A few more years and this Trout guy might just work out. Jon Jay announced his retirement.
The minor league pitchers seem to be adjusting to the pitch clock better than the batters, who think they need more time.
Chris Bassitt basically says the baseballs are all different and that is why so many players are being hit by pitches. It is getting tense between the Mets and the Cardinals. The benches cleared after the Mets pitched high and inside to Nolan Arenado. Nolan Arenado “yeeted” the Mets catcher in his excitement. Pete Alonso got tackled by Cardinals coach Stubby Clapp but kind of shrugged it off in an interview. J.D. Davis got hit in the leg earlier in the game and had to leave. The Mets have been hit by pitch 19 times in the last 20 games. As an aside, Deesha Thosar always reminds me of that woman John Carter met on Barsoom.
The top ranked pitcher in this years draft, Dylan Lesko, just had Tommy John surgery. Baltimore starter John Means also just had Tommy John surgery.
Though the letter has not yet been revealed publicly, supposedly the Yankees are not implicated in a sign stealing scheme. Why didn’t they want anybody to see the letter then? MLB also fought against the reveal.
Job Postings
Milwaukee Brewers Developer- Baseball Systems
Cape Cod Baseball League Trackman Operator
Cleveland Guardians End User Support & Network Analyst
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Gamethread is up.
Pre-game show is fun to watch today. I do not miss Bobby V, dumb move. I like Langs being part of things, he and Gubi mesh well. I would love to see Salmon as a 4th or let Gubi host and jettison Patrick. Also, would like to see much more of Kent French. During the game he could be up in the stands. French doing post game duties would be good too.
You heard it first right here, Trouty hits one out. So does Adell. I love this line up today. Maybe Detmers pitches better in the sunkist light, let’s hope so. And yes, we will win, what did you expect me to put down. Win Baby!, Just WIN!.
Can anybody make the game today? I have three tickets in 233 I can’t use due to something coming up at work.
email my name underscore 1976 at hotmail if you can take them.
Me Likey this lineup today. https://twitter.com/jphoornstra/status/1519733430702936064/photo/1
except for the Wade/Velasquez finish
Ohtani needed a day off, like he kept Trout in at DH 1/2 day off.
But Soggy Joe always goes the extra step with, as you put it, the “Wade/Velasquez finish”
I like giving Ohtani a day off and agree with letting Trout take a partial day off.
I can’t believe Wade has an OBP that starts with a 3. Love Velasquez’s glove, but that duo at the bottom is likely to go 0 for the game.
Nope.
Wade had 2 hits yesterday and is focused at the plate and can drop a bunt best on the team. Velasquez is just flat out the unluckiest hitter in the Majors as all the great catches against us are with him hitting. Besides Plan B is Fletch.
Yah when Fletch is back all will be fine. Who end’s up getting sent down next week? Gotta make three moves with Fletch back right?
Say Captain.
THANK YOU Grandpa! Back off of Velasquez, he is going through a very unlucky streak at the plate. The glove is legit, though
Hmm. You must really be a calamari lover.
I like Marsh in the 2 hole. We have a 1-3 all hitting over .300 for this.
In addition, as we discussed in a thread from two days ago it is good to give Shohei a game off now and then, and the side benefit is that it gets Adell’s bat in the lineup.
Glad the Ohtani got the rest and that Marsh is still in the line-up. Not thrilled to watch Adell in LF but hope he figures it out.
Apprecaite the enthusiam with Ward’s great start. Comes at a time when batting averages explode in early part of the year but let’s give him some more rope and see how we feel in July.
Trout is the Baseball God. Only room for one of those.
Trout is the Baseball God. Only room for one of those.
X2…4th MVP this year, then we go after cheater Bonds.
Well put. I hope you have the best prediction of the season.
When does Ohtani become a baseball God?
Or is he already jus for last season?
I totally underestimated Perry. Some of the moves he made were head scratchers at first. But, now I really appreciate some of the small piece acquisitions he made that have rounded out the team. The Squid, Wade (defense and speed), Duffy, and Lorenzen.
