I've never been the one to say this..

[WestistheBest]

Well, it's part of the point. They didn't score even half of 7. Don't blame crappy offense on pitching.

No, I will blame the pitching. It's the black hole where momentum goes to die. The team will hit, they'll score plenty of runs but this pitching staff will never hold anyone. They can't even hold back horrible teams. It would be nice if Trout, Puljos and Hamilton could save this team, but they can't. Nor can Sosh.

It's on Dipito to save the season.

[WestistheBest]

So fire another GM? Whats the end game here? I watch this team, and while I certainly don't think Sosh is the main reason for this teams failures, he obviously isn't able to capitalize on the talent he does have. Let's be honest, all teams have holes in their pitching staffs and line-ups.

Yes, I would fire Dipito at the end of the season. It's nothing personal against him, I like him.

let's be honest, the Angels are one of the worst teams in baseball right now, we aren't talking about a "couple holes"

[Angel Oracle]

Well somehow, the Twins did something with Correia, because he's 5 times better than Blantana so far.

[Homebrewer]

I just think, the Angels have had three general managers in the last few years.  Stoneman was criticized for being too conservative,s  Reagin was a disaster and now it's Dipitos fault. I just look at the last three seasons, coaches have changed, players have changed, GM's have changed, the Angels have signed high dollar free agents, they have promoted from within, and yet the losses are still pilling up. It's getting really hard to place blame everywhere else and give Mike a pass. 

Reagins was a figurehead. Scioscia as GM was THE disaster.

Arte thought Scioscia was a baseball GOD.

10 YEAR CONTRACT??

Arte has this mess on his hands, by his own doing.

[Angel Oracle]

Arte lives in the past, even in 2008 when he signed that disgusting 10 year deal for Scioscia, despite only ONE ALCS appearance from 2003-2008!

[AZMike]

And Dipoto should get no more than end of 2014 to have this org heading in the right direction.

What the heck did he see in Blantana?

 

In his interview with AngelsWin Dipoto mentioned that Blanton had [among the] highest innings pitched, and the highest flyball ratio of pitchers on the free agent market. I can understand that reasoning to justify taking a cheap one year flyer but couldn't fathom why Blanton was able to land a 2 year $15M deal. 

[Halos of Anaheim]

What are you going to trade for Price? We are talking about David Price. Seriously?

Price is a free agent next year, no? We aren't winning a championship this year so I'm just thinking longterm now.

[AngelsAndRamsFan]

Price is a free agent next year, no? We aren't winning a championship this year so I'm just thinking longterm now.

No, he isn't a free agent Until 2016.

 

 http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/priceda01.shtml

[Taylor]

I love how everyone is blaming someone different in this thread.

 

-It's Dipoto's fault for assembling this terrible pitching staff!

-No, it's Butcher's! He doesn't know how to coach our pitching staff!

-Wrong again! It's all Scioscia's fault! His stubbornness and ineffective strategies have been plaguing this organization for years!

-Reagins screwed this franchise up, he should take all the blame!

-Who's been at the top this whole time? That's right, Arte Moreno! He appointed Reagins and Dipoto and even gave Scioscia a 10-year contract extension. Fire Arte!

-Ladies, you are all failing to notice that this team's problems are all a fallout of the BUSH ADMINISTRATION! He ran the country into the ground, and now the Angels are paying the price!

-It's the Mike Napoli curse!

-It's Bourjos's fault!

-Ever since Drew Carey lost all that weight, he hasn't been funny! I blame him for the Angels' failures!

[Sully151]

You can't just blame the pitching when the only runs scored tonight were Home Runs hit by a lead off hitter that many on this board want to use as trade bait and a guy who hasn't hit one since 2009 or something crazy like that.

[Taylor]

I blame Mr. Abner Doubleday. If he had never invented baseball, all of us would be quietly enjoying our lives on this fine Monday evening.

[yvangelfan]

I think Scioscia is still pissed at Dipoto for firing Hatcher, and he's not going to try to inspire this team or the managers.

 

 

How else do you explain  Pujols' leadoffs to first base in the ninth inning and Scioscia not inserting a pinch runner? And this has happened 2 times so far this season.

[AZMike]

I think Scioscia is still pissed at Dipoto for firing Hatcher, and he's not going to try to inspire this team or the managers.

