The Hall Of Fame induction ceremony happened over the weekend.
There is still no real news out of the Angels camp.
The Rangers released Jarred Kelenic.
The As acquired Scott Blewett. The White Sox acquired Jose Urquidy.
The Yankees placed Cody Bellinger on the injured list with a hamstring strain.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
It’s been brought up before, but, Mike Trout’s Home & Away splits are beyond perplexing. My laptop A.I. spit out the following information:
Home (BA, OBP, OPS) = .208 / .362 / .725+
Away (VA, OBP, OPS) = .270+ / .430+ / .950+
I’m not sure why the data isn’t more precise – I either need to drill down with follow up questions OR I need to pay for the premium service. Anyway, these rough numbers tell enough of a story for a guy that for his career has fairly balanced Home/Away splits.
Baseball reference has those stats ready to go.
All of my potential Soriano trades in one place. A’s, Cubs, Brewers, Marlins.
can we do all 4?
Out of this group who might be considered the prize? Arnold?
Well, I tried to design them so that they wouldn’t be overly top-heavy, and each more of a balanced package of offense/pitching. I don’t know that there’s a single “prize” in any, though Snelling has quite a high ceiling.
Nice. I like the Brewers package. Did some looking into their system and I like they Adamczewski kid now.
Would love to try to pry Quero away from them but liked Fischer when he was at Tennessee.
You can go at the Brewers system in five different ways – they’re just so deep. I’ve tried packages with Quero, Hardin, Blake Burke. They’ve done an amazing job at drafting and player development.
The Cubs’ system isn’t as deep, but there’s still a lot of quantity there – I could have substituted Hartshorn, Rojas, Kepley, Long in different configurations.
(Hartshorn was my overslot obsession in last year’s draft – you can see him at #11 on my board that year…hoping for a TGA-like deal on Day Two.)
Brewers system is crazy good. Really like that organization top to bottom. They are to me what the A’s are to you right now.
I started my piece with Quero because the Angels are openly seeking a catcher. Once I chose my headliner, it was time to look for a co feature and Adamczewski is simply a hitting machine.
But you are correct, you can pick any number of players as your A side and the B side will still be a hit.
Read this after writing a Cubs piece. I think you’ll really like the Cubs return. It will post tomorrow at 6 am On SI.
Here’s my Brewers package if we upgrade it to Detmers. A trio of boomstick, a strong defensive catcher, and a potential #3/4 rotation type (which was, to be fair, what Detmers was only a couple years ago).
I like the ones with the A’s and the Cubs the best. In fact, I’d love either one a lot.
I don’t know why but I’m gravitated to that CUBS trade and think that would be best for us. I don’t want to trade in the division.
Not news per se but if you want something to read and discuss, here are some bonus links:
Reid Detmers to the Dodgers proposal.
Soriano to the Brewers makes sense.
Zach Neto to the Red Sox idea.
And the Angels trade chip nobody is discussing, Ryan Zeferjahn.
I saw one of those for Schanuel that was similar to the Zeferjahn article.
I tend to agree with all those potential trade partners:
I really liked the Marlins as a trade partner too, but their brutal July swoon is taking them out of the race.
Jeff Kent instead of Bobby Grich offends me.
When stacked with these 2nd basemen, Kent has pretty solid stats. Yeah I know, he was a dick.
I’ve done this before and I agree. I don’t think it’s about Kent, I think it’s about the fact that they all belong and Grich and Whitaker are not in. Cano is not yet eligible.
Whitaker is a mystery to me why he is not in. Cano will be in the HOF with paid admission ticket only. Kent got in based on power numbers. Grich just didn’t play long enough.
Grich was the best hitter out of all of them and he generated more WAR than all but Whitaker. According to JAWS He is probably the 7th best hitting 2B all time.
Thank you for taking the time to research my claim.
WAR to me is just a calculation. I prefer stone cold hard stats (HR, RBI, HITS) and when I heard someone argue that Ichiro Suzuki was not a great player because his WAR was low, I threw WAR out with the baby bath water. Ichiro was a beast.
