Our Angels faced a pretty daunting schedule in May. 28 games over 31 days with most series coming against teams with winning records and playoff aspirations. Overall, the Halos went 15-13 in those games.
There were a couple of brutal late game collapses in Cleveland (thank Nevin and Tepera) and an unexpected sweep against the Marlins or the month could’ve been really nice.
Perhaps had Ohtani and Trout hit like Ohtani and Trout the record would’ve been better. But they both got hot against the White Sox and played Home Run Derby on Wednesday.
And the home runs were absolutely crushed. First Mike Trout:
And then Ohtani just had to outdo him.
And I know it is so easy to get caught up in the numbers with Trout and Ohtani, but I love to compare them to their peers and this sums up Ohtani’s greatness perfectly:
While the media talked about Ohtani’s slump, really this month just proved he’s the most durable baseball player in the game. I’m calling that the long form reading for this weekend. It isn’t the longest one I’ve linked, but it is a solid morning coffee read about our greatest player.
Another Angel who didn’t hit like himself last month was Taylor Ward. He belted two home runs and looked to heat up on the Southside as well. This looked like the Taylor Ward we’ve seen in stretches the last two years.
I was at the game against Miami on Sunday with my good friend Jeff (right?) and saw Ward take a walk. He laid off a couple of close pitches in that at bat; pitches he was swinging and missing most of the month. It was the first time he looked comfortable at the plate in a while and we noticed it. Then lo and behold the breakout in Chicago.
None of the Angels highlights are the best thing that happened this week. No, that is reserved for Liam Hendricks who overcame lymphoma and made it back to his family and friends. And baseball. Credit Matt Thaiss for being aware of the moment and giving the home crowd time to deliver a much deserved standing ovation.
Not going to lie. I had misty eyes during that moment.
The most amazing story in Angels land this week comes from the AA Trash Pandas, who overcame a 12-0 deficit to win.
From around the baseball world…
NCAA Baseball regionals kick off this week. Here’s a solid rundown on who is playing where and who to watch.
Short series baseball is wild and unpredictable. You might consider these teams dark horses, but really it is who gets hot at the right time.
A name to remember for a few years down the road: Lake Forest product, current LSU pitcher Paul Skenes was named National Baseball Player of the Year by Collegiate Baseball. Those are video game numbers in the toughest conference in the nation.
We get a bonus tee ball game this week, which gives me great joy. I love this team.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed.
MLB Trade Rumors just reported that none other than Bartolo Colon just announced his retirement from baseball at 59 yrs old! I thought he retired 5 or 6 yrs ago.
Every day is some kind of labeled day. Today is Lou Gerhig Day. Certainly, one of the top players ever. So Salute to Lou.
I hope tomorrow is GrandpaBaseball Day!
That explains why MLB.com featured Sarah Langs, a name that I always hear baseball people rave about. I just found out that Sarah has ALS.
What if we did not have the bottom 5 in our regular lineup, we’d be in big trouble. 😲 / 😃
It’s a privilege !
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1664773470738317313?t=mp0ahLF4ZbToTl5McRSqJw&s=19
This just in: Ben Joyce hats catcher’s gloves!!
He wears Catcher Gloves as hats, to ea. his own.
All this uproar over pride night is funny to me.
No queer person I know gives a single fuck about MLB pride nights.
Why would anyone want to pay conservative billionaires who donate to causes to oppress us, for the chance to celebrate Pride.
We do that in our own spaces.
Seems like it’s mostly straight people that believe this is how you are a good “ally”.
Corporate, capitalistic pride needs to die.
I really want one of the hats though.
Ehhhhh.
there’s a specific demo causing the uproar but if I speak —
A genuine Happy Pride Month from me 🙂🫶
❤️
It’s all about money-If it would improve their bottom line Target, or any other corporation, would have a racist section (I didn’t want to validate any by typing their actual group names), though I thought I had some clever titled items they could feature.
“We support whatever is currently profitable”
Tale as old as time.
