Tweaks…no big changes.

[mulwin444]

I heard the Zombie Casey Stengel may also be available... 

[fan_since79]

If either of those three are available, I say "Go for it!"

 

See my edited post. Of course I know Anderson and Weaver are no longer available. I'm talking about intensity and success often going together. There's the right kind and the wrong kind, as in any human character trait.

[fan_since79]

I heard the Zombie Casey Stengel may also be available... 

 

Glad to see you're having fun ignoring my point.

[Jay]

I heard the Zombie Casey Stengel may also be available... 

 

damn

[mulwin444]

I don't know, Mike seems like a pretty intense guy.  He doesn't look like he's on prozac or anything.  I think what we see and hear as fans is a little different than what actually happens.  Mike does some questionable things at times but so do a lot of quality managers.  I take a look around the league and I don't see a whole of people I'd take over him.  Just looking at the playoffs, would you want the rookie Aumus, the puddin' head Yost, or micromanager Showalter? 

[fan_since79]

Showalter and Yost don't seem to be hurting their respective teams.

[Adam]

Cron is going to be a beast

[SC81]

For those counting on Santiago, I really think he is a long reliever.  For the past two years, he has been a five inning pitcher, once he hits the third time around, he gets clobbered. 

 

For those counting on Skaggs, I don't think he comes back for real until 2015.  Next year, he will just be at the beginning of his comeback in mid-season.

 

CJ needs to prove himself again. 

 

Jerod Weaver is a number one but he does it with guts and guile.

 

Rasmus may be an answer, but Scoscia never stretched him out for some reason, which may indicate he isn't.

 

Shoemaker is a great story, who had a great year which will be hard to replicate.  I really, really want him to be the dominant pitcher who he appears to be, but until he does it in year two, I wouldn't bet the season on him.

 

With all that, yes the Angels need a pitcher - and not another middle of the rotation guy.  They need a top tier guy to be a number two, and allow CJ to pitch as the four or five starter.

 

Finally, I'd like to see the Angels pick up someone like Headley for 3b.  He is David Freese's bat with a much better glove.

 

 

[mulwin444]

Showalter and Yost don't seem to be hurting their respective teams.

Mike also got 98 wins out of a team in arguably the toughest division in baseball losing their young ace Starter, their expensive, aging LFer missing half the season, their lead-off hitter missing a month, the bane known as Frieri, and finished the season using 3 1/2 starters to get home field advantage.  To me, the team ran out of gas.  Add to the fact that they lost 2 close extra inning playoff games at home, aided significantly by some stand-out defensive plays by the opponents defense, they ran out of pieces they could rely on.  To further illustrate how much pieces they lacked at the end of the season, CJ "F'n" Wilson was pitching in a playoff elimintation game.  Need I say more.  Maybe someone LaRussa-like squeezes a ALDS series win but I don't see the hybrid clone of Connie Mack, John McGraw, Walter Alston and Joe Torre gets them through the ALCS.

[Angel Oracle]

I don't understand why anyone would want to break up the Kendrick/Aybar tandem. Look at the year they've had.  

Kendrick only has one more season left on his contract.

It's not a given to trade him.    BUT, if someone were to come along with a trade offer that helps the Halos elsewhere, they have to listen.   If Beckham wasn't here, they would need to be very cautious.

[tdawg87]

The rotation needs an overhaul.

[Inside Pitch]

Sparky Anderson, Earl Weaver, Tony LaRussa...just off the top of my head. Historically intense, and successful, managers. There are many others. And I'm sure someone living could be found that can fire up these players, who seem far too relaxed for the team's good.

 

Congrats, you named three guys who were famous for blowing up on umpires...  Too bad you would have been whining they couldn't win for most of their managerial tenures...   

 

Tony La Russa took 12 years to win his first WS, and then waited 17 years to win his second.  You would have been calling for his head on a daily basis anytime he made a decision based on LH/RH basis, which was the norm.  Yeah his career finished well but one WS win in his first 29 years as a manager.  ONE. 

 

Weaver?  Weaver took over a team that had 3 future HOFers and were coming off  97, 94, and 97 win seasons including a WS the three previous years..   He managed one WS win in his 17 years despite having had players such as Ken Singleton, Eddie Murray, Bobby Grich, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer, Mike Cuellar, Paul Blair, Don Baylor, Doug DeCinces, Mike Flanagan during their primes.... hell he had Reggie for a season... I'm choosing not to bring up guys like Al Bumbry, and the sort -- players who would be equals to the Howie Kendrick type players MS has been running out there, but its easy to say he routinely had one of the best teams in the AL and yet he managed  One WS in 17 years...   Don't forget this was in an era when ONE series win put you into the WS.  In fact he took over the Orioles when all you had to do was have the best record in the AL and it got you into the WS.  His most famous managerial strategy was to wait for a 3 run HR -- he was famous for having said as much.

 

Sparky Anderson, another guy that inherited a loaded team, Bench, Rose, Tony Perez and then they added to it -- great early success with the Big Red Machine then one WS in the next 19 seasons.  For all his yelling at umpires he wasn't known for yelling at his players.  Whatever connections you are making between winning and intensity seem awfully shallow.

 

If anything, your list of managers paints MS in a pretty decent light and it shows how hard it is to win in MLB.  Those guys were all great managers, HOFers, and yet they all saw long stretches of what most people would consider futility.

Edited October 7, 2014 by Inside Pitch

[Inside Pitch]

The rotation needs an overhaul.

 

Yep...  They need to add some real depth to it.   I get they want to stretch Rasmus out, but I really hope they don't address the rotation by taking from the pen and go in with an incomplete team again to start next season.

[stormngt]

Winning 98 games with the best record in baseball's regular season with a team projected to come in third place is certainly a good argument to keep him.

