In recent games the Angels broadcast crew has started counting meltdown innings by the Angels pitching staff. Through 68 games the team has given up 3 or more runs in 48 innings. You just aren’t going to be a good team when that keeps happening.
Against Oakland it was Steve Cishek’s turn to melt down on Tuesday. He couldn’t find the strike zone with a compass for two straight appearances.
Wednesday Tony Watson took his turn to melt down. The results were two critical division losses in games the offense and defense fought hard to win.
I’ve said this all year, the short starts mean the Angels have to consistently rely on 4+ guys out of the bullpen each night and at least one is going to melt down. If the starter can go 6 you can pretty much rely on Mayers and Iglesias for another two and that limits the exposure of the pile of meh.
The sweep by Oakland put a huge damper on the recent Angels success. After a rough start, Oakland’s balanced roster keeps increasing its playoff odds.
Despite a 3-3 road trip, the Angels playoff odds dropped back down to 10%.
The Angels best part of the Angels season is clearly Shohei Ohtani. He’s getting MVP love and tons of All Star votes. Manager Joe Maddon would have no objections to Ohtani pitching and hitting in the Midsummer Classic.
Cue the annoying Brooklyn Transplants fans “Anaheim is not LA” crap again. New Era’s official Independence Day caps for the Angels identify the team as ANA. Rodney Dangerfield got more respect than we do.
As MLB starts cracking down on sticky stuff I wonder how many wild pitches, walks, and hit batters we’ll see this weekend. This is going to be a wild weekend.
MLB’s crackdown on sticky substances is causing meltdowns across baseball. Some pitchers are happy, some are pissed, some hitters care, some organizations are scrambling. Passan does a great job looking at the current panic throughout the league.
While every other publications are focusing on pitches, Fangraphs does an amazing job at looking at MLB hitters swing decisions. This is data rich but fascinating.
I don’t think anyone will cry over Houston’s Alex Bregman being shelved with a quad injury. Dude should play for the Patriots, he’d be a perfect fit.
This weekend kicks off the College World Series in Omaha. A great event in itself it also gives us fans the chance to play a little couch GM and scout the next wave of talent.
MLB’s Jonathon Mayo has the Angels taking Texas’ Ty Madden at 9. He’s been pretty consistent with this. Ty looked solid in his playoff start last week and will be pitching again this weekend.
For those of you just getting into the college championships, here’s a nice primer. Thanks to ESPN+ I’ve watched far more college ball than ever. Still not a ton. If I had to lay a bet, I’d take Vandy. Their 1-2 punch in their rotation and balanced lineup are formidable.
just in case there’s no game thread again, this will do.
There’s one
Let’s make two!
Ernie???
https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/george-mason-pitcher-sang-ho-baek-dies-following-complications-from-tommy-john-surgery/
Very sad information, Prayers to his family and teammates.
Wow, extremely sad news.
At Dodger Stadium they have no problem showing Disneyland on the screen and claiming the OC beaches as their geographic territory.
I wish we could’ve kept California
By the way, when is someone going to ask Perry while literally all of his acquisitions suck? Is there a breakdown of WAR split by his personnel choices? I would bet that Perry’s roster additions have led to negative or replacement level WAR.
There’s fake and then there’s True Blue Fake.
“What’s shakin Dodger fans!?! Did you know we are thee official baseball team of Latinx fans in LA? ES VERDAD! Heck, we’re so mucho Mexican we probably have some relatives of yours from back in the fifties buried under our parking lot because they refused to let us bulldoze their homes to build our stadium! HOLY GUACAMOLE! FERNANDO MANIA! IT’S ALL GOOD IN THIS HOOD! We’re your champions too…. just, you know, a little less than we are for other people.”
California was lost a Loooong time ago.
Yayyyyy……That’s 7 straight wins vs losing teams!!!!
Maddon pulls starters due to injury risks and pitch counts. Bottom line CTPG is we don’t have Shane Bieber or Walker Buehler in our starting rotation so he has to go with protocol. 😣 👎
Remember we are a 4 man team yah know!
