Here is a postmortem examination of Sunday’s game. And another one. Shadows or no shadows, the Angels simply didn’t score enough runs. Not to worry, though, because the Dodgers are also struggling. Here comes the clash of former titans tonight.
Joe Maddon got a mohawk just before he was fired. At least it’s a little less permanent than a tattoo.
Noah Syndergaard remains effective at preventing hitters from making solid contact even though he has lost some of the zip on his fastball.
Yasmani Grandal is now on the ten day IL due to lower back spasms. There seems to be a lot of that going around. Stephen Strasburg is back on the injured list as well.
Our old friend Sean Newcomb was just designated for assignment by the Cubs. The Twins just selected the contract of Elliot Soto.
Texas advanced to the College World Series.
The Boras Corporation is hiring data and market analysts. Meanwhile MLB is hiring a senior software engineer.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
All of the teams ahead of us for the final WC spot are winning; Texas, Cleveland, Boston and Chicago.
Figures. They will probably all win and we will lose and fall further back. Meanwhile gitch will highlight the benefits of being below average while normalizing underachievement and disappointment.
A loooong way to go before I get interested in looking at W/Cs slots. Let’s just win tonight.
Yes, it IS a long way from us being in contention. Not so much by the number of games but by the number of teams ahead of us…
Just out of curiosity, what would be your “throw in the towel” number for games back from the final WC spot? Maybe 5.5 games? Or 6.5??
I don’t mean for “selling” because our team is not set up to “sell” no matter what happens the rest of this season. I am just wondering when you will mentally give up on any chance at the playoffs??
In June? 20 back.
Jack Frost, always begging for a heavy petting. How many game’s till we’re eliminated from contention? I half expect you to know Not Doomer.
Anybody notice when we played the Phillies (not gonna mention the end result)
how skinny Rhys Hoskins was? I wanna know his secret……
Heck he was fatter than Pete Alonso back in 2020 and 2019
Good luck to the Angels against 7-0 Tony Gonsolin on the hill who gets better as the game progresses. Angels are gonna need it…….
Cant REALLY argue with Ward returning to the top of the lineup but I’ve wanted Marsh to lead-off for a while. He just fits the bill and makes the lineup longer IMO. The cognitive load of a Lengthy lineup wears out starters more than anything. This is Unquantifiable baseball science:
My optimal aside from Duffy in for Wade or Squid:
Marsh
Ward
Trout
Ohtani
Rendon
Walsh
Stassi
Wade
Squid
Duffy should be in for Wade. For kryst saykes.
yup he’s been misused all year really. Solid guy to have at the bottom of the order. but we’ve been hitting him cleanup and other middle of the order parts of the lineup where he has no business being.
Duffy hitting 4th was mostly when both Ward and Rendon were out. He’s a good contact hitter, but you are right that he does not belong at cleanup.
I agree, Duffy for Wade.
Duffy Sucks
I am good with this,
But, I’d put in Duffy for Wade.
And, bat Walsh ahead of Rendon.
Duffy for wade or Squid ALL day AND Walsh ahead of Rendon logically but in the 3 out minimum days you have to make teams pay for using a lefty specialist so its tough to stack a bunch of lefties back to back. Sore spot as my Oregon State boys missed out on a trip to Omaha this week in large part due to having 4 lefties stacked in a row and just getting mowed down in some key RISP spots by Auburn.
now I have to root for Stanford
Ward is in the lineup and leading off.
https://twitter.com/angels/status/1536854096740659200?s=21&t=2C9hO4tWHBmcbGuM3_YsEA
This line up reminded me. Dodgers fans are assholes. I hate the Dodgers. I hope they all get mono.
I’m just glad we are a Fletch away from full strength.
Let’s kick their ass.
Man, the White Sox are the 2021 Angels… get Joe Kelly back, YEAH!…. Liam Hendrick down with forearm strain! Booooo… they’ve had a ton of their main guys hurt this year so far… let’s hope it continues, and spreads, to the Indiegerds, the Red Sox, the Rangers….