The person making that argument forgot that Ichiro didn’t play in MLB until age 27 and WAR only includes MLB games. He played nine seasons in NPB at very elite level. I think you could say that an estimated WAR from NPB days plus MLB would put him over 100 WAR. Yes, absolute beast. 4,367 hits in his total career.
That’s a good call MH and I had not factored that in. For me, Ichiro was must see TV and I appreciate sports players whose skills stand out amongst the elite of the elites, no matter what team the play on. His first year in MLB, just over the top and it certainly did not stop there.
So counting numbers are all that matter and rate stats do not. RBIs have long been shown to be heavily influenced by who hits ahead of you. I get the fallacious WAR argument with Ichiro and he was a great athlete. The thing that stands out to me though is that he was just 7% better than average as a hitter. He was Nolan Schanuel with a better BA, but the same OBA, and a similar slugging PCT. He hit like a 2B and played RF. He did accumulate 60 WAR which is HOF level even with the late start, and he had 3000 hits. He was a great defensive RF and base runner, but he was not a great hitter. He was just 7% better than average. Not saying he doesn’t belong in the hall but he is very overrated as a hitter. I am not buying the accomplishments in Japan are equal to MLB.
Whitaker was half of that famous double-play combo of 19-seasons that debuted on the same day. Just crazy. A solid professional. Peeling back the stats, borderline but would not bother me to see him get elected as much as Scott Rolen.
The single most expensive article of clothing I own is my Mitchell & Ness Grich jersey.
Offensive (in multiple ways) player only. Terrible defense.
Even Bobby’s mustache was better. And the WAR.
It should offend everyone.
Did we trade anyone yet?
What’s a trade? 🙂
Can we trade Kurt first?
Did we at least release any one yet!!! (Squinting at you, Soler)
Soler will be here through the trade deadline as they pray somebody will take him.
The key is what happens next Tuesday when he’s still an Angel. Do they let Trout finish the year in CF or do they give Rada a chance, DFA Soler, and get Trout off his feet?
Very disappointed in our new “Consultant GM”. Haven’t seen a single move to create change in the organization. Soler is a joke as a hitter and worse as a clean-up hitter, If Mo is praying for someone to have interest in him, at least get him out of the clean-up spot! Siri needs to get with the program or get gone. Yesterday’s bush league display should have resulted in his benching. Suzuki lost a lot of credibility in the clubhouse for that. Why isn’t Meckler playing almost every day? Let’s see if he’s for real. Peraza has apparently been banished for some unknown reason. Lowe is still here. C’mon man, let’s get going!
Mo has kind of already proven that he is a guy that will let others in the org do their jobs. Short of firing Suzuki for his incompetence, I don’t think you will see his influence extend to day-to-day lineup decisions. And with this season already being a lost cause, I don’t think he has much of a reason to fire Captain Clueless.
As much as I hate Suzuki, I do appreciate that the GM is not trying to influence how the team is managed. After years of hearing that Perry was allegedly meddling, it is refreshing. I just wish the manager wasn’t a worthless dipshit.
I ‘m happy that he is not trying to meddle in the manager’s job except when the manager is doing a poor job. At the very least, take away his toys.
Taking away his job would be best.
Hopefully in time this will happen. But it would be pretty bold for an interim GM who has been hired to turn around and fire the manager immediately.
It’s the kind of bold we need after all these years of futility and incompetence. Let Torii have a run at it as an interim. See if he likes it and we like him.
I actually like that idea a lot if he was interested. I would prefer that over anything else. He’s known and respected by the players and is not an outsider.
Yeah, this season is lost. It makes most sense to just have Mo not renew his contract in the offseason rather than fire him now and cause innumerable distractions heading into the trade deadline.
Suzuki lost a lot of credibility in the clubhouse for that
I didn’t know we had a legit member of the clubhouse that participates on this site. That’s what I call access. SWEET!
Suzuki is just occupying the seat until his contract expires. Replacing him with some DNA hybrid of Casey Stengal and Sparky Anderson would not get this team to win.
Siri is simply not that intelligent. Look at his huge, dangling, diamond encrusted earrings of a number that is no longer his jersey number as an indicator.
I agree but it’s not about winning, it’s about moving forward from disfunction.
