Angels Wantz to win, but cannot

The Angels went to Houston, where they hoped to annoy the Astros a bit one last time. Yes, ot was the final series vs the Astros for 2022 as the season is rapidly coming to a close.

Michael Lorenzen was back, and he put on a good show. He went 5 and two thirds, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits, striking out 2 and walking 4. Not bad for a guy just back from injury.

Offensively it was tough vs the strong Astros pitching. Mike Trout continued his home run streak, and hey, Mickey was back! Still, it was going to be hard to score and they needed every run they could get.

Highlighted Recap

It was a pitching duel, both sides unable to score or even get many hits until the 6th.

Lorenzen is back!

The Angels scored first with a run run shot in the 6th, his 5th straight game with a home run!

2-0 Angels!

But Lorenzen gave one back immediately after.

2-1 Angels

Loup came in to finish the 6th and it was now up to the bullpen to hold this slim lead.

Wantz was next, and he blew it, giving the Astros the lead.

3-2 Astros

Then Marte came in for the 8th, and walk in another run.

4-2 Astros

Now the offense had to score more. Ohtani was up first in the 9th. He grounded out. Ward was next. He hit one out of there!

4-3 Astros

Rengifo was up next. He struck out. It was now all up to Matt Thaiss. He struck out. Game over.

Angels lose, they are now 5-12 vs the Astros this year. Yeesh.

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2002heaven
Trusted Member
1 year ago

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gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Know what’s crazy? Our “blowpen” is ranked 16th in the MLB in ERA, sandwiched between the apparently also horrible pens of Cardinals and Twins, then the Brewers and Phillies. In WHIP we are 10th, with Baltimore and Toronto ahead of us and San Diego and Milwaukee behind. The entire pitching staff combined is basically 9th in the MLB behind the Mets and Cleveland and ahead of Baltimore and St Louis.

So if you’ve been wondering why Matt Wise still has a job, this is likely why.

This also gives me a little more hope for the near future than I had. Why? Our team OPS is 5th worst in baseball. It sits at about .677 now. The Indians are at 690, the Orioles 694, The Rays 696, the Mariners 700, the Padres 700. The Dodgers are the best at .788.

It’s much much more likely that a team can compete if their pitching is fairly strong and their offense is weak than it is if their pitching is below average and their offense is strong. Do most of the competitive teams have both? Yes. Of the top 10 offenses only Boston is a lame duck with bad pitching. But 3 of the bottom 10 offenses in baseball are in the play off hunt with three weeks to go.

On top of that, I won’t go into it too deeply, it looks like it’s easier to buy or just improve an offense by 25 points of OPS than it is to raise the level of a pitching staff. Basically, if we had the Rendon we had early season and Rengifo/Fletcher with Squid on the bench we’d just about be there. Stassi and Walsh could still have their down years, Trout can trAdition and miss 1/3 of the year, we’d still be pretty close.

But as the roster sits now it’s far less hopeless than say the 2017-18 teams, which is how I kind of saw them.

It also makes me more comfortable, though still uncomfortable, with the idea of paying Ohtani. His offense is nice and all, but replaceable. His pitching though… that’s tougher. And we actually have a solid staff with him now, which means we don’t need to sign 5 pitchers to compete, which is the way I always feel. We still can’t really afford Shohei, but it’s not as dire a cost as I thought at first because we don’t really have multiple expensive needs.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
1 year ago

There goes the CTPG 80%ers again……LOL!!!
I looked into the Ainjel’s (I’ll name them that until a new owner ascends upon us) middle of the pack MLB pitching stats (they’re 11th in the American League ahead of the Tigers, Royals, and A’s……LOL!!!!). Really need to quit putting lipstick on swine dood. BTW the team also swept the Dodgers in a TWO GAME MINI-SERIES during the also ill fated 2019 season after the the Tyler Skaggs tragedy. Translation they’re not better since then, and we’re not getting better because we beat Toronto and the Yankees recently. BTW we came off getting swept by TB too. WE SEEM TO OVERLOOK THAT HOWEVER. This team is every bit capebuhbol of losing 6 of 7 to the A’s, and Tigers after going 7-3 against the Astros, and Mets.
 💪  💪  💪  💪  💪  💪 
 💪  💪  💪  💪  🤘  👈 

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  2002heaven

Congratulations. Once again You just wasted 200 words and 12 fisty emojis to say absolutely nothing. Cant wait for your next worthless posting.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Cowboy26

Shur Kant!!! heeee
Mainly because it’s 162 games and anything can happen during a span of just 10 games.

