The complete bracket. Playoff time.
Caden Dana got a positive write up on the MLB official site.
Now the Astros will take “full assessment” of the situation. I guess heads will roll.
Pete Alonso will opt out and become a free agent. Garrett Cooper retired at the age of 34. Coincidentally, so did Michael A. Taylor. Clayton Kershaw will not be on the Dodgers Wild Card Roster. Heaney got optioned somehow. I don’t know.
Ramon Laureano is on the injured list with a broken finger.
baseball player photo credit: Rex Fregosi
Still no word on Perry, but Wash and Monty are gone.
https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/3358030/report-angels-wont-bring-back-washington-or-montgomery-in-2026
I know we won’t get a good manager, as Halos fans don’t get nice things, but anything should be better than what we had. Wash was making bizarre decisions and blaming players. Monty’s lineups were total headscratchers.
The only thing that will help the Halos is if the ArteChrist sells the team.
Sign me up for some Bochy action. Proven winner
Why? He was awful this year.
Bochy is out in Texas.
Pick up the phone Arte !
Who am I kidding ? Arte will never pay to have a manager of Bochy’s quality….
Any sensible owner would hire Bochy this week
Agree….. the fact that he is older would only tend to lower the price and make him more affordable. But Arte would never want to pay him what he is worth.
Didn’t his wife say no more work.
Not sure…. I have not heard much about the situation.
I seem to recall reading an article stating that she was not happy he took the Texas job after resigning from the Giants.
He may end up back with The Giants.
Boch back to SF? Farhan chased him out and Buster is a fan.
Came here to say this.
Bochy please! That would be a great hire.
Angels are gonna Angels so we won’t get any of the 3 but how do we rank Melvin, baldelli, and bochy to fit our needs?
Yes.
Sadly, I suspect you may be correct.
Manasian will probably try to hire DeShaun Foster as the manager. Similarly, the AD at UCLA will probably try to hire Bochy. Both organizations are such dumpster fires that it could happen.
Trout has 1754 career hits so would need to average 123 per season to get to 2000 by the endive 2027. He might not get that. With 500 at-bats he’d have to hit .246 which might be beyond him now
How expectations have plummeted.
If wasn’t long ago when anything less than .300 or god forbid, .280, was unthinkable.
ha, my phone corrected “end of” to “endive”. That’s a good one!
Every year I am saddened by the fact our season is over, until now. I have 5 Angels shirts and only wore one this whole year just a few times. Glad to see playoffs arrive and I can get my mind off the Halos. Happy for Neto, Ward, Adel, Schanny, and Jensen. I complain about wanting PTP gone, but nothing would change with another GM now, would it? Arte is holding out for expansion and the drug addicts’ trial to end. Expansion will make him about 2 billion and the trial loses him a few million, do the math. Arte is going nowhere soon, and he likes PTP because he works within the margins set out to him. His buddies are yes men who work a little and he pays them well, I’m sure. But good lord the losing is getting old, like a slow death. Go Brew Crew.
Don’t give Perry a kitchen pass, he is not absolved from any of this
This one quote sums up everything that is wrong with the Angels:
Carpino’s quote is from 2020.
Nothing has changed five years later….
Very telling. Fool us once, shame on you. Fool us twice, shame on us. Fool us for 11 years – we are idiots.
John Carpino is still president 5 years later.
Those two are not a coincidence.
Arte and Carpino are the constants……
In 5 years 2020 to 2025 is really 6 seasons and you can add Minasian and Kuhn also.
Nothing has changed…..
Except these executives got richer.
“But it’s not me!”
The Angels had over three million in attendance in each year from 2003 to 2019.
They have not gone over 2.61 million in a season since. So, over half a million average decrease per season compared to previous 16 seasons (covid season excluded). And population in Orange County has increased.
Fun fact: The lowest season attendance in Angels history was 566,000 in 1965, at Dodgers Stadium.