I hope that my opinion does not insult anyone but if it does, I apologize.
I am agnostic, not atheist. I have two sons, one of whom is openly gay. And my wife and I love him. I hope everyone gets to know him. I do not know if there is a god or not, and I don’t really care. I do not profess to be a Shinto though being raised and educated in Japan, I automatically perform what Shinto preaches, like saying Itadakimasu before each meal and Gochisosama after meal is done. It shows appreciation for the lives of animals/fish and vegetables lost because those livings lost their lives to be your food. Shinto believes in many gods, god for the sun, god for a river, god for rain, anything to do with human life. I don’t have go to church or mosque on certain days to be a model person in respective religion. To be respectful of your neighbors, of your parents, and of your elders is already woven in your daily fabrics of life.
LGBTQ issues are not that big deal in Japan. Oh yeah, one of cabinet members of Japanese government recently said something stupid about lesbians are not socially productive because they do not reproduce. She got canned the next day. For the most part, Japanese accept who they are. Some of the prominent Japanese entertainers are openly gay/lesbian and/or transgender, and that helps.
There are several Native American tribes who practice saying a prayer giving appreciation to the animals who gave their lives so that they could have food to eat. Joseph Campbell wrote several books (The Power of Myth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces) that explain how all the world’s religions are basically the same.
I have a lot of respect for all major religions. I believe I have previously mentioned that they are all common in providing guidance to build livable communities and explain those unexplainables such as why natural disasters kill so many lives. There are certain subgroups of population who choose to misinterpret religious teachings to feed their wanton desires for power and financial gain. That is unfortunately common in every country.
BTW, there is a plenty of evidence that native Americans are originally from East Asia or vice versa. So, that makes sense that native Americans perform similar rituals.
When natural disasters and childhood diseases kill so many lives, that proves that if God is omnipotent, then he is not benevolent since in this case he wanted innocent people to suffer, or that if God is benevolent then he is not omnipotent since he was unable to prevent the loss of innocent life.
Also, while there are subgroups that choose to misinterpret teachings for their nefarious purposes, there are also subgroups who do what we recognize as bad things while they truly believe that these things are good and sanctioned by their religious teachings.
I don’t really think that proof is that simple nor correct, but I figure this isn’t the place for deep theological discourse so I’m not going to wade into that further.
Few random questions of the day: Is it trAdition that former Angels will torment us? I ask this question because
Kenyan Middleton on 5/29 struck all three Angel batters in one inning. He now has ERA 1.45 and amazing 13.02K per 9 innings. Would you trade for him?
Mike Ford just signed with Mariners. Will he hit a homer against Angels in the upcoming series?
Do I have your full permission to cheer for Doyers to sweep MFYankees in 3 game series?
Been there, done that once already with Key.
I am a bit biased because I personally umpired many of his high school games. He was not highly touted like Adley Rutchman, whose games I was also fortunate to umpire multiple times; no major colleges recruited Keynan, so he had to go through community college route. I suspect his family was not well to do because he went to a public school located in low income area. He worked hard to get to where he is today, and I am glad his relentless work ethic paid off.
I also remember him because his high school head coach was a former player in Cleveland organization. I believe he went as high as 3A, but never made the show. He was a fierce head coach and was immediately in my face for controversial calls. In retrospect, he was always good to his players and had the players play baseball the way it should be, and although many fellow umpires hated him, I respected him and appreciated him for making me a better umpire.
So where will Kitotchan and Pineapple be next year when Ohtani is playing for another team?
I’ve been an Angels fan my entire life and will always be regardless of Ohtani… what a weird post bruh lmaooo. I literally shared that I’ve been around since the HH days 😂😂.
For you, I will apologize that I am able to fervently enjoy watching Shohei Ohtani, the greatest talent the sport has ever seen, play for my Angels.
Sorry I am not “over him” like yourself. My bad !!
Oh good to hear it. Had not seen much from you until lately so figured you were an Ohtani fan rather than an Angel fan. My bad!