I’m even ok with the team signing on Suzuki for another year.
Yeah, it looks like Perry’s bullpen is rounding into shape. Mayers is up and down and I am not sure I am convinced on Herget. But most of the other guys (other than the A & W boys) have been solid. I would like to see Buttrey added to the mix though. I have always liked his demeanor and intensity. I think he is a perfect bullpen pitcher (combination of stuff and mentality). I like having him as a late inning option so you can afford to give Tepera and Loup a day off now and then and not lose much in quality. And just mixing and matching with those three is a good plan for late innings.
well said… agreed
Is this the year the Angels finally don’t waste Mike Trout?
Technically, we didn’t “waste” him in 2014. We had the best record in the AL that year. Not upper management’s fault we went 3-and-out in the ALDS. It was, however, field management’s (aka Soth’s) fault, for putting Cokehead in the lineup.
And sac bunting the Red Baron after a 4 pitch walk to open the inning.
Really, our pitching wore down, Sosh went full Sosh, and there were two ridiculously lucky catches by Aoki.
I love me some Scioscia but that Hambone thing in 2014 was really bad.
Again the whole mess was uncomfortable for the whole team and the hope was he would be valuable once again. We had no better options than to to play Ham-bonehead.
ActuallyI think you are all correct with your 2014 season reasoning . However sometimes the team you are facing is just on fire and can’t be stopped. In 2005, we can blame Josh Paul or the anemic Steve Finley but I believe the Pale Hose were going to win that series no matter what.
In 2014, having a choice between Cokehead & Colin Cowgill is not a great choice and losing 2 of your starting pitchers to major injuries ( GRich & Skaggs) at some point has an impact. The Royals bullpen & defense was beyond stellar and they weren’t going to be denied in a pitching duel especially when our 4th option out of the pen was Fernando Salas.
On the White Sox series : don’t forget that we won Game 1 on the road. And of course we were up and ready to win Game 2 before the infamy of Pierzynski came into play. If we go up 2-0 going home I don’t think Ozzie and his boys come back from that.
But I understand why you said it; the White Sox were the most dominant team through the regular season that year. They were in fact very good. On the other hand, our offense was pretty impressive.
I haven’t forgotten. In fact if you recall we had just won game of the ALDS here at the Big A when Bartolo hurt his back early in the game and young Magic Santana pitched his ass off.The league punished us for beating the Skanks by making us travel that night to ChiTown for game 1 of the ALCS. It was amazing we won Game 1 and were right in the middle of game 2 until the “incident” ( I still think that ball never touched the ground)
Coming home with a split I thought was a great moral victory but we never had a sniff after that. I have vivid memories of being outplayed form start to finish in everyone of those home games.
Always wonder what happens if the ball misses Aoki’s glove, and HK47 picks up a double there.
No Red Sosh was not to blame at all. The team did not perform well period. At the plate we were spinning the wheel and came up Bankrupt. Royals pitching was hot, and their “D” was on. They out played us and we have/had no excuses at all.
Totally agree on Scioscia. He did Sosh things in that Royals series and again sabotaged our chances.In playoff series winning Game 1 is usually really big (2002 was the exception ha, ha) and we were in a position to win Game 1. Soth just always overmanaged in big games when Maddon was not there by his side.
So what should he have done then?
Cokehead should NOT have started without any rehab starts (and yes, I know, at that point rehab starts were unavailable).
This team is fun to watch again. Who knew what would happen if you get rid of entitled albatrosses?
So far, Perry has done a good job assembling this team, and Joe for recognizing his player’s strengths and playing them according to it. I’ll be honest and say it baffled me at first when he said “When he’s healthy, Taylor Ward is our starting RF.” Now I know why.
I know it won’t always be like this. There will be bad, frustrating losses. But at least there’s a different attitude permeating this team for what seems like the first time in a long time.
It did not baffle me because if you remember last season Ward played well and it was a mystery why he disappeared for a while. He has the arm, and like Adell he is very good with balls hit in front of him. Ward has a strong arm, just not as accurate as Kole’s was.