How is Newcomb – is he really that bad?
I would have said take a flyer on him but ONLY IF we had a competent pitching staff. As it is, the team is already turning highly regarded relief pitchers into dumpster fires, so I don’t trust them to make miracles out of a dumpster fire, if Newcomb is indeed one.
He got as high as #24 overall best MLB prospect. A cruel reminder how it can be all fleeting, or a crapshoot those are.
He’s that bad.
Yeah, those of us who flipped out about trading our one good pitching prospect for Simba need to eat some crow. I’m talking about myself here.
The wasted opportunity was not trading Simba when he had value a couple of years before we lost him for nothing.
Was there even someone who’s going to take over Simba’s position if he was traded? If it would have been Fletch, I don’t remember anyone ready to take over 2B.
Well, we still don’t have anyone to take over at 2B! So we might as well have gotten a prospect for Simba 😋
Hail to Eppler! Stud defensive shortstop made me very pleased
YEESH!
I guess it’s comforting to know that it’s not only the Angels who mess up highly regarded prospects.
But really, I won’t be surprised if the Dodgers pick him and turn him into a sub-5.00 pitcher. Even that would be considered a success.
Agree, keep that crud away. Huge inability to command his pitches.
Hey yall, want to climb out of the cloudy pool of bitch tears we usually have to live in and let the warm light of a contented sun dry you off for a few minutes?
This Thor guy who we should have dodged in favor of a long list of other pitchers isn’t THE BEST, but he’s pretty comparable to most of the pitchers some of us have been pining for.
Here’s Thor’s stats thus far for 21M. That’s 1M more than Hyun Jin Ryu, who was a couple years ago’s major bitch along with Strausburg and Keuchel… all of whom would really help us this year and have contracts that are sure to be huge bargains.
Here’s Gausman
Here’s Rodon (who will be hurt soon)
Here’s Robbie Ray
Here’s Max Scherzer who is very very good, is getting paid 43M a year for 3 years, and was not going to sign with us even if we matched that. Here’s Gerrit Cole…. who is getting 36M a year through 2028….. maybe 2029, to be slightly better than Thor. He also never intended to sign here. Same with Zack Wheeler’s wife.
Here’s Jon Gray. He is doing similar to Thor, but for less money. So if you are a liar who is saying ‘I always knew Jon Gray was the dee bezt. I wanted him, not Thor!” then enjoy hell. Tyler Anderson…. same boat …. bigger lie… deeper hell.
Steven Matz… well, he’s cheaper than Thor… for four years….
Annnnddd…. this years “I’m totally sure he would have signed here if Arte would have shown me his deep steamy commitment to winning” candidate… Marcus Stroman. We could totally pay him a bit more than Thor for 3 years if only….
Did you think we could sign Verlander or Kershaw? Yes? Then you’re dumb and deserve the misery you work so hard to feel.
Do you think we could have signed Thor and one of these other guys and kept Iglesias? Probably not (roll your eyes now. Then think about Mayer being our closer.)
So, the point is, you haven’t been screwed as roughly as you think.
And for all you sad sacks who may be worried that these numbers and names may make some people think you are less right and thus diminish the oracle like powers of your whining…. you can flip flop from “Why didn’t we sign XXXXX instead of Thor! Arte is so stupid!” to “Why did we only sign Thor to a one year deal? Arte is so stupid!” in the blink of an anus.
Everyone has something to be happy about…. like when we go to Sonic.
I’ve never been to a Sonic… is it good?
They don’t have em where I live (middle class families may actually think they belong here if we allow stuff like Sonic) but I’ve had it a couple times in other towns. They sell just plain old chunks of chicken breast (not nuggets) with sauce. I always get those. Tater tots too.
