HIT PARADE!
Jaime Barria pitched against Luis Garcia tonight. How did that go? Well, I’ll tell you. At least Kyle Tucker is not here due to COVID protocol.
FIRST INNING
Altuve struck out. Brantley and Correa both grounded out to first.
Shohei Ohtani homered on the third pitch he saw, which was a changeup down in the zone. His league leading 39th home run to make it 1-0 Angels. Quite satisfying. David Fletcher singled to center field. We’re on a roll, folks! Then Fletcher easily stole second base. Jared Walsh singled in David Fletcher. It’s 2-0 Angels, and no outs. Unfortunately, Max Stassi grounded into a double play at this point. Jose Iglesias went down 0-2 and ended up striking out on four pitches.
SECOND INNING
Yordan Alvarez singled on a line drive to left field. Aledmys Diaz also single to left. Yuli Gurriel came up and lined out to Marsh. A Double play ball by Chas McCormick ends the Astros half of the second inning. Time to pile on.
Marsh hit safely for a single. Perhaps he doesn’t suck. He’s just streaky. He stole second base while Adell was batting. Adell hit a fly ball to shallow right for an out and Marsh couldn’t advance. Adam Eaton struck out. Jack Mayfield popped out to first to end this inning. We failed to pile on.
THIRD INNING
Jo Adell made a highlight reel play on Jason Castro. One out. Then, an apparent homer by Jake Myers got the Astros on the board. (2-1 Angels). Altuve doubled (also on a slider). Michael Brantley singled to short. Altuve only made it third base. Correa hit a sacrifice fly where a very crappy throw by Adell allowed the Astros to tie the game. Adell giveth and Adell taketh away. Yordan Alvarez doubled to give the Astros the lead. Aldmys Garcia walked to bring up Yuli Gurriel. He hits it out to left and Jo Adell made another good play to end the inning. (3-2 Astros)
Shohei Ohtani hit a missile at the pitcher for a hit. Fletcher hit an easy pop fly to right for an out. Then Shohei Ohtani stole second base quite easily. Max Stassi struck out. Jose Iglesias was out on a 5-4 fielder’s choice to leave two LOBsters.
FOURTH INNING
A lead off hit by Chas McCormick chased Barria right away and Selman was brought in in relief. Jason Castro was batting while Chas McCormick was picked off. One out. Castro popped into left field and it was caught by Jose Iglesias. On a full count, Jake Myers hit a fly ball out to Brandon Marsh that might have been a homer but it was just an out. (Thank you Marsh.)
Brandon Marsh hit a sort of a liner to Altuve for an out. Jo Adell went for a little ground and pound past the mound for a hit. Eaton hit a fly ball to left for out number two. Then Jo Adell grounded out to second for the third out. We’re still losing.
FIFTH INNING
Jose Altuve came up and bounced out to Jose Iglesias. Michael Brantley got hit by a pitch. Then Joe Maddon went for another pitching change. Junior Guerra came in to pitch for Sam Selman. From this point out it gets kind of stupid. Carlos Correa struck out. Yordan Alvarez doubled to Adam Eaton scoring Michael Brantley. Aledmys Diaz struck out.
Not to be outdone, Shohei Ohtani also struck out. David Fletcher walked. A wild pitch advanced David Fletcher to third base. Jared Walsh walked. Max Stassi struck out to make it two outs and runners at the corners. Jose Iglesias grounded out to end the inning.
SIXTH INNING
Yuli Gurriel walked. Chas McCormick also walked. I’m sensing a motif here. Jason Castro singled to load them up. (Motif?) Jake Meyers hit a grand slam to make it 8-2 Astros. Jose Altuve then walked. Michael Brantley then struck out. Carlos Correa singled on a liner to center. We now bring in Jose Quijada to pitch for Guerra. Yordan Alvarez grounded out to Mayfield. Then Aledmys Diaz struck out.
But that’s OK (NOT) since Brandon Marsh struck out as well. Jo Adell popped out to the first baseman while Adam Eaton also struck out.
