LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: Royals Ruining Angels Baseball

1 day ago

I mocked Blake Snell as a 5+ IP guy, and the Dodgers for giving him big money. Now I see Skenes pitched today. Apparently 6 innings is the new “long start” so 5+ isn’t that bad. Plus, Snell is pitching again and has gone 7 in his last two starts and they were good ones. I guess baseball has passed me by. Still, I can’t help wondering if maybe some of the old ideas weren’t good ones.

BTW, 2 complete games leads the majors this year, Framber Valdez, Nick Lodolo, Tanner Bybee.

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DowningDude

1 day ago

Reply to Eric_in_Portland

When was our last CG? Detmers no hitter?

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FungoAle

1 day ago

Reply to DowningDude

Pitch count Perry won’t let CGs happen. Davis Daniel last year, on 6/27, tossing a beauty against the Tigers, 8-inn, 0-runs, 0-walks 8-Ks pitching his ass off and frigg’n Angels pull him with a comfortable lead. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. I mean, give the guy a chance at a feel good story.

Last edited 1 day ago by FungoAle

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1 day ago

Reply to DowningDude

Shohei in 2023. Detmers and Sandoval in 2022. Jose Suarez our only one in 2021, Dylan Bundy (who was gonna fix everything) with one in 2020. None in 2019 and I’m too TW to look further.

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1 day ago

This could be the night we “clinch” last place. I would not call that being competitive

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1 day ago

Reply to Eric_in_Portland

It may not be “competitive”, but it is “meaningful”…..

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1 day ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

That’s funny.

I was thinking there are two questions I’d love to ask Perry

What have you learned from this season?

What will you do differently?

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1 day ago

Reply to Eric_in_Portland

I would ask Perry if Arte has the common decency to give him a reach around.

Last edited 1 day ago by AngelsFanInHell

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to AngelsFanInHell

That gets delegated to either Kuhl or Carpino, who will delegate that to some intern.

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1 day ago

I was watching the Halo game last night and had the Vivid App open looking for a Club level ticket for tonight (only $25 incl fees). Not bad. But after factoring in parking and any food/beverages, I just thought (fuck Arte) and closed the App. I’ll continue my sadomasochistic ways and watch the game on TV.

Hey, the Kings won their second consecutive meaningless preseason game. For some reason, that game felt more meaningful than the Halo game.

Sigh.

Sorry for the language, but I had to get in one more “eff the ArteChrist” before the season was over.

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MarineLayer

1 day ago

Reply to AngelsFanInHell

Your language is appropriate.

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DowningDude

1 day ago

Reply to AngelsFanInHell

I got club level for $8 each last night. While we did pony up for parking, our per caps were nearly $0 for food etc.

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We’re up to #8 on the all time team strikeouts list.

1 day ago

Reply to DowningDude

I was looking at section 313, row B. I know it gets cheaper the farther you get from home plate. I mostly didn’t want the ArteChrist to get my parking money. Plus, I know if I’m there, I’ll get a hotdog and a root beer.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to AngelsFanInHell

Great minds. I picked some up in 333 for $21 each including fees.

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

I was in 204 last night at $25.00 including fees.

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Terry

1 day ago

One last add, sorry, but facts are facts:
Since 1970, three of the psst four seasons including this season, the Angels have had the three worst hitting teams in past 55 years. Yes, Trout was injured a great deal, but through the 55 years, many star hitters were injured a great deal of the time: Bobby Bonds, Bobby Vantine and many others, yet those teams managed to be better in BA. The recent years stats clearly reflect the of organizational depth, as been correctly indicated in this blog many times. No replacement hitters of note. Yet the team drafted mostly pitchers.

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Terry

1 day ago

Reply to Terry

The “lack of organization depth” I meant to say.

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to Terry

Correction: Thebteam drafted mostly relievers.

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Terry

1 day ago

This D- team has a chance to set the record of the worst hitting team in franchise history. Team BA now is .226, the all time season low is the 1968 team with a .227 average, and ’68 still had the 15″ mound, the “year of the pitcher.” Yep, lots of solo dinners this year though.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

10 more tonight and we tie the 100 loss 2018 White Sox. We’re only 11 behind the 47-114 2019 Tigers.

We’re 70 behind the all time record, so in typical Angels fashion, we’ll even fall short there.

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Terry

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

The Royals have over 500 fewer K’s than the Angels. Three players on the Halos have accounted for over 470 k’s, that being Trout, Adell and Ward. Or has Terry Smith said last night regarding the Angels strikeout rate: “Alarming”, and Mark replied “That is a lot of empty at bats.” True dat.

