Around the Blogosphere

[Chuck]

I've been getting hit up lately from members who have their own Blogs to see if they can post links here of their content. Rather than SPAM our board on the main forum, especially during the season when it's busy, I decided to create this thread for both our old & new members to post excerpts and links to your written material outside of AngelsWin.com for discussion.

 

This thread is only for content that you own to post for discussion, not links and excerpts on the Angels and MLB news. Be sure to post at least an excerpt from your Blog and not just the link so our members here have an idea of what the topic is about.

 

As always, if you'd like to join forces with our talented staff of AngelsWin.com writers, please PM myself or Geoff Stoddart and include a sample of your work and the type of content you'd like to write for us.

 

So for those around the Blogosphere, post away.

[Brent Maguire]

http://maniacball.net/2014/01/25/impact-of-don-baylor-4/

This is the first blog I wrote for a new site called Maniac Ball. Any feedback would be awesome! Here's a little tidbit:

"I wanted to research how Baylor has done as a hitting coach. This is a tough subject as there isn’t a ton of evidence that coaches have much of an impact on their players. This is a study just to see if there are any correlating patterns among some of the teams that Baylor has coached in the past.

[OregonLAA]

Thanks Chuck for this thread! I have a blog up on Tumblr that I just started with some friends. The website is http://readoptionsports.tumblr.com. There will be lots of fantasy information, but it will just be a sports blog on anything we feel like writing about. Here's a part of the into to the blog:

"This is Read Option Sports and I suppose we must be up and running now. I hope people don’t think this is re-adoption because then we will get the wrong kind of readers. I don’t know if you can re-adopt or if that is real or whatever, but I wouldn’t want someone who is looking to find children to call their own, to read about how the Cubs are doing: They might be disappointed. I don’t want to disappoint anybody.

Anyway, I have no idea what is going to become of this site. We are just putting up the site and running with it. There aren’t any set in stone plans for what we are doing next. I feel like I have a good group of guys who are going to contribute in any way they wish and they should be a pretty entertaining bunch. My main focus for the site will be fantasy advice for both baseball and football. Maybe in the future when we have made it to the big show, we can help out with hockey and NASCAR and other things I don’t understand, but for now we will just try to cover the two most popular fantasy sports. I know I spend way too much of my time looking up stats and reading articles on who I should start or what match ups are the best for the given week. Generally I go with my gut and I have done pretty well with it. I figured I should give away my strategies and players I am targeting every year so that I never have a successful draft again. Each year I think to myself “Man, I really wish all the other guys knew who I wanted in the draft so I had no chance of landing them,” and here we are. Dreams really do come true. "

Anyways, come check it out if you're bored. Currently we are posting All Star lineups from each division. Post your NL East lineup if you feel so inclined. Thanks again

Edited January 27, 2014 by OregonLAA

[Brent Maguire]

http://maniacball.net/2014/01/27/analyzing-raul-ibanez-and-mark-trumbo/

 

My 2nd blog I just posted. An analysis of Ibanez replacing Trumbo in the lineup. 

 

"The numbers here show an extremely similar skillset in both players. These are players who struggle to get on base and hit for average but they both can slug. Ibanez walks more and strikes out less but Trumbo has had an advantage in the power department over the last 3 years." 

[Scott34]

Might as well... As some of you know, I branched off and started maniacball... maniacball.net - I wanted to try my own thing focusing more on scouting and advanced stats; and a bunch of people wanted to help out so it was a good situation.

 

Anyway - here is my first article, on Tyler Skaggs: http://maniacball.net/2014/01/26/a-complete-breakdown-of-tyler-skaggs/

 

"Skaggs came out of the gate in 2013 with less zip on his main pitch. His four-seem fastball dropped a full MPH in 2013 and stayed below his average speed for the duration of the season. However, his velocity followed the same pattern of decline that it did in 2012, which is certainly a glimmer of hope. Skaggs was never sitting in the mid 90s as Kevin Towers tried to claim, and his velocity drop was not at dramatic as analysts made it out to be. In fact, Fangraphs shows that his velocity in 2013 with Arizona was actually 0.1 MPH higher than it was in 2012."

 

 

Thanks Chuck for opening this thread.

[T.G.]

Chuck, I always appreciate the support you and this site provides True Grich. 

 

I haven't been as active lately, but I did post something recently that shows a different twist on the off season trades the team made...

 

Again, thanks for all your support.

[OregonLAA]

We put up our fantasy catcher rankings today

http://readoptionsports.tumblr.com/Fantasy%20Rankings

I'm Boulter if you want to yell at me

[Brent Maguire]

I wrote an article that was like the one released at CBS Sports today.

http://maniacball.net/2014/01/29/all-time-angels-team/

"The Angels have had many great seasons in their 53 year history. Have you ever wondered what a team would look like if we put all those great seasons together? You found the right place. I am going to look back at the best seasons in Angels history and construct a 25 man roster that would be a complete powerhouse."

[OregonLAA]

"The Omaha Bet:

Anyone who has watched the Broncos play knows Peyton loves to audible at the line of scrimmage. His most famous call this year was “Omaha.” I have no idea what this means, but it’s probably some sort of signal for Knowshon Moreno to stop crying and run the ball up the middle. Either way, during the AFC Championship, Manning shouted this 44 times. The line is now set at 50 Omaha’s for the Super Bowl, and I’m firing like Lee Harvey Oswald on this one and taking the over. The Seahawks have unarguably the best defense in the league this year, and Peyton will have to switch it up more than a swingers club on a Friday night."