It’s fine. Better than McWendyKing but not as good as a “real burger” joint. I went to one in Bakersfield that actually had a car club hanging out at it… like they were shooting a commercial or something but it was real life. Guys told me a lot of car guy get togethers happen at Sonics cause it’s easy there. I thought that was kinda cool.
Sonic is a cool thing to do in Bakersfield. I think I’ve seen the one with car club. My uncle is both a muscle car owner and Sonic devotee.
The tater tots are key. I’m not a big fry guy. Never have been. Nice to mix it up with some tots.
Great points and I think you nail the realities of free agency signings and the hindsight butt hurting that takes place here.
Realistically Perry has a budget. We can hate Arte for that budget – but like all budgets, it’s a constraint. My buddy tried to sit down with his wife to talk finances and he even made a spreadsheet- his wife said ‘is that a f’n budget?’ and walked out.
Point is what we really hate is budgets because that means if money is spent on pitching- it’s not there for a shortstop. It is particularly hard with the salaries to Trout, Rendon and, yes, Upton on the books – and likely soon Ohtani. Budgets suck – but that’s Arte’s prerogative as an owner
Look ar The Mets. Do you think our former GM Eppler suddenly got really good at his job? No! He just had oooodles more money to spend.
Arte has made it clear – you can have ice cream and a cake and maybe some toppings at the birthday party – but no pony or magician. That is what it is and we can whine about it but I guarantee he’s not listening.
But for the purposes of our all chatting here and saying what we think should and should not have happened (or what will happen in the future)…
Why declare the budget as an accepted constraint? If that is logically true, then you might as well declare everything Perry does as an accepted constraint too. “Hey, he used his abilities and the skill he had, and was able to convince these individuals to trade with me or was able to convince these individuals to sign with our team”. It is his prerogative as the GM.
But if we can endlessly chat here about “Perry should have done this” or “Perry better sign him next offseason” then I think it is equally valid to say “Arte should recognize we need more budget”.
I think Arte should hire the pony for the party!
I vote for a clown
Roger Lodge
Declare all you want.
The team’s payroll will be the amount of money Arte puts towards it. That is a real number, not a construct of the mind.
Age. It’s also a real number, not a state of mind.
Sadly, beauty isn’t on the inside. Just ask ugly people.
And no. None of us, nor our children, can do ANYTHING we put our mind to.
And Fan71’s buddy needs a divorce.
“And Fan71s buddy needs a divorce….”
Ha!
Well I guess it’s just whether you want to wear rose colored glasses or deal with reality. My particular bent is usually to prefer reality and reality based expectations. But I am all for anyone who wants to take a different approach.
We have so many cool users who are doing this reality thing.
Agree – I personally think it’s the best vantage and the one least likely to cause anger. But I have to admit it’s funny to read all the posts from the angry mob about players that should be on the team that would require a $275m budget and those that probably would never agree to play in Anaheim anyway.
Sure, fair points. However, I would have been advocating for something more “within reason,” say, Arte agrees finally that we can go to $210MM, which could have allowed us to sign another solid pitcher (even though all those pitchers have now been shown to not be worth it)…
I mean you can advocate for anything and I respect that. But Arte isn’t listening.
Thanks for not being “too GA” to do the research. 😆
I assume you are referring to gitch… yes, I was wondering if someone would actually spend the time to evaluate all the players that some of us pined after during the offseason and wished Perry had signed (and probably still feel that way, assuming Perry messed up).
I’m totally willing to admit that hindsight might show that we’re better off without a lot of those players we thought we needed, and that Thor and Lorenzen are not working out too badly.
I already know that my Semien wish would have been a disaster. Good thing the connection was bad on my phone that day that Perry called me and asked me who we should sign.
I wanted Villar (total crap) or Josh Harrison (even larger crap), Ray (meh) and Tyler Anderson (I prefer to focus on TyTy). I also wanted Jake Junis, who was doing OK with the Giants but is now hurt.
Historically, if I want a pen arm, even if it’s M Rivera, he will fall apart as soon as I declare I want him.