Whatever this D- team does next year they better get some dudes who can make bat/ball contact consistently. Consider all the rallys squashed this season by fanning with runners in scoring position.

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HaloLew

1 day ago

Reply to Terry

I was watching the game last night and thinking about how the Royals put the ball in play vs striking out. What a novel concept!

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

I watch the Reds fairly often and love that style of play. Constant action.

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Terry

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Totally agree. The Brewers also are constantly moving runners along. The Angels of yester years were noted for it also. Very fun.

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red floyd

1 day ago

Reply to Terry

Yep. That was a trademark of the 2002-2009 Halos.

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1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

What is crazy about dem Reds… EDLC is sucking ass right now and they still just squeeze out runs to win. Fun stuff.

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red floyd

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

Is that allowed by the rules?

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WallyChuckChili

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Damn Solar!

He could’ve helped us get the record.

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1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

It’s been a long season.

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Legend

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Yes we can!

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FungoAle

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Pretty should promote NiKKo and Paris to aide in the cause

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Brent

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

lol @ taking up three slots of that top 25 list… and those three slots are all within the last four years.

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HaloHopeful

1 day ago

I just looked up the Angels’ record over the last 3 Septembers. Since 2023, the Angels are 21-53 (.283). There were 5 losing streaks of at least 6 games in those 3 Septembers. The last winning September record for the Angels was 2022 (14-12).

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to HaloHopeful

Welcome aboard. I approved your comment and activated your account. Your comments will show in real time now.

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Terry

1 day ago

Reply to HaloHopeful

Look at it from 2021 forward, it gets uglier.

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MarineLayer

1 day ago

How does the two challenge per game work when an ump misses 25?

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angelslogic

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

You keep the challenge if you win. So potentially, as long as your hunches are correct, you have an unlimited number of challenges.

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MarineLayer

1 day ago

Reply to angelslogic

The problem is when a batter like Shanny uses the challenges up. Two bad challenges can negatethe ability to challenge the 25 bad ones.

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Super Member

Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

Good incentive to avoid litigating borderline pitches, to my mind. I don’t think umps should be savaged for missing a few in the shadow zone.

They should be corrected when they flat out miss a pitch, however. Keeping it to ~4 challenges per game (which is what it was in the MiLB in practice) feels like a good balance.

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

(~4 was the average number of challenges issued, as only 52% of challenges were overturned – meaning even with ABS, challenged umps were right on ‘miscalled’ pitches about half the time.)

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MarineLayer

1 day ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

So four feels better than two. Two is not enough.

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

Well, any team that has an edge on the ump can challenge twenty times, if they like. They just have to be right 18 times out of twenty.

Rewarding wrong guesses with a bunch more challenges and eroding recent time savings on the mound seems like a bad tradeoff to me, but YMMV.

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Angels2020Champs

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

I can see a player like Tommy Pham selfishly use 2 challenges in their first inning AB and cost the team the rest of the game. Could be entertaining.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

I’ve been to a minor league game with this system. In total there were 6 challenges and the umpire was correct on 5 of them. Added perhaps a minute or two to the game.

There are obviously bigger moments in a game than others. With 2 outs and the bases empty in the 4th inning, your #8 hitter isn’t going to challenge a close call. But with a runner on second in a 1 run game he probably will.

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Charles Sutton

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Managment just needs to clarify organizational policy on this during spring training to any players known to be capable of dumbassery (without specifically singling them out).

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

And that’s a high number of challenges in the larger picture. Four was the average across the multiple seasons it was tested at AAA.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

It has been over a year since that game. It might have been 5. Either way, the umpire was right on all but 1.

That guy should be bumped up to MLB.

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Yeah, that’s better than average.

But considering the ump is generally right half the time on even ‘controversial’ calls, you could see where this could spiral out of control if challenges were unlimited.

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FungoAle

1 day ago

I’m sitting here thinking 1-week from today, the Angels will officially be looking for a GM. This post deadline record is appalling.

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Fansince1971

1 day ago

Reply to FungoAle

The failure to trade Ohtani at either the ’22 or ’23 deadline and the corresponding giving up of young talent in ’23 for Giolito etc is the most recent nail in the Angels coffin. There have been many others over the years. That lid is getting pretty tight.

For all of you who were screaming not to trade Ohtani at the trade deadlines, do you now understand why that move had to be made?