I like beating bad teams a lot more than I like losing to them. I know this may be hard for you to understand, but most teams don’t go from total crap to winning the majority of their games against good teams. So this is progress. But you seem to want a great leap forward when it comes to the team you root for, a team that goes from trash to sweeping the A’s in one off season. I have a solution. Just head on over to Fanatics.com and drop $35 on a Dodgers hat…. poof toot! You’re rooting for a team that sometimes beats the good teams! Happy day!
Yah know….. Walker Buehler wears skinny jeans when he pitches. And beats shitty teams almost exclusively. Walker does his best work carving up the D-Backs, Rocks and up until this year Giants. Padres sucked the most prior to last year. No doubt, he’s a good pitcher and wish we had him.
I’ll give Perry “Mason” a chance next year, more payroll flexibility, a year on the job, make his fixes. See if he can outsmart evil Arte and his maniacal plans on destroying the Angels.
The quick hooks on mostly effective starters is Maddoning. Not sure how poor the bullpen really is because all bullpens tend to implode when they are over exposed but they’re bad.
I dunno, Madden feels to me too safe and low ceiling, not Top 10. Feels like a Detmer selection, safe and 3-5 slot. Has a good outing and then a so-so outing. While he can hit high 90’s, fastball is rather ordinary, not much sink or ride. Lacks good command and a hammer curve. Madden also has reliever risk due to the limited two-pitch repertoire.
Manfred proves he is a Jackass once again.
Change simply for the sake of change again.
You want to ban sticky fine…but do it right.
Start the ban at the beginning of a season.
So pitcher have off season to figure it out.
Does anybody else not see any difference?
Between pine tar on bats and sticky stuff?
You can bet pine tar is next on his ban list.
Big pine tar won’t let the sticky stuff get banned from bats.
Owners made this call when they found out that they are paying a very premium price for the sticky stuff. Plus they are not getting a return on investments for all the silent bats they are purchasing with the extraordinary amount of no-hitters infecting the League.
Getting rid of the sticky stuff now will help with the reopening of stadiums to the fans.
Because football scores significantly extend game durations which is the number one complaint of new age fans.
MLB wants to legislate action and offense, but they know that they cannot consistently have average game times approaching 4 hours
“Big pine tar,” lmao,
More offense…….aluminum bats and florescent pink baseballs+lower mound.
winding down time clock like soccer?
seven inning game like college baseball and women’s college sofball?
I’m not kidding here, you gave me an idea that could be fun. What if each team was given a time clock, say 15 minutes per game, and it runs down whenever your team makes a pitching change, takes more than say ten seconds to shift their defense, makes a mound visit, takes more than normal time to get the sign and pitch the ball, has a batter standing outside the batter’s box during an at bat, etc and when your team runs out of “clock time” they are in “penalty time” and there is some kind of handicap put on your team for every minute (or what ever) that they go into penalty time.
Say first minute means the guy who leads off your next inning starts his at bat with two strikes. Next minute the opposing teams lead off batter starts with two balls…. gradually gaining in severity to where the opposing team starts innings with men on base, or your team loses the next guy to get on base be it a walk or a home run, etc.
It would shorten games and add a whole new tactical area to managing a game. Games could be won or lost via how a team manages their clock throughout the game…. could be fun maybe.
Man, thats bananas.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/insider/story?id=31589713&_slug_=the-most-fun-at-ballpark-mlb-learn-savannah-bananas
Association football is the #1 sport in the world, but I’m pretty sure the average number of goals per game is something like 2.5. A 12-7 score would be unheard of at the professional level.
I suspect you meant American football, which is probably the #1 sport in the U.S. A score of 12-7 is probably below average for that sport. However, I’m not sure there are actually more scoring plays per game (touchdowns, field goals, safeties) than there are runs in a typical baseball game.
On the other hand, basketball is also an incredibly popular sport and that is definitely a high scoring game, both in the number of scoring plays and the numbers put on the scoreboard, so maybe the owners are right.
I think they are half right. Fans would be just as happy with frequent defensive plays as they will be with frequent runs. It’s walks and too many strikeouts that are boring. A key strikeout when a pitcher’s in a jam is exciting, but otherwise fans would rather see a catch at the warning track or a routine grounder.
Besides Strikeouts are facist.
I explained what ever style of play is in fashion at the time.
Bowling got high scores too
Yep. 300 and won?