Syndergaard is 1-3 with a 7.88 ERA and only eight strikeouts while only making it through 16.0 IP in four outings…stats away from Big Arte. He’s the 5th best starter the Angels have.
So, in 4 starts he hasn’t been stellar on the road? That is some serious nitpicking there, no?
I mean, at the Big A (with Arte watching, looking over his shoulder and all) he is 3-1 with an ERA of 1.48. That is pretty ok, right?
Or you could just look at him overall at 4-4 with an ERA of 3.69 averaging 5.1 innings per start. Not too shabby, even for 21M.
Splits like that is never an optimum investment. I’m actually reserving judgement. I’m not an extention promoter that most of this board is but willing to see how it shakes out come September to look at the complete season. To my eyes, he no longer throws lightning bolts.
Soooo….. his overall stats are similar to those other pitchers…. unless we discount half his starts, but do include his one huge blow out? The problem with Thor’s season thus far is it’s not very good if we take away the starts that were good? His over all numbers aren’t in the same general ballpark as those other pitchers, it’s just those shapes represent a number of fingers that add up to just about the same number….?
I thought the first hardcore wank would be about his velocity and strike out numbers.
Exactly, dog doo-doo
Yeah, I was looking at Stroman’s numbers the other day and had another “glad we didn’t get what I wanted” moment.
Stroman was the big get in my Perry piece. I’ll still stand behind my reasoning. He seemed like the safest bet to provide quality innings in bulk. But that has blown up in the Cubs face big time.
Yeah, of the pitchers, Stroman was the one I wanted. No QO either. Seemed so logical. I couldn’t believe it when Perry didn’t do it. But like you said, it looks like it was good we didn’t do it.
Now Rodon, we’ll see….
Both Ray and Stroman could work out in the full season. I just noticed that none of these guys are just blowing the doors off Thor. The queen bitch seems to be Rodon. Apparently we were “this close” to signing him because he signed last and so many interwebers wanted him. Cause that’s proof of something now days.
But I looked at him. He’s better than Thor, but not by much. He sure wouldn’t be “the difference”. That got me looking at the rest of the “missed opportunity” Thor cost us. It’s just not that big a deal.
We’ll have to see. Will Thor hold up? I know Rodon won’t. Anyone who complains we didn’t sign Rodon cause of injury riddled Rendon is ignorant. But as it stands now we really haven’t missed much.
What!? Are you saying that all of us fans concluding who we should get, is not the determination of what was supposed to happen in our reality?
I always assumed that when our GM doesn’t do these obvious moves, that it is just proof that he caused a split in our timeline and created an alternate universe where the Angels didn’t have the correct players.
Need to just blow this whole Hindenburg up.
WE SHOULD TRADE OHTANI, Ward, Adell, Lorenzen. This team will never win with who’s on it and this is all on THE OLIGARCH who sets the tone at the very top. He ain’t interested in following in the footsteps of Jerry Buss, George Steinbrenner, Eddie DeBartolo, or Robert Kraft.
This is the WW2 French army meets MLB in 2022. Rendon (The Maginot Line…..useless LOL!!) That’s my history lesson for CTPG whether you asked for it or not! I wonder what CB26 will say (shhhhhh…..probably doesn’t know general history).
💪 💪 💪 👈
If they were to actually do this, then Thor should go too. Maybe even Iggy.
Don’t forget Trout!
I didn’t put Trout because of the no-trade clause and giant contract. But I think that if they truly blew things up and went into full rebuild, it wouldn’t be hard to convince Trout to waive his clause and go to a winner.
… not that I’m saying we should actually do this. I was just responding to 2002 saying who we should trade when blowing everything up.