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1 day ago

Reply to Fansince1971

That crap will likely cost PTP his job and I don’t even remotely believe it was the course he thought should be plan A. But that’s the gig. And he sucked at other stuff that fell outside the Angels and their fans dumbfk deadline plans. So he can go.

I do fully expect him to be fairly successful someplace else. I also expect the next guy, even if it’s (insert name of magical acceptable GM that CtPG Guy can’t think of), to also bomb unless Arte has finally collapsed with depression and turns his face to the wall.

Best thing that’s happened…. no big splashes.

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MarineLayer

1 day ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

If only. It was out there that TB wanted to trade us Junior Caminero. Regardless, that is not the only reason that it’s time to look in a different direction, there are plenty of other misfires you can point to that go beyond the normal you can’t win them all. Even if we get someone worse than Minasian, I’d rather go with the idiot I don’t know than the one that I know.

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milehigh

1 day ago

Reply to MarineLayer

Would like to see the source of that rumor. Everywhere I look I see that TB had no intention of moving Junior.

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1 day ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

When Perry goes, I expect Wash and the entire coaching staff will be let go, too. A new GM will want their people in the key baseball roles.

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HaloLew

1 day ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

There is no way on God’s green earth that the hitting/strikeout coaches will be retained, right? Right??!!

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

Welcome to Angels baseball. How long was Suarez here? Rengifo is still here! And there is a litany of others.

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1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

We also had “Premium” Jeff Mathis and his meteoric .187 BA, while they traded away Napoli, who went on to constantly crush home runs against The Angels and stare at Scioscia as he rounded the bases.

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Roy Hobbs

1 day ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

You never said we could have a magical GM

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1 day ago

Reply to Roy Hobbs

I’m not part of a guild or anything, but apparently lots of CtPG Guy is and he knows magic. The prevailing wisdom is that there is this pile of unnamed people out there who will speak my truth to Arte’s power and blast a tunnel through this mountain of problems to create a play off contender using spells and stuff. All we have to do is get rid of Reagins… I mean Derp… wait, I mean Eppler…. no wait, get rid of Perry. He so stupid.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to Fansince1971

I remember I got roasted pretty hard with my first “What Would an Ohtani Trade Look Like” piece. Then the comments turned more intellectual and less emotional.

This team has a much brighter future if Cameniro and Quero are on the roster right now.

Throw in the blown Pages deal from a year or two earlier, and you have a really nice young core with Neto, Schanuel, Adell, O’Hoppe.

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Fansince1971

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Correct. Opportunity is fleeting. Once missed it is unlikely to reoccur unless you are extremely lucky. As they say, one rarely gets a second bite at the apple.

There are many other failures by this Org we can point to in the last 10-15 years. I think not trading Ohtani in ‘23, compounded with trading Quero and other prospects for a one month rental, could go down as the biggest missed opportunity. Particularly given how barren the Angels farm was/is.

They may ultimately recover, but I believe it will take a different Org structure and maybe another decade and that is only if they get super lucky with regard to drafting and developing players

All those people who were so emotionally attached to Ohtani should look hard at the stark reality of what missing that opportunity now means to this Org. Emotional decisions are almost always bad ones.

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to FungoAle

And a manager, and hitting coaches.

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BannedInLA

1 day ago

This last month has felt like the sports equivalent of the Bataan Death March. And we still have the long offseason to look forward to.

As I always say, thank God for combat sports (because football also sucks).

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BannedInLA

1 day ago

When Trout was relatively hot for the first month after returning from the IL, I was dreaming of a .270 or better season. That was laughable in retrospect. He may not eclipse .230 this season and he’ll have over 550 plate appearances so it’s not a small sample size.

The Ken Griffey Jr. comparison above it apt. Depressing.

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BannedInLA

1 day ago

The doyers not trading for Jansen is a complete mystery to me. That was the biggest no brainer of the deadline and they fumbled. I guess it’s possible that the asking price was too high and/or Jansen truly didn’t want to be moved but, I think it’s more of a doyer mistake than anything else.

They will certainly flame out, probably in round one, next month.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to BannedInLA

It takes 2 sides to make a deal and I don’t think the Angels were making any deals at the deadline.

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BannedInLA

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Yeah, I guess. Still, I wonder if the doyers made a concerted effort. Impossible to know either way but, I don’t think they did.

I’m not crying on behalf of the doyers, I just don’t understand how they believed standing pat was the correct course. A team with WS aspirations can’t move forward with a BP that is incredibly suspect.

