Maybe Wade Meckler should just wear a cape out there. Well. George Klassen is on the injured list with lower back issues. The Angels designated Shaun Anderson for assignment. The Angels signed Cade Marlowe to a minor league deal.
Today is the not-trade deadline. It’s one last way to change teams without blowing your postseason eligibility,
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
This is what frustrates me about the organization. Meckler and Siri both hit .300 against RH pitching and .200 against LH pitching and Jo Adell was just the opposite. Siri’s splits are reversed. All 3 are really platoon players, but quite effective ones. Yet we never used them that way. No wonder we can hit LH pitching.
It would appear that Maddux was not the only one that didn’t use available data. Looks like at least one more needs to be shown the door.
Let’s go Yankees.
Bless me Father, for I have sinned.
Take a shower…..now!
oh no. We can certainly tank even if we sweep the Skanks.
Rengifo out for season
https://www.mlb.com/news/luis-rengifo-has-torn-acl-will-miss-remainder-of-2026-season
I was looking at run differentials. I noticed the Rays, Yankees, A’s and Angels and though about how their record doesn’t match their run differentials well. Is it coaching that makes a team better or worse than their expected win rate?
Bullpens can make a big difference on expected win rates. Yes, managers too.
Makes sense. A’s have a terrible bullpen?
The A’s have won two games more than the record that their RS/RA would predict. They’re basically about where their run differential would predict.
the Angels are 8 games worse than what their runs scored/runs allowed would predict on a Pythagorean model.
BtW, all of that information is at baseball reference. You can find Pythagorean record there.
it’s been the blowpen. We will get beaten badly, win some games by a lot, but those late inning meltdowns create unusual differentials. For what it’s worth we are last in saves, last in save %. https://screwball.com/mlb/most-blown-saves-by-team-in-2026
Something that the post-Maddux Era has not resolved. Better talent might help change the save percentage. We went over half the season with Romano leading the team in Saves. Let’s blame the manager.
I was looking at them too. Get this one – Tigers are +65 and 10 games behind .500. Astros are -43 and winning the West.
Moz doing Moz things
He is really turning the leadership team upside down in Anaheim.
Why not wait until a new GM is hired to let them build their leadership team?
Unless……
Under Perry and other previous GMs, I was never sure that there was a leadership team.
file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/86/06/4BC4D2DC-63BC-47C1-B56F-45453BAED120/Screenshot%202026-08-31%20at%2012.59.17%E2%80%AFPM.png
One’s Opinion.
Luis Roberts Jr. 29 YO. WAR 16.6. Positive 2026. So would appear like a possible. But he is due $3 million. FA in 2027. FO needs to ask scouting is he worth a look in new years OF. Smart move for FO to PASS.
Hoby Milner. 36 YO. Positive WAR career and 2026. FA 2027. Smart move by FO to PASS.
John Schreiber. 32 YO. Positive WAR career and 2026. FA 2027. FO needs to ask scouting is he worth a look for next year’s bullpen.Trevor Williams. 34 YO. Positive WAR career and 2026. FA 2027. Smart move by FO to PASS.Mitch Garver. 35 YO. Smart move by FO to PASS.
These are just the most recent. Claiming off the waiver wire is not a bad move but it requires a lot of background on virtually everyone in MLB. And more than likely, if FO is interested, each of these – plus dozens more – will still be available before the next ST ends.
So to find the next hidden gem prospect in this is almost always a waste. They are generally older players and would not help the team right now. Come November and all the injured have to be added back to the roster, there might be some decent – average – players that get bumped. PCA will not be one of them.
Looks like Robert and Schreiber got picked up by the Orioles and Yankees.
My assumption that Angels had a pick of them and passed.
Speaking of today’s favorite topic of pitching, hard to overlook Jacob Misiorowski’’s epic season. He’s only dishing out a historic 4.71 hits allowed per 9-innings (H/9). You have to go back to 1972, when our Nolan Ryan produces a then historic low of 5.3 H/9.
Jacob clearly is the NL Cy Young. Brew Crew!
