LA Angels Monday News Crash:

Former Angels

Keynan Middleton went on the 15 day IL with a sprained big toe. Dillon Peters cleared waivers and got sent down to AAA. Jose Rojas made it through waivers and is now a free agent.

Never Were Angels

The Yankees hope to activate Harrison Bader tomorrow. They already activated Anthony Rizzo. David Price may or may not retire. Ozzie Albies joined the fractured finger crowd. The Giants claimed Jharel Cotton off waivers from the Twins. The Twins, meanwhile, promoted Ronny Henriquez. Former Mets catcher John Stearns died at 71.

Photo credit: Rex Fregosi

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2GA2Join
Super Member
2 years ago

OK, I’ve been watching way too much BBC lately.

I read the first line just now and saw “Kate Middleton went on the 15 day IL….”

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago
Reply to  2GA2Join

British Broadcasting Corporation.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

Glad you clarified that….

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

You can tell what has been on my browser somehow lately.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

comment image

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

British Broadcast Corporation … DUH

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Ladies and gentlemans, I give you your 2023 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers. They just hired Giants GM Scott Harris as their POBO. So all their problems are solved.

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

No headshots or emojis so I doubt the validity of this comment.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Arte sure is dragging his feet on this whole selling the team thing.

jco
Trusted Member
jco
2 years ago

I was thinking about this. The team tends to be pretty secretive and tries to avoid media links. It’s at least possible that things are happening in the background that we don’t know about. It’ll be a $2-3 billion purchase, so that’s likely to be complicated.

cookmeister
Trusted Member
2 years ago

you can’t exactly sell the team and a new person take over in a couple weeks.
This is a long process with a lot of moving parts. Not many people can straight up buy a team, so they have to get the investors/partners/money in order even before they make a formal offer. Then those groups have to be vetted by the MLB, voted on by other MLB owners, etc.

I’d be surprised if the sale was made official by opening day tbh.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago

I’m not sure he has much to do. Right now it’s a waiting game to see what investor groups will come forward as potential buyers.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

I was just hoping it would get done in a couple days cause as soon as Arte’s out everything will be fixed and our 100 game winning streak can start. When you add the several wins we have yet to be granted by the MLB that I was assured we’d pick up just by getting rid of Scioscia and his “in game decisions” and “lack of grit and urgency” we could actually win something like 170 regular season games.

It’s the opportunity of a lifeline.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago

I hear you. I look forward to the new-owner automatic wins too.

I’m sure the Scioscia wins haven’t shown up yet because they haven’t hired a manager that understands and accepts the new analytics without being just a stooge who does whatever he was told. Scioscia/Maddon refused to obey and Ausmus/Nevin are just pawns. I’m sure that has to be the problem.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

Yes. The problem has been the problem until we get rid of the problem then it’s the problem so we get rid of that problem which makes it obvious the problem is the problem so we get rid of that which helps us finally see the true problem has been the problem all along and when we are rid of that it has to solve the problem because the problem has been the one constant…. accept for the fans… no way they could be the problem.

So we’re just about fixed now.

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

should put it on ebay $0.01 opening bid with no reserve
and it looks like i’m the only one who caught your gitch-casm

Last edited 2 years ago by DowningDude
gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Sorry. I thought everyone including my imaginary dog knew that it will likely take months if not a year to sell an asset as complex and expensive as a sports franchise and that my sarChasm was clearly marked for safety….

I’d like to have the sale happen before the off season moves start happening but I doubt that gets done.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

He’s just waiting for my check to clear. After firing Nevin, I’m burning that damn Cowboy hat right in the middle of the pitchers mound during the 7th inning stretch.

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

you mean at this Google tagged location?
comment image

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

Exactly!

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

This gold is gold.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

Do you guys remember when our org and fans etc were the reason Major Key kinda sucked? And then he went to Jer Jer’s world… and sucked. I do.

DMAGZ13
Trusted Member
2 years ago

I’m not sure if Supoptimal and Turks Teeth still post articles… but I need a detailed stat based explanation as to why we have a shitty record.

When the team plays it seems like we have two superstars and a bunch of average to replacement level players. WAR tells me that gets you close to competitive or at least marginal.

The starting ERA isn’t bad and the bullpen is ok except for a couple crappy pitchers. After injuries, etc, this feels like they should be A LOT closer to .500 then they are now. 70-74 seems more like it.

I’m not getting why we’re 20 games under .500. Post all star break it’s basically the same losing % as before the break and it felt like that was rock bottom.

Last edited 2 years ago by DMAGZ13
jefeRey14x
Member
2 years ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

We lost a lot of 1-run and other close games.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  DMAGZ13

I think we’ll find that the pitching was indeed slightly better than average, but the offense was bad. We have some guys who got +WAR from defense… which means losing one run games, as stated below. We probably have about 10 losses that stemmed from just plain NO ONE hitting to add to our general “semi-crap” line up. So we come out REALLY bad.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago

Yes, offense was bad. Currently #26 in runs scored, #1 in strikeouts, #26 in OBP, and #19 in SLG. Ohtani and Trout can only do so much where the rest of the team isn’t getting on base and isn’t driving in runs.

The team is tied for #23 in wRC+ at 91, so as a whole the team is hitting 9% below average. The Dodgers lead with 122, Astros are at 113 and Seattle at 106.

