The Detroit Tigers are one of the best teams in Major League Baseball. The Angels are a clear tier below them.
So while the Angels were able to play the Tigers close across the first two games, splitting them, eventually the class difference was going to be apparent. And that happened today.
Jack Kochanowicz had a miserable outing, getting tagged for 7 runs in just 3 innings. He allowed 10 hits, one of which left the yard, and 2 walks. 12 baserunners divided by 3 innings is a WHIP of 4.
Detroit was up 7-0 after 3 innings. Yogi Berra once described Yankee Stadium’s outfield’s creeping shadows by saying “it gets late early out there.” The same phrase applies to a game like today’s.
In looking the the positives for the Angels, Nolan Schanuel had a multi hit game including a 2 run blast in the top of the 5th inning.
Nolan is having a really nice offensive season. With a little glovework over the off season, he could turn into a truly valuable player.
Honestly, I can live without the power if Nolan can become a guy who plays good defense, gets on base a ton, and limits his strikeouts. He’s currently doing 2 of the 3 and those are generally considered the most difficult 2.
Of note, the Schanuel home run scored 2 runs because Bryce Teodosio worked a walk and was on 1st base when the ball sailed over the wall.
Carson Fulmer made his case to replace Silent C in the rotation by going 5 innings allowing 2 runs. Had he started the game, the Angels would’ve been tied 2-2 after 5 innings.
Luis Rengifo added a two run shot in the top of the 8th to cut the Tigers lead to 9-5, which proved to be the final score.
Up next, a blue invasion at the Big A as the Angels host the Freeway Series.
It is important to take the next series.
Go Halos!
“I’ll take things that are sad but probably true for $800 Alex”.
I hope we light these MF’ers up with the energy of 1000 Suns on Wednesday.
https://x.com/FabianArdaya/status/1954320139773759521
Silent C sent down to the minors
Woohoo!!!!!!
I want Mederos!!! However, I’m expecting Aldegheri gets the call
Sam says
https://x.com/SamBlum3/status/1954594454939349164
Weaver?
And he was a highly polished first rounder. More like Neto and Schanuel – 80% developed – and only spent a year and two months in the minors before he was called up.
Garrett Richards might be another counterpoint. But we’re looking 15-20 yrs back to defeat a premise that really can’t be defeated. The Angels don’t have a lot of recent successes in developing homegrown starters, given how many pitching prospects they’ve acquired via the draft. Soriano is a weird case, since they basically gave up on his development and shipped him off to Pittsburgh before getting him back, and he proved the doubters wrong.
The X comment that Sam is responding to there is silly.
As if it was *the plan all along* for Aldegheri to repeat AA, take a massive step back in control and command for three months, then right the ship for six games, proving that using him prematurely to plug holes in the bullpen was the *smart* move. Kid struggled for a month after he was called up, looked completely lost.
The pitcher we’re seeing now (and that for just 5-6 weeks) is more like the pitcher he was end of last season. Point is, we might have gotten to this place sooner with a little more patience, and a fuller depth chart that doesn’t require opportunistic firefighting at the MLB level with unready rookies.
He’s right
Kono
One win in a 3 game series is the norm for the 2025 Angels. On their way to the obligatory 72 to 75 win season and another year of the longest playoff drought team in the league.
To have a better chance to make playoffs, you need to jettison players who are a liability (Mike Trout is one exception, as he’s one of our greatest Angels. Rendon – only because of the contract).
Look at the Braves. They signed Jose Suarez, watched him pitch 3 games (1-0, ERA 2.45, WAR 0.1).
Braves DFA’d him after those 3 games.
Think about it – he had a lower ERA with them, than he ever did with the Angels, and they demoted him.
Why?
Because the coaching staff realized that, over a season, he would be a liability to the team. The Braves, unlike the Angels, weren’t willing to let Suarez lose 4-8 games for them.
As long as the Angels allow the same players to lose games for them over multiple seasons, they’ll never get to the playoffs.
I’m not sure using the 51-67 Braves helps your point. Maybe they should’ve kept Suarez
Atlanta Braves:
4 WS titles
18 NL Pennants
18 NL East Division titles
5 NL West Division titles
Angels:
1 WS title
1 AL Pennant
9 AL West Division titles
MY POINT: as an organization, the Braves are far superior to the Angels, and getting rid of Jose Suarez in the blink of an eye is one reason why.
The Braves make decisions right away to try to help their organization.
The Angels allow players to keep losing games for years before eventually jettisoning them.
Look beyond the Braves being worse this year than the Angels. Neither will make the playoffs, so it doesn’t matter if the Angels have a better record in 2025 than the Braves.
Braves have a far better chance to make the playoffs – going forward (2026, 2027, 2028, etc) than the Angels, in any given year.
And the reason for this is because the Braves do not tolerate incompetence over years from the same players.
I think dumping Suarez so quickly is what led to their downfall this year.
obv
They would be 46 – 72 with suarez
LOL. At 51-67 and playing as many meaningful games as the Angels, the Braves are worried about liability? Nah.