I posted before the season what I thought was the Opening Day lineup and he was in it. No one worked harder without ever complaining while in the minors. I will admit I never thought that what he is starting out doing, was coming down the pike. Good for him.
Stats By STATS
@StatsBySTATS
Taylor Ward of the @Angels
is the second MLB player in the modern era to have a double, a triple, a grand slam and 4+ runs scored in a single game.
The other was Roger Maris on August 3, 1958.
Was he playing for KC then?
Taylor Ward is a Baseball God
Stubby Clapp, what a fantastic name
I knew a guy in college who caught the Stubby Clapp. Had to see a doctor as a result.
Thank you for going where everyone else wanted to go, but were afraid to.
Nice thong, by the way.
Always willing to go where no man has gone before.
(without pants of course)
Goes without saying.
I brag about the pant optional feature here when I’m on my car guy sites.
It’s not a feature, it’s a lifestyle.
Duly Noted!!
I can’t see it, there are folds of something though. Red is he naked?
Winning is really fun…but!!
We still need more pitching.
Starting with #19 slot in ERA.
Our overall stats are about C+.
https://www.mlb.com/stats/team/pitching?sortState=asc
Team WHIP looks good at #6 though
Cherry picking a couple of good stats can be done… but most are sub par.
Yeah, I’m not saying this the 6th best pitching staff in baseball. Just that the WHIP stat is encouraging
I would respond by saying that cherry-picking ERA similarly does not tell a reliable tale.
Notice the words “starting with”
And also see “our overall stats”
I cherry picked nothing for you.
Where do you get the C+ evaluation?
It’s just an opinion…with a few stats to back it up.
I would respectfully disagree. From my observations, think team pitching has been around a solid B and offense has been an A.
Well that’s what this CtPG place is all about.
I hope for a block buster trade at the deadline.
I personally would love it if we never have to see Mayers pitch for the Angels again. There are some interesting options such as Buttrey who could improve this already vastly improved bullpen.
We are better but we don’t have enough pitching to win it all.
I think if everyone stays healthy this team has the pitching and hitting to win around 90 games. At that point if they made the playoffs- anything could happen. But, again, I give the pitching thus far a ‘B’ grade so I agree there is room for improvement.
But it usually won’t.
I called DR. Herman Flockenknocker and he says we will not have any injuries that are significant to derail the train.
That was a response to “anything could happen”.
Works for me.
Mayers gives me the willies. He’s so unbelievably terrible. He also just cannot pitch at home.
Small sample size obviously, but we have a much larger sample overall of just watching him not be a major league pitcher.
The “can’t pitch at home” thing is irritating…but he is pitching better lately (not last night, at home of course) first 2 outing of the season were Halloween scary and that explains he’s 9.00 era.
I’d give him more time to see if he’s a usable part.
Bring up Butters and send back Wantz….if Buttrey is ready to come up. If he is ready, add him to the Loup, Tepera, Iggy train.
What does that trade look like? Are you wanting a starter or something else?
The bullpen has great pieces but also is littered with crap as well. A few guys severely impact the team numbers but with context, the starters look good and the top shelf options in the bullpen make me feel very safe.
The guys we send in when we are losing are just bad. Real bad. Awful.
Yes an Ace…everything starts at the top.
I think the starting staff (particularly Syndegaard, Ohtani and Sandy) is fine. I see the weakness in certain of the bullpen arms.
That said – I don’t have much faith in Suarez or Detmers so I personally would like to see the back end of the starting rotation improved.
I’m not sure who is going to be available that falls into the ace category, but its too early to say.
I generally feel the time to get an ace is the offseason and they didnt get my favorite target in Rodon.
Backend arms are needed.
Frankie Montas is an ace who’s available. I doubt we will pay the asking price, though.
Generally the bad bullpen guys don’t see much action in the playoffs.
And one could get creative and push Lorenzen back to a bullpen role in a short series.
These are problems I hope we have. Still too early.
I great hitting athletic short stop, another ace and four more Trouts.
Saying “overall stats” and then positing a C+ based on…reasons? Not enough of an argument.