SEVENTH INNING
Hey! Check it out! We struck out Yuli Gurriel. Then we struck out Chas McCormick. Jason Castro didn’t want to strike out so he hit a fly out to Jo Adell.
Blake Taylor replaced Brooks Raley ast the Astros pitcher. Jack Mayfield singled on a liner to right. Shohei hit a fly ball out to center. Then David Fletcher was out on a fly ball to center.
EIGHTH INNING
Mike Mayers comes in now to replace Jose Quijada. I guess it was a day late to bring in Jason Vorhees. Mike Mayers gets Jake Meyers to fly out to center field and Jose Altuve did the same. Michael Brantley then singled to center, whereupon Carlos Correa found it in his heart to fly out to David Fletcher.
Phil Maton replaced Blake Taylor as the pitcher. Six outs to get six runs against the Astros. That’s totally doable, right? Everybody just keeps hitting safely like that Bugs Bunny cartoon. The Mighty Max Stassi walked. I guess they were all not his style. Jose Iglesias hit a fly ball out to Jake Meyers. Brandon Marsh singled to right, driving Stassi to second base. Can Jo Adell get us within three? Nope! Strikeout! Adam Eaton then gounded out to second base to complete the eighth inning suck fest.
NINTH INNING
Yordan Alvarez flied out to center. Aledmys Diaz also flied out to center. Yuli Gurriel flied out to the right fielder. I guess they were exercising their frequent flier miles.
So here we go! Six or more runs in one inning against the Astros. No problem! Yimi Garcia is in here to pitch. So Jack Mayfield struck out. We are trying to get them over confident. That’s what it is. Shohei Ohtani lined out to left. Now I think they are a little too confident. David Fletcher singled to center. That’s cool. I’ll take it under the circumstances. Jared Walsh then grounded out to first to end the game. Oh well!
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
No plumber
Transaction
08/15/21Los Angeles Angels recalled RHP James Hoyt from Salt Lake Bees.
08/15/21Los Angeles Angels designated CF Adam Eaton for assignment.
Hoyt. Call up the 34 year old filler.
As long as he helps improve our draft position, I enthusiastically support.
Angels need a 40 man spot for Stefanic. Let’s see who they fill it with.
incidentally, No way the plumber was going to make the afternoon game at the Big A after last nights marathon AAA game. but his promotion is inevitable.
Hoyt or Guerra prob get DFA’d
The 40 man now sits at 39 with Eatons DFA. theres no reason to make another move other than add Stefanic.
ah yes forgot about that
regardless, hoyt isn’t a long-term option. we need to add the two prospects we picked up from the giants to the 40 this offseason anyway
So, the Plumber meets us in NY tomorrow….what better place to start off your MLB career.
It would be useful for the rookies if Heaney was pitching….
If he can make it there he’ll make it anywhere!
Stefanic is DH’ing today.
Funny how Joe championed Guerra just recently..
I’m thinking Joe hit the bong too hard before that utterance.
Again, managers do this as a matter of course.
It is simply one of the political components of the job. You should not read too much into those kinds of comment from any manager.
but he made us listen to that drivel
He won’t toss anyone under the bus, he rides that thing on road trips
Hopefully Guerra.
TheGOAT, scapeGOAT that is
Hoyt’s talents will not propel us to wins but can be an effective covert method of the “tank.”
sorry but The Tank is fake news
Adam Eaton has been DFA’d
Creating a roster spot for the plumber?
Jack Stephan? My response is, why not? Would be a good story to see him outperform Marsh and Adell. Won’t take much.
Maybe bring up Trash Panda 1B, David MacKinnon too. He would be the other guy I would like to see take some hacks.
To me, our future pitching prospects looks better than our future positional options. The 20-pitcher approach in 2021 does not come w/o risks.
We need some offense…..A Reamer with a big Ball Check Valve…he might be the Plumber’s Putty that makes this offense float. Bring him up! See how his Float Ball and Ballcock do in Big Leagues.
Free the Plumber!
Hope that the Plumber receives the call? Will inevitably mean Slegers is being recalled.
That’s too bad. I thought he played a good right field and hustled. I know his bat failed but so has another 5-6 guys in the line-up. But we are not playing for anything. Hoping he gets picked up.
