Morning Angels fans, have some links…
Angels News
The Angels lost their 4th game in a row, and their 2nd series in a row. This time to the MFY. remember the winning streak? Good times…
Oh yeah, Yoan Moncada hit another home run in that loss last night. He has been not terrible. Yay.
So, for some reason, Chris Taylor was signed by the Angels before yesterday’s game. Yeah his defense is good still, but he is… rather old. And cannot hit anymore.
Around Baseball
At least there are always the Rockies to make fun of. They can’t even pick in the Top 10 next year! And their 21 consecutive series losses is the longest streak in MLB history.
Seriously, they are so bad they are beating the 1899 Spiders in terms of bad starts. That team is known more for the bad end but still.
Bryce Harper got hit by a pitch and had to leave the game. X-rays are negative however.
Lucky Twins fans. The Twins are getting closer to being being sold. 1.7 Billion dollars is the current price.
Matt Thaiss is now a Tampa Bay Ray. Watch them fix him.
Ah, MLB Umpires… while they continue to anger us with their bad calls, they provide drama like the beef Cuzzi has with Baez.
Anything I missed? Post below for upvotes!
Three things will be great for our future of the team.
Funny stuff, what are the odds of any of this happening? Whatta you think? 🤒
Anderson’s wRC+ is 700% greater than Newman’s. And over double that of Taylor’s.
I know versatility has benefit, but it looks like the wrong dead weight was sent overboard.
Lineup, O’hop DH.
Like the moves. Down goes Anderson. Try kingery in center. Has to be better than Taylor
$1,000,000 Ippei bucks kingery K’s in his first AB.
Tradition. But everybody strikes out at least once even Tony Gwynn
Angels DFA Tim Anderson
And activate Robert “Louis” Stephenson
Scott Kingery selected
Someone must’ve called him Jackie
And they called Jackie Eder to principal’s office to sign some paperwork and get another plane ticket to SL
Anderson had almost 2 months to show he deserved a roster spot and he didn’t have it.
It looks like the Angels are finally prioritizing player development over chasing a slim chance at a Wild Card and I’ll take it.
Chris Taylor allows Kyren Paris to go to AAA and figure out how to hit breaking balls with his new swing.
Kyle Hendricks is keeping both Caden Dana and George Klassen in the minors.
Tim Anderson is making sure Christian Moore gets development time.
That’s the value they bring to the club.
Ideally Tyler Anderson, Taylor Ward, and Luis Rengifo bring back prospects to add to future teams.
I agree with your viewpoint Jeff, those FAs keep farm products down on the farm.
It seems improbable to some, but Jensen will bring in a good prospect or two later in the year (Probably from the Phillies). Jensen could at least be an 8th inning set-up guy for a contender. Tyler & Taylor could reap a couple of good prospects, Neeeeeefo though, he may net two buckets of sunflower seeds. Moncada may also bring a nice young piece to the Halos at the deadline, if he continues to rake.
My definition of ‘good’ prospect is a player that is in the top ten of the prospect list of the team we trade with. At least. I want players that can be in the majors in two years. Imho, to get decent prospects of that caliber we would need to add at least Detmers, Adell, and maybe one of our pitching prospects in A ball. I think if the Angels want to really compete some time in the future. that, along with our drafting, we need to give up more than just Anderson and Ward and Jansen.
Problem is that owning a baseball team takes long range planning and Arte just doesn’t want to do that.
It would be cool if a stacked org gave us a 50 grade guy for Ward or Jansen. It would have to be a team like the Cubs who are stacked.
It can happen when a position is blocked, ala O’Hoppe.
This is what I’m hoping the plan is. And hoping 50% of it works. But yeah, I’ll watch a bunch of Tim Anderson, Chris Taylor, Kyle Hendricks, Hector Nerris etc if it means they don’t rush and crush kids before their time. And they aren’t ignoring the first wave of utes either. There will likely be MOAR KIDZ when ever any of them earn a shot now that Anderson has left the fold.
Neto: Looks good. Let’s keep him.
O’Hoppe: Looks good enough to keep but defense is worse than last year. Keep working.
Schanuel: I’ll take a .766 OPS for now. Still looking for a little more power this year. Keep.
Soriano/Silent C: Meh. Both need to cut out the walks and strike out a couple more per 9. Jury still out.
Detmers: Needs to eventually start. His WHIP etc got bloated by a couple bad outings but if he gets his walks down a little and throws more innings he’s a keeper. Jury still out.
Dana: We’ll see him start some soon enough.
Aldegheri: We’ll likely see him too if he stops walking six guys per 9.
Adell: Not good. If he fails by end of season sign Cedric Mullins? Also draft college OFs.