WHIP looks good. BABIP looks great. Need to get the homers down BIGLY.
Better than years before and with a much better bullpen. I’ll take it for now. Back end of the rotation is skeeeeeetchhhhhh but I’m hoping Reid and Jose can figure out how to get a bit deeper into the game.
No rotation is perfect (although the Mets WITHOUT DeGrom are shooting for it) but there are reasons for optimism and pessimism here.
It’s enough for me…does that mean I’m banned?
No – it just means you’re old 😎😂
I reluctantly accepted these ‘new’ ways of analyzing baseball about 10 years ago starting with WAR (which I used to reject as stupid). I clung to the statistics I was familiar and comfortable with growing up for decades. Once I finally accepted and learned about analytics, I began to realize how useful they are to tell the bigger picture. The stats we grew up with are fine but very limited.
Old Guys Rule!!
In our own minds!
My mind may not be as sharp but I can afford a lot more now so I must be winning.
Reid is in the back…. 🎧
you’ve actually cherry picked the ERA. 5th in whip, 3rd in OBA, tied for 2nd in shutouts. Team ERA is absolutely the worst stat we have and that’s what you’ve chosen to look at 1st.
Additionally, stats are game conditional. That is, parks are different, umpires are different. There can be outside reasons why a team is involved in a high scoring game or a series of games. Look at our offense. #1 in OPS. #1 in slugging, #3 in OBP, #1 in runs scored. Is that cherry picking? I think it’s reasonbable to assume, at this early stage, that we might not have the best offense and that the pitching is even better than the stats say.
Allowed the 5th fewest hits in the league but allowed the 5th most home runs. Kind of crazy.
That either bodes really poorly for when we start allowing more hits OR we could see both numbers trend a bit towards the middle of the pack and offset each other.
Giving up HRs is tRadiTion.
It’s spelled “trAdition”.
Alot of that is due to Loup who has a ridiculous WHIP of 0.346 !!
So far it looks like Loup is definitely not poop !
I love WHIP. I think it’s a pretty good measure of overall pitching ability. Not the only measure but a good one.
I think WHIP and FIP combined somehow.
ERA does not tell us much as a statistic. Additionally, Some decent pitchers have bloated ERAs this early in the season due to a bad inning or two. For example, Ohtani has a 4.19 ERA but is definitely not a 4.19 ERA pitcher. With small sample sizes, ERAs can fluctuate wildly. Mayers has a 9.0 ERA but that could fluctuate pretty substantially with a good or bad outing.
At this point in the season I go more by what things look like. This looks like a 10th-12th type pitching staff – not elite but certainly greatly improved. If a couple guys like Mayers are replaced with high level arms, the staff easily could be top-10.
The other stat – #1 in hitting- is nice but also very early. But keep in mind we have likely not seen anywhere close to the best from Ohtani and Rendon. That said, it is unlikely that Trout and Ward keep up this whiffleball pace.
I’ve heard all the ERA isn’t a valid stat anymore nonsense
Ask any pitcher if he likes having a high ERA…they don’t.
W-L has fallen out of favor but ask if they like losses…NO
Whether someone ‘likes’’ or ‘dislikes’ is irrelevant to whether the stat is meaningful as an analysis tool. W/L and ERA can be used by agents to support higher salary requests (so players like those statistics ti be in their favor) but they do not really tell the story of how effectively a pitcher or pitching staff is pitching.
“SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!”
How about forget the “but’s” and just enjoy the wins? I mean why even try to hush the fun by cherry picking a negative?
Not negative…pragmatism.
Thank you! Apprecaite taking off the rose shaded sunglasses and diving into the stats and doing a heading check. I believe the sample size is too early (end of May would be better) but my early takeaways:
Good things
Worry Beads
Desires
No question, heading in the right direction
You’re Welcome!!
I am in agreement with everything you posted, except dissing my glasses.
Yes, we can never have too much pitching. But, man, this year both the starting pitching and bullpen looks so much better than I can remember going back to the Weaver days.
And, I feel pretty good about the pitching prospects in the minor: Junk, Diaz, Bachman, Buttrey, Daniels, and others.