And from all accounts he helped mentor the kids during his short time here. Maybe this was done at his request so he can get picked up by a playoff contender? Only acquisitions through DFA’s are allowed now after the trade deadline.
That is what I was thinking as well, he will have a couple of weeks to get picked up by another team and be eligible for the playoffs.
How close is Fowler to being able to come back ?
He would be available at the end of October, so for the World Series
JIT
predicting a World Series appearance…..nice.
World Series, lol.
Makes sense. We are confident in Adell and Marsh, will keep playing Upton, and prefer the defense (and versatility) of Lagares (who we should keep as a 5th OF next year, imo).
We need more spots in the pen – and maybe get a look at Stefanic (though that could wait until Sept call-ups, right?).
Yeah I mean I personally believe Upton is done, but it definitely makes sense to give him these reps because he is under contract for next year.
He’s the only name, other than Sho, that Arte has.
They are desperate for JUp to get hot again.
Place him back in lead off Joe.
They eat the contact next year…is my prediction.
I would love it if they ate before the season, but I’m feeling a mid-May thing
Agree, I think he goes out like Albert did.
I don’t think that happens unless Bubba Gump both make it happen. If they get hot now, then look as good in Tempe, then pretty much force the Angels to play em in April it could happen. The math has to work out to being able to play Adell and Marsh while keeping a good defensive #4 (say we keep GG) being more valuable than paying Upton more than 20M to play for some team.
Lets see if the Angels try to play J Up at 1B these last few weeks. If so it would create some versatility for next year and might allow them to keep him on the roster.
Also does the Eaton DFA indicate that the Angels are comfortable with Adell in RF? I would think the jury is still out on that.
If Marsh starts 2022 in the big leagues (don’t see that happening at the moment, but perhaps), Adell can get a ton of time in left. But yeah, why not put him at right in the meantime?
with them feets?
I would think the answer to whether or not they eat Upton’s contract next season and cut him loose is part of a complex equation that involves both Adell and Marsh. If it is true that Adell has RF locked up, then it really comes down to how J-Up’s production is relative to what Marsh is doing.
If Gump cannot get his BA substantially above .200 then I think Upton stays. We know Marsh is much better defensively, but on the other side he has provided literally zero power. Because Upton goes through streaks where he will hit the ball out of the park regularly the Angels might choose to give him more starts in the OF than Marsh, which could mean that Marsh is relegated to a 4th outfielder until Upton is gone at the end of 2022.
It will be interesting to see what happens.
I predict The GOAT probably has right field locked up in 2022
So, that means you think Marsh is the regular CF’er in 2022?
What if he is still hitting .200 or less ?
I have faith that he will continue to improve. Since his golden sombrero performance last Wednesday he’s 5 for 11 with 1 double & 1 SB so I’m optimistic.
I really like Reynolds from Pittsburgh. If I was Perry, I would be all out heavily trying acquire that guy. Trade them Marsh, Canning and something or Adell, Canning and something. Reynolds is 26 and is a pure hitter. Do it before the Mariners move in on him.
No joke. Reynolds is really good and I am pretty sure Pitt’s gonna trade him. They may actually take a Marsh or Adell too. They have Hudson Head and Travis Swaggerty as far off OF prospects, and Jared Oliva, Sammi Siani and Cal Mitchell as well, but none are as advanced as Marsh/Adell. MArsh plus any of those prospects would be a really good future Pirates OF. They are all fast, good contact hitters, etc.
Pitt would want one of our OF plus a couple pitchers though for Reynolds.
He has been hitting much better over the past week or so. Give the kid some time to adjust to big league hitting. If he is hitting under .200 next year, maybe. But I suspect Upton will soon be a potential power bat off the bench.
Rather keep Adam Eaton unless money will be a issue.
Otherwise bring back Brian Goodwin next year just don’t ask him to throw someone out at homeplate from the warning track. Servicable outfielders are in abundance if you’re the Giants, A’s or the Brewers. No need to burden your team payroll with a Justin Upton or Bryce Harper for years signing. Farhan Zaidi was the one who cherry plucked Max Muncy who just hit one out vs the Mets who now lead 9-2. Yep we have to hire better people, not cheaper people………sorry about that…….