Is tanking or rooting for tanking the ultimate high when cheering for your team, hardly. Tanking is all there is when your team has literally hit rock bottom as the Angels apparently have mastered this season. The promise of drafting a super star is out there and will add to the so many things the Halos need. With the hope of landing 3 or 4 starting players when we look at names of Lowe or Grissom or Suri or the names of half dozen catchers this season is just not what makes a season bright. While watching or listening to the games we all are rooting for a win, when the game is over and it ends in a loss there is a shrug of the shoulders and the thought then becomes oh well, maybe we can draft well to help down the road and move on. Does not matter the sport that your favorite team participates in but the fun comes from the positive and not the negative. We are all happy and glad when good guys come through-guys like Meckler and Grissom- but what is real is that other than the end of the line Trouty or a Neto, knowing other players in our line up would not be a starter on many other teams. Setting records in futility such as blowing a record number of games at the end of August in the ninth inning is embarrassing but it happened and it does not matter even a little bit, but finding something promising is all that is left and if it is the promise of what could happen in the draft then so be it no matter what the reality of how you choose to see the draft. One draft does not turn teams around, but the future looks a lot better if we draft well and the odds improve with more ping pong balls you have and that is real too.
For a true apples to apples comparison, here are the pitching numbers with Maddux and post-Maddux.
Starting Pitching
w/Maddux
593.2 IP (21st), 4.57 xERA (21st), 4.33 xFIP (23rd), 6.6 fWAR (22nd)
w/out Maddux
103.1 IP (7th), 3.75 xERA (7th), 4.07 xFIP (9th), 1.8 fWAR (7th)
Relief Pitching
w/Maddux
453.2 IP (12th), 4.03 xERA (16th), 4.19 xFIP (16th), 1.3 fWAR (21st)
w/out Maddux
59.1 IP (25th), 3.12 xERA (5th), 3.33 xFIP (1st), 1.4 fWAR (5th)
Still a pretty small sample size, but what a difference so far.
At the very least, it’s nice that the decision so far seems to have been the correct one.
Good pitching results can be contagious. Exhibit Tyler Anderson when slotted into the Dodger rotation. While I can buy some improvement on a new coach with a change in philosophy, a drastic change is likely a result of an execution “hot” streak and reversion to the mean would be expected. To think this is all Maddux is just too strong.
I fully agree. Improved defense and new catching certainly hasn’t hurt.
Yup. I’m sure some of this is hotness. But not all of it. If they finish out the season and are still in the upper 1/3 of pitching staffs at the end of it I’ll be happy, knowing some of that’s likely to get undone by things like adding more unproven arms next year or trading Detmers away.
Geez…. I may just be a dump commercial artist type but that looks better. I was really into Maddox in theory, but clearly I was wrong about how he’d actually work with our guys.
You also have to take into consideration the fact that we traded away both Soriano and ZJ right before firing Maddux too. The talent on the staff has arguably been worse during the non-Maddux era.
Angels RP in August —
97.1 innings (17th)
4.07 ERA (19th)
3.15 xERA (4th)
3.07 FIP (3rd)
3.37 xFIP (1st)
2.1 fWAR (2nd)
Okay, these numbers blow my mind lol.
…and yet we were 10-14 for the month. I’m too GA to check, but our run differential for the month must be ugly.
In 27 August games 89 RS and 96 RA. I’m surprised it’s that close with a 7-game losing streak.
I’m surprised as well…..
Thanks for looking it up.
Baseball-Reference breaks it down month by month in the team schedule and results section.
-7 for the month. Includes an 18-3 win, 7-0 win, 12-3 loss, 7-0 loss.
3-4 in games decided by 1 run
1-7 in games decided by 2 runs
4-4 in games decided by 3 runs
So, starting pitching has been lucky this month and the bullpen has pitched better than the score indicates.
Convertied 3 out of 7 save opportunities in the last 30-days. That’s about right.
Angels SP in August —
143.1 innings (10th)
2.57 ERA (1st)
4.02 xERA (14th)
3.95 FIP (12th)
4.28 xFIP (17th)
2.1 fWAR (13th)
The collective ERA paints a rosy picture, the advanced numbers bring us back down to earth a little.
Wally has had a tough month and will be looking to get back on track tonight.
Ryan Johnson in August —
26.1 innings
1.71 ERA
5.89 xERA
6.11 xFIP
5.1 K/9
5.5 BB/9
-0.2 fWAR
I’ll stop with the RJ propaganda 😂😂😂
The starting pitching has been impressive for the last several weeks!
It’ll be a happy day when we can put together starting pitching, relief pitching, defense, offense, and coaching in the games. At the same time. Consistently.
It’s good to dream….
That just looks really lucky. His issues from the stretch are still there. Fix those and he could be solid.
The tank is fun and all, but we need to remember that we are still dealing with the draft, and to a lesser extent, guys who are cut because they no longer need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft.
We have a 1 in 5 chance of picking first in the draft. We did not “get the first pick”. As it sits now we can fall all the way to pick #6 via the lottery. Sure we’ll pick high through out the draft, and that’s good, but it’s still the draft. We will see a lot of failure.