 

 

How else do you explain  Pujols' leadoffs to first base in the ninth inning and Scioscia not inserting a pinch runner? And this has happened 2 times so far this season.

He doesn't want to "gut the lineup" in case both of the following happen:

 

The Angels catch up despite Pujols' terrible baserunning and TIE the game, but don't win.

The bullpen keeps the Angels in the game long enough for the Angels to bat around the order

 

It's all about playing the percentages

[fan_since79]

I'm glad he didn't remove Pujols for a pinch runner in the 8th inning of Saturday's game. 

[yvangelfan]

He doesn't want to "gut the lineup" in case both of the following happen:

 

The Angels catch up despite Pujols' terrible baserunning and TIE the game, but don't win.

The bullpen keeps the Angels in the game long enough for the Angels to bat around the order

 

It's all about playing the percentages

That's just nuts.

[HeavenlyHalos]

I love how everyone is blaming someone different in this thread.

 

-It's Dipoto's fault for assembling this terrible pitching staff!

-No, it's Butcher's! He doesn't know how to coach our pitching staff!

-Wrong again! It's all Scioscia's fault! His stubbornness and ineffective strategies have been plaguing this organization for years!

-Reagins screwed this franchise up, he should take all the blame!

-Who's been at the top this whole time? That's right, Arte Moreno! He appointed Reagins and Dipoto and even gave Scioscia a 10-year contract extension. Fire Arte!

-Ladies, you are all failing to notice that this team's problems are all a fallout of the BUSH ADMINISTRATION! He ran the country into the ground, and now the Angels are paying the price!

-It's the Mike Napoli curse!

-It's Bourjos's fault!

-Ever since Drew Carey lost all that weight, he hasn't been funny! I blame him for the Angels' failures!

 

Easy there, Drew Carey has never been funny.

[AZMike]

That's just nuts.

 

That was Scioscia's actual statement (well the "gut the lineup" part at least) after the Aug 1st 2012 fustercluck game in texas, in response to a question about why he didn't pinch run for Morales at 2nd in the top of the 9th inning with a 1 run lead. Next play was a base hit, Morales thrown out at home (that Insurance run, plus potentially others to follow, would've been the winning run). 

 

Angels scored 3 in the 10th. Gave up 4 in the bottom of the 10th. Morales spot in the order never came up.

[yvangelfan]

That was Scioscia's actual statement (well the "gut the lineup" part at least) after the Aug 1st 2012 fustercluck game in texas, in response to a question about why he didn't pinch run for Morales at 2nd in the top of the 9th inning with a 1 run lead. Next play was a base hit, Morales thrown out at home (that Insurance run, plus potentially others to follow, would've been the winning run). 

 

Angels scored 3 in the 10th. Gave up 4 in the bottom of the 10th. Morales spot in the order never came up.

Wasn't that the series that Kendrys hit 2 or 3 HRs in one game  and  Mike benched him the next day?

[AZMike]

Wasn't that the series that Kendrys hit 2 or 3 HRs in one game  and  Mike benched him the next day?

Yep. Hit two homers in an inning -- against both left and right handed pitchers -- but sat the next day because a lefty was pitching.

[Brent Maguire]

This could be a disaster if things don't get figured out soon. I'm still very optimistic that this team makes the playoffs but things have to change very soon. 

 

We're in an absolute win now type situation. Hamilton and Pujols have a 2-3 year window before they start declining. If we finish under or near .500 this year, the whole roster could blow up. We don't have the luxury of having an even semi good farm system to be able to just rebuild or restock the roster so things need to start settling in place now.

 

Dipoto did a piss poor job of getting this bullpen fixed the past 2 off seasons. The Frieri trade and Burnett/Madson signings were great but this bullpen needed more than that. Relying on Downs after his horrible 2nd half last year and Jepsen, who has been inconsistent his whole career, was dumb. He could've made several low risk signings to give this pen depth and a chance for someone to emerge, just like the Rays have done for years. We're at the point where Dane freaking De La Rosa was going to be used in a 1 run game yesterday. 

 

The Blanton signing sucked, no doubt. His peripherals are fine and dandy but when you're letting HR up at his rate, you can throw those out the window. The Vargas and Hanson deals were perfectly acceptable but relying on those 2 and Blanton to be in a rotation with Weaver and his injury/velocity concerns and CJ's subpar performance last year was way too risky. There had to be better options available. What made these moves even more concerning was that he made no other signings for insurance. None. 