I assume Eaton will land elsewhere, and Lagares is more versatile in a backup role (imo). Goodwin would likely be cheaper than Eaton, but not as good as Lagares (imo).
What in the hell is wrong with people in LA? If they’re not brawling at the Latrine, they’re brawling at SoFi. Is the whole of Southern California nothing more than a big prison yard?
https://twitter.com/Just_A5/status/1426762282021756928?s=20
Cant wait for the Raiders to come to town
And 49er fans……they are ranked title fighters.
the Stadium lost its virginity on its very first date.
The Bay Area does not receive enough credit for its level of violence. I know, I currently live there.
Raider fans were put in their place by Cowboy fans when they were here in LA in the 90’s.
the pregame warm up.
https://apnews.com/article/health-police-coronavirus-pandemic-a41a3f36c80111cf8cc421293abd2d08
So you think the fans at the SoFi were fighting over vaccine mandates?
No…..it was over Masking.
They were fighting over economic conditions: the obese guy was advocating Keynesian economics, while the more obese guy was lauding the benefits of supply-side economics.
I think that was pretty obviously an In & Out V 5 Guys fight.
How it started
https://twitter.com/Ashyxf/status/1426806050502561793
That guy in the Goff jersey actually swings punches like Goff would. LOL. Get him a skirt.
too much of this and we could have a heart attack while fighting.
The two main dudes fighting BOTH had Rams shirts on.
Idiots.
Big Boys fightin!!! 😃
Classic. She’s loitering back there like the little brother trying to get the older brother in trouble. Nicely done
Instigator !!
If she wanted to play with the boys, should have gotten tattooed along with them.
Annnnnddddd…. the Lucifer Principle shows it’s saggy tits again. Further proof that women have played absolutely no part in all the violence all those stupid men have gotten into these past millennia.
That guy in the Aaron 99 Jersey does not fight like #99 at all. I bet he feels a bit poorly this morning.
Junior Guerra should only be brought in for mop up duty, why Joe chose him to come into the game is baffling.
Erase the Grand Slam and we still lose 4-2.
2 runs just isn’t going to do it.
Well, that game sucked more. I get the feeling Houston is better than the Angels. That game was bad enough I am not sure whose feet to lay it squarely at. When we get are ass beat this bad, is there any deep secret narcissism to unveil in it at all? The only things I could find to like was Quesadilla is still hot and Dandon Darsh had two whole hits.
That guy keeps screwing up the narrative. Like he can hit or something.
Nandon Narsh also made a few good good plays
The silver lining is that we’re one game closer to a better draft position!
They seem to hire better front office and baseball people too! A*te doesn’t like baseball people who graduated from Ivy League schools or MIT either. ( Farhan Zaidi, Andrew Friedman, Chaim Bloom ). I get it some people hate egg heads as we have seen over the past few years.
My Red Sux friends hate Chaim Bloom, so be careful what you wish for
Since when are Red Sox fans ever happy? 😆
Paul Deposesta…how did that one work out? Harvard grad fell flat on his face.
Deposesta is doing the Football thing in Cleveland right now.
DePodesta has been the Chief Strategy Officer with the Browns for the last 5 years and aside for the last year it’s been more of the same. I think he’s at his best when he’s not in charge.
Behind closed doors, he supposedly has finally got the owners ear. Wanted to hire the now GM and Head Coach years ago.
Uh Huh. Well here is our asst GM for 4 years under the Jedi who left us only to fail miserably as the GM in the City of Brotherly Love.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Klentak
Last time I checked Dartmouth is in the Ivy League and a degree in economics is kind of geeky.
So I guess Arte blew this one too?
Sandy Alderson Dartmouth, Mark Shapiro, Farhan Zaidi, James Click, David Stearns ( Brewers POBO Harvard ) I win!!! AGAIN…….YOU’RE SUCH A TRIGGERED ANGRY LITTLE CHIHUAHUA BARKING DOG WITH RABIES!!