Yes the Angels tried to hard with Suarez and committed to much resources and time. But the Braves worried about Suarez dragging them down? No.
See, what they are actually doing is hiding Suarez. Then BOOM! Months after he was demoted the spring him on a team and defeat their best pitcher to take the 1st game in a series and thus win at baseball.
It’s the type of cool shit our coaches and FO can’t possibly do. Too dumb.
What? Another year in the wilderness? What if we all just bitch louder, would that solve things?
before you go back and watch the bottom of the eighth, ask yourself
Who is Teo going to kill first- Ward? Or Adell?
I went back and watched the bottom of the 8th.
Teo has a lot of range and I always think that the CF has any ball that they call, etc.
With Ward it seemed to be his ball but Teo tracked it and would have caught it as well. With Adell, I think he needs to back off and let Teo catch that ball. Teo, however, needs to call for the ball much more aggressively. We are not used to have a CF with his range but yes, almost two disasters there.
Adell clearly acted like he was still in CF on that play.
I do think neither man expected the CF to have that much range. Which just shows you how little range they’ve been accustomed to.
How is Teo’s arm rated? Haven’t seen enough to know how strong – accurate he is. Would be an encouraging if he can throw to the right base and hit the cut off with consistency. For a long time we haven’t had much of that in our OF.
Solid average arm strength, enough to cut down runners. 70 grade speed and glove. Plus-plus.
As today’s game showed, they don’t really know quite how to adjust to a player with this much range. That’s not stupidity, as some in the game thread had it – it’s a lack of experience playing together…of playing with a defender that strong.
Kelly Leak caught everything… made the Bears into a winner… and he can go to the bathroom for Ward.
https://youtu.be/jIpGkd5y9l8?si=82H1XC-l9DH33bon
The biggest thing this org needs to get over is Trout playing the OF. He’s no longer the centerpiece and just a role player. He’s should get parked at DH and on the bench for defense. He’s also no higher than 4th or 5th batter. Them they can align all of these roles. Adell in RF and pay him projected to that. Leave Ward in LF next season, maybe Rada takes CF, if not sign a veteran. To have 4 OF, but not including Trout in that. The batting order need to have Ward, Adell, Trout in the 4-6 spots, leave the bottom 7-9 for Catcher and the IFs, leave Neto and Schanuel near the top they are the best hitters now. They need to spend money or trade for a top bat.
We are wasting Luis Rengifo!
he was trolling the trade deadline
Arte does not know baseball.
(PSA)
#arteisonlypartoftheproblem
Question for the smart people.
Is the umpiring really a lot worse than I think it used to be or does the presence of the zone on TV just make it seem like that.
Not sure. The graphic definitely gives us a better perspective.
Can’t be easier calling balls/strikes today then it was 15+ years ago. Everyone now throwing 95+ with a ridiculous spin. Seems like the average pitcher is way bigger, taller…shit half of them seem to be 6-5. Ball is getting there a lot quicker in today’s game.
Is the graphic the official MLB zone? Each batter has their own strike zone and that zone is not the batter’s stance before the pitch. One of the reasons why I’m really curious about MLB’s robo umps. How will this really work in real time? What if a player totally changes their swing after they are measured or changes totally mid-game? Where is the tracking equipment located? Lot’s of questions
I think it is hard to say if ball/strike calling is better or worse since we haven’t had the ability to empirically measure in even the recent past let alone years ago. But I am a fan of umpscorecards.com. At least they are trying to be as empirical as possible.
Nah. I saw some nerds on Jomboy a while back explain how it’s off a little…. it was a while ago, but it’s in front of the zone, I think, so some actual strikes look like close balls…. not sure.
But yeah, it’s not exact.
The zone is deceiving as it’s the same size for 6′ 5″ 1B and Jose Altuve on TV
Following the strike zone using gamecast is a problem
Welp, time to shift focus to the Freeway Series. Would be sweet for Trout to hit #399 before Wednesday (Ohtani’s start).
I’d like .500, I’d be satisfied with 78-84, less so with 75-87 but I think that last is likely. Better than 2024 but still poor, which would highlight the odd trading deadline strategy
It’s like it’s 2021-2023 all over again!
But you really have to credit Minasian for the progress he’s made in picking this team off the 2024 mat (after 2023’s farm arsonry – not sure who was responsible for that) and restoring the club to the mediocrity he presided over in his first three years as GM.
As David Bowie sang it:
We’ve got five years, stuck on my eyes
We’ve got five years, what a surprise
We’ve got five years, my brain hurts a lot
We’ve got five years, that’s all we’ve got
It’s frustrating because every year we just star over. There’s no year to year incremental improvement by adding a player or 2 long term. Not even talking about expensive players. With that said, Kikuchi was a very nice incremental addition. If we were to add another Kikuchi next year, that would be a solid step forward.