Last edited 1 year ago by 2002heaven
GrandpaBaseball
Legend
1 year ago

Lotto Pick, they can’t even get that right 😂  😁 

Fansince1971
Legend
1 year ago

Good enough to be mediocre but also bad enough to be mediocre. That’s how you get stuck in the middle.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Fansince1971

Lotto picks only matter in the NFL and NBA…..
Scouting and player development matter more ……ask Mickey Moniak and Jo Adell.
 💪  💪  💪  💪  💪 

FungoAle
Super Member
1 year ago

Angels now in the 11th position after sinking to 7 slot. Need to get Trout and Ohtani out of the lineup. Keep the semi-pro players; Aguilar and Ford in there full time. Duffy at 3rd, Squid at SS. Sierra and Adell in the OF. Chavez as the closer….

How hard can this be!

GrandpaBaseball
Legend
1 year ago

Funny Stuff, seems to me the answer to having a winning season is for our pitchers just do it. Apologies to Phil knight. Just throw a Shut out every game, right now that same practice needs practice as only a tenth-place finish seems like our landing place, but ahh, next year we can rejoice in watching 98 shutouts by staff. after in the rest we give up more than 3 runs a game.

So how does this all work out, well, this season when we are just great with one run HRs and and have multiple HRs in a night we win. Wha-la, get HR hitters to play like the Dodgers are doing with Gallo. Homerun or bust.

Marte can only throw the baseball hard, he therefore is just and only, a thrower. his whole career has been light last night, DFA the dude. He is not a major league pitcher.

Angelstan
Trusted Member
1 year ago

The Angels must be one of the worst teams in scoring runs with people on base. They don’t get hits in those circumstances. Often they don’t even put the ball in play. They must change that. They also have to favor a lineup of guys that can hit over the all-defense lineups they have tried many times this season.

steelgolf
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Angelstan

That will change drastically next year when they ban the shift AND infielders have to have both feet in the infield.

2002heaven
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  steelgolf

Ainjels would still have trouble scoring runs with Albert Pujols by himself covering a whole side of the infield.
 😠  😠 

WallyChuckChili
Legend
1 year ago

It was Jimmy’s Birthday and we put in Wantz and Marte.

MikeSalmon
Super Member
1 year ago

On Ward’s HR: watch it again and listen to Matty V, who was not paying attention at all. Whatta hack. “We had to wait for Lance Barrett’s…” No, all you had to do was PAY ATTENTION. Whatta dipshit.

Angelstan
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Why did they bring in Marte to pitch the 8th in a 3-2 game? They know he cannot go an inning against a good team without giving up a run, maybe more. Are they trying to win games? Apparently not.

DowningDude
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  Angelstan

Marte assumed the role of “Tank Commander” from Jesse Chavez

FungoAle
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  DowningDude

Sergeant Chavez, reporting for duty!

Rallymanatee
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Angelstan

Yeah that loss is all on Nevin. Not only did he choose the worst possible pitcher to bring into a high pressure situation, but then he chose to LEAVE him in after he loaded the bases! So aggravating.

Angelstan
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Rallymanatee

Yes. The fans who have watched the prior games knew where things were headed. Why didn’t the manager? Or is this one of those let’s see how Marte does in terms of looking at him for next year situations? The problem with those is everyone else is playing hard to win, but the organization is frittering it away with its decisions.

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  Rallymanatee

Not according to Soggy Joe. He claims that Perry and his trusted assistant are calling all the in game shots now.

Angelstan
Trusted Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Cowboy26

That would mean they are losing games just so Perry can confirm the obvious. That isn’t needed. It has already been confirmed.

FungoAle
Super Member
1 year ago
Reply to  Rallymanatee

We lost, it worked. M1 Abrams is up and running

Cowboy26
Legend
1 year ago
Reply to  Angelstan

Why is he even on the roster?