Rocco Baldelli bye, bye…don’t sit down, Ray-Ray
My predictions are below. Nostradominus has nothing to fear from my prognostician prowess…..
Win total: 68 wins
MVP: Ward
Adenhart: Kendricks
Surprise: Soler
How does the season go? Better than last year.
Very close on the win total.
Ward is probably the second best player on the team.
Hendricks put up 1.7 WAR for $2.5 million so he is the surprise in my eyes.
Soler was surprisingly bad
We were better than last year.
I had us at 62-100
MVP Neto
Adenhart Soriano
Surprise O’Hoppe
Giolito. Out with an elbow. Just my guess, but he’s got that “cock behind the head” delivery. I know that can often spell elbow problems…. I am crying for those Red Sox, though I’d like em to beat the Yankees.
Looks like I predicted the 72-90 record correctly but whiffed on nearly everything else except we get odd-year Tyler Anderson. I really expected starting pitching to be better than last year, and while the team got 144 starts out of 5 pitchers, starting pitching was actually a little worse.
The team outperformed their expected wins (65) based on run differential by seven games (72). That reflects their very good fortune on the health front through August, plus a very effective closer that only blew one save close and late.
My prediction was 67 wins – more pessimistic than many here, but I think closer to the true talent level of the club. Their first half exceeded my expectations.
My pitcher pick was Soriano, who ended up the team WAR leader on that front. My pick to surprise was the bullpen – mixed result on that one – good results from the backend, awful results from the middle. I was expecting the team to draw much more on their “starter” corps from the MiLB (Klassen, Urena, Cortez) as relievers, alongside guys like Natera Jr, Southard, et al, but they never took that route.
My predictions before the season. Much like this year’s team, I struck out 4 times.
Win total: 69-93
MVP: O’Hoppe
Adenhart: Joyce
Surprise: Paris
I don’t remember. I need a link! I think I had us at 65-97 with Kikuchi best pitcher and Soler as best hitter.
https://crashingthepearlygates.com/2025/03/26/ctpg-staff-2025-angels-predictions/
It’s an embarrassing link. I whiffed pretty badly on my predictions. At least I was basically right about Moncada.
I was 1 win off the actual total.
Neto is the team MVP
Soriano had the highest pitching WAR
Schanuel didn’t slug .400 but .389 isn’t too far off.
Pretty surprised by myself, here.
You nailed it for sure Jeff
I think you definitely had the best overall prediction portfolio, Jeff. Good job.
I had thought of picking Neto for MVP overall, but decided to double down on Soriano, to kind of kiss the blarney stone for good luck.
I think I also overestimated the rationality of the front office, assuming they would trade at the deadline, and draw on their AA pitching pipeline more.
They did neither, making me more pessimistic than ever about the negatively reinforcing doom loop that is the current owner-manager dynamic.
Thanks.
Let’s just not look at years past, ha ha.
Kikuchi has the highest WAR.
I’m wrong in this post.
Not wrong by fWAR. Soriano is the fWAR leader at 3.0, with Kikuchi at 2.5. Soriano is also significantly better from a FIP/xFIP perspective.
Kikuchi and Soriano were a big coin flip even then.
Kuchi and Hendricks tied in Quality Starts. I don’t recall too many times where they were flat out rocked. Both should be back.
Hendricks will probably retire.
thanks. I had 66-92 with Ryan Johnson as the breakout player. It’s fascinating to see all the predictions. A lot of good comments and understanding of our team’s problems.
You had us playing only 158 games?
Ha! I thought the same thing. Now that would have been an incredible prediction if that had come true!
Oops, 66-96
I don’t remeber. I think I said 97 wins. I don’t care enough about being right to check….
Well, you nailed it with Kikuchi. Unless you want Jansen as best pitcher.
The Astros are looking at what they need to change in their org. Clearly the issue is that Dan Brown is JUST a GM and not a POBO. If they had a POBO and then like three GMs and five AGMs plus maybe a couple Vice Presidents of random shit they’d have won two WS this year.