 

Like I said, I'm trying to remain optimistic but there are obviously some huge red flags now. The starters look horrible, the bullpen looks bad, and the offense hasn't clicked at all yet. Things need to get going NOW. 

[AZMike]

This could be a disaster if things don't get figured out soon. I'm still very optimistic that this team makes the playoffs but things have to change very soon. 

 

We're in an absolute win now type situation. Hamilton and Pujols have a 2-3 year window before they start declining. If we finish under or near .500 this year, the whole roster could blow up. We don't have the luxury of having an even semi good farm system to be able to just rebuild or restock the roster so things need to start settling in place now.

 

Dipoto did a piss poor job of getting this bullpen fixed the past 2 off seasons. The Frieri trade and Burnett/Madson signings were great but this bullpen needed more than that. Relying on Downs after his horrible 2nd half last year and Jepsen, who has been inconsistent his whole career, was dumb. He could've made several low risk signings to give this pen depth and a chance for someone to emerge, just like the Rays have done for years. We're at the point where Dane freaking De La Rosa was going to be used in a 1 run game yesterday. 

 

The Blanton signing sucked, no doubt. His peripherals are fine and dandy but when you're letting HR up at his rate, you can throw those out the window. The Vargas and Hanson deals were perfectly acceptable but relying on those 2 and Blanton to be in a rotation with Weaver and his injury/velocity concerns and CJ's subpar performance last year was way too risky. There had to be better options available. What made these moves even more concerning was that he made no other signings for insurance. None. 

 

Like I said, I'm trying to remain optimistic but there are obviously some huge red flags now. The starters look horrible, the bullpen looks bad, and the offense hasn't clicked at all yet. Things need to get going NOW. 

IMO the real problem in the last couple years was the Pujols signing. Great to have him the next few years but it's insanely reckless to give out 10 year deals in baseball like what's happening with ARod's latest contract, and might be happening even sooner with Pujols. I was worried about it at the time and it looks like the scenario may be worse than expected (Pujols' plantar fasciitis and other injuries are very alarming at year 2 of 10)

 

Basically making the team "pot committed" to winning now without having the hand (depth in the farm, top of the rotation pitching) to have a good chance at going deep into the playoffs once "all in".  (ie, we end up losing even more draft picks and locking up even more money on long term free agent deals to try to win now while the window is open) 

[Brent Maguire]

IMO the real problem here was the Pujols signing. Basically making the team "pot committed" to winning now without having the hand (depth in the farm) to actually win if pushed "all in" (ie, we end up losing even more draft picks and locking up even more money on long term free agent deals to try to win now while the window is open) 

I think the emergence of Trout makes for an interesting argument.

 

If Trout would have emerged in 2011 instead of 2012, do Arte and Dipoto still go all out for Albert and CJ? I know Arte said he always wanted to get a player like Albert but building the team around Trout and restocking the roster with youth would have been interesting to see. Maybe I'm totally wrong here but I think it's a valid point to bring up. 

[AZMike]

I think the emergence of Trout makes for an interesting argument.

 

If Trout would have emerged in 2011 instead of 2012, do Arte and Dipoto still go all out for Albert and CJ? I know Arte said he always wanted to get a player like Albert but building the team around Trout and restocking the roster with youth would have been interesting to see. Maybe I'm totally wrong here but I think it's a valid point to bring up. 

 

I agree we do have a bit of benefit of hindsight. I brought up this point on another board and someone mentioned that nobody would've expected Trout to be as good as he was, or for Kendrys Morales to recover as well as he did so that's why the went to get a first baseman. 

 

But my reply to that was we actually DID have Trout and Morales playing way above expectations and still missed the playoffs as a result of pitching giving up leads. Without those two the finish would've been much worse with or without Albert.

[Tyler]

You can't blame any one single event, it's been a combination of blunders that have emptied our farm system from the Haren trade, Greinke trade, Frieri trade, and Morales trade. All of our assets gone and we only have Jason Vargas and Frieri to show for it. Yuck.

[fan_since79]

A bunch of no-names are once again playing great baseball in Oakland. Who the heck is Nate Freiman?!

 

I've given up trying to figure out how to assemble a winning baseball team. On paper, we should be lights out. I have no idea how to turn this crew into winners.