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

It’s time to start rooting for Team Collapse. No, I don’t think the Angels can get a top 5 pick, that takes a special self hatred very few teams have in a given season. But we CAN root for the Mets to fall behind the Braves. We can root for the O’s to catch the Mariners with all our hearts. And the Yankees…. oh the joy and gladness if the Rays can make up those last couple games and catch the Yankees. Plus, down the line, we can root for the Doyers and Yanks getting bounced by a team with half their payroll. Fill your hearts with hate Angels fans, there are dreams to be crushed.

James
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Really happy Football season has started. That’s a place for some positive energies to happen now for me

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

“Team Tank” failed. The object in your rear view mirror is the opportunity for a very good draft position fading in the distance. Yet again, this team can literally do nothing right: can’t make the playoffs, can’t get a great draft position. Another season of Angels baseball is almost in the books. There’s little doubt we’ll be back next September lamenting year 9 of no play-offs.

Hat tip to Kerry Miller:

You would think from this being their eighth consecutive year missing the playoffs that there would have been some sort of teardown and build up along the way. However, they’re always at least somewhat competitive and seem to end each year feeling like they might be just one piece away from turning a corner. And after nearly a decade of chasing that dragon, they are entrenched between a rock and a hard place.

They arguably should have jumped into a rebuild at the trade deadline by dealing Shohei Ohtani to bolster what is almost indisputably the worst of the 30 farm systems. Their haul likely wouldn’t have quite matched what the Washington Nationals got for Juan Soto and Josh Bell, but they could have at least gotten a few top-tier prospects for him.

But they didn’t. So here they sit in no-man’s land, hoping they can afford to re-sign their hitting/pitching unicorn while also worrying about how they could fill out a competent roster around Ohtani if they do manage to keep him around.

They have more than $75 million tied up in just Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon for each of the next four seasons, and Ohtani could seek $50 million per year, according to the New York Post‘s Jon Heyman, when he hits free agency in November 2023. That would be a ridiculous amount of money for three players, but there’s just not much else they can do.

In a perfect world, starting pitchers Patrick Sandoval, José Suarez and Reid Detmers will all continue to thrive while each under team control through at least 2026. Taylor Ward will somehow reharness his incredible hitting from the first seven weeks of this season. And both Trout and Rendon will stay healthy for a change. Match all that with Ohtani continuing to perform at an MVP level and maybe it all finally comes together for 90-plus wins.

But with almost no room in the budget for free-agency splashes and next to nothing in the talent pipeline, it’s a tightrope walk on which they are teetering perilously over another eight-plus years of being irrelevant in October.

MarineLayer
Super Member
1 year ago

If you’re going to build a franchise around stars and scrubs which we are committed to you need to have a big enough budget to support that, a smarter front office who can draft better and find diamonds in the rough, and better coaching to develop these players. And please stop signing aging has-beens like Rendon.

grichmanpoorman
Trusted Member
1 year ago

Aw, gee, bye-bye “good draft position.” Sniff. Guess we’re gonna miss out on this year’s Joey Bart again. The problem is not that we’re drafting No. 10 or 15… if anything, it’s that we keep taking Wil Wilsons when there’s a perfectly good Corbin Carroll available. Or, more recently, a Sam Bachman when there’s this guy, who’s outperforming him at the same level and is three years younger: https://www.milb.com/player/andrew-painter-691725

At least Neto is looking like a steal.

Fansince1971
Legend
1 year ago

Kerry Miller takes so much off what many of us have been saying and nicely condenses it into a short, concise statement./analysis.

Last edited 1 year ago by Fansince1971
Fansince1971
Legend
1 year ago

I Wantz a lottery pick!

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  Fansince1971

7-11 sells them for a buck a piece.

Eric_in_Portland
Legend
1 year ago

well that dream of 85 wins is gone….how long can I keep this going? Now we have a shot at 84! Even though, honestly, 24 games left, we’d have to play over .500 ball to avoid losing 90. I think it’s likely we go 10-14 or 9-15, so 69 or 70 wins this year.

Fansince1971
Legend
1 year ago

I’m actually predicting 12-12 given they are playing mostly crappy teams.

So 72-90 is my final prediction.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  Fansince1971

69-93

Just because.

DowningDude
Legend
1 year ago

Darn

Angels2020Champs
Legend
1 year ago

I came here for the pun, well done JHW

DowningDude
Legend
1 year ago

We got caught with our Wantz down

Brent
Super Member
1 year ago

This team sucks.

steelgolf
Super Member
1 year ago

Our little buttercups. The blow pen doth blow.