😀 😂 😃 😅 😆 😊 🙂 🤗
We ended up #2 on the all time K list. In typical Angels fashion, we aren’t even bad enough to be historically bad.
Wait til next year!
We led the league in team K’s!
Truly an organizational wide effort. You can’t do this without 30+ guys committing to an approach and sticking with it all season.
On defense, we led in Team Double Plays too.
*credit to the pitching staff for the bountiful opportunities!
Bob Melvin let go by San Fran. I would take him here in a heartbeat.
Probably wouldn’t make any difference but at least he’s a real MLB manger.
I understand, but I’d prefer Torii or Schumacher.
Melvin has a strong background in analytics and has experience. He’s a guy I’d bring on during this hopeful rebuild.
I absolutely love Torii and think a couple of years learning from an experienced manager would be the best thing for all involved.
I like Shumaker, too.
Melvin does have experience with building teams. Wash, if he’s washed but wants to stay on the dirt, would likely work well with him as some sort of instructor within the org….
But what we need is a manager with a proven track record of shitty teams that reload a lot. Like a former Raiders head coach….
Hire Melvin – agreed. That would be a big step up.
Why would anyone want Torii other than feelz and vibez? Has he even been a coach with a uniform yet?
My thoughts as well. I love Torii as a player and teammate but how does that translate to running a ball club?
Exactly. Agree 100. Magical thinking.
Torii could have been in the Manager seat all year, had he not been so pissy and “insulted” by the Angel offer to coach 1B on Wash’s staff. Would have set it all for him to be the successor-in-waiting. But, he’s “too big of a name” to take a lowly coaching job. Fuck (Sep) him.
And Erstad isn’t the answer either. No one is going to scare Tony into playing if he physically can’t. Or make Noan suddenly a scared .355 hitter.
I’d hate just to feed the fans desire and bring back an ex-player, Ersty, Torii, Percy and, especially Pujols.. Give me a veteran manager.
The team has had both veteran managers and a brand new manager and didn’t perform well for either. You’d almost think they didn’t have the talent to win or something.
At least they’re doing something. We won’t do anything. Minasian and Wash will return, Ward won’t be traded and we will stand in place as another 90 loss season is next year’s most probable outcome.
Bob Melvin…. the Giants Joe Maddon. Also a failure.
That’s a good comp.
Hard pass. Padres improved once Shildt took over and Giants fans were calling out Melvin by the AS game.
Good move, SF.
I’d make Jo the player/manager. He might be the smartest guy in the organization
This is not what I believe will happen, but something like what would need to happen in order for the team to have any kind of shot and it just shows how far away we are. And it is definitely not the Gitch path. We would need to sign Bellinger, Alonso, Jansen, and 2 starting pitchers as good as Kikuchi and Soriano. That would allow us to package Schanuel in a trade for something we need and to live with Moore and Guzman as starters next year. The line up would include Rada, Trout, Bellinger, Alonso, Adel, Neto, Moore, O’Hoppe, and Guzman. You could spend even more and keep Moncada at 3B, but even with all this, which is not likely and wholly unaffordable, we would still have no depth and a lousy farm system, and no guarantee of making the post season. That’s how far we away we are.
At least that team would be fun to watch. Our problem is there’s nothing to follow in our farm system besides maybe Rada, that’s why I can’t believe we didn’t take Holliday who eventually had a chance to become a cornerstone rather than the sixth best SP who comes with a sad story and a cheap contract, so money would be left over to sign more relief pitchers.
Fk Holliday.
Bremner was not the 6th best pitcher.
He didn’t get a cheap contract.
Why fk Holliday? What did he do to you?
https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/draft
Heres one list but mostly they’re similar. Would you have taken Minasian’s guy with #2?
I’ll repost here what I posted last night – Bremner across the industry rankings.
D1 Baseball – 6
Fangraphs – 7
Baseball America – 11
Just Baseball – 13
Perfect Game – 15
The Athletic – 16
MLB Pipeline – 18
ESPN – 18
Can’t just cherrypick the lowest estimation.