Probably only Reid Detmers, Brandon Marsh, David Fletcher, Jered Walsh is gonna be 29 already at the end of next month. Not sayin trade him, but be aware that older guys tend to start getting hurt more, kinda like a American make car vs a Toyota when hitting on 100K miles. No SS and no 2 SP’s were ever acquired and yes the farm system still sucks UNTIL IT DOESN’T OR WHEN CHARLIE BROWN SUCCESFULLY KICKS THE FOOTBALL. The CTPG Pollyanna’s have already evacuated after they heard the air raid sirens (the 14 game losing streak) like the Brits left Dunkirk.
We’re probably still stuck with (welp…..Rendon, till 2026 😠 😠 💩 ).
Will TootyToo go with them?
So according to the article the shadows were a problem for both teams yet one team struck out 11 of 37 AB’s, the other K’d 16 of 31.
I wonder which was which. Love that Trout is throwing out that tired old diddy about turning the page. Soth taught him well.
Hey guys, this guy hates Mike Trout. He is the Lord of Edging. Check out the size of his contrarian biceps.
July 9, 1972 Nolan Ryan threw a one hitter against the Red Sox and struck out 16, with an immaculate inning thrown in. That was also a Sunday game which in 1972 the Angels played at 6pm or so for most of the season to try and get attendance up. Go to church and then take the kids to an early evening game and still get home early for school the next day. That plan didn’t last long, I believe. Unfair to face Ryan at that hour
Damn, I thought newcomb had huge potential. I took my daughter to get his auto in sb years ago and he tried avoiding all the kids trying to get autos. I wasn’t a fan of his after that.
LOL!!
Aren’t you glad now in hindsight!!!
wearing your set of HS goggles now! 😀
Reggie Jackson wasn’t too keen on autographs either
Perry asks senile Arte if he can fire Joe if he wants to, Arte says yes. Perry drives his clown car to Joe’s house and starts off by asking how are you going to get us out of this slump Joe? He sees Joe with a Mohawk and Joe says, his haircut might do it. And that’s how it happened.
Well, it got so that every piss-ant prairie punk who thought he could manage a team would ride into Anaheim to try out Perry the Platypus. Perry must have killed more careers than Mel Brooks. It got pretty gritty. I started to hear the word “bullpen” in my sleep. Then one day, I was just walking down the street when I heard a voice behind me say, “Bring in the lefty, mister!” I spun around… and there I was, face to face with Arte. Well, I just threw my Sabermetrics cheatsheet to the ground and walked away. Little bastard shot me in the ass. So I limped to the nearest saloon, crawled inside a whiskey bottle… and I’ve been there ever since.
This is CtPG. Blazing Saddles refs ALWAYS get a rec.
😂
Job interview at Boras firm.
Hi Mr Bor-ass. Thank you for interviewing me Mr Bor-ass. This is a fine company you have Mr Bor-ass.
It’s Boras.
Wanna get away?
Any word whether Ward will actually be activated today?
Nothing yet that I’ve seen. Perry sent Davis Daniel back to AAA to clear a roster space.
Then again he also shipped out Adell and Thomas which put Wade in center field.
I remember when Newcomb was supposed to be the next Jon Lester. May have been same year they said Clint Frazier was like Mike Trout.
The comps during the draft really do a disservice to these kids.
I hope Minasian’s Big 20 don’t follow his career path.
Ward
Trout
Shohei
Rendon
Walsh
Duffy
Marsh
Stassi
Squid
Hope to see this lineup for a while. Time to get things done and get back in the race, time is ticking, and the season is 1/3rd over and done. Enough of the resting crap and now it’s time to play ball and get back to being a playoff team. I hope Trout can and will lead the way. Bring Adell back up soon and let Lagares go back home and lay around. Rengifo and Suzuki should be traded and released, respectively. At trade time we should be buyers to stay in the race with us owning a spot, not trying to catch up to one. If the team wants it, go and get it and stop acting like fucking pussies. This is your time. 🕤
Maybe just hold off on that first post since you know you’re going to add like 16 more before anyone else wakes up and just do one post.
Hey, Granda is a high volume, high quality commentator.
He raises the overall standards and quality of the posts on the board.
