The Angels limped into Houston over the weekend, preparing to finish out the last few weeks of the season before calling it another year after September. They got slightly more banged up at Minute Maid, with Jo Adell crashing into the fence and missing a game. Maddon says he won’t need the IL, but, well…
Speaking of Adell, Fangraphs did a piece about his strikeout rate. He’ll probably still need to take another step forward next year to remain viable, but the returns from 2021 are definitely better than they were in 2020.
This might already have been posted, but come fix the Angels yourself!
Jeff Fletcher notes that Shohei Ohtani’s workload may be catching up to him, although he won’t be shut down. However, Chris Rodriguez will not pitch again this season.
Meanwhile, Vlad has tied Ohtani in HRs and is making a serious run at the Triple Crown. 2012 part 2?
In The Athletic, Sam Blum talks to our old friend Victor Rojas.
Victor Rojas was tired of watching the product the Angels were putting on the field every day. The performance was lackluster, he said. So, too, was the front office’s vision.
He was a die-hard fan and a loyal, decade-long broadcaster. But, he admitted, the team’s direction made him “pissed off.”
Corbin Burnes carried a no-hitter into the ninth for the Brewers, but as he was at 115 pitches, Josh Hader finished off the job.
Cleveland was once again held hitless through the majority of the game on Sunday by Eric Lauer. Max Scherzer also had his own perfect game bid. Scherzer also tallied his 3000th strikeout.
Title Image from Angels Twitter
Holdup. It’s an off day?
I thought this game looked familiar…
So, you are saying that the starting pitcher only went 3. 1/3 innings?
What, no postgame?
If I was getting paid to watch or call games, I’d be less inclined to be pissed off about the direction of the team or at least would refrain from being public about it. Its a bad look.
Vic genuinely cared. He wanted the Angels to win. Baseball really is his passion, second only to family.
So, if he was going to be invested in the team emotionally and time wise, he wanted to help.
He hasn’t said anything other than what we’ve said here for years.
Man. I wish we’d signed Vlad Jr back when he was camped out by the main entrance to the admin offices, hat in hand, begging to take 1/2 the money teams like the Blue Jays were offering just to play here in Anaheim.
But we just ignored his tearful begging so he had to sign with the team that gave into his demand that their top FO guys come find him in his rural jungle compound, woo him for days and then pay him more money than any other team had in their bonus pool.
Ah what could have been.
No doubt, an huge missed opportunity.
You forgot a closeup shot of his skull
Damn money hungry players!
Nothing but love for Victor. How many of us could watch this team in person 162 a year and not get tired of it?
If getting paid to do so, Pretty much everyone here. How long we would last before getting fired is another thing.
Well now we know re Rojas and it provides insight into Moreno who I now am dubbing Morono. F’n unbelievable.
Steven Matz Toronto Blue Jays
12-7 3.87 era 1yr deal $5.2M
😭 😖
You’re a complete idiot
Please no name calling.
Sorry. It’s hard to take
Meh, it’s not any worse than the constant whining about how umpires conspire to only screw the Angels, or the butthurt/obvious envy at teams that have been successful, like it’s their fault they have competent staff.
The great thing about the site is you can always keep scrolling. Yes, pictures of players we had no shot at with absolutely no context are frustrating. But it is what it is and doesn’t break any rules.
I agree and I apologize. It’s been a long day. I lost my patience for a moment. My bad.
But 2002 is a complete idiot.
What about the people who keep replying to him?
We could totally use Bruce Jenner
How about Bruce Banner?
I’ll take Bruce Leeroy!
I liked Bruce Kison.
No love for Bruce Wayne?
But can she pitch?
Wow, if Matz gets a few more wins he’ll equal the total number of months he’s spent on the IL. We totally should have know that THIS was the year he actually manages to not fall apart.
That chick looks like Iggy Pop if he lifted weights.
Love the piece on Adell.
Looks to me like he’s moving towards his target now. Last year he was going up, then down, then finally forward. Way too hard and way too much movement at the MLB level.
This year it is a direct path to the ball.
https://twitter.com/craigcalcaterra/status/1437458694544007169
😂
They left out the mot important responsibility: washing Mr. Moreno’s car
Chris Rodriguez out for the remainder of 2021 with a lat strain.
The guy has been injured the majority of his career, sad to say it’s time to package him on the next plane out of town.
Not gonna get much for a damaged goods injury riddled young guy. Same thing with Griffin Canning. 2016-2020, The Lost Half Decade. 😣 💩 😭
Maybe package him with brand new baseballs and season’s supply of maple bats?
I’d love to have C-Rod in the bullpen next year. 2-3 innings per appearance, 2 appearance per week.
I’d love to have another guy or two like that, too. That way we can limit the innings of the under belly of the bullpen and hopefully manage the workload of Rodriguez.