Plus we are hoping to add some more failure. Prospects who will be dumped off a teams 40 man roster to make room for better prospects that need protection from the Rule 5 draft. Sure, we are talking about guys we hope to get from the Dodgers, Rays, Brewers etc etc farms. That’ll be nice, but it’s still a flyer. These are guys who have not made it to the show and are being bumped for better prospects. Basically dumpster diving… in the MiLB. We should totally do it. I’m just saying we will not be getting top 100 prospects this way.
It just seems like there is some expectation building for the small blessings that come with sucking ass. Really all we are guaranteed is a mouth full of ass and a free mystery bag of young talent that may net us a player or two. The rest is just more ass. Again, this is fine, I’ll enjoy seeing what kind of ass we get. Just, you know, temper your expectations my friends.
We will, as you eloquently express, “suck ass” for multiple years in the future….even if we “ace” the upcoming drafts.
My take on the tank is you get “more ping pong balls” in the draft. But you get only 1 pick. The waiver wire is getting the other teams 41st or lower “best” player. Not exciting but maybe. Whenever there is a next season, there will be some possible nuggets after ST, again maybe.
The truth of the matter in building a farm system, you want Quantity over initial “estimated quality”. You want to add as many youngsters as possibly with the International signings. AND you have to have good instructional coaches in the lowest part of the organization.
It is exciting to pick first or second but eventually getting players to improve is key.
Si si. You just want lots of bullets for several targets.
We’ve been screaming MOAR KIDZ for years around here. The waiver wire and draft are two ways to add some.
I think it is important to note how bad the bottom of our 40 man roster really is. Improving Sammy Peralta, Ryan Watson, Taylor Saucedo, Blake Weiman, and Mitch Farris would be huge.
On the position player front, Josh Lowe, Bryce Teodosio, Logan Porter, Tyler Heineman, and Sebastian Rivero stand out as guys who need upgrading.
I’m willing to bet some players who simply are not good enough to make the current Dodgers, Rays, Brewers type clubs would upgrade the bottom of our roster.
Most definitely. We will upgrade our organizational depth. And we MAY even luck into a good player and a solid pen arm or something. Nothin wrong with that. It’s just setting myself up for frustration if I expect more than that.
The A’ss interest in James Click as a GM… or APOBO… or what ever color you want to paint a turd… is of concern for us because the Astros and Rays were pretty good at developing pitching when he was with those orgs and that’s pretty much all the A’s need…. that and they need Arte to quit making their players be hurt with his evil stepdad magic.
I feel like Arte deserves to be the first Angel owner with a 100 loss season. That’s a fitting anchor for him.
I’m gonna be so happy for everyone that has spanned the time between Halos Heaven and CtPG, day in day out declaring that the team is a joke, railing against Arte, looking for any excuse to bitch and complain, and basically acting like the team was a 100 loss roster no matter what the record. There were geniuses back in 2006 that, mostly for personal/political reasons to dislike ol’ CheapnEvil, started declaring the Angels “done” and they have stayed committed these twenty long years. They faked it till they maked it, whining the same whether we had 65, 82 or 99 losses, and now we might finally have that 100 loss season we’ve been acting like we’ve had all along. It’s so close you can smell it crowning.
This is gonna be great.
With our JuJu Arte will announce he’s selling the team just as it’s developing and we will all be just old enough to start dying off before the team kicks off a golden age.
At 52-85, we are tied with the Rox for 1st place, hopefully we will pick well. 😂
Hopefully the ping pong balls fall our way too.
1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in the Tankathon and we have the same chances.
We have an 8-game “LEAD” over the NY Mess and the Royals are a scalding 8-2 in their last 10 and we’re 8.5 ahead of them … so we’ve pretty much locked in the 1st-3rd spot.
I’ve had enough rooting for the tank as we have already secured our 19.25% chance (highest possible chance) to get the first pick.
But the later rounds – it would be nice to be first. Waiver wire – all kind of advantages JJ pointed out. I also don’t think there’s a clear number 1 this year – it’s more the later advantages.
Doesn’t locking ourselves into 1 2 or 3 pretty much do that? I mean, we ain’t tumbling to #4, my friend.
We came, we saw, we tanked! Mission accomplished.
But just one spot up in the later rounds might get you the guy you want – that’s all I’m saying. Often you have a guy you’re ready to go on – and the team in front picks him up. I think as pointed out – the Rule 5 positioning is great too. Will you likely find your next superstar there? No. But perhaps you get first shot at a contributor.
