Technically I’m posting this before the game is over but let’s be real, this game was over when the PA announcer said “now pitching for your Angels, Jose Suarez.”
The fact the Angels pitching depth is so shallow they had a reliever with command issues starting then went to Jose Suarez to eat innings tells you all you need to know about the Arte/Perry Angels. Jose Suarez obviously eats a lot of things, innings aren’t one of them.
The only highlight that really mattered today was Jo Adell’s home run.
If the goal this year is to play the kids, Jo Adell looks to be the kid worth playing. This revamped swing seems to have unlocked all the potential we’d hoped to see. He deserves to play every day.
The rest of the team is pretty abysmal outside of Reid Detmers, Logan O’Hoppe, and Mike Trout when the bases are empty. Trout again had a big opportunity to tie the game and ended an inning. For the second straight game Suarez elicited boos from the fans but this time he wasn’t the only one.
The house was packed tonight for the CtPG meetup. Maybe the Rally Monkey giveaway added a few more fans.
A huge thanks to John Henry for setting up the meetup and for all who attended. It was great chatting in person with so many we chat with online. We’ll definitely target another one later in the season with more notice.
For those wondering who Zac Kristofak is, here is a story written by The Athletic on the player.
https://theathletic.com/4851385/2023/09/13/angels-prospect-zac-kristofak/
I hope he gets the ball and pitches in a major league game. In a yet another lost season for the Angels, this may be one of the more heartwarming stories of a player.
The following need to “find it” today in this order of importance:
Trout – .223 makes me want to weep.
Drury – This lineup had question marks coming in, but Drury was supposed to be one of the leaders. He’s been terrible.
Ward – This lineup stalls without him.
In a sea of negatives, if 2024 results in these two (+Detmers) turning into corner stone players, I’ll consider 2024 to be a net positive campaign.
Hicks gets rewarded with a start today. No Moniak
Will he pitch the 9th as the closer?
I thought you meant Hicks as starting pitcher.
We need Eduardo Escobar back – he was a bona fide pitcher.
Well I didnt see this exact move coming. https://twitter.com/JeffFletcherOCR/status/1784647087822708940
Perry is beyond stubborn to a point of hurting the team. . He was wrong about Tucky D. He was wrong about Poup and continues to be wrong about Suarez. his obsession with denying the ineffectiveness of Left Handed Relief pitchers is really hurting this team. If I was Wash I would just tell Suarez to not to dress for the game. F it play with 25 players .
I think the silent implication of Suarez still being on the roster after the hot turd he’s served every single game he has played is that there is no one else to replace him with. Not with the bargain bins Perry signed who are currently stashed in the minors, nor in any of the “prospects” they have.
It’s really a testament to the sad, pathetic state of this team. No appropriate replacement for a shitty player like Suarez?! They’ll just keep hoping he “turns it around”.
It also is a comment that no one in the minors is deemed competent enough to fill in for Suarez. Particularly when an entire draft was committed to pitching.
I think Perry is bad at his job but when we wrote, or thought about writing, those IIWPM articles we had $68 million to allocate whereas Perry had to make do with about $40 million less.
It’s so much deeper than that with this Org. It’s a lot of failure at a lot of levels for a lot of years. Perry is the least of the concerns in my opinion.
Today’s Lineups
Twins only at 10:15
https://www.mlb.com/gameday/twins-vs-angels/2024/04/28/746237/preview
They probably technically don’t have enough players they can list as a “batter”, since there is only about 4 players actually batting.
Very quickly turning on 100% TANK mode. Didn’t even get out of April.
DEATH MATCH ~ BATTLE OF THE TANKS
White Soxs vs Angles
Race to the center of the earth. How low can they go.
Still no Halo Lineup.
You might be right Steel.
🤣
Washington is in the middle of a quandary.
Detmers Pitching today so possible win.
For sure. Hoping the bats aren’t icy cold and screw him over today.
Most importantly, no Suarez and no Sandaval.
The impact of Shohei leaving can start to be seen in the statistics.
In 2023 where the Angels won 73 games the team averaged 4.56 runs per game and had an average ERA of 4.64.
In 2024 the team is averaging 4.22 runs per game with an ERA of 4.86.
This means the team is hitting and pitching significantly worse in 2024. When you lose a player like Shohei and don’t replace him – this is not unexpected.
If the Angels continue to average around 4.2 runs while giving up almost 5 per game, they will likely be drafting very high in next year’s draft.
That’s why ownership and GM should have made some serious moves in the offseason to address this if they still ‘wanted’ to try to be competitive. A new manager sure wasn’t the answer. Signing an injured reliever was a bust. Then the Hicks, and other bargain bin guys. An obvious conclusion on how the team is preforming right now.
I think that also is Shohei related. Arte knew the golden goose was gone and attendance would fall. So he cut back on the budget. Understandable from a business perspective but it’s impacting the product for sure.
Right on. Arte trying more promotional games with cheap plastic and stuffed toys to fill the seats at the big A. Sad if you’re there for baseball.
Art “Happy Meal” Moreno.
Buy it for the cheeseburger or the toy…
“Arte knew the golden goose was gone and attendance would fall. So he cut back on the budget.”
Arte’s business was not successful with Ohtani and Trout. Yes, he made money on the marketing of Ohtani, but estimates had that at moderately less than $10M per year.
