Good morning Angels fans. Or rather, bad morning, I guess? Pessimism and all… Angels still suck. Have some links.
Angels News
The Angels lost 2 in a row to the American League team in Ohio. Mike Trout had his home run streak snapped and everyone looked sad and pathetic. The Angels had 4 hits yesterday, and 3 of them were singles.
With their 81st loss, the Angels again have failed to have a winning record. Remember back in April when we at CtPG had our predictions? Yeah, even I was way too optimistic.
Oh yeah and the Angels sent Aguilar to SLC. First AAA experience, actually.
Rendon may be back at the end of the year, and not just to serve his suspension either. Yay~
Around Baseball
All around baseball, history is being made. Pujols is getting closer to 700 home runs, with a better season than any in Anaheim.
Meanwhile, Aaron Judge is getting closer and closer to 60 on the year. Damn Yankees. STOP IT.
But more exciting since it is less painful, is what is happening across the Pacific, as the NPB is having their own home run chase. With a shorter 144 game season, the 60 hit by Wlad Balentien in 2013 is truly remarkable.
On the opposite end of beloved, TLR is creating a rift in Chicago. The players do not want him back as manager.
deGrom is good and healthy. Historically so.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes.
Missed this tweet from last night … LE leads 1-0 over our 66ers in a best-of-three.
BOOOOO! Go wrench guys!
I’m fond of LE having gone to many games growing up in Temecula during the latter part of youth baseball playing days.
Oh I love good ole smell-some-more
I hope Rendon comes back this season just to make Marine Layer happy.
Squid’s hurt. Celebrate? I actually want to see how bad the Rengifo/Fletcher IF tandem is but I actually value Squids defense. He is exactly what a defensive depth player should be. If he becomes a guy who fills in for a rest day, plays the 9th inning in the field, pinch runs etc he’s useful. 322 AB of total crap, 1.5 WAR of defense. If he just gets 100 ABs next year, all good.
Also, holy f***. I didn’t realize he had only 322 ABs. The way so many of you poodles complain about the guy I felt like he had 550 ABs already.
I actually have a slightly different opinion on Squid.
I think we should lock him up long term. Can’t afford for him to go on the open market.
[insert sarcasm text]
Thing is, as soon as he leaves… Gold Glove + .800 OPS + 30SB because he escaped from Angels fans.
Man, De Grom…. he’s an FA, but signing him is like buying a 1968 Shelby Mustang with a trunk full of old dynamite. He’s so good, gonna be so expensive, and is almost certain to be hurt 50% of the time he’s under contract and suck the life out of a payroll…. he’s the Angelina Jolie of baseball FAs.
He’d actually be perfect for the Dodgers. They have the money to pay him and the farm to exploit so that they can.
Thanks for the Angelina Jolie reference Gitch! Actually DeGrom is just the best example of the insanity of signing obscene contracts with aging players. How many times will idiot owners throw good money after bad before realizing some of their peers have figured out a better way?
Actually, I think it would be really interesting if the market actually hit its ceiling, and a guy like De Grom is perfect for it. He’s obviously VERY good, but he’s an FA and not 23 years old.
So, he wants 50M a year, or 55M. Will we finally see that there is just plain not that “one owner” willing to cough that up? Even on a short deal? Will we go all off season, even into spring, with the top FA arm just sitting there refusing 47M? Will all the other pitchers sit there waiting for De Grom to “set the market” for their far less valuable talents?
Will it then be collusion? If you’re the MLBPA and Boras Corp, yes. Ohviously.
Fun stuff
Trout getting 40 HR and Ohtani getting 40 HR would be nice.
They both have a shot.
Trout with 41 and Ohtani with 40 is my dream.
Can you tell I love Trout?
I dream that they both hit 90.
I’d settle for 74 from each, but 90 is alright.
Looking at Pujols OPS, SLG, AVG etc this year compared to his best years as an Angel is an astonishing wtf?
every rate stat is pretty much higher this year than any year in Anaheim
I am seriously starting to think, baselessly to be sure, that he showed up here with his huge contract, huge history, and huge ego. He saw AL pitching and realized he’d been Quad A for a long time. He sucked out the gate and…. nobody worshiped him. He’d been worshiped since he got into the MLB. It broke him. Sure, he got some weird/sad “yeah for the old man getting something number something” suction from some folks, and he could always count on Jose Mota to keep him warm at night, but he never got the slobber he was used to in St Louis.
It’s not like he got butt hurt and didn’t give AF. I don’t think he’s that big a jerk and I also think his ego would drive him to try as hard as he could. But I think “as hard as he could” was greatly changed when there were far fewer hands clapping for the big brown tinker bell. I also have no proof, but looking at his body his last couple years in St Louis and his first couple here, he quit the steroids he was on, probably because he’d gotten PAID and his body was falling apart. But when he was on his Dodgers revenge tour and got some fluffin, then went back to St Louis for some true love from the fat chicks, it refocused him quite a bit.
He may just be one of those guys who needs hero worship in order to be a hero.
He’s hit like Mike Trout against lefties this year and like Mike Ford against righties. Considering ~40% of his ABs have been against lefties this year compared to ~26% over the course of his career, you have to give some credit to usage.
is molina still stopping the game for everyone to pay him respect?
pujols loved that shit. that kinda attention is just as effective as the roids he was taking.
I said 83-79 in April 🤦🏼♂️
TLR is done, finally!
Trout is still the best Baseball Player I have ever seen, and Ohtani is the Most exciting Baseball Player i have ever seen.