Paris and Lugo will have gotten some MLB time and will hopefully progress at AAA. We may see the electrifying exciting Tucker Flint in the OF at some point. We might see full on Cal Poly Mustang Myles Emerson catch some. Maybe a little Joe Redfield in the OF if he keeps advancing and Wash injures Adell cause he’s sick of him. If Denzer Guzman cuts down his Ks we may see him in September Same with Niko Kavadas. And, of course Christian Moore will probably at least pop up for a visit at some point.
So they are likely to cycle through some prospects in this rebuild year. But man, we need more Kidz.
Kikuchi’s part of “the plan” for now and has a 130 ERA+ for 21M. Fine.
All I have to say is MOAR KIDZ…. and then, more kids. Plenty of roster to fill.
Trade for kids that are in AA and draft a bunch of kids that can be sprinkled throughout the system.
There’s enough of a maybe pile growing between Dana, Klassen, Urena, Aldegheri and a few others that we should see a couple of decent arms emerge.
Less hopeful on the bats, but Rada, Moore, and Guzman each present some varying amount of hope.
I know you didn’t mention Tucker Flint because the blinding talent is just so obvious…. it’s OK.
Sooo…..you complain here often?
Mike Trout just sprained his wrist at an ATM. More info forthcoming.
Aching
Trout
Malady
He did jam a finger unboxing baseball cards at home though…
That reminds me of the weird accidents we hear about, like a player getting hurt doing the dishes. My memory bank is telling me that Joe Beckwith, a Dodger pitcher, hurt his eyeballs badly by turning his head too quickly. I might not be remembering that exactly but I’m going with it.
Remember that DR MLB player who “Cut his finger/arm cooking” then it was discovered his wife tried to stab his cheating @ss.
Jesus Luzardo video game injury
Sing along with me….
Matt Thaiss is, at least offensively, far outperforming d’Arnaud via both WAR and OPS+.
The Angels are the “get right” team for every struggling opponent. Yesterday, we had Devin Williams’s on the ropes and O’Hoppe bailed him out with a bad swing on a 3-0 pitch. This team is broken and needs a better staff at the very least in the short term.
It’s gonna be a bit of a death march. Team sucks. Then the draft. Team sucks. Then the trade deadline. Team sucks, probably worse. Lot’s of kids come up. Many of them suck. Hope some are good. Season ends.
It’s gonna be a slog.
Off season Neto extension. I smile.
Highly unlikely Neto is extended this offseason. he has another year before his 1st year of arbitration.
But how about if I want it really bad?
Actually, that’s the sweetener. He signs the contract because he’s not arb eligible yet. He gets an early pay day and guaranteed future earnings and we lock him up at a manageable rate for years down the road. Once arb looms things only get more expensive for us and less attractive for Neto.
If I were Neto the ONLY reason I would extend was if they do it early. I’d still want a walk opportunity after year four.
If you want it really bad it’ll probably happen.
LOL
I like the idea, but fear…
Neto extended.
Turns into Fletch 2.0
Then of course, the Angels SCREW him because he can’t hit his weight, and it is completely the Angels fault he fell off a cliff.
Wash
Rinse
Repeat
Perfecto!
It’s not that hard guys.
The Angels are bad. We all knew that.
Sometimes our bad team goes on a hot streak. I enjoy that.
But, in the end, they are a bad team and will lose games.
I knew this would happen. I generally shrug my shoulders.
This being a bad team, our roster is not very strong.
Our already not strong roster may even have injuries.
This means two things.
One. Young players will play more than they would on a good team.
I like this.
But, viable young players aren’t available all the time everywhere.
This means I will have to watch players like Chris Taylor.
I knew this would happen. I generally shrug my shoulders.
As a whole the team is a generally bad situation.
This will cause some players to underperform.
There is no coaching staff, GM or manager that can “just fix it”.
And yes. The FO said they were gonna compete this year.
I actually used my brain for a second and realized they are just saying that.
I knew this would happen. I generally shrug my shoulders.
We aren’t gonna win 100 games. We aren’t gonna trade for “real difference men” or what ever the fk some of you have in your head. A lot of our rookies are gonna fail. Some may get better, many won’t. It seems like, if anything good happens, it really just raises the high tide line of piss and bitch around here. The only way to fix that is to have every player play well and win 100 games…..
Which we all knew wasn’t going to happen. So why does it seem like so many of us act like we didn’t REALLY understand that this is a bad team?
Does it seem like the baseball gods hate you and your team?
That’s because they do.
Am I happy? Nope. But I understand that only Dodger fans get to be happy most of the time and I root for a much worse team at the nadir of it’s existence. That’s my choice. I chose the suck. So the expected day to day shit I am prepared for.
Why waste anger on any of this? Now sure, there may come a day when the Angels do something special to really piss me off. They’ll draft Liam Doyle with the #2 pick and then draft four catchers. They’ll trade prospects at the deadline and keep our impending FAs so that they look like they are “competing” for God knows what. That type of stuff will piss me off A LOT.