Another lawsuit against, wait for it, THE Angels and Juan Lagares. Last season Jaun throws a ball to the stands, some guy as he looked up got hit in the eye, claiming that allegedly that caused him blindness in one eye. Hmmm, read the small print on your ticket.
The lawsuit will fail-The Yankee one failed and this one will too. I don’t know Lagares, but I sincerely and wholeheartedly doubt he zipped one into the stands. Even so, the ticket clearly warns about “…batted or thrown balls or bats present a danger…”
From what I read, they don’t even have clear footage of it even happening. GD Sam catch the ****ing ball dude!!
Small print never stopped a cheesy ambulance chaser! 😤
Rendon rendone with this mess.
https://sports.yahoo.com/anthony-rendon-will-reportedly-not-face-charges-after-postgame-incident-with-athletics-fan-204340627.html
Free Anthony Rendon!
I wish he was free but hes actually $35,000,000 a year for 7 years
Good, sometimes trolls need to get handled. Kudos for Rendon, but he has a lot to lose though. I’m not one for violence first, but sometimes when you poke the bear you get the claws and teeth.
.
Panda pitcher Jack Kochanowicz last night6 innings, 1 ER, 4 hits 5 Ks 1 W – 2.88 era
22 years old
6’7
96+ mph fastball, holds the velo all game
Arguably, our top SP prospect right now
Had a shit burger outing the one before last but overall definitely a breakout candidate and could be added to the pen at some point.
Although I think Soriano and Yovan will be next.
Totally ! I wouldn’t risk messing up Kochanowicz’s development tbh. He profiles better as a starter than Silseth/Bachman.
Yovan has to be due for a call up at some point. Soriano’s arm is electric and wouldn’t mind seeing him firing heat from the pen.
6/2
Ohtani DH
Trout CF
Drury 2B
Ward LF
Renfroe RF
Urshela 3B
Walsh 1B
Wallach C
Neto SS
Please win.
I had an inkling this morning that Nevin might do something with Trout and/or Ohtani. Always worried that Ohtani might get tired if he gets on base on the day he pitches. I vote for Ohtani to hit a first pitch leadoff homer, so he gets early lead and a rest. I also like Drury in 3 spot. Urshela would have been good alternative for 3 spot in my opinion.
Agree.
Shohei should go 4-4, 4 HRs and pitch a perfect game. Nice and restful game.
I have no real complaints about the lineup for a 2nd straight day. Ultimately, it will be about capitalizing with RISP
You realize that with today’s victory, you have the big responsibility of posting the lineup everyday from here on? 😉
That seems like a small price to pay for happiness. 🥰
It’s okay if Ohtani slips in an RBI fly-out in there too….
And we still lose?
https://twitter.com/TaylorBlakeWard/status/1664649475971854342?s=20
https://twitter.com/UmpScorecards/status/1664641566965678081?s=20
Too bad your post does not show the details of the three impactful missed calls, all of which went against Angels, especially the one to Ward with bases loaded one out.
The one against Ward was -1.77 runs for the Angels. It was definitely the single most impactful bad call all season (and probably near the top of all time).
And Scheurwater is in the top 10 for accuracy and top 5 for average consistency. The problem is even good umpires make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes are costly for one team. MLB needs to fix it.
One call has certainly cut many former MLB players career short, so MLB should definitely correct the issue. It is too bad that the fix did not arrive for this season.
As former high school umpire, I had difficulty with high strike zone pitch, always felt confident with low zone strike at the knees. Maybe that was because I was short. As all umpires (me included) would say, after all, all we want at the end of the day is to get the call right. So, MLB umpires will not have any problem to be assisted by computer generated judgement of pitches.
One last thing I would like to point out: Strike zone is 3 dimensional. The square graphic you see on TV is 2 dimensional. For example, what appears to be ball at the front part of the home plate may actually touch the back end of the plate if it is breaking ball or fast ball with movements.