Prop Bets!!!

http://readoptionsports.tumblr.com/post/75111423589/beer-brauts-and-prop-bets

[Chuck]

Good stuff guys, keep it coming!

[Scott34]

Over at maniac ball... We deemed Hunter Green the number 2 prospect with Cowart at 3. I wrote them up here:

http://maniacball.net/top-30-prospects/prospects-list-1-5/

Edited February 1, 2014 by Scott34

[Brent Maguire]

http://maniacball.net/2014/01/31/david-freese-analysis/

I took a thorough look through David Freese's numbers the past few years. There's a good chance the injury was a big part of his struggles last year. A healthy Freese should be a solid producer.

"David Freese will be manning 3rd base for the Angels in 2014. In a trade that sent Peter Bourjos to St. Louis, Freese was sent to Anaheim to fix the hole at 3rd base. Most baseball fans remember Freese for his infamous Game 6 in the 2011 World Series."

[LBHalos17]

Great idea, Chuck!  I'll check-out some of these other blogs later when I have more time.

 

My personality as a player points me more toward the "romantic" "old school" style of looking at baseball.  I prefer looking at the final product of a game, and intangibles of how players helped their team win from game to game.  I do, however, like to look at these new fantasy-type stats to see where players (myself included) can improve their games.

[Scott34]

Does Suk Min Yoon Make Sense for the Angels?

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/02/does-suk-min-yoon-make-sense-for-the-angels/

[Brent Maguire]

Meet Joe Smith, newest Angels reliever.

http://maniacball.net/?p=1106

"Joe Smith may just have the most boring and ordinary name in all of baseball. He is, however, one of the better relievers in baseball. The Angels and Smith agreed to a 3 year 15 million dollar deal in late November."

[Brent Maguire]

Which FA starter should the Angels sign?

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/07/remaining-fa-starter-options/

"The Angels trade for Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago realistically gave the Angels a set starting rotation for 2014. No, Joe Blanton doesn’t count as a candidate for the 5th spot. At least myself and other Angels fans hope so. "

[Scott34]

I'm ranting

 

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/07/quick-rant/

 

"1. Stop with the ridiculous, ludicrous, laughable player comps.  Tweets like this from Jon Heyman (and plenty of others) are what grind my gears:"

[Brent Maguire]

Mike Trout is a pretty good player.

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/10/mike-trout-time-great/

"Mike Trout is good. You probably already knew this. But how good exactly has he been since his call up in 2011?"

[Brent Maguire]

In honor of the passing of Jim Fregosi, I wrote a blog about his impact as an Angel.

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/14/remembering-jim-fregosi/

[Brent Maguire]

For any fantasy baseball fans, I wrote an article looking at the Angels forecast for this season. 

 

http://maniacball.net/2014/02/27/fantasy-baseball-2014-angels-forecast/

 

"Mike Trout is the unanimous #1 overall pick in fantasy baseball this year. No matter what league you play in, Trout is at the top. It makes you wonder how so many people agree that Trout is the best player in baseball yet hasn’t won his MVP award yet. That’s for a different time though. Trout is the only player who can boast a .320+ AVG, .950+ OPS, 100+ R, 30+ SB and 25+ bombs. If you have the first overall pick, pick Trout. No question." 

[OregonLAA]

We have a countdown going. Today was Nolan Ryan

[Second Base]

In this article I cover my 5 bold predictions from last season so that fans could see where I saw the trends and made decent predictions and others where I completely and miserably failed (three gold gloves and an MVP lol).  Give it a read. 

 

http://www.monkeywithahalo.com/2014-articles/march/bold-predictions-for-the-2014-angels.html

 

[Angelsjunky]

Good stuff, Scotty. You're going to get flack for predicting that Weaver turns into a #4-5 starter. I can see the writing on the wall, but that's a bit extreme. I could see him settling in as a #3 type for a few years, but it will be some time before he's a #4-5.

 

I can agree with all of the others, though.

[Llewyn Davis]

Zach Borenstein gets called up late July and secures a starting job for 2015. Fans experience deja vu because the same thing happened with Kole Calhoun in 2013.

 

Garrett Richards finally puts it all together and has a better season than C.J. Wilson.

 

Josh Hamilton bounces back, but Albert Pujols does not

 

Calhoun has just as good a season as Alex Gordon.

 

Mike Morin makes the team out of Spring Training and never looks back.

Edited March 4, 2014 by Llewyn Davis

[Second Base]

Good stuff, Scotty. You're going to get flack for predicting that Weaver turns into a #4-5 starter. I can see the writing on the wall, but that's a bit extreme. I could see him settling in as a #3 type for a few years, but it will be some time before he's a #4-5.

 

I can agree with all of the others, though.

 

I figured I would, and that's expected.  Weaver's the best SP this organization has produced in a long time and as fans we take pride in that and sort of latch onto it as the one steady thing we know we can count on year in and year out.  It always puzzles me when pitchers in their mid-20's that throw mid-90's fizzle out after a few years.  But Weav's logged a ton of innings, is over 30, uses a pretty complicated delivery and is sitting in the mid-80's right now.  If I weren't such an optimistic homer I'd think he was on the edge of the Roy Halladay cliff.  But I think it's that delivery/deception that will allow for his decline to be slower and less of a sudden jolt.