But seriously? Mystified anger over bringing Chris Taylor in? A daily fixation on firing Ron Washington (who the players seem to really like) like there’s a pile of guys out there who are just waiting to do a better job?Moaning about any win streak the team has like it was something done to you instead of for you? Who’s the bigger loser, you or the Angels?
Its also not that hard what really ails this team
O’Hoppe OPS On the Road .854 At Home .795
Taylor Ward OPS on the Road .953 At home .533
Zach Neto OPS on the Road 1.049 at home .713
Nolan Schanuel OPS on the road .892 at Home .603
Jorge Soler OPS on the road .704 at home .632
The Angels offense is scoring a respectable 4.53 runs on the road while only averaging 3.67 runs at the ancient native american burial site called the Big A . It would appear that the hitters that really know how to hit at the second oldest American League Ballpark are only those that are facing Angel pitchers
Is it cause they are closer to the bad juju?
And no surprise all but one win from the 8 game streak came on the road while the current losing streak are all home games.
I have another theory about this, and it has to do with the dead home crowds and really lacking any kind of home field advantage.
To support it :
Home record : 10-14
Road record : 15-15
Looks like the team is rolling when ward hits. He went cold again and so did the angels offense.
We all knew this was coming, part of our hopium addiction. Back to 12 steps.
As long as Arturo owns this team, this is the way it will continue to be.
So says Guardindians, Royals, Rays and Tigers fans year after year.
Athletics and Rockies too, although only the Rockies seem more hopeless.
There are good teams with lame ownership. It’s just not the case that things “can’t change” without a new owner. They totally can. They can also stay mostly the same with a new owner. Or the team can move to San Antonio. Or magic unicorn buys us, then buys two other teams, and sends all the good players from those teams to us.
All I know is Aaron Rogers annoys the fk out of me and he’s gonna be on the Steelers so the only answer is heavy drinking all year long.
BTW, I really like Lugo, but he’s got to tighten up on that defense. That flair that dropped in last night and that double over his shoulder at the wall Monday night were brutal. He’s young, so he can learn.
I think Monday night was Chris Taylor in center when the double went over his head
Perhaps, Ward has had several of those, so it’s just endemic of our team.
Lugo had 3 plays last night that looked subpar in center. An outright drop, and two bad plays in terms of reacting to the ball when hit.
Just needs some experience and reps out there.
Might as well stick Trout back out there if/when he returns. He gets injured even when he’s not playing there, and he seems to be a pretty bad RFer.
In the end, we all know he’s gonna hurt himself opening an energy drink either way.
Trout’s coming back?
Just a guess, but I bet he’s a little overwhelmed by MLB pitching etc at this point…. lots on his mind, so even simple defense gets rough. He’ll be back in MiLB when Trout makes his triumphant return at any moment now. He had a nice taste of the MLB but he clearly needs more time to work on hitting off speed… just like Paris…. and 90% of the prospects on most teams.
I just get aggravated when an OFer stops running and a second later (Two strides worth of time) the ball hits the wall or short hops it.
I don’t advocate for the Fred Lynn wall challenging approach on every ball, but MLB walls are a lot softer than in his day (Wrigley & Fenway Fields excepted). You gotta make those catches.
Yes, Lugo needs more time, but the talent is there.
I’m not even sure the talent is there. If it is, hurray. But a lot of guys who are smarter than me have looked long and hard at him and have him as a middling prospect. There are reasons for that. So if he kinda sucks, OK.
I was thinking that a team that constantly instructs their outfields to play abnormally deep would also teach them to charge balls in front of them and god forbid dive for a ball once. It isn’t one guy, they all do it.
Taylor only dove for those two catches because he’s not up to speed on the Angel SOP.
6-4 in our last 10 games. Woo-hoo!!
1st Place Ms and Tigers 6-4 in their last 10 games.
dodgers 5-5 in last ten.
LFG!!!
Mid-Week Blues Bros. O’Hoppe And Neato are not pushing Ward to return to his streaky ways. 👥 . Fore, For, Four, well no matter how you spell it, we could be in a good start to hit that big foreteen, forteen, fourteen, “L”s in a row, e-gads that would just be horrible for Washington and his lineups, PTP for his roster building, Arte for his astute micromanagement leadership.
Reality is a bit*h when it bites, but the truth is that winning streak was fun but never was to be the norm, so the good news is at least we are not the Rockies. 😗
Neto is just so much fun to watch at bat and out on the diamond.
So you are saying Wash shouldn’t wait another week and half to get his mohawk?
Is Arte micromanaging at this point? Why are we gonna lose 14? Can I please have some of that Klonopin you’re taking?
Mid-Week Blues Bros. O’Hoppe And Neato are not pushing Ward to return to his streaky ways. 👥