Very true on 3d/2d, although this particular pitch you can easily see from the camera angle that it is below Ward’s knee at all times. The TV strike zone is less reliable for high pitches that can drop into the zone as they cross the plate and off the sides where they can catch a corner.
Notably, the ump scorecard statistics recognize this and purports to include missed calls where there is a 90% chance the pitch was called incorrectly.
Unless law of gravity is different in Minute Maid Park, any pitch that is below the zone will never be a strike, so you are absolutely correct on that miss called pitch. (Only exception may be when Ben Joyce throws his 102MPH heater. 😉 )
I’m not 100% sure if the 2D strike zone is at the front or middle of the plate. If it’s at the middle of the plate (just before it starts to narrow) a low pitch could theoretically touch the front of the plate in the strike zone but drop below it by the time the camera captures its location.
Yes Kiyo, I agree the strike zone over the plate is not just in front, but as wide and long as the 90 degree sides. OMG, I had to think…..arrgghh!!
Your post actually made me realize that the shape of the strike zone is not a square, but it is rectangular. As a math major, I stand corrected.
Don’t forget Fletcher’s (Remember him) double over the third base bag being ruled foul with runners on and the Halos had already lost their challenge? We lost that game.
Sorry, I meant ball/strike bad calls.
Yep. Agree. The overall “favor” number is incredibly misleading. It is ALL about timing when it comes to bad calls/scandalous calls/fradulent calls.
Rhett Bollinger. PTP Pitching State of the Union
https://view.mail.mlblists.com/messages/168573018739957faabc991d2/raw
The Angels scored an impressive 21 runs in their three games against the White Sox this week. Here is the breakdown of how many runs each individual Angel produced:
5.25 Ohtani
2.75 Trout
3.00 Ward
2.00 Thaiss
2.00 Drury
1.75 Walsh
1.50 Urshela
1.25 Moniak
1.00 Wallach
0.25 Renfroe
0.25 Neto
Nice to see Walsh contributing this series. Neto was ice cold while Ohtani was red hot. This was the fifth time Ohtani has led the team this year in runs produced, breaking the tie he had with Trout.
Here is the Actual Runs Allowed per Batters Faced. The update is for the whole season up to the end of the White Sox series. Results from last night’s game are not tallied yet.
0.00 Joyce (4)
0.05 Moore (94)
0.06 Estevez (104)
0.07 Bachman (14)
0.09 Ohtani (257)
0.09 Sandoval (239)
0.09 Barria (136)
0.09 Webb (22)
0.11 Canning (180)
0.11 Weiss (9)
0.12 Wantz (85)
0.13 Anderson (239)
0.13 Silseth (77)
0.13 Devenski (54)
0.16 Herget (51)
0.18 Davidson (99)
0.19 Suarez (123)
0.19 Loup (66)
I looked at BRef to see who seems to be the Astros’ best reliever so far, and to me that was Phil Maton who has a 0.68 ERA and a 0.53 WHIP so far. I looked at all of his games this year to calculate his ARA/BF to see if he really has been that good.
In 23 appearances, Maton has allowed 3.25 Actual Runs over 95 batters faced for an ARA/BF of 0.03. So yes, he has been really good. He has been better than Moore/Estevez.
Dusty Baker uses Maton curiously. In 21 of his 23 appearances, Maton was the first reliever out of the pen to take over for the starting pitcher. Many of those appearances took place in the fifth or sixth inning.
Then I wanted to find Framber Valdez’s ARA/BF, and he has been as good as advertised as well, to the tune of a 0.08 ARA/BF, so he has been a tick better than Ohtani/Sandoval/Barria.
Next, I wanted to compare the ERAs of Valdez, Ohtani, Sandoval, and Barria. ARA/BF shows that all four of these pitchers have been just about equally effective at preventing runs this season. Is that what ERA says as well? Take a look for yourself:
1.55 Barria
2.38 Valdez
2.91 Ohtani
3.42 Sandoval
ERA incorrectly reports these pitchers’ performances as wildly different from each other. One reason for the discrepancy in ERAs is that Valdez has had very good luck in having his relief prevent the runners he has left on base from scoring while Sandoval has been unlucky this year in that regard.
