Honest question about scouting reports

[Brandon]

That's more or less what I was getting at.  How can you score so many runs and have good OPS, but let Oakland's pitchers totally destroy you? 

 

I'm not discounting the fact Oakland has good players, but the Angels face them 18 or 19 times every year, and SHOULD BE familiar with them.  The talent is definitely there, but I don't think they come to the plate prepared.

 

They scored 11 runs in the series, not exactly destroying.

 

The A's scored 26.

 

I think you might want to be concerned with the Angels pitchers meetings.

[nate]

I have never covered a team that spent this much time on scouting meetings.

 

Thanks Jeff!

[mp170.6]

They scored 11 runs in the series, not exactly destroying.

 

The A's scored 26.

 

I think you might want to be concerned with the Angels pitchers meetings.

 

You're right, the same point applies to Angels pitchers sometimes...

 

Either way, I think the whole team is unprepared when facing AL West rivals.  They went 32-44 against AL West teams and 46-40 against everybody else last year.  The same trend is emerging this year -- a 10-15 record against AL West teams, but 20-11 against everybody else. 

 

How can they play so badly against teams they are most familiar with? 

[nate]

Here is an honest question I have asked a hundred times...

 

Could it be that we have the wrong strategists in charge of disseminating the said scouting?

[Brandon]

So we have the right guy for the job against everyone else (like when we were tearing it up the past couple weeks when there wasn't a peep about who was running the dugout), but against the AL West we have a failure at the helm?

 

Did you guys ever think maybe we have a good division? 4 of the 5 teams are .500 or better at this moment.

[Blarg]

I think we have the wrong talent suiting up for the game.

[mp170.6]

So we have the right guy for the job against everyone else (like when we were tearing it up the past couple weeks when there wasn't a peep about who was running the dugout), but against the AL West we have a failure at the helm?

 

Did you guys ever think maybe we have a good division? 4 of the 5 teams are .500 or better at this moment.

 

How do you explain the disparity in success against AL West teams vs everybody else?  I can't think of any baseball explanation for that. 

 

Oakland and Texas both slaughtered the Houston Astros last year, 15-4 and 17-2.  Yet, the Angels went 9-10.  That makes absolutely no sense considering the Astros finished the year 51-111.

[Blarg]

The AL West teams are better than most of the rest of the league.

[mp170.6]

The AL West teams are better than most of the rest of the league.

 

This year or last year? 

[Blarg]

Pretty much every year for the last five. You can pull anomalies like the Astros that the Angels don't match up with and then see the Angels destroyed Detroit last season. Are the scouting reports on Detroit better?

[Brent Maguire]

How do you explain the disparity in success against AL West teams vs everybody else?  I can't think of any baseball explanation for that. 

 

Oakland and Texas both slaughtered the Houston Astros last year, 15-4 and 17-2.  Yet, the Angels went 9-10.  That makes absolutely no sense considering the Astros finished the year 51-111.

The Angels are 5-2 against Houston this year. Last year really doesn't have any meaning since the Angels are much, much better this year. 

[mp170.6]

Pretty much every year for the last five. You can pull anomalies like the Astros that the Angels don't match up with and then see the Angels destroyed Detroit last season. Are the scouting reports on Detroit better?

 

I wouldn't call their record against the Astros an anomaly considering what the A's and Rangers accomplished. 

 

Almost half (76) of the Angels' games are against division rivals.  I think we can both agree they need to step things up if they want to reach the playoffs. 

[Blarg]

Jeff Mathis completely owned Andy Pettit with an 848 OPS. AJ Burnett got even more of a beating by a schmuck that couldn't hit. 200 against the rest of baseball. That must mean Pettit and Burnett are never prepared or get poor scouting to face Jeff Mathis.

[Docwaukee]

you can scout till you are blue in the face.  It ultimately comes down to execution. 

 

As an example, yesterday in the first inning, Calhoun had a great at bat and walked.

Aybar then swings at the first pitch he saw which was out of the zone. 

[mp170.6]

The Angels are 5-2 against Houston this year. Last year really doesn't have any meaning since the Angels are much, much better this year. 