Imagine how his FB would play up after 6 innings of Barria. Or the different look he’d give after a start by Suarez.
Do you think Barria starts next year? I was thinking he (also) would be in that long relief role.
Agree, maybe a swing man man but long relief is where I would put him, best case.
Barria is out of options so barring a trade he’s on the Opening Day roster.
In what capacity, I don’t know. I’m more inclined to use him as a starter. I just don’t like relievers who throw slower than starters unless they have a crazy delivery. I think a 91 mph pitch will be very hittable after seeing 95 mph all game.
That’s fair. I am just counting starters on the roster. Ohtani (though giving him the DH slot mitigates the numbers, somewhat). Suarez, Sandoval, and Barria? That is four.
Then Detmers? Cobb (if we sign him)? And we want to sign a top of the rotation starter, right? or two?
And we keep (in AAA?) Rodriguez, Naughton, Junk … for a rainy day?
If Barria is in the starting rotation, then Perry needs to be fired for not upgrading the pitching staff this offseason
Imagine Barria getting through 6 innings
He would be the innings leader for the 1st half if he could do that
He has a max effort delivery. I really like the guy but there is a surgery coming to a theater near you.
Yeah, you could tell victor was getting fed up with this organization. Every season that went by felt like he got frustrated more and expressed his feelings towards the team more frequently.
This is why I always liked Victor, he wasn’t going to sugar coat or Roger Lodge around the issues with the team. He wanted them to win as much as any of us. I still believe he has what it takes to be a very good GM.
For those of us who endured the long nightmare between Rory Markus’ untimely death, and Victor’s arrival, he was a welcome breath of fresh air.
I’d like to read the article, but it’s buried behind the paywall.
Probably the same reasoning why Arte, Carpino and Kuhl won’t read it.
I wonder what the lessons from this year will be for Shohei in 2022. Probably more days off at the plate assuming a fuller lineup less dependent on him. Would allow Trout/Rendon/Upton to DH every now and then too
If we were to get better, the time he’s running out of gas is exactly when we need him peaking. Maybe a July ‘IL’ trip to get him off his feet for 10 days like the Dodgers do with their starters.
Three factors that explain Shohei’s dramatic decline. First, he’s gassed. Second, the league has figured how to get him out. Third, no protection in the lineup.
On the first issue – no more HR Derby and some regularly scheduled off days (days of complete rest with no practice) should help. Although after 3 full off days (Padres series and day off) it made little difference – he continues to struggle big time.
On the second issue, to be effective in MLB over a full 162, a player needs to make adjustments. I have seen none except maybe on the pitching side. He keeps swinging atvthe outsides Nd inside cheese and therefore they will keep giving it to him.
Finally, a healthy Trout and Rendon should help Shohei see better pitches.
Yes there is fatigue and yes everyone is pitching outside against him, but as Sho is a real competitor, “falling out of contention” is likely one of the factors too.
I don’t think pitching figured him out. I think it’s a combination of bad umpiring every at bat and him not hitting opposite field anymore. First half he was hitting hr all over the place.
When I was a kid, one of the big stories in baseball was the three way race between Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, and Nolan Ryan to see who would get to 3,000 strikeouts first. You can tell that fans of today’s game don’t really care about career counting stats anymore when Scherzer getting to 3K strikeouts barely rates as an afterthought.
The game has evolved a lot. Hitting 3K strikeouts has Max at #19 all time. The top 10:
Ryan ended with 5714, Randy Johnson 4875, Clemens 4672, Carlton 4136, Blyleven 3701, Seaver 3640, Sutton 3574, Gaylord Perry 3534, Walter Johnson 3509, Maddux, 3371.
Career numbers are not what we used to believe was a way to put the game in perspective and where our favorite players stacked up. Today there are many under 40 former fans of the MLB game because of steroids. I have one son that quit the game because of the the numbers put up that are meaningless. Another son who too is not a fan but believes all professional sports are rigged. My other children are MLB fans. But sadly the grand kids (9) only one is a fan (Padres are the fav.) The game has issues that are not being addressed.
People care about championships, not HOF achievements.
The Giants of the last decade won ( 3 WS championships ) with a team I couldn’t name most of the players except for one big star pitcher. Maybe Our Owner needs to pay heed to this for once.
Well, since I can’t name any of the players you post pictures of, I guess that makes sense…
Interesting point. I can think of a number of factors, but you’re right. Then again, look at how little people cared about Pujols milestone moments.
I think each case would have been a bit bigger had the milestones occurred with their primary teams. But overall, career stats mean little nowadays.
Steroid era rendered offensive counting stats irrelevant. Evolution of starting pitchers from 4-man to 5-man to 6-man+ and openers with limited 3rd time through the order have also made pitching counting stats irrelevant. That’s why no one cares about them any more.
Definitely some of that too. 500 HR stopped meaning what it used to mean. Once that fell, so did all the others.