I did a little research and the internet is loaded with articles documenting Maddon pulling starting pitchers early, with low pitch counts.
One blog, from 2015, documents his decision to pull Hendricks after 5.1 innings with a 2-1 lead and a relatively low pitch count because a few batters had made solid contact. The Cubs went on to lose that game 3-2.
Another article contained the following:
“Darvish was taken out after only 71 pitches and again it makes zero sense why Maddon did not let him try and get out of the jam, as he already had a few times in the game. But obviously the bigger issue here is that Darvish at that point in the game was a much better option to get outs than anyone coming in from the bullpen.”
In that game the bullpen exploded after Darvish was pulled.
There are many more examples that you can find yourselves with basic searches.
This is clearly a thing for Joe.
That’s why he was let go at TB, and chased out of the Windy City. He is not a savior by any means, just an opportunist to what’s available around him.
Clearly the stuff happening here. To me, Joe is a front man, good with media, hip, personable guy who can deal with players of all ages and background. He can work a room and Rizzo, Contreras and others, they swear by him. But we should never think of him as a strong tactical manager.
Good with the media. He is terrible ATM with the post game being in the style of COVID spacing.
For years, I thought he was the brains behind the WS win. Now I simply have no idea how we won that.
1st – an incredible bullpen with KRod emerging as essentially unhittable.
2nd – A rookie John Lacky
3rd – A great/elite offense
4th – 4 major league managers – Sosh, Roenicke, Black and Maddon
When ever I look at the players on that team the answer is clear to me…. luck. Luck wins a ring every now and again. Look at the guys on that team who had career years and comeback seasons and sudden break out seasons…. that team should not have won, and it’s why I hate comparing our efforts to build a new winner to that team.
Want to replicate the 2002 Angels? All you have to do is get a pile of middling prospects to become K Rod, Shields and Lackey suddenly. Also just go on out and find a way to ensure that pitchers like Brendan Donnely, Dennis Cook, Ramon Ortiz, Donne Wall and Ben Webber all have WHIPs under 1.3. Then just get a busted ass Tim Salmon to hit and add a dash of players like Scott Spezio, Brad Fulmer, Shawn Wooten and Alex Ochoa all having OPS over 100…. easy.
We look at the actual players on that team with VERY rosy glasses. There’s a reason the same guys fell flat on their faces the next season.
….then won the division in 2004 and 2005, lol. Yes Vlad was added to the team, but the same players were still there more or less. And one player does not win a Division, a Pennant or a World Series.
The 2002 Angels were not lucky. If you are being sarcastic, then good. That team won 99 games in the regular season, had the best offense and was second in all of MLB in bullpen ERA. Not luck.
Bartolo Colon, Jose Guillen, and Kelvim Escobar say hello from 2004. So no, it was not in the least “the same team”.
More to my point, does anyone want to argue that the players I listed were really good in the seasons before and after their solid 2002 performances?
No? Didn’t think so.
There is always luck involved. But it’s what one does with the luck that matters. Also, as in anything, you can make your own luck.
It was indeed ‘lucky’ to have Lackey and KRod develop and be ready to promote in the same year. But that ‘luck’ was the result of good scouting and player development which is not ‘luck’.
Career years can be lucky for sure, but those players typically work hard and then something’clicks’ and a great season is the result. Lucky – yes to some degree particularly if the timing is right. But it’s also the result of hard work.
Baseball is a game of inches so there is always a certain degree of luck involved. A potential rally killer double play ball sneaks barely between the shortstop and 2Bman and the rally continues. That is luck to an extent.
I believe the 2002 team got lucky to some extent but they were also very good – the result of good drafts and player development. I believe luck plays a role in every single championship season (for example players staying healthy). But that does not diminish the team or the accomplishment. It’s just a reality of baseball that you have to be both good and lucky to succeed.
WTF? Lets Get out the pitchforks, The wood alcohol and the revisionist history books.So quickly you guys turn on the Soggy Joe.
This is the bench coach that was responsible for every starting lineup Scioscia managed from 2000 to his departure in 2006. This included a shit ton of home grown talent that Joe personally contributed in the minor league and/or major league development of. ( Salmon, Anderson, Glaus Percival, Erstad, Molina x 2 to name a few from the 2002 Championship team)
I doubt Joe handled the pitching staff during his Angel bench coach tenure. I’m sure Buddy Black had much more influence with Scioscia that Maddon. But Maddon had success in Tampa & Chicago when he was responsible in those decisions.
