Good morning Angels fans, have some links!
Angels News
Gold gloves are out! And no Angel won. Vlad Jr did though, somehow.
Skaggs lawsuits are now lawsuit as they combined forces.
The super 2 arb list is out. Ward and Sandy made the list, Squid did not. Angels have a lot in arb this year including Canningf, Rengifo, Barria, Walsh, and Wallach.
Anaheim won’t build the firer station after all. SOMEONE BUY THE TEAM ALREADY.
Around Baseball
Phillies won vs Astros and are up 2-1 in the series. Brandon Marsh hit a home run and so did 4 others!
Before the game, the Astros were denied pizza. Serves them right!
Marsh kept in touch with the Japanese media.
In non WS news, Sale is staying in Boston.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
I am very happy that Marsh is having a good WS in a Philly Uni, good for him as I was and still am a big fan of his. My hope too is continued improvement for the Lad in the years to come as I do believe he will increase his output and consistency.
Albert retires, hmmm, I thought that was back in ’12, silly me.
Does playing MLB in November make any sense? Maybe Manfraud will require only domes with roofs that open and close from now on that are paid by the government. Well then, we can watch games on Turkey Day. 😁
I loaned out my 8-Ball to Smoltz and it served him well. 👌 🔮 👀
A smoked ham could win a gold glove if it hits well and has a name the MLB social media manager can push. If you’re a nobody (read lack dingerz) and want to win a gold glove you’d better be real really good defensively cause otherwise gold gloves are all about lenses and home runs.
Mmmmmm…..smoked ham.
Man. Now I’m hungry.
I had a very disturbing dream last night/this morning.
I was in someone’s house and there was Arte. I introduced myself and said “long-time Angels fan” which, I guess, he’s heard a million times so he was nice but was suffering. “Not another one” he must have thought.
But here’s the disturbing part. I told him I thought he shouldn’t sell the team. (What was I thinking??) At that point he became more interested and we went through various transactions. “You signed the best hitter in baseball and he immediately declined”, that sort of thing. We didn’t discuss Cokehead, though.
Well, it turned out it was Arte’s house and he invited me to dinner. I called my wife to tell her but she wanted me to come home. That was actually realistic.
Anyway, I’m shocked that my subconscious is pro-Arte. Now that I’m awake I can think about the neglect of the farm system, the top-heavy roster, the hiring of assistants to be GM. But somewhere down deep in my brain I must think Moreno is well meaning, wants to win and just doesn’t know how to make that happen.
It was probably the quality of his camel hair blazer and his Montalban like mas machoness.
My subconscious misses my Ex girlfriend but I’m not going to talk to her again. I’ll stick to the new owner of the team that makes sure the team is taken care of.
I hate those ex-GF dreams. I wake up bitter.
It’s funny how I can’t really remember them too well but I know they’ve happened.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a baseball dream.
Lucky you. A couple of weeks ago I dreamed that Kurt Suzuki unretired and signed with the Angels for 2023.
😱
5 year deal!
I had a dream once where our team was rocking all season long on the way to the playoffs, and then suddenly we went stone cold near the end and wound up in a tie at the end of the season with the Mariners, and had to play them for one game. They pitched Randy Johnson, which is weird because I don’t remember him being a Mariner…
I had the same dream in 1995.
So did Mark Langston.
I still remember where I was when that game happened.
I was sitting in my car during my lunch break in the Carl’s Jr parking lot.
The game turned for the worst, and I got out frustrated and went in and ordered a Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger with large fries and a large chocolate shake to self medicate….
Of course, I was in my 20s back then and I could eat anything I wanted and never gained weight.
How I wish I could still have that……
You and me both
Obviously, you are not a REAL baseball fan!
Good thing it was only a dream and there’s no way this dream will ever come true . Cuz Arte dont listen to nobody.
I’m happy for Marsh. Liked him as an Angel. Only difference between now and then is he is wearing different laundry.
I do think the Angels organization needs to take a long look at itself and figure out why players who were not having success in Anaheim suddenly figure things out elsewhere.
Hopefully player development improves with new owners.
Completely agree. I have a team, Angels, but i can be open minded enough to know a good decent player even if they play for the MFY’s.