Valdez pitching against anemic As offense at his last outing greatly helped lower his ERA. He looked shaky early in the game, but As bat could not take advantage.
I am not understanding how Devenski is so high on the actual runs allowed list. He has been amazing this year.
Two bad outings out of 13 appearances is all it took to ruin this stat.
May 7 – He came into the game with runners on 1st and 2nd, let them both score, and then gave up a 3-run HR. That one bad outing cost him 4.25 ARA.
May 18 – He gave up a 2-run HR. That’s 6.25 ARA over 2 games. Although Devenski actually has 57 batters faced, so he should be .110 (.10965), not .13.
Keep in mind this stat punishes relievers. For example, a starter walks 3 batters and a reliever gives up a bases clearing double. The starter gets (.75+.5+.25)/3 = .42 ARA/BF, but the reliever only got to face 1 batter, so he gets a full 1.25 ARA/BF.
It also rewards inefficient pitchers that get lucky. A pitcher that gives up a HR (or even a single) then walks 3 batters followed by 3 strike outs has an ARA/BF of 1/7 = .14 but a pitcher that gives up a solo shot and strikes out 3 has an ARA/BF of 1/4 = .25. The second, much more efficient pitcher looks twice as bad despite having the exact same impact on the score.
I appreciate your comment on ARA/BF. Since it is a new stat, it is especially useful for me to delve into it and figure out what it is and what it is not.
To your first point about Devenski having just two bad outings when otherwise he has been great and thus produced an ARA/BF that is not too pretty, I find that for all ratio stats, the smaller the sample size the more impact outlier data points can have. Still, though, it is an accurate depiction of his overall performance, except for when I’m off by three batters faced! Thank you for the peer review there! I will increase my diligence!
To your second point about relievers getting punished. In the instance you brought up, giving up a double did a lot of damage, and the reliever I feel deserves to have to take credit for allowing all those runs to score. However, although ARA/BF accurately describes how effective a reliever is at preventing runs to score, your implication that a pitcher’s ARA/BF is influenced by the situations your manager puts you in is absolutely a real thing. The more high leverage situations you are put in, the harder it is going to be to have a good looking ARA/BF.
To your third point, ARA/BF strictly describes a pitcher’s ability to prevent runs and it does not describe at all how efficient a pitcher was. The inefficient pitcher in your example was faced with many more opportunities to give up runs, but he still was able to give up the same amount of runs as the efficient pitcher, so I believe his lower ARA/BF is merited. But you are correct — I would rather have Mariano Rivera shutting down the opposition 1-2-3 rather than have Francisco Rodriguez giving me a heart attack by walking two batters and letting the runners advance on a wild pitch even though in the end both pitchers prevented the opposition from scoring and earned the save.
Ratio stats are definitely subject to small sample size error.
It’s also a fair point that the stat is intended to measure run prevention, not efficiency. We have multiple stats for a reason because no single stat (even WAR) can accurately measure all aspects of a player’s performance. A fun companion stat to measure efficiency might be “Excess Batters Faced per Inning” (BF – 3*IP) / IP.
One idea that might better capture run prevention is to reward relievers that strand runners put on base by other pitchers. For example, what if a reliever that comes into the game with 1 runner on gets .75 ARA if the runner scores but -.25 ARA if the runner doesn’t score? That would reward relievers that get big outs.
That would add a leverage factor into the equation. Interesting idea!
After all, you are bringing the reliever in to erase the base runner.
I don’t have the time to look through all of the games and recalculate, so ARA/BF 2.0 will have to wait until next season. Thanks for this exchange of ideas. It was fruitful!
While we’re talking about 86, the Red Sox blew a 3-0 lead in the 9th inning of game 4, but they managed to come back the next day. You’d figure a veteran team like the Angels would shake off game 5, but they just gave up the next two games
It was inevitable. The series was lost when Super Wally World finally succumbed to a staph infection after game 3.