 

Last year's failures against AL West teams have spilled over into this year.  That's what I'm getting at here, it's not completely about the Astros by any means. 

 

Did you see my post further up about their overall record against the AL West?  They went 32-44 against AL West teams and 46-40 against everybody else last year.  The same trend is emerging this year -- a 10-15 record against AL West teams, but 20-11 against everybody else.

[Blarg]

MP it is a complete anomaly if the worst team in baseball has you number. It certainly isn't a foreseeable event and it seems to have corrected itself this season.

[Brandon]

The entire team and season sucked last year, losing to the Astros more than expected was part of the equation of the Angels underachieving.

[mp170.6]

MP it is a complete anomaly if the worst team in baseball has you number. It certainly isn't a foreseeable event and it seems to have corrected itself this season.

 

So the Angels didn't underachieve against the Astros?  That was just bad luck? 

[Brandon]

Last year's failures against AL West teams have spilled over into this year.  That's what I'm getting at here, it's not completely about the Astros by any means. 

 

Did you see my post further up about their overall record against the AL West?  They went 32-44 against AL West teams and 46-40 against everybody else last year.  The same trend is emerging this year -- a 10-15 record against AL West teams, but 20-11 against everybody else.

 

You don't do yourself any favors talking about this years team and then jumping back to pointint out last years standings. It's apples and oranges anyway.

 

Like I posted above, the West is good as their records indicate. The rest of the league is also losing to the West, not just us.

 

I also find it impossible to have the same person (using your excuse)  providing good scouting against 10 other teams, but suddenly doesn't do the same thing with the other 4 teams. It's pretty absurd.

[mp170.6]

You don't do yourself any favors talking about this years team and then jumping back to pointint out last years standings. It's apples and oranges anyway.

 

Why is the same trend happening this year? 

 

 

I also find it impossible to have the same person (using your excuse)  providing good scouting against 10 other teams, but suddenly doesn't do the same thing with the other 4 teams. It's pretty absurd.

 

I struggle with that too, but can you think of any alternative explanation?  I was thinking maybe it could be psychological or laziness on the part of the players. 

 

Doesn't make sense that a team can go 46-40 against teams they rarely play (meaning they are talented or well prepared, or both), but then get destroyed 32-44 by teams they play all the time.  I get it, that was last year, but the trend is continuing into this year... 

[Jeff Fletcher]

The first series of the year they got swept by the mariners. They played badly. Didn't matter who they were playing, they'd have been swept.

This weekend they got swept by the A's, who have the best record and run differential in the league.

In between they are 5-2 vs houston, 3-3 vs Seattle, 1-2 V's Oakland (all 1-run games), 1-2 vs Texas. That's 10-9.

Last year their problems vs the west were because 1. The west is good and 2. They had the bad timing to run into Houston at some of their lowest points. They also got swept in the last weekend of the season when Texas had to win to make the playoffs and the angels were out of it.

I wouldn't read too much into it

[Streetkid]

I have never covered a team that spent this much time on scouting meetings.

 

Then we need less meetings!!

[Blarg]

you can scout till you are blue in the face.  It ultimately comes down to execution. 

 

As an example, yesterday in the first inning, Calhoun had a great at bat and walked.

Aybar then swings at the first pitch he saw which was out of the zone. 

 

Aybar at least did his job and sacrificed him to 2nd on a bunt. Calhoun then gets himself thrown out at third for the final out trying to take third base on a ground ball to the shortstop. His first instinct is to go back to the bag then on the force at first he decides he can make it to third only to be tagged out by two steps. No scouting can prevent these guys from making dumb in game decisions.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Eric Notti

[Docwaukee]

Aybar at least did his job and sacrificed him to 2nd on a bunt. Calhoun then gets himself thrown out at third for the final out trying to take third base on a ground ball to the shortstop. His first instinct is to go back to the bag then on the force at first he decides he can make it to third only to be tagged out by two steps. No scouting can prevent these guys from making dumb in game decisions.

Yep. 

 

Bunting in the first inning is also a dumb decision. 

[tdawg87]

dumb decision. 

 

Aybar

 

 

 

dumb decision. 

 

 

Aybar

 

 

dumb decision. 

 

These two things just aren't correlating for me.