Bad offense confirmed.

h27kim
Trusted Member
2 years ago
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

Offense through the bad period is probably even worse: season numbers are inflated by the first month or so when we were the best or near best hitting team in MLB.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago
Reply to  h27kim

The first and second half are about the same, because the offense was so bad in June and early July it offset the great April and good May. The second half is actually better in HR, but that hasn’t translated to an improvement in runs and SLG compared to other teams.

July was by far the worst month, with the Angels being last in runs and SLG, #29 in OBP (ahead of Oak), and #1 in strikeouts. July had a team wRC+ of 64.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

I’m no scientist but…. apparently strike outs do matter?

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago

Oh, whoops, maybe I shouldn’t have included that.

You know what, officially strikeouts are a key component of evaluating pitchers (ergo FIP), so let’s pretend I included strikeout numbers to prove the Angels have faced elite pitching rather than to suggest the Angels have a poor offense.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

I’m more just picking on the moneyball brilliance that declared that Ks don’t matter to an offense. Who ever came up with that did not look at our offense.

Cowboy26
Legend
2 years ago
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

And defensively we have not been as good as PTP envisioned .

But the bottom line is we went 16-36 in June & July and that destroyed any hope of competition.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  Cowboy26

Defensively we are 15th, ahead of Tampa, the Mets, Padres, White Sox and Phillies. We are just behind the Braves. And that’s with a lot of scrub innings being played.

Not great, but I think that if our actual line up ever actually plays a significant number of games we’ll be above average defensively.

But then, who knows? Our fanbase’s Mama Soprano magic even managed to make Jose Iglesias suck defensively… we can probably break anyone if we all wish hard enough.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

Clarification: I looked up K%, not total strikeouts.

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  AnAngelsFan

I bet we still really really suck.

YOUknowulovetheIE
Trusted Member
2 years ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

Team never firing on all cylinders. It’s been that way for awhile.

jco
Trusted Member
jco
2 years ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

If it helps, the pythagorean record (projected records based on runs scored vs. runs against) it three games better than the actual record.

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

all you need to esssplain it is some headshots and emojis from the great oracle tootie-too

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

comment image

 🤘  🍆  💪  💪  💪  😬 

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

Rupert?

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JackFrost
Super Member
2 years ago
Reply to  DMAGZ13

Well, I can tell you at least one thing. In the 1st half the Angels were 6-17 in one run games! If you don’t know, that is horrible. Alot of those losses were achieved late, by a terrible bullpen who blew the game.

The 2nd half has been better in terms of 1 run games, but as you know we were already out of it by the All Star Break (for all intents and purposes). So, really, if the Angels had flipped that record and were 17-6 in one run contests the season would obviously look differently than it does. This shows the importance of winning close games, and that of course comes down to quality and depth of bullpen. This is how teams who are not very good offensively, like Tampa Bay and Cleveland are in playoff contention or heading to the playoffs.

Last edited 2 years ago by JackFrost
2GA2Join
Super Member
2 years ago
Reply to  JackFrost

Well, the way you stop blowing 1 run games is to have a solid closer. Fortunately for us, we just signed oh wait

JackFrost
Super Member
2 years ago
Reply to  2GA2Join

Yeah, closer is part of it. But I think Raisel only blew two saves if I am not mistaken. It was the other guys who really hurt us… Loup, Tepera, Wantz, Mayers. The Angels lost alot of games in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings, especially in the 1st half. In that Cleveland series we just got swept in I think we lost all of those games in the 6th-8th inning. None of them were blown saves… But I do agree with you about the importance of the closer.

Last edited 2 years ago by JackFrost
gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend
Reply to  JackFrost

You must be new here. I have been on CtPG a long time, so I know that Raisel Iglesias is NOT an MLB caliber closer and was destroying this team even in games he didn’t pitch. He also didn’t care.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend

..and he was disrespectful to sunflower seeds

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago

wasn’t it bubble gum? That’s how Duffy got injured – by picking up bubble gum on the infield…

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  DowningDude

You are probably correct…

gitchogritchoffmypettis
Legend

All I know is, not matter what you’re talking about, Arte is the root cause.

red floyd
Legend
2 years ago
Reply to  JackFrost

Rec’d for proper word usage in “for all intents and purposes”. And also for the analysis.

DowningDude
Legend
2 years ago
Reply to  red floyd

he lost my rec for not separating “A” and “LOT” – two words.

Senator_John_Blutarsky
Legend
Reply to  DMAGZ13

Why you ask?

Arte owns the team…and stole DD’s credit card. The umps hate us. The Stadium is built on sacred Orange Groves – or Native American burial grounds – or oil reserves – or a pet cemetery. There’s a conspiracy against the religious aspect of “Angels”. Andrew. Barry Bonds supplier from Haiti put a hex on the team for winning in 2002. God just hates the team.

AnAngelsFan
Super Member
2 years ago

Helped the White Sox and Orioles gain a game on Seattle last night. I think the White Sox have the best chance of displacing them, but the Mariners have the easiest schedule, so it’s going to be tough.

halofansince1978
Super Member
2 years ago

WBC RSA vs GER started at 3am.

Did anybody else see the first pitch?

halofansince1978
Super Member
2 years ago

Doing our best to spoil Diputos playoff chances…need the SWEEP!!!

Mikeal1st
Trusted Member
2 years ago

I do root against Dipoto, not sure why though.
I’m not sure he was so much the problem now.