Which player are those? It was not like Marsh was ripping the cover off the ball after he landed in Philly. Strikeout rate still hovered about 30%.
He’s actually striking out at 45% clip in the playoffs which I guess makes sense since you’re facing elite pitching. But high heat still remains Marshy’s Achilles heal.
But moments. Which will become memberberries.
When I was a very very young boy Rupert Jones hit a home run out of Angels stadium. I then thought he must be one of the best players in baseball for a while. Because I was young and dumb.
Apparently some folks stay that way well into their 70s.
Marsh is no Rupert Jones 😂.
The kid shows promise and he’s performing better than expected in the WS. I am happy for him. Absolutely love his intensity and defense and I think his strikeouts will go down as he gains more re experience.
Yeah. I want him to be good and think he will be. But if a crap player has a few memberberries to feed the fans it helps generate outrage when they don’t sign him after he turns 29.
I mean, just look at us and Ersty. One good season, a famous last out, former punter…. some of us just don’t know how to quit him.
He’s contributed meaningfully to three key games in the postseason run, while adding some flare and personality to a club mostly known for vanilla brute strength in Harper and Schwarber.
That will definitely be something Phillies fans will remember, and he’s on a good path toward continuing to be that impact player for them next season.
Is Marshy Adding some Flair or some bloop singles ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7SNEdjftno
.285 average with Philly v .220 as an Angel
.288./319./455 translates into a 116 OPS+ with strong defense at a critical position (CF).
That’s very good. That’s improved – whatever the K rate. The Athletic did a full analysis of his offensive improvement as a result of the swing and simplified set-up changes the Phillies implemented. Hard-hit rate, line drive rate, RH pull rate all up, strikeouts down.
The slash line improvement wasn’t just a small-sample fluke – they changed things, visibly.
So Pujols has retired. He gets good after leaving us. What’s up with that?
I assume he started roiding so he could finish on a high note and surpass 700 HRs. Honestly, its the only real answer.
I’m a skeptic of his recent numbers.
I wish he would have played one year for us, then retired. We would have been way ahead.
I liked Marsh too. He was a really good defensive outfielder.
But is this what we are reduced to as Angels fans, cheering on former players for playoff success because our bullpen sucks too badly to even be in the playoffs ??
The problems extend way deeper than our bullpen Frostie
Once again, someone leaves and gets better. I’m happy for him but sick of that.
In general I agree, but I am not sure that Marsh actually “got better.”
Going into last night Marsh was only batting .161 for the entire playoffs. Yes he is solid defensively, and we all knew that. He has not gotten better in that area as he was excellent defensively for us.
He did hit a huge 3run HR in the Padres series and hit a solo shot last night… Basically, he went to a good team, with a very good bullpen and solid bats throughout the lineup. He got lucky and struck gold with where he was sent.
Sometimes in life you get lucky and win the lottery — it appears that Gump has done just that !
Fair enough. Low BA but he’s delivered a couple of big hits. That why I called him better, but it’s probably an overstatement. As critical as I am about Minasian, I still believe this trade could be beneficial to us.
Yeah. If he still wifs 30% of the time for 150 games next year (along with Schwarber and friends) the shines coming off that nice new apple really fast.
I do think Marsh will get better though. I’m rooting for him.
Jose Altuve is batting .156 for the entire playoffs. Small sample vs the best pitching in the sport.
Marsh’s .721 postseason OPS bests Altuve’s by more than 300 points.
Which just goes to say: the postseason does not generalize.
His 116 OPS+ with the Phillies in the general season, combined with dramatic improvements in his swing components (line drive %, hard hit rate, pull %) is much more indicative of clear improvement.
I was just speaking about post-season since that was the general discussion…
As for Altuve, I agree that he has been a horrible disappointment in the playoffs. If Houston goes on to lose (and I think they will) Altuve not hitting will be the primary reason. He is their sparkplug and he is simply not sparking.
In the New York series they were lucky in that the Yankees did not hit a lick. A decent offensive performance from them would have made a different series..
Just responding to your statement: I am not sure that Marsh actually “got better.” and using his postseason stats as a counter to that.
I do think Marsh got better offensively in Philadelphia – and his hitting coach has believable explanations why it happened. I think it’s the opposite of “lucky” – he simply got paired with a good coach that watched video and made quick adjustments.