I’d rather be all in or all out. Let’s see Moore, Guzman, and Paris every day, or sign/acquire a real 2b, 3B, and CF. One of Adell or Soler need to go unless they move Adell back to center. Please figure out what you’re doing.
And for the most part, who ever they add for 2026, will be coming off his 1 and only productive season. And/or, old, tail end of his career. Will be able to show these kids how to play the game right, mentor, greatest clubhouse teammate ever…… This will be around year 10 of this type of free agent. Not including the 5+ year mega deal contract guy that fails miserably.
Would love to see them sign 3 monsters in 2026, that hate humanity, and hit and pitch the shit out of the ball. Known to have Flipped clubhouse tables with food on them after a disappointing loss, with a profanity laced tirade. But what do I know…. Angry Donkey.
I don’t think we can evaluate 2025 and Minasian until the season is over. I mean what if they end the season at 63-99 again?
They’ve played 73% of the season at a .475 clip which results in approximately 75 wins for 162 games (75-87) which seems reasonable.We are most likely to finish with somewhere between 70 and 80 wins which would be 7-17 games better than last year. Which is good if they can somehow make the same improvement next year with basically the same players. The only potential path to more success is to add to or replace with better players.
Over the last few seasons I believe the last 50 games have usually been pretty bad so I don’t think we can use any predictors here.
They could go:
24-30 or 20-34 or 27-27 or 30-24 or really anything adding up to 54
We just can’t evaluate until it’s over. August and September have been pretty piss poor months in the last few years if memory serves.
For example in 2024 they finished 16-38
If they do that this year they end 72-90. But this would be a +9 which would be substantial.
So you just don’t know until you know.
Sorry, I don’t see the how 63 win or 75 wins changes any of the positive, negative, or neutral comments made here throughout the season. We know the team needs, we know where the team ranks in pitching and batting. We know what the farm has for the future. We know the draft. The end of season record won’t change anything.
I don’t see why an evaluation at the end of the season would be different than today.
Yes, this is my point.
People keep seeing improvement, because this is not a repeat of *the worst season ever*. That season was an outlier. But the norm is no fun either.
Seeing progress here is its own kind of short-termism. Pull back the camera just a touch and look at the last decade and from that vantage there’s marked consistency, and 2025 is simply the norm. Nothing has really changed, there’s no serious improvement in depth, the team is as riddled with holes as ever, and the governing strategy is to plug the holes with meh until the water holds…just enough.
Without irony: 2024 was Minasian’s fault. He torched the farm and didn’t plan for injuries to Trout and the rotation. He lost a 10 WAR player and got almost nothing in return. He built no depth, and his drafts have either been largely offense-free or he’s spent a lot on low probability prospects six years out from impact. Of course there’s going to be a massive swing to the negative before mean reversion
But 2025 is his fault as well, and 2025 looks every bit like 2021-23.
In the bigger picture, no overall improvement or progress, just reversion to the mean, due to a whole lot of luck with health re: Trout and the rotation. Absent that, it would be a second straight year of below-median performance, and we’d be adjusting our understanding of what the mean is. I guess that’s the one place I could agree with Fansince1971 here – the team is consistently bad, but give it time, and it could get worse.
The “get better” part still feels a few years off – and this year’s draft seemed almost designed to reinforce that message.
Does it help to know we will have Ward next year too? All .797 OPS of him? Then we can decide to pay him big boy money or trade him for less than half what we would have gotten this year. Pretty cool huh?
Plus, Jansen for like six more weeks. No? Maybe we can extend him too? Cool right? Totally different team in the years to come.
You know what is actually an exciting breakfast option? Just plain dry shredded wheat. It’s the tits.
Well, if you didn’t sense the strong /s running through my comment, you may not have taken away the overall message that five years is more than enough time to “prejudge” the man.
Whatever the final win totals, it’s going to look a lot like his previous seasons, and there’s no magic 15 win streak coming given how the depth chart is composed. 2024 may be the nadir, but 2025 is going to look a lot like the mean.
And the mean makes my brain hurt a lot. A decade long headache.
Yes. Good points. I tend to think 2025 may end up being the summit that the team can achieve presuming the team (as built) continues to stay healthy for the rest of the season.
Yah. I don’t actually blame trade deadlines and holding onto Ohtani and drafting to try and salvage seasons on PTP. That’s all owners office BS.
But he’s been meh to suck on a lot of other stuff. I don’t think he’s hell in a toilet, but it’s not gonna hurt anything if someone else takes a shot. I just don’t think there’s anyone out there who can do things like talk the POs and Arte into selling at the deadline when hopium has the people chirping, etc.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t someone out there who can sign better relief pitchers, utility guys, get better MiLB coaches and draft better.
Oracle is top 3 ballparks in the league, no doubt.
Love that ballpark.
Never been, but TV it is very picturesque.
The only problem is the Giants play there and when they and/or the warriors are in town the really mess with my traffic going home from work. Really hate the Bay Area can’t wait only one more year until I retire and I can get the heck out of here.