I get that. Suzuki comes across as too much of one of the guys to me. Perhaps promoting Gibbons would put a more traditional manager in the seat.
Maybe it’s not even Suzuki. I would just like to see Meckler playing over Lowe and almost anybody over Soler. Not a lot you can do right now, it’s just frustrating to not even play the best guys you have.
Looks like Jo Adell wants out of the Angels with the way he’s heated up recently.
Hopefully there’s more of that motivation left, and he goes on a tear this week.
Or he faces all left handed pitchers.
Although he’ll likely keep Suzuki through the end of the season, let’s see what he does at the trade deadline….
Don’t be surprised if nothing much happens at the trade deadline. Everyone has the same data and analyze the same way. Data on each player they are looking at is already on their charts. The pitching/hitting matchups for the rest of the season plus park data is already analyzed. If the team is already going to the playoffs the next question is will this player get us to the next level. If not, do I want to give up prospects to crash out at the same place I would have anyway. What would be the point. You can do the trade because you want to build later on. But then maybe you wait till off season.
Right now only eight teams out of both leagues project to have greater than 10% chances of appearing in league championship series.
I don’t know how that’s possible because there are 4 more teams that will be in the playoffs.
I guess whoever is doing the projecting expects several teams to get crushed in the wild card round.
Interestingly Seattle is getting love as one of the three teams that could make the ALCS.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a one time opportunity to move forward, and without taking advantage of it, there will be no significant changes in the clubs performance for years to come. We’re not winning with the roster we have, we don’t have a bunch of prospects a year away, and there will be very little or no activity during the labor dispute which would delay moving forward for several years and the players you want to trade will likely not have as much value by then. We need to trade everyone with 3 years or less of control and start over which would give us a chance to be competitive in 28 or 29. Otherwise, we just wait for Trout to be gone and start over in 2031.Gotta be realistic.
Not disputing what you are passing on but there are currently 19 teams, 9 in the AL and 10 in the NL, within 2 games or less of a playoff spot with more than two months to play. All of those teams should be at least 40% or greater.
He was already going to be here after the season and through the end of the year. Let’s see what he’s able to do. Right now he’s optimistic and it’s all talk. Not saying he can’t or won’t but I’m skeptical until I see it. I am no longer optimistic, but I’m hopeful.
I can imagine conversations with Arte along the lines of: “you want to do a rebuild? then stick around a few years to see it through”.
I suspect that Moreno will be reluctant to greenlight any major changes absent Mozeliak taking accountability for them, and providing PR cover for any fallout.
But what other “fallout” could there be when someone finally executed a rebuild? Practically everyone and their dog are begging the Angels to accept reality, and knock this team to the ground and really rebuild (or resurrect, like your sim suggested). I imagine when that finally happens that that actually buys Arte the best PR he can ever purchase from since when he lowered beer prices.
Just for comparison, look at the fielding errors made by Neto. Then compare it to Cal Ripken or Derek Jeter their first couple years in MLB. Shortstops that can hit a little are not that easy to find. If Neto is “trainable” he could be a good fielding shortstop for a few years. If he is not, then it is time for him to go. Ask his coaches.
Did Mike Trout have a good weekend? He sure did as he passed Tim Salmon for second place on the Angels team record for doubles behind Garret Anderson. Not too Shabby hey.
Watch out, Mikey could hit .260 this season.
The average batting average in the majors is .244. It’s good to see Mike above that, at least for now
His OPS+ is 147, so he’s really delivering overall offense results well above league average.
Might sound funny but an OPS+ of 147 is HOF level for a career. So even if it’s not vintage 172 OPS+ Trout, it’s still elite and a lot better than we give him credit for.
This season of Trout is the classic “doesn’t pass the smell or eye test, but he’s really doing well”. I’d like to see more power. Hopefully he can go on a HR tear soon. Would be nice to see him end the season be in the 35-40 HR range and reach double digits in steals.
With that said, cue Terry and his post of Trout’s horrible home numbers to counteract his overall OPS+ number.
You are correct. It is very odd. His total body of work is very good but the way in which it has been accumulated is very strange and inconsistent. He’s mixed in being not so good most of the time with a few smaller windows of video game performance.