As for the postseason, the playoffs are just a set of high leverage moments where players either come through or they don’t. As a fan, it’s not meaningful to me to assess a player based on batting average or K% in that context. More so on: did they contribute self-evidently to key wins that translated into series victories?
So far, Marsh has done that on more that one occasion in the postseason, while avoiding clear blunders, and that’s what fans will judge him on. As we’ve seen, even the best player in the game (eg, Mike Trout) can disappear in a short postseason stretch.
To your point about the hitting coach; it DOES look like Marsh changed his stance a bit. He seems to be crouching more, he is lowering his body. So, you may be right that the Philly hitting instructor has helped him…
I actually had given him credit for that big 3 run HR in the Padres series. Look, for a # 9 hitter who is a defense first guy I am sure the Phillies org and fanbase are really happy with Marsh. And they should be.
But even John Smoltz pointed out last night that the Astros were not pitching smart to him. Both his hits last night came off of breaking balls. Smoltz said they did him a favor by speeding up his bat, and you know what, they did. Gump had not been doing much with good fastballs. And his HR against San Diego also came off a breaking ball… So, I think this was poor scouting by the Astros.
We should also mention that there has been talk that the Phillies had picked up on something with McCullers and he was tipping his pitches… There seems to be some evidence for this.
All that aside, it will be interesting to see if all of the so-called improvement that Marsh has made holds for an entire season of AB’s and adjustments by opponents. If he goes all of next season as the regular CF for Philly and hits .270 or better I will gladly concede the point.. But in the meantime I think we have to consider this a small sample size.
But yeah, the Phillies will take it for sure.
This is my big bitch with the ever-expanding playoffs in baseball. As many have mentioned, anything can (and probably will) happen in a short series. The only remaining argument for the 162-game season is tradition, as winning the pennant is getting closer and closer to being meaningless. Astros were clearly the best team in their division and league, while the Phillies were neither of those things. Yet here we are. Next step will be a much shorter regular season and a lottery to get into the Royal Rumble at the end of the year! Very sad.
Kinda like hockey and basketball. The regular season for both is pretty much meaningless.
Not unlike the 2002 Angels.
They had short play off series in the past. I think way back in the day the WS was also like 9 or 11 games….
Looks like 1921 was the last of the best out of 9 games worlds series, after that it went to the best out of 7 games.
yes, owner and GM. Organizational culture.
But starting pitching and bats are definitely competitive.
are you saying that with all the same pieces but a better BP this team would’ve made the playoffs? hard to agree with that assessment.
If they BP improves along with the starting pitching, Shohei hits 45 HRs by trade deadline, and Trout and Rendon play 150 each and Walsh is playing like he did in ’21 and Fletcher is the Fletch of ’20 and we see Soto turn into a ’17 Simba and,….Wow, that was a rush, I think I was acting like Doctor Frankenstein and making a superhuman team. Well that was a better dream than what Eric had. 💯
Hard to say. But the Angels had a terrible record in 1 run games. Alot of our losses were games we led early and lost late. That falls on the bullpen.
It wasn’t usually the closer who blew it, but the guys in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings who let us down.
I do feel that a really good bullpen would have significantly changed things for us.. whether or not that would have gotten us into the post-season I don’t know.
if the team scores a couple runs early and then none the second half of the game, leaving the BP to “lose” the game, shouldn’t some blame go to the offense that stopped scoring early? Losing one run games sucks, and can show a bad BP, but it can also show a stagnant offense unable to score enough runs to win. To my Lyle eyes, our offense sucked last season, which is why I was surprised when you said the offense wasn’t an issue for the team. It most certainly is.
First, I never said the offense wasn’t an issue. Clearly the bottom third of the order was an issue for most of the season. At least from June on it was. We all know about the struggles of Squid and Stassi and even Fletch. Personally I feel like Fletch and Stassi will bounce back… Squid might not be around.
I have also talked repeatedly about the Angels failures in RISP situations, especially runner on 3rd with less than two outs. I have beaten that horse to death. Obviously the problem with K’s is intimately connected there….