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Good news on the Detmers front, no surgery required.

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

All in. Meaningful. Gubi updating us all on what the Yankees did earlier in the evening…. laughable. But it really was the vibe at the Big A when I was down there as well as here.

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FungoAle

1 day ago

Reply to BannedInLA

Assuming Angels would have been willing to dance with the Dodgers, have to agree. There were a lot of closer types dealt at the deadline, Friedman slept at the wheel.

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milehigh

1 day ago

Reply to BannedInLA

You have to get to the ninth inning with a lead first. Seems the problem has been giving up leads before the ninth lately.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

I didn’t realize how badly his change up was hammered last season. Ditching it and adding a one pitch at a time mentality seemed to really help him.

Kid wants to go back to the rotation. I say give him a shot.

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BannedInLA

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Given the dearth of viable starters, we should probably give it another go as a starter.

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1 day ago

Reply to BannedInLA

Yup. I find it hard to believe the FO won’t try him out as a starter. He better spend all winter running up mountains and beating on tires with sledge hammers and lifting car engines with his bare hands and stuff….

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to gitchogritchoffmypettis

Punching slabs of beef in a meat locker?

Last edited 1 day ago by steelgolf

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1 day ago

Reply to steelgolf

That should help.

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

I still think we’ve seen where this goes, and the team should put a question mark going into the season if Detmers begins in the rotation. Could easily see fall inflammation return in spring, or worse.

Not anticipating injuries and not building in fallback depth for them is probably the #1 recurrent failure of the club in roster development over the past dozen years.

Last edited 1 day ago by Turk's Teeth

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to Turk's Teeth

That is 100% the organization’s greatest failure.

Right now they are counting on full healthy 2026 seasons from both Joyce and Stephenson. I guarantee it.

I’d sign Chris Flexen as Detmers insurance. One would start in the rotation and the other in the bullpen. Between the 2, they should cover 160ish innings pitched in some fashion.

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Turk's Teeth

1 day ago

Reply to Jeff Joiner

Honestly Jeff, given that the two of them have put up 107 innings combined this season, and Reid got shut down with elbow troubles, expecting 160ish might be too much.

And Flexen’s K/9 was down to 4.5 this season, making Silent C look like Nolan Ryan.

Three-year FIP of 5.31, WHIP of 1.516. Sounds like a future world of pain masked by a BABIP this season more than 70 pts lower than his norm. Guess we’d be hoping that Anaheim’s marine layer and Rada/Teodosio would be enough to keep more balls in the yard, a la his years in Seattle.

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HaloLew

1 day ago

If Moreno comes out of this Skaggs situation relatively unscathed, financially speaking, do you think he will reconsider selling the team? It seems like this might be one reason he pulled back the first time, as I imagine potential buyers didn’t want to deal with this PR nightmare.

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steelgolf

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

It certainly makes it easier to negotiate with a possible buyer.

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milehigh

1 day ago

Reply to HaloLew

A potential buyer could have calculated a settlement in the purchase price or told Arte to settle and then negotiate.
But I think Arte really believes he has the brains to turn the franchise around and if everyone would just believe in him then all will be good.

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https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46346687/mlb-2025-full-season-grades-all-30-teams-brewers-phillies-dodgers-mets-yankees

1 day ago

Schonenfield’s grade for the Angels 2025 season:

Los Angeles Angels: D-
The Angels did some good things. Zach Neto had his second straight 5-WAR season and might be regarded as the most underrated player in the game now. Jo Adell had a breakout year in the power department and the Angels hit a lot of home runs as a whole. They’re also the only team that will have five starters make at least 23 starts. On the other hand, Mike Trout‘s career continues the Ken Griffey Jr. trajectory. With the Reds, we kept waiting for Griffey to have another Griffey-esque season, but it never happened, and it looks like that will be the case with Trout.

Bottom line: The Angels had meager expectations and failed to meet even those with their 10th consecutive losing season

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Terry

1 day ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

D-. That’s what over $200 million buys these days.

Fellow travelers on the loser train, the Pirates, but don’t look now, they have crept within two wins of catching the Angels win total this year.

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Jeff Joiner

1 day ago

Reply to Senator_John_Blutarsky

I have to agree with this grade. Yes, the team’s record was above expectations for quite a while this year but we knew this wasn’t a playoff team.

Success this season was going to be defined by young players taking steps forward and young players being added to the system. Not much of the former and absolutely none of the latter except for the draft.

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