Wally hit .455 with a HR and two doubles in the first three games, then off to the hospital.
Rhett reminded me of this day in Angels History
Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero set the Angels’ club record with nine RBIs in a 10-7 win over the Red Sox on June 2, 2004. Guerrero went 4-for-4 and homered twice. Incredibly, fellow Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez started the game for Boston, but Guerrero had a two-run homer, a two-run double and a sacrifice fly against him.
i get to lots of practice in Tempe, some games here too, but then its only been three or four regular season games in Anaheim over the last twenty years and this was one of them (many trips to Socal, but with daughters it was to the beach or Disneyland).
A lot had been pointed out about this game, and deservedly so, but one thing flying under the radar is perhaps on of the greatest collection of OF arms ever assembled and they were in the field at the same time: Vlad (RF), Raul Mondesi (CF), Jose Guillen (LF).
Didn’t GA have a nine or ten RBI game?
yes in 2007 – a 10 rbi game
And using only one arm.
After the game, he lifted a car off of a boy trapped in the parking lot.
Which took him quite a while, because he first had to fend off a pack of wolves that were after the boy.
Players were way tougher back then.
Against the MF Yankees. an 18-9 blowout at the Big A . I got to watch that live from the outdoor tiki bar at the Maui Hotel we were staying at.
Man those drinks that night were so refreshing.
If I remember correctly, Mike Messina was the SP for the NYYs that game.
🐵 Rally Monkey is inspiring, sigh, who needs a 🐼 if you got a monkey, sigh, go angels-go monkey around today and find a 🍌 , they are just like wins….i think. 🤓 .
Seriously, we will win today for sure. 😀
my wife holds grudges. Sometimes she’ll go on for hours about a neighbor she doesn’t like. Sometimes I get tired of it and try to counter her with “why did Mauch take out Witt in the 9th?” and if she tells me that was 37 years ago and to get over it I reply “yes, but it still bothers me’
I’m the opposite…Witt was toast.
My villian in Game 5 is DeCinces.
Whe the SEC charged him I cheered.
I hate Dave Henderson. I hate the Red Sox’s. I blame them. I blame trAdition.
yep – lots of things went wrong at the end on the Angels side but my contempt has been directed at the Red Sox and Henderson.
2002 helped a lot and 2009 did too, so i should be out of therapy soon.
my contempt is directed the Moaners more than anyone these day
I was there and it was horrible. Poor Donny…RIP.
Witnessed it in person too. Cringe every time I see it, and usually look away.
Sad Donkey, Sad Donny.
I cant watch the Gibson HR against Eckersley.
That HR has it’s own Wikipedia page…GROSS!!!
All of this was completely forgotten by me after 2002. Like it never happened.
Don’t tell anyone, but I’m actually okay with the Angels not winning another World Series. In 2002, I got to watch my favorite sports team win a championship. That was a bucket list check mark right there that I thought I would never get to check off.
Most importantly, the Angels are okay with not winning another WORLD SERIES.
So why do you continue to haunt us?
In todays world Witt would not even had sniffed the 8th inning in that game let alone the 9th. And you dont give up a 2 HR in that inning and expect to stay in to face the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 9th Witt was Toast. LHB Gedman owned Witt that game so that was the right move. The Problem is Mauch had no plan B for that game it was Lucas or bust and when Lucas shit the bed by hitting Gedman ( a batter that the LHP Lucas had previously dominated) he panicked and brought in Donnie Moore. Moore had a cortisone shot in his rib cage earlier that day and was in no position to pitch and then , of course, the rest became history.
The irony was that when Marcel Lachemann came out to the mound to make the pitching change ( I think Mauch had stopped making the changes himself because he didn’t like getting boo’ed when he came out of the dugout) DeCinces protested to Lachemann about bringing Moore in. when, ironically, DeCinces had the ability to win the game in the bottom of the 9th and shit the bed himself.
clearly we’re all still feeling it