That is something we really do need to fix. And this was the main reason I said Reed should be fired. Thankfully he was. So, far from saying the offense was not a problem, I have talked about specific areas where it failed and needs to improve. Not sure why you and gitch and Turk have assumed I don’t feel it was a problem. For those who read the site regularly and have decent memories they surely recall me talking about that stuff.
All that said, I still feel that the bullpen should be priority Numero Uno in the off-season. I felt it was a mistake to ditch Raisel, but I sort of understood it. Perry was looking for a scapegoat. He found two in Maddon and Iglesias. I do also get the salary relief side though..
I am hoping Chris Rodriguez can bounce back from injury. I felt the kid had potential. We do have a couple of possibilities to help the pen.Not sure if it is too soon to bring Bachman into high-leverage spots, but I do think we should give him a look in the Spring and strongly consider the possibility.
Anafranil. And a 70s Steve Martin movie.
“After reading what I wrote on this thread, please don’t react to it. Instead, think back to everything else I’ve ever said on the subject, which might completely contradict what I wrote today, and go off of that.” – JF
Lol. To really understand what someone thinks on a topic would you rather rely on one statement they said or read a whole book they wrote?
The problem is you’re assuming I read and remember your opinions on each topic related to this team. I don’t. I constantly see you post stuff that doesn’t really make sense, so I respond to it when I feel like it. This was one of those times.
You said the offense and SP was good enough to compete, I disagreed. In response to me disagreeing with you, you admitted 1/3 of the lineup can’t hit, and the lineup as a whole can’t hit with runners in scoring position. That doesn’t sound like a lineup with playoff potential.
You can bring up other things you’ve said in the past to show you don’t really think the offense is competitive. It only reinforces my initial disagreement with your point.
Stuff “doesn’t make sense” to you because you are narrow minded and can’t assimilate nuanced arguments.
First, being competitive does not mean a team or a person is without faults. I can feel that the offense is competitive and that still allows that they could have problems or faults. I didn’t say the offense is awesome or that they’re the best. I said that they’re competitive. Big difference.
Do you not get how that “makes sense.”?
You know it’s OK to comment some opinion off the cuff, be wrong, get shown you’re wrong, and then just say “Oh, dang. Really? OK. I thought the pen looked horrible but I guess we had bigger problems.”
Life really does just move along after that, no one even remembers you were wrong the next day. But you are so willing to die on even a flat photo of a hill that it becomes a fun game for people, like giving cocaine to a small monkey and putting a mirror in front of it.
You’re in absolutely no danger of being mistaken for the smartest guy on here so it’s totally safe to just be wrong sometimes.
Lol.
First, I have no problem admitting when I am wrong (unlike you). Thing is, I wasn’t wrong because there isn’t really a right/wrong when it comes to opinions. Idiot. I can say green is my favorite color and you would say “life goes on, just admit you’re wrong.” I simply suggested the bullpen is a bigger issue for me. And believe it or not, I also supplied legitimate reasons for why that is the case (which you conveniently ignored).
I have for a long time decried the problem with strikeouts and situational hitting… But I also say that we’ve got alot of good bats in the lineup that should not be traded or kicked to the curb; those include Trout, Ohtani, Ward, Walsh (expecting a bounce-back) and when he is right Fletcher.
Second, when was the last time you admitted you were wrong? I’ll wait ……
Team offense was among the bottom four in the league in multiple categories. They made less contact than any other team in the AL. That’s what happens when Rendon and Walsh disappear for a season, and you’re leaning heavily on names like Adell, Wade and Velasquez.
Team defense was also not good, and they traded away their best OF glove in Marsh in the second half, while the team’s farm is probably weakest in the OF at the moment. Meaning all real replacements will have to come from free agency.
If only it was the bullpen! The Angels’ farm pipeline is really only strong in three areas: future relievers, catchers, and utility guys.
I never said it was only the bullpen. To me that is the most important area to address however. Do you not agree with that ?
No! Not offense! Bullpen! Our pen’s WHIP was 12th in MLB, ERA was 9th. It was totally the promblem.
Gump on what changed for him.
You get put in a pennant race with these guys, it’s been nothing short of fun.
I really liked Marsh during his time in Anaheim. He plays with instincts. I hope O’Hoppe turns out to be good. Because Marsh should keep figuring it out as he goes and improve.
Captain CAVEMAN!
Love seeing him do good.