This draft class was almost universally viewed as weak at the top but deep through the top 6-8 rounds, and prospect estimators restated again and again that there was little measurably separating the five college arms (Doyle, Anderson, Arnold, Bremner, Witherspoon) viewed as no doubt first rounders. Many stated that they would have ranked kids like Holliday and Willits in the 8-12 range in the 2024 draft class.
There was no no-doubt prospect at the top – there really wasn’t.
Angels avoided recency bias (Doyle, Anderson, Witherspoon) and went with the guy with the longer track record of success. Coming into Feb/March, Bremner was ranked #2 overall by Baseball America and D1 Baseball, and #4 overall by Perfect Game. As you can see above, he didn’t slide far in the revised rankings four months later.
If you really think he’s significantly worse than those ahead of him due to 3-4 outings in early spring, then that departs both from my view and from industry consensus.
If he regains the slider he had in 2024, he’s a guy with three 60 grade pitches and plus command – with one of those pitches (the change) as 70 or better. A 2/3 pitcher in a MLB rotation.
But he is not Ethan Holliday. That’s a big problem.
Still skeptical that you could drop Holliday into this system, which has struggled to develop prep bats into above average hitters since 2010, and get something impactful out of him in five years.
Holliday’s biggest weakness is whiff – which is coincidentally the biggest weakness in the Angels system from low-A to the MLB. I think it’s a stretch to think the Angels are going to develop him in exactly the area that they’re most deficient.
Moreover, Jackson, his brother, who is more of a hit-over-power guy, put up 1 WAR and a 96 wRC+ this season as a “fast moving” prospect. Ethan has more holes in his swing.
Holliday had a K rate of 39.3% in his first cup of coffee in low-A. Trout, at the same age, had a 14% K rate in low-A – in a much more pitcher-friendly league.
Ethan is very likely a 5 year project, and in the Angels system, his progress might look a lot more like Jo Adell’s than Jackson’s (let alone Mike Trout’s).
So my take on Holliday is the same as it was at draft time. He might be the best prospect in the draft, but he’s likely to take a long while in getting to his potential, and he’s not an optimal fit for the Angels system.
At this point, Guzman, who has the same challenges as Holliday (good power, arm and glove, but lots of whiff), is much closer to MLB impact at SS/3B than Holliday is, and Denzer is still quite young for his level.
Talent trumps coaching. Konnor Griffin would sure be nice about right now.
Holliday doesn’t look like Griffin to me at the moment.
Teams passed over Roman Anthony 78 times before the Red Sox selected him in the ’22 draft, and that system has done well with developing bats.
Same with Detroit – Kevin McGonigle was passed over 36 times before the Tigers grabbed him, and now he’s the #2 prospect in baseball, and that system has had good success in developing young bats, which has accelerated their contention window.
Talent and coaching/development both matter, imo. And with prep talent identification, there’s a little luck involved as well.
You’re such a pest sometimes
Here’s an actual question: would you rather root for a terrible team like ours clearly going nowhere, or the Mets whose owner spent a trillion bucks, had the best record in baseball in late June, but somehow choked it away on the last day of the season to the Marlins?
The Mets everyday.
The average Mets fan is so pissed today. We are mostly just enervated and resigned. At least no pain. I honestly don’t know how I feel.
I get it, but the Mets had a chance and good players, we have neither.
Just saying, it’s 1995 pain, which I didn’t exactly love either.
I’d rather have Cohen as an owner. He’s someone who clearly wants to win and will do what’s necessary to follow the recommendation of his baseball ops leader.
Stearns is a smart guy. Perry got five years to run his plan; I’m willing to give Stearns more than two before the rapier of accountability swings.
I wonder how those fans are going to feel at the end of their huge contracts. Presumably Cohen will keep spending, unlike Arturo who’s plans seem to be on hold until Rendon’s and now Trout’s contracts run out.
Perry got five years to run Arte’s plan and his plan. Neither has worked.