He should be the Chairman of These Pearly Gates.
GPB is my hero, his posts led to Daron Sutton getting fired. Sadly, he does not feel the same angst towards Patty’O.
Grandpa, I’ll vote for you for Manager if you get a mohawk….!
This may sound weird but what about putting Marsh down 1 spot closer to Ward and Trout. With his speed, that could be a benefit on basepaths and Squid would be be used to bunt Marsh more like a NL pitcher, which pains me to say. Just trying to be creative… dunno
Silly grandpa. Everyone knows players need back to back days off all the time now. The 1880’s-2000’s of guys playing just about every day was just a fad!
Now post your “everyone needs a day off because they need an extra days rest in May/June…which they will also get in August/September” lineup.
No game on Sunday should be played after 3pm as a starting time at the Big A. “Get Away Games’ be damned, someone is going to get hurt. No weekday game should be started at 7:10 pm. Fans that have a distance to drive and don’t get off work until 5pm can’t make 6:40pm start times. How often do you see the stadium with a lot of fans at first pitch? by the 3rd they arrive, and who wants to lose a third of the game, after all the game is for the fans. Another poor way to run a business, sure everyone wants to leave early also. Leaving early when the team is losing is a very easy decision the fans do make. Can’t wait for the “Time Clock”.
Problem is, you then run into all the fans who want the game to start at 5 so they can get home by 9. Reminds me of all the concerts I used to book. Half the interwebs comments were “8PM! That’s so late! (for a f***ing rock show.)” and the rest were “8PM, that’s too early!” meanwhile, the bands are driving from gah knows where and half of them hate having to wait around for 3 hours for the show to start while other half hate having to rush their drive to make it in time for an “early” show start.
You can’t make everyone happy, so f*** everyone.
Meh… Anyone would agree that a rock gig starting at 6am would be too early. If you really wanted to piss everyone off that’s when you would schedule it.
Like Breakfast With Shellac…. when Shellac did a whole tour in the AM with donuts.
The games starting at 6:40 is another “I’m getting old” thing.
Now that my age starts with a 4 and I have a 4 year old, I love the games starting a bit earlier. Even leaving Irvine at 5 I have plenty of time to make the game and the 55 north to the 5 north sucks.
Now, if they’d cut the games back to 2 and a half hours like when I first became a fan, 7 would be fine.
But they’ve added at least a half hour to each game. So starting a half hour earlier just means they end at about the same time.
Yes. But on the flip side, I get to see more ads on TV.
I would be curious to see how many twilight starts have been in Anaheim since 1966, and the number of injuries caused by shadows – if any. I can remember (bet you can too GB) Monday Night Baseball when in Anaheim always spoke of the *advantage* to Nolan Ryan and the like pitching from sunlight to the shadows. Don’t ever remember any injuries, except that big one to Reggie’s ego when he muffed a ball in RF, losing a Ryan no-no.
Reggie who? I don’t think Jackson ever played on the same team as Ryan.
Maybe he meant Ron Jackson?
The screaming that took place when the trade for Simmons took place and included Newcomb was deafening. (I was at MLB Angels Blog back then, MLB shut the whole thing down because they had very little control.) I thought, and still do that that was a great move and Simmons was Angels MVP his second season in. Simmons was the best fielding SS ever in SoCal history and made the hardest play look simple. This is our second year without him, but things have not worked out for him with the Twins and Cubs, and I hope he can turn his career around.
I don’t think Newcomb will solve any of the Angels issues at this point.
He’ll sign with the Dodgers and “get fixed”
I’d like him to sign with us, at least he can actually field at that position and he won’t hit worse than what we’re throwing out there.
I believe the senator was talking about Newcomb. Simba is broken.
I understand. I’m just thinking broken Simba may be a better option than every MI we currently have. I wouldn’t mind if he got a short try out to see.
Yep – Newcomb. The Dodgers seem to find, fix, and create pitchers better than any franchise around MLB today.