BYE!!! Keep on hiring your GM’s from Walmart or Dollar General Arte……..
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29369890/inside-rise-mlb-ivy-league-culture-stunning-numbers-question-next.
They can’t be all wrong, can’t they? Oh just us poor little woe is us Angels of Las Anjelus.
What about Mark Shapiro…Blue Jays? What have they done? Alderson has floundered, was run out of two jobs, pulled back by Cohen to oversee the transition, then he’ll go, maybe this year. Click gained his experience like all the others, spending 10+ years in lower level positions within the organizations before they took over. Just not feeling let down that the Angels don’t have an Ivy leaguer.
Hmmm. Thanks for the kind words. Your premise was that Arte hates Ivy League baseball execs and shouldn’t because they are all so awesome. But once again as with all of your postings your examples are flawed (probably because you probably only look at the pictures when you read a book) Lets look at your examples:
Sandy Alderson His record is nothing to champion. One WS championship in 33 years as a POBO/GM? Please.
James Click has accomplished what exactly?
Farhan Zaidi MIT wizz is just now garnering success on his own
Mark Shapiro Seriously?
Teams are always trying to reproduce the latetst successful trend. But I like winners regardless of their origin. I would hope Arte is the same way. You on the other hand have blindly embraced erroneous and unfounded statements and conclusions that have been wrong time and time again. Like my Daddy used to say: “You seem like some one who talks with a paper asshole.”
You might want to get that checked
My theory is to hire the guy everyone hates to trade with because they usually get fleeced. Which means start the search in Tampa Bay
James Click, Chaim Bloom & Friedman are all alumni from that system. At this rate, pretty soon no one will want to trade with anyone.
Arte can hire anyone, but will never get success unless he is willing to forgo the budget for a few seasons.
If we were not already so close to the threshold, the new GM could figure out ways to strategize spending. But right now we are so close, and unable to go over budget for a few seasons. Like this, we are in no way able to correct the roster issues.
Agreed regarding the budget. But this is Arte’s own doing by signing the big splashes while skimping on the farm system and international scouting for so many years. I am hopeful that Perry is finally getting support in this area.
I don’t know if Arte foregoing the budget will really solve anything, but pretty much ANY owner can totally screw up having a good GM. Sports is full of examples. Obviously we have the Wells/Pujols/Hambone/Weaver contract era which was a screw up. I’m just glad we seem to be digging our way out of that hole and we didn’t have to lose Trout to do it.
I’ll feel a lot better if we eventually hear some story of big upgrades in player development. I’d rather have that than an overspend to land big time help like…. Marcus Stroman?
Not following…I was commenting to 2002 and making the same arguments you are laying into me.
They can’t all be Paul DePodesta…. and Freidman went to Tulane. PTP went to UTA… Eppler was UCONN…. Neander went to VA Tech… all pretty eggy heads.
I love Marsh. I think he is going to be a mainstay in our lineup for years.
Yup. He’s talented AF. Adell also looks WAY better, even when he fails, if that makes sense. He looked totally lost last year, this year he just looks like a rookie, but he appears far more comfortable, or solid is how I’d put it. I can only guess, but it may be helping them some to be called up here together.
Until this team can consistently win against Oakland and Houston- does any of our angst matter?
OK. Just one more for tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4irXQhgMqg
One of my all time faves
Truth.
No. But I don’t want to say it’s just because we are a lousy team. I don’t know if this is (still) true, but as I understand it, Angels have one of the best records, if not the best, against teams with losing record, but also have one of the worst against winning teams. Average the two, we seem mediocre, but the truth seems a bit different: we are either very good or very bad, but not in between (in fact, kinda Heaney-esque even if he’s no longer on the team). Something just doesn’t seem right with this picture, even if the team’s general deficiencies (injury depleted lineup, bad bullpen, inconsistent rotation) seem clear enough.
Excellent point. I guess the Angels are the best of the worst or the worst of the best.
It’s rare, though, that such statistical abnormalities would play themselves out so predictably on the field with the team being so dominant against bad teams and so absolutely awful against good teams.
