Today we got Jose Soriano versus Jacob deGrom. Here is how Soriano looked in his last three starts against the Rangers.
This was a promising game until crappy bull pen performance ruined everything. Zach Neto led off the game with one of his patented strikeouts. Nolan Schanuel walked. Jorge Soler hit a two out double to score Nolan Schanuel 1-0 Angels.
Jacob deGrom threw a wild pitch to send Soler to third base and then Josh Lowe singled to make it 2-0 Angels.
In the bottom of the second inning, Soriano started walking batters with the result that the Rangers tied the game at 2 all. Zach Neto turned in a nice defensive play in the bottom of the sixth inning.
The game had no further scoring until the top of the seventh inning when Oswald Peraza singled up the middle. He stole second and Wade Meckler hit an RBI liner to left field to make it 3-2 Angels.
The Angels brought in Tayler Saucedo to replace Soriano on the mound. He gave up a pinch hit home run to Justin Foscue to tie the game at 3 all.
In the bottom of the eighth inning Sam Bachman came in to pitch. A couple of Rangers singled and Logan O’Hoppe took a foul ball to the nuts. He might get a day off tomorrow. Ezequiel Duran singled to make it 4-3 Rangers. Justin Foscue singled to make it 5-3 Rangers. Alejandro Ozuna homered to make it 8-3 Rangers. Brent Suter came in to pitch after a defensive miscue by Denzer Guzman put another Ranger on base. The scorer called it an infield hit. Suter gave up another single to pinch hitter Kyle Higashioka. Suter struck out Josh Smith to end the inning.
Jo Adell singled on the ground to center in the top of the ninth. At least there’s that. Oswald Peraza struck out. Jose Siri contributed a pinch hit strikeout. Logan O’Hoppe flied out to center. The Angels lost 8-3.
Bill James said “Platoon differentials are real”. In reviewing our platoon differentials, we have a number of players with significant ones that we should be taking advantage off as much as possible. Peraza, Siri, and Adell should always play against LH pitching, and Meckler and Schanuel should not. Guzman, so far, does not have much of a platoon differential and Neto’s is much less than most others. You can’t platoon everywhere, but the differentials should be considered as part of roster construction.
Moore continues to tear up AAA with a current 326/456/577 slash line. For reference, Lowe was also tearing it up. The team really needs to think about what they are going to do with him as he has nothing left to prove in AAA. Does he play 2B, 3B, LF, or do they trade him. Kyren Paris, who has been injured a lot this year, is also now starting to hit and especially, walk. Along with Rada, these guys all run the bases well and are successful stealing. They have a glut of guys who can play 2B, SS, and CF, if you also include Siri and Lowe. but they lack corner infielders and corner outfielders.
One thing I noticed is that some of the guys in AAA are walking at pretty good rates but when they are promoted, they become undisciplined and start swinging at pitches off the plate. Just wondering if it had anything to do with who was working with them in AAA as opposed to the majors.
Some of it is pitching but I was just wondering.
Contracts: What does $88.5 million buy the Angels this season? The services of the following six players:
Trout
Kikuchi
Soler
Stephenson
D’Arnaud
Yates
Unfortunately, Trout and Kukuchi make up 2/3 of that and are still on the books next year.
Outfield defense continued: Adell is #257 out of 288 on the Fielding Bible site. Lowe is #271. Soler? Awful also. The Angels hierarchy, past and present, has (mis) managed this team to having the worst defensive outfield in baseball. If there were two or three stud hitting outfielders in the bunch, that could be acceptable, but the four, as hitters, rank from high mediocre to dreadful. Oh, they steal lots of bases, nope. They dont strike out much? Nope. Their contracts are cheap cheap, nope. Those four outfielders contracts, aggregate, are over $65 million this season. (To put that in perspective, the entire Marlins payroll, for the entire team, is $70 million, of which about $60 million is being paid by other team’s luxury taxes. AND the Marlins may make the playoffs.)
In baseball reality, Lowe should in the minors, Soler should be released, Trout should be DH full time and Adell possibly still full time, or better traded. The Angels need to start over entirely in the outfield. It will take awhile.
I have to feel sorry, in some respect, for the Angels pitchers. It must be demoralizing to have this wretched defense behind them. Even the Angel announcers have begun to say more about the awful defense.
This requires the team to make decisions that so far they have been unwilling to make.
According to the “Fielding Bible” site, Mike Trout ranks #263 out of 288 outfielders this season in defensive prowess. (Note: Adell is one of worst also). Andy Pages is the best defensive outfielder. For the record, Taylor Ward is ranked #60. My question would be, given that Trout is a poor on defense, why isn’t he the full time DH, if his true value to the team is on the offense side of things? Would that possibly keep him from being injured so often?
You’re asking logical questions about an organization that doesn’t make logical decisions.
Does Trout coming back make a difference to this teams outlook? Probably not so why not trade him?
The odds are that Arte won’t let anyone get traded, except for maybe Soler or Lowe (we wish).
I know Terry likes to point out that we’ve been better with Trout out of the lineup over the last two seasons. Statistically those are not significant sample sizes. Using small samples gives skewed results. If you take 2026 we’re at .400 with Trout and .353 without him. Of course one sample of 75 is not equivalent to another sample of 17 just as 210 and 49 can’t be compared with any accuracy
Without his salary on the books, perhaps a team that is more competitive could be assembled?
The analysis presented is just simple W/L. This falls short to tell the whole story. Strikes me odd that a guy who leads the team in SLG, OBA , BB and OPS needs to sit on the bench in order for the team to win.
All I know is that having Trout around does nothing for me. It’s as exciting as having Nico Hoerner on the team. Not bad or anything, but who cares? But we sure are paying for his pre-contract era….
We’d have to give up prospects to get that dead whale of a contract off our beach.
I think he has a no trade clause in his contract. He is a fading player with approximately $150 million due on his contract through 2030.
Good thing that I also root for the Padres. I would hate to get any joy from baseball and learn to have expectations.
Tanking is not for the weak and I don’t begrudge anyone who has chosen to tune this team out, but this summer is going to be epic.
36-56, 7 game losing streak, and it’s only gonna get increasingly more painful. Let’s shoot for 110 losses !!!
Perish the thought. 99 losses! Accept nothing less!
Yah. Especially if we do trade someone… we will likely lose 100. Finally, instead of just bitching like the Angels lost 100 we will actually do it.
So apparently Trout is supposed to return tomorrow and one of Meck or Siri will be going back down. Likely Siri. But at least will still have Lowe. 7 in a row. After a while, we can make t-shirts that say 15 in a row.
did we offer Lowe a bunch of money? Is that why he’s still here?
Not a bunch, but certainly more than those guys.
We traded for Lowe
I’d send down Walton. Absolutely no need for him.