Arte controls attendance by the product he puts on the field. He had two choices this past offseason once Ohtani confirmed what was known for months: reduce the budget to force low-cost additions to fill out the roster, or invest and get aggressive to minimize the impact of Ohtani leaving.
Either you believe Arte has good business instincts or he’s a buffoon, but make no mistake: Arte is making calculated choices. Ohtani is gone, so any positive impact on attendance is gone. The team is losing and attendance is down. Trout is the only national marketing draw on the roster, and that’s not what it once was. These choices can’t be about money – if it was, he’d improve the product on the field to increase his share of the fan’s wallet.
Arte has done everything possible to unfavorably impact his business. We are in unchartered territory with the depth of owner apathy.
I just wish that apathy would lead to a decision to cash out.
Yes, indeed. I don’t understand why he hasn’t sold already… it isn’t like the team is going to compete any time soon and provide him with the “excitement” of having a team like he alluded to a year ago. We just have to hope that he’s getting himself ready to sell.
Otherwise, right now he’s turning into an owner like on the movie Major League or in Ted Lasso season 1.
The reason is that he got low-balled by potential buyers when he DID have the team on the market.Rather than sell at a bargain basement price he did a 180% with his “unfinished business” press release which any long-time Angels fan could see through like a freshly cleaned window.
One thing I’m glad Perry did this offseason was to keep Adell. Who knows what kind of talks he had and maybe at the end of the day, he didn’t find any acceptable offer. But it’s still a good move – one that he didn’t make.
It’s about time we have a top prospect eventually pan out, since Trout. It would be really heartbreaking if Adell got shipped out and started to break out because his swing was “unlocked” somewhere else.
Hopefully, he’s an everyday player from this point forward. With the way he’s hitting, 5 more games and he’ll pass Trout’s RBI numbers.
I’ll always remember it was Marsh who was dealt away, not Jo
In that moment in time, Adell had little trade value IMO and I’m convinced that they demanded Marsh in exchange for O’Hoppe.
That wasn’t a radical opinion Banned. It was pretty much universal. I was my understanding that the Phillies had no interest in Adell
I think Rex was implying that we should have traded Jo to Philly instead of Marsh and I was basically saying what you’re repeating below.
If you could get multiple pitchers of quality for him, then I would pull the trigger. Let him flourish for a team that will use him and field a good team. The Angels are already toast this season. At least last season they made it interesting until July.
Bunch of fans here didn’t want him in the lineup every game.
What’s the over/under as to when Trout crosses the Mendoza line?
June 15th?
Zac Kristofak on his way to shore up the pen.
Anyone have any insight on this guy?
Probably a good kid but more mediocrity.
The Wikipedia page confirms the call up.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=kristo000zac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zac_Kristofak
Yep a mediocre middle reliever form Billy’s 2019 pitcher heavy draft. The Angels have been trying to convert him into a starting pitcher this year at AAA. The Angels still need a spot on the 40 man . They could transfer Rendone to the 60 Man ( and option Soriano or Fulmer) or hopefully, they finally DFA Suarez.
I wish it was Zach Galifianakis.
It would be more entertaining!
So, when do the 15 wins Washington will provide this season actually start? Or have they already used 6 of them?
A Aron Hicks pitched a cleaner inning than Suarez. And this illustrates why I wanted both Barria and his mirror image arsonist Suarez gone during the offseason.
Is Wash on the hot seat yet?
The GM will be the next to go.
Wash saying they’ll keep trotting Suarez out there is maybe some kind of reverse psychology threat to the offense:
“You guys better get the lead early and big, or else I’ll keep putting Suarez out there”
That’s all I got. 🤷♀️
I have been happy with the patience with Adell – but he has improved aspects of his game consistently through his AAA stints.
But Suarez …. Suarez was good in 2021, a bit better than league average in 22 – and then dreadful in 2023 (even with the extended stint on the IL). He has been arguably worse in 2024 – in his three bad starts he gave up 9 runs in 4 innings pitched.
I am not convinced he gets picked up if he is DFA’d, and there has to be better lefties on waivers. Rosenberg, Kolerek or Garrett couldn’t be worse at this point.
(That said, Brad Hand and Aaron Loup are still available, if we want someone to challenge Suarez on that front).
I think this is directed at Perry.
You cut him or I’ll keep trotting him out there.
MNT is 5 for his last 41. 3 of those hits were HRs. Still. Our leadoff guy is at .233
He is striking out a lot less and drawing his usual walks. It’s been 13 days since he had a 2-hit game.
Hesitate to say, but he really is due.
BABIP agrees with you. His BABIP is .195, tied for the fourth ‘worst’ in the majors. Stats say he is definitely due.
Well that was awful.
2020 is hilarious. Good to meet you.
Let’s do another one.
🤫
I just got home after being out all night and checked the scores.
Y’all went to THAT game?!
😆
When Adell homered it was promising but the Angels just kept putting Twins on base.
Suarez ain’t going anywhere.
https://twitter.com/SamBlum3/status/1784451414649102789
Maybe that’s a way of forcing Eppler’s hand since it’s the GMs responsibility to DFA.
I thought Eppler was suspended because of his Mets roster manipulations?