I think it is fair game to be critical of his bullpen/starting pitching management during his Angel Skipper Management tenor. But to all of the sudden come to conclusion that he was just a bumbling doofus how stmbled into success with the 2000 Angel teams the perennial loser Devil Rays or the Billy Goat Cursed Cubs is just beyond ignorant.
(P.S. But I still agree with you guys that 8/1/2012 never really did happen)
I’ve been, along with others, shouting this since the start of the season.
Arte is enamored with Joe and Perry worships the ground Joe walks on. To hear Perry speak about Joe when he got the GM gig…serious man-crush. Joe is here until he no longer wants to manage.
The media needs to question joe about all these early pulls.
I was on Halos Heaven since it was a wee pup so I know for a fact that Joe Maddon is the greatest manager we ever could have had and we blew it letting him go and keeping Soth. So no, none of the data you saw is real and all we need to do is fire Soth and hire Maddon and we will win the World Series twice a year.
I’m firmly on the side of “Anaheim is not in LA,” but that’s a BS move by New Era.
How did they get away with that. Arte must be furious, and the caps won’t be sold at the stadium I bet.
It’s yet to be seen if they get away with it. The article says New Era didn’t consult the team and that the Angels are considering their options.
I would need to read the article to know that, and that would prevent me from talking out of my ass
What do these new caps say/look like ??
Click the link in the news crash
But since I’m a hell of a guy…
Thanks.
Ohtani Approved
ANA, All Nippon Airways
Mayers is IN the “pile of meh.” No, actually he is a pile if sh*t!
“A wild weekend” – I see what you did there! As in pitchers being wild.
I asked it last night in the post-game but I’ll ask again here. What possible, logical reason could there have been pulling an effective Ohtani after only 78 pitches with an overused bullpen and the recent blowups? I can’t wrap my mind around it so am asking for help to understand.
None. None reason at tall.
IF it had been a three or four run lead (obviously it wasn’t) I could have seen pulling him to protect him by limiting his workload, i.e., big picture of hitting and pitching and wanting to maintain his effectiveness throughout the summer, etc.
But in a 2-1 game it was simply too risky to pull him there, ESPECIALLY if the person you bring in is Watson!
We were fortunate to survive with the lead that inning.
Honest question: How much worse could Walsh be on the mound on Ohtani days than the rotating band of ingrates known as our relief corps? At least Walsh is liable to erase however many runs he gives up with his bat.
An effective 0.0 WAR, namaste
Went to an Asheville Tourist game last night, high-a affiliate of the trashtros, they were hosting the Aberdeen IronBirds, Orioles affiliate. Happened to see Garrett Stallings get the start for Aberdeen. He was a guy we sent over for Jose Iglesias. He gave up 7 hits and 2 absolute BOMBS over 2.2 innings.
Anyway, good win last night. Hoping for a nice bounce back game for Cobb tonight
Love minor league baseball. Garrett looked good earlier this year. I’ll root for him because he was so nice during and following the interview I did with him.
It was great being at the game. Haven’t seen a live game in well over a year, and I’ll probably be hitting a few more tourists games this year as I can practically walk to the stadium from home.
Those are the best. Minor League games, close to home, wallet friendly, and get to see upcoming MLB players.
Catching the Bees play the River Cats tomorrow. Last time I saw the Bees there Thaiss, Ward and Walsh were all in the lineup.
Used to be a lot more wallet friendly before the Giants took over, though.
I spent many an evening enjoying that ballpark. Enjoy.
Man, I’d love to have that access. I’m about 8 or 9 miles from the 66ers stadium, but I’m not walking through downtown sb, lol.
You mean the Food 4 Less on E Street…… 😆
Hey don’t forget McDonald’s was started in Berdoo before Ray Kroc bought off the McDonald Bros.
Source ( History Channel )
It’s a shame the Angels lost/ditched the Quakes affiliation.
I only went to one game there but I enjoyed it. I would go to more now that I have my son. Still haven’t made it to San Bernardino.
Sounds like I might have gone north when you went south.