristical 665th carer HR, an oppo-taco splashing off the RF foul pole was the highlight.
David Fletcher got hot once the game was out of reach (otherwise ice cold), Anthony Rendon is missed, the pitching was unlucky whatever, 9-8 after ten percent of the season officially surpassed, we’ve seen better, we’ve seen worse, we’ve seen this movie before, plenty of baseball left and only sixteen games against the Cheating Hourinals.
This team needs Rendon. He adds continuity to the lineup
Totally agree Fan. The importance of his bat in that 4 slot can’t be overestimated; the protection he provides for Trout, but also moving Walsh down and making the middle of the lineup more imposing etc. That was shitty luck losing him when we did.
That said, good teams have to have enough depth to withstand these things. Just look at the Dodgers, (hate them as I do I must still acknowledge the awesome depth they have in both their pitching and offense) they lose Belliner who is either their 2nd or 3rd best player by most accounts and they don’t miss a beat. Further, Betts is out for a couple games, and although their offense does sputter for those games they still manage a way to pull out wins most of the time.
Ultimately, the short-comings we originally foresaw in Winter are what kill us, namely our starting pitching and depth in the pen. Last night it was clear that Javier was the better pitcher compared with Cobb. And for those who said they didn’t want Bauer etc, maybe you should rethink that attitude. Trevor Bauer is giving up only 3 hits per 9 innings thus far and has a WHIP of 0.615 !! Yeah, I think we could use Bauer, lol.
Couldn’t agree more. Every team has to survive injuries over 162 games. Completely healthy, I put the Angels against anyone. But take a piece or two or three away and there is no depth to consistently win. The Dodgers and other teams you mentioned definitely weather the storm a lot better due to the depth of their bench.
Joe said Taylor Ward is on the taxi squad as a catcher. Looks like if he did have COVID he’s fine now.
Well that’s good to hear. But only as a catcher? He’s probably lost all the good mojo from spring training if I know trAdition.
So why can’t we carry 3 catchers?
Like in general? We’re only running a 3-man bench as is
Coming into today, I really thought all beat writers were unbiased…
We think that cause angels beat reporters are annoyingly unbiased. Most I see from other teams are a bunch of homers.
Interesting, who else? I follow writers from the A’s, Yankees, Dodgers, Cardinals, among others, and they all seem to do a great job.
Who are you talking about?
https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/1385409732324696065
Yes he stuck out his elbow on inside pitch that machete had to reach for. This guys an ass hat.
https://twitter.com/FabianArdaya/status/1385449270036234240
Our friend Lyle is chiming in on this now:
https://twitter.com/lylespencer17/status/1385453515900784642
Oh geez. What a blowhard.
Yeah, because Trout wants to risk injury for a base. Right.
his average *is* under .400, his slugging *is* well under .900, his OBP *is* well under .600. I’m gonna have to look up this McTaggart guy.
Rough game all around… we have had some weird and unlucky things happen like the Blue Jays game being postponed in Florida and then the covid postponed games against the twins in which we had great momentum in both that was taken away.
And the ugly truth of not having good starting pitching is starting to show as we can’t expect Cobb to be as amazing as he was in his outing before this.
Brutal game and to top it off, the AL West is now somewhat stacked with solid teams as the As and Mariners don’t seem to lose.
The MLB offices threw a monkey wrench in our engine and killed our momentum. After that Friday night Twins win I really felt we could have swept that series. You know, I felt at the time and still do that it was not necessary to cancel the rest of that series. Simply remove the single Twins player and move forward. Because baseball is not like basketball or football in the proximity of players, and because of the presence of the vaccine I feel that all these games don’t need to be cancelled for a single positive test. If there are multiple positives that is another matter (like the Astros supposedly had a week ago) but one single player? If one wants to think conspiritorially for a minute COVID is a convienient way for MLB to manipulate outcomes and attempt to steer the standings in a desired way. I am not saying this is in fact happening, but if one were inclined to think that way COVID testing and postponements are an easy way for the MLB offices to exert their influence.
Yeah I’m not buying into any conspiracy mumbo jumbo. The team lost momentum because of injuries.
Not saying you should or shoudn’t buy into it. Just stating that for those who are open to the idea there is certainly more than enough ammunition to make that argument.
As I recall, the Twins Angels series was postponed do to multiple positive Covid tests in the Twins dugout. It was not just Garlick.
I thought it was just Garlick. That is what I remember reading.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/04/twinsangels-game-postponed-due-to-covid-19-issues.html
4 players
Well, Simmons was already off the roster so we won’t count him. But the unnamed player (besides Garlick) and the staffer make it three.
So, I stand corrected on that.
The other 2 were outfielder Max Kepler & Lefthander Caleb Thielbar.
My relationship with the Angels is…complicated.
This is so right on!
Lots of baseball left. But then again, I’m just bummed because I feel like it’s the same old lack of fire…
Depressing day as a fan.
I look at the season in 9 game increments, and figure we have to go 5-4 in each one, to reach the 90 win plateau. So tomorrow we have to win and be 10-8 to stay on that pace. That looked a lot more attainable when we were sitting at 7-3. 2-5 since that point is not good.
This pitching staff is probably an 82 to 84 win staff, at best. The team has zero pitchers who can go 7 strong innings. Burned out bullpen by July……. again.
Yep, it’s a big concern, especially when we have so many off days early in the season, it’s just going to further stress the pitching when we get later in the season. Hopefully Ohtani can be more consistent with his location. He clearly has the stuff to be a 7 inning guy.
The only good news is I feel like our pitching is slightly deeper than it has been in the past. Perry didn’t go full dumpster on the back end of the rotation and bullpen and we have a few guys who’ve shown they can actually make it through a full season.
Problem is the pitchers make it through a full season of only 4 to 5 innings pitched per start. Unless they expand rosters by another 5, and allow all five of those spots to go to pitchers, this team is going to have a bullpen problem and not go anywhere.
Yep. The starters only going 5 innings every outing becomes problematic VERY quickly.
This kind of plan can (and does) work well in the playoffs, but the regular season is way to long for this to work. You need to at least have a couple guys to give you 7 innings pretty consistently.