Listing the worst managers in the league is not a valid argument to keep scioscia around.

[Chuck]

Add a SP starter via a trade or FA, then sign a bunch of SP's for AAA/Major League depth and hope they don't get injured. 

 

We get the lefty back that we got for Romine. LeBlanc is a good guy to keep around. 

 

I would like them to get a true leadoff hitter and move Calhoun and Trout down one spot in the lineup. Would love to get Russell Martin. Iannetta is a good backup guy IMO. Conger needs to go.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

I don't see Scioscia as a problem. His team quit hitting once the calendar hit October. He tried everything to produce runs. The pitching was good enough in games 1 and 2 to have won them with any production at all.

We don't need to blow things up. We also don't need to spend a bunch more money on players. The Dodgers did that, and they are joining us on the golf course. They lost two games with arguably the best pitcher in baseball on the mound for them. Perhaps one thing we ought to rethink is sitting all of our starters at the end of the season. They don't need to play full games necessarily, but I wonder what role their relative inactivity for the last week played in the ultimate outcome. Most of us figured "season over" when Richards went down, but we won 98 games. I wouldn't stand pat, but I wouldn't make sweeping changes either. Address catcher and third base, pick up a lefty reliever and add some SP depth. Not a long shopping list.

[Butcher'd]

They really need to enter Spring training with 8 or 9 guys who can start in the Major Leagues.

 

They entered this year with 6 guys (Weaver, Wilson, Richards, Santiago, Skaggs, Shoemaker) who they thought could be at least league average, and they got burned by it. Injuries happen. 

 

Wilson and Santiago both can't be starters. One of them has to go to the pen, the other will be the 5th starter. I'd sign 2 respectable starters this offseason. Then when Richards gets back someone else will probably be injured.

 

Going into a season with 3 MLB starters (Weaver, FA, Shoemaker), Wilson, and Santiago is playing with fire. Richards should be back by June but who knows

 

Dipoto is going to have to get creative

[jsnpritchett]

Add a SP starter via a trade or FA, then sign a bunch of SP's for AAA/Major League depth and hope they don't get injured. 

 

We get the lefty back that we got for Romine. LeBlanc is a good guy to keep around. 

 

I would like them to get a true leadoff hitter and move Calhoun and Trout down one spot in the lineup. Would love to get Russell Martin. Iannetta is a good backup guy IMO. Conger needs to go.

 

Martin is highly suspect to me.  He had his best offensive year ever this season, after being a league-average or below offensive player for 5 years in a row.  Someone will likely throw a stupid-big contract at him.  I really hope it's not us.

[Torridd]

Are our catchers really that bad? I know Conger slumped, but I still think he can be an important cog.

[jsnpritchett]

Are our catchers really that bad? I know Conger slumped, but I still think he can be an important cog.

 

They're not so bad that we need to go out and spend $50+ million on another one.

[Hollyw00d]

Russell Martin wouldn't be much better than Iannetta IMO and be a lot more expensive. And then of course there's the free agent bust factor.

SP obviously is the biggest need again

[Angel Oracle]

One thing I noticed with Martin is that after being a so-so RISP guy through 2013, he morphed into Bengie and Yadier this past season with a .977 RISP OPS.  

 

One year wonder?    Or has he finally truly arrived as a hitter?

[stormngt]

I don't see Scioscia as a problem. His team quit hitting once the calendar hit October. He tried everything to produce runs. The pitching was good enough in games 1 and 2 to have won them with any production at all.

We don't need to blow things up. We also don't need to spend a bunch more money on players. The Dodgers did that, and they are joining us on the golf course. They lost two games with arguably the best pitcher in baseball on the mound for them. Perhaps one thing we ought to rethink is sitting all of our starters at the end of the season. They don't need to play full games necessarily, but I wonder what role their relative inactivity for the last week played in the ultimate outcome. Most of us figured "season over" when Richards went down, but we won 98 games. I wouldn't stand pat, but I wouldn't make sweeping changes either. Address catcher and third base, pick up a lefty reliever and add some SP depth. Not a long shopping list.

Outside of the Seattle game after we clinched:  when did we sit our regulars?

 

I thought they all played.  I know Sosh pulled them late in the games, but I thought they pretty much played as scheduled.  Am I wrong?

[stormngt]

They really need to enter Spring training with 8 or 9 guys who can start in the Major Leagues.

 

They entered this year with 6 guys (Weaver, Wilson, Richards, Santiago, Skaggs, Shoemaker) who they thought could be at least league average, and they got burned by it. Injuries happen. 

 

Wilson and Santiago both can't be starters. One of them has to go to the pen, the other will be the 5th starter. I'd sign 2 respectable starters this offseason. Then when Richards gets back someone else will probably be injured.

 

Going into a season with 3 MLB starters (Weaver, FA, Shoemaker), Wilson, and Santiago is playing with fire. Richards should be back by June but who knows

 

Dipoto is going to have to get creative

we have to come to the realization that standing pat will be a reckless move.  Wilson could bounce bat but it would be foolish to rely on it.  Hamilton could return to an above average hitter, but again, I wouldn't rely on it.  Those are the two areas + a lefty out of the pen is where we need to improve.  

 

Two starters:  We may need to trade Howie for one.  I don't like the idea of it, but I don't see where we are getting two starters, a impact DH and a lefty out of the pen for 10 million.

 

We trade Howie for a Skaggs type pitcher.  We take the money and  sign a solid DH and another starter.  Give 2b to Green or keep Beckham. 

[stormngt]

If either of those three are available, I say "Go for it!"

Weaver has won as many WS titles as Scioscia.  If we hired him people will be complaining about how he hasn't won anything in 44 years!

 

 

sarcasm intended.