Looking forward to Manfrauds changes to the game next season except for 2 things. Extras starting out with a runner on 2B and changing the Bases. But it is still all good.
I thought the ghost runner was dead going forward.
I’m against the changes aside from the pitch clock and base size. The throw over/step off rules are problematic at best.
Sure, I’m disappointed in the Angels this season, but the first month was over the top fun and watching Trouty’s streak was giving us something exciting to root for. Ohtani will lose out to Judge for the MVP, but Judge is a Yankee after all. I do hope Judge gets the record though, why? Because it will spot light honest players rather than us having to remember the cheaters, and that is a good thing.
Albert is very much like “Papi” in that folks will want to think he did it the hard way, “He earned it”. The truth is Angels Fans will never say that we had PED users right here, Vaughn and Glaus, so how can we condemn Pujols fans for not seeing that their hero was a fraud too. I wish Selig was never MLB Commissioner, but he was, and he made sure that he got in the HOF before anyone challenged his being entered in.
Back to the Halos, I blame only myself for being overly optimistic in April and early May, but while the ride was short, I certainly had fun. Injuries are part of the game and every year we have more than our share, but this year just seemed worse. Last year we caught lightning in a bottle with scrubs keeping us over .500 and the same guys crumbled this season and that is why they were so affordable to begin with. I am now convinced that one of two things has been proven. Rookie and brand-new GM’s can’t turn this team around under the circumstance’s they inherit and with the way the Angels are put together with being top heavy with payroll to a few, the team is “Doomed”. But I still chose to stay and have fun being here at CTPG and being here with idiots like me who still believe year after year that we will one day do 2002 all over again.
If I’m honest, since Trout came into the league my fandom has been mainly for him. Sure I want the Angels to win, but above all I want to see Trout’s individual greatness.
Even though conceptually I would agree that I’d rather be a fan of the Rays, in reality I would rather be a fan of the team with the best player (now 2 best players) and get to witness individual greatness.
Call me weird, but I wouldn’t enjoy having my team have a bunch of good players without any true greats. Imagine going to the team store and not being truly excited to buy the jersey of any of your team’s players. Imagine going to the counter and asking “Do you have any Andrew Friedman jerseys?”
At this point I’ve resigned myself to the fact that the Angels play like doodoo year after year, but similarly I expect to be able to say year after year that we have the best player in the game.
More Fecal Orefii (Pujols) links – one from May 2021 and one from Sept 12 2021 from an old STL beat writer:
May 11, 2021: https://www.scoopswithdannymac.com/when-albert-pujols-left-the-cardinals-remained-strong-the-angels-wouldnt-know-about-that/
snippet: “When you still can’t win after lavishing $240 million on Pujols, and drafting and developing Trout … well, the cluelessness is staggering”
Sep 12, 2022: https://www.scoopswithdannymac.com/bernie-on-the-cardinals-pujols-back-in-st-louis-making-high-hopes-turn-into-dreams-that-come-true/
snippet: “When Pujols was released by the Angels and signed by the Dodgers last season, the happiness returned.”
Lots of fuel for the 2002Heaven anti-arte diatribe.
Yes, what guy wouldn’t be happy that they’re getting a guaranteed $200M~ even when they suck at what they do? Oh the unhappiness!!!
I read the entire piece and jeez, what a chock full of cheese:
If Pujols was miserable in every way while still getting paid $200M~, imagine what all others were feeling who weren’t getting paid like he did.
Like everyone else, I celebrated his signing here and predicted a WS or two in the Pujols years. But man, what a black eye in the history of the org. I’m probably exaggerating, but he was the worst thing to happen to the franchise, especially to the prime years of Trout.
“wired to win” … whut in the actual F is that all about? LOLZ
His paychecks are WIRED to his bank.
Torii was the only one who had the balls to call him out. Everyone coddled him, until he was finally cut.
Wow. I actually don’t enjoy my job at all, other than the fact that some of the nurses around here are hot and I get a pay check. I know pretty much all my co-workers feel the same. Come to think of it, when was this a joyful experience? Actually, when have any of my jobs been joyful?
It’s good to know it’s OK for me to have “performance difficulties” like Pujols, especially because I won at just about everything when I was young too and I am wired to win. So are most of the folks in my department.
So if you read about a SoCal elderly hospital where everyone starved to death in their own piss and shit while the building fell apart just know that we were inspired by Albert Pujols and the sports media should probably celebrate the shit out of us too. Then they should write more articles about how no one seems to want a job…. why?
* we suck
* trout streak ends
* judge kicking ass
* ohtani fading in MVP race
* fecal orefii (aka Pujols) is mosdef going to reach 700
Only thing left is to root for a Mariners collapse although they appear too strong to succumb to their usual level of futility.
site bug? scrolling wheel on my mouse isn’t working – on CtPG only.
We were so young and foolish when the season began, not a care in the world. Spring was in the air, and everything was new. As the leaves begin to change and days grow shorter, I still have the ability to be optimistic about Angels baseball after a lifetime of disappointment. Do you know why that is? It’s all about the lobotomy. It makes a very positive difference in being able to still believe.
Video of me choosing Angel wins
https://youtu.be/2DeBGX2aH3I
Some call it complaining, I call it “release therapy”. It’s all about perspective…..
source: crashingthepearlygates.com/2022/04/06/angels-2022-record-ctpg-staff-predictions/#comment-137379
Damnit, John Henry (for your on point prediction)