Interestingly, the Dodgers, who most consider to be “very good” themselves do not have a good record against above .500 teams, but like us beat up on bad teams. You’d think with their talent level they could beat good teams pretty consistently, but that is not the case.
For example, just against the Giants and Padres they are 11-15 this season. That is not good. And those are key division games they should be up for.
Well, this echoes what FS1971 said about the 2002 squad, but a bit misleadingly, I think. A playoff team doesn’t have to consistently win against good teams, but it does have to be at least competitive against them (and they do need to beat up bad teams). As to where the Angels are, this is actually related to why I keep getting convinced that we’re not too far from being competitive: I think being competitive against good teams requires a few good role player to supplement the stars: a couple of good shut down middle relievers, a few good bats/gloves off the bench, a respectable hitter (or even two) near the bottom of the batting order (so that 7-9 are not automatic outs). Other than a couple of good middle relievers, we have found more or less right pieces for other spots, I think, and I think it’s reasonable to expect that we can pull it off again even if we lose the current pieces.
I agree with alot of this. In particular I think your point about middle-relief and relievers is key. I have not gotten totals but it seems from memory that ALOT of our games have been lost in the middle innings; that is we go into innings 5-7 either ahead, tied or behind by just 1 run and then our crap “blowpen” blows the game.
So, to your point about us being close to being pretty good and the difference being “a couple good middle relievers,” well, I think that makes alot of sense. Just based upon outcomes.
Really, yesterday notwithstanding we are not being blown out of alot of games. So, yes, if we add 2-3 solid arms in the pen (assuming we can keep Raisel) and our stud starter I think we are right there. In fact, I think that makes us really good.
Well, there are two of them this season: Colorado’s insane records at home and on the road seems similar to ours against winning and losing teams–although that’s much easier to just look up (I was too lazy to add up the numbers myself and relying just on what I heard on the radio broadcast a few days ago.)
I’m here to say that I have officially given up on the 2021 season.
I was holding out hope, checking the standings, doing the math, watching the teams ahead of us for the wild card, hoping for players to return… thinking we still have a chance, right?
No more. I’m done. This series was it. Not investing anymore hope this season. No more stress.
Just gonna tune in to see Ohtani and maybe Trout and Mayfield or Fletcher do some fun stuff, and hope for next year to not be so gut wrenchingly disappointing.
(But even watching Ohtani get the MVP this year will be a bit of a downer because it will be a reminder of all the years the Angels have had the MVP only to miss the playoffs. Takes talent to do that with TWO different MVPs 😞. )
You were holding out hope for 2021?! Really?! Without Trout. Or Rendon? This is a season where I’m hoping for 84 wins. I still think that’s possible b
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI
Cash is king!!
85 or bust! (I think I said 85-87 wins at the beginning if the season)
Honestly, if we don’t make the playoffs I don’t care how many games we win
I might as well come out and admit it. I don’t think I’m going to ever be an NBA superstar.
Not even a role player?
California Roll?
Don’t ever give up….you can be anything you want….follow your dreams.
You need to maintain your metal health, load management is the key. 👍🏼👍🏼
Wait – I thought pharmaceuticals were key?
😆 😢
He’d fit right in with our field management hijinks.
https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/press-play-with-madeleine-brand/self-help-guru-tony-robbins-faces-sexual-assault-allegations/self-help-guru-tony-robbins-is-accused-of-inappropriate-sexual-contact
Ball sack on the drum kit again?
Is the NASCAR dream still alive?
I think semi-realistically it was over after the 4 game Oakland series. That was the lethal dose.
Also a therefore LACK of talent to waste two MVPs
Really – this loss was the trigger? Bundy sucking since April, the loss of Trout in May, and Rendon being injured more than the 45 year old Pujols weren’t signs prior to now?
I respect the power of hope. However, where the Angels are concerned, hope is a mean bitch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSPaXgAdzE
Gettin’ crazy with the Cheez Whiz!
https://youtu.be/DgQPvdQvnKI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvPv-sLt42M
Holy crap. Been a Brian Eno worshiper for 45 years. St. Elmo’s Fire off Another Green World is my all time favorite song. Fripp’s guitar break is just flat unfathomable.