And, we’ve got some more depth if Rodriquez and Canning can come back from injuries.
I don’t know if I’d want to trade Marsh or Adell for an arm unless the wheels fall off the pitching staff…
I agree completely but just to be an optimist…
2022 MLB Team Hitting Stats | MLB.com
Trouty now has a 10 game hit streak going…..Yesterday there was a Fletch sighting…..Did you know Department: We are in first place and by ourselves…..We lead the league as a team in most categories such as HRs and OPS, extra base hits, doubles and the list keeps going……Marsh is good, real good right now, but he is going to improve by a lot in the next two years…..Antony Rendone has been replaced by Antony Rendon….I knew that Ward would be our RF’er, but never did I think or dream he would be this explosive….. Everyone have yourself a great day today, hope to see you posting during the early day game we play today…. GPB will return before the game with predictions, I’m sure a Jink, lots of laughs.
Grandpa – just FYI – ‘lol” is not ‘lots of laughs”. It stands for ‘laughing out loud”. 😂🤣
Hey now…don’t be mean to old farts.
I resemble those remarks by Grandpa.
I’m an old fart too!
How old were you when you started in 1971…I was 24 in 78.
The first MLB thing I remember was McClain pitching in the 68 WS.
I was alive for that but very young.
Well you are an older fart 😂
No wonder you still consider ERA a real statistic. 1975 is calling and wants its pitching evaluator back.
I keed. I keed. 🤣
A dinosaur indeed…I still pay all our bills with a paper check. 😎
And also probably use deposit slips at the bank?
I’m past deposit slips but still using a Flip Phone.
Consumer Cellular? 😃
Verizon…wife has the fancy (S22) stuff.
So I do cheat and have her look stuff up.
Why yes, yes I do. Oh and Lol.
I was 5 in ’68.
In ’68 I was in HS and cleverly used my transistor radio to listen to the games while in class. I was 16 yrs old.
I was 14 and distantly remember that rabbit ears TV.
I listened to the ’79 season on my clock radio in my bedroom.
KMPC Los Angeles!
As a kid I first saw the Angels play at Wrigley Field & was hooked on them the following year during their winning streak. Won’t say my age but graduated from Redondo in ’67. Have been a lurker for yrs.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/240d2fba-5e25-4555-85df-f8577430eeb3
I thought that was GPB?
I’m an old fart three. “lol” doesn’t mean “lots of laughs” really? geez
I usually type out lots of laughs, but I reserve my real meaning for Lol to use it either way as I prefer my way. According to Mia, who’s judgement I trust, I f it is not in the dictionary then it can be spelled out anyway one likes. So, you are right and I am right as it is a 50-50 deal that’s good for us both.
Every night it just gets better! What is getting better is Angels Baseball. Near No-Hitters, low pitch counts, dramatic 8th and 9th innings. Hitters hitting Grand Slams and having multi-HR nights, Stolen Bases, bunts go for hits or moving runners over. Great plays and mistakes with the gloves. It has become so much fun none of us can remember the last we had this much fun being fans of the team. New hero’s every night and not just Trout or Ohtani either. The negative folks coming around less makes our site so much more enjoyable. Every night someone post’s that this game is the best of the season. We certainly are having fun. Ha-Ha, Jump on the Win-Train before it leaves the station….”All Aboard”….lots of laughs.
Supposedly leaked to the press was “The Letter” (Box Tops, 1966) and it did directly involve the Yankees in sign stealing and now it’s leaked that it devolves the Yankees. Sounds like there could be a “New Rob Manfred Letter” floating around. I would not put it passed Manfred to do this as he would believe that at all costs protect the Yankees is protecting MLB.
Where there is smoke there is fire. Through the years Manfred has seemed to be shady and anything but transparent. Do not trust a thing that MLB tells us about anything on any subject.
If you were supplied tools where you are employed and you told management that something was wrong with the tools, would you not want management to hear your complaints, of course you would. Well, pitchers are all complaining there is something wrong with the baseballs. Listen to the player’s Manfred. Maybe you are not hearing what you want to hear?