Chase Utley to the Dodgers

[TroutField]

The amount of stupidity in this thread is astounding.. The Giants won THREE World Series in five years and they were never playoff worthy? How can you even dislike that organization as an Angels fan? They draft, develop their own players, careful about the players they sign, keep a decent payroll but not outrageous, have the nicest ballpark in MLB, aren't in our division, are the Dodgers biggest rival. There really isn't anything to dislike about them.

[tomsred]

They sure know how to prepare themselves for the playoffs.  They kind of hang in there for most of the regular season, then take off at the right time.  I think their success breeds confidence in their year end abilities, and the success cycle goes on and on and on.

[Pujols4MVP]

Glad we didn't get Utley, he can't hit anymore & thats playing half his games in the Philly cheesebox.

[DMVol]

The dogs had to part with two prospects for him. I'm glad the Angels weren't down for that

Neither was a great prospect but both at least decent....we don't have that luxury....we're pretty thin.....

[TroutField]

I don't understand your logic. The basis of being the best team is winning a championship. What are you basing your definition off of? Star power? As an Angels fan you should know that having big names doesn't mean anything if they aren't performing. Much like tulowitzki isn't doing anything as a jay but everyone assumes he's hitting like Babe Ruth up in Toronto. The Giants were the deepest, hottest team, with one of the greatest postseason performances ever by a Bumgarner. I just don't agree with what you're saying

[Homebrewer]

Bruce Bochy is an incredible in game manager. He doesn't bow to players feelings (read: pitchers) and will pull a guy as soon as he needs to. The pitchers respect his judgment and don't get butt-hurt when they get pulled. His lineups always seem to work out somehow too. As someone else mentioned earlier, he really does get a lot out of replacement level players year after year, especially in big games. He knows how to manage playoff games differently than he manages regular games, without stubbornly sticking to the old " doing the same thing that got us here" line. He knows that post season baseball requires a different approach.

Hard to argue with the results the guy gets.

[Guest]

I don't understand your logic. The basis of being the best team is winning a championship. What are you basing your definition off of? Star power? As an Angels fan you should know that having big names doesn't mean anything if they aren't performing. Much like tulowitzki isn't doing anything as a jay but everyone assumes he's hitting like Babe Ruth up in Toronto. The Giants were the deepest, hottest team, with one of the greatest postseason performances ever by a Bumgarner. I just don't agree with what you're saying

Because of the way the postseason is setup, a roster that is designed to do well in the postseason is often very different than one that can do well in the regular season. When constrcuting a team there is therefore somewhat of a tradeoff between signing and drafting with postseason in mind, or the regular season in mind. Teams that play in easier divisions have the luxury of putting all their eggs in one basket by focusing on obtaining a few elite players (e.g. an ace starting pitcher). 

 

Baseball has a major element of chance--a couple good bounces and the worst team in baseball can beat the best team in baseball on any given day The best teams in the game usually win about 60% of their games, the worst win about 40% of their games, so determining which team is a meaningful way requires a lot of games. In other sports like basketball or hockey, great teams might win 75%+ of their contests. That never happens in baseball. That means the regular season should result in narrowing down the field to a very small number of teams who get the opportunity to roll the metaphorical dice. 

 

Teams like the 2012 Cardinals should have never been allowed to get into a wild card spot when they were 6 games behind Atlanta Braves, only to win because of a bad infield fly call. If there must be two wild cards, it should be a best of three contest, all at the home park of the top seed, no days off.

Edited August 21, 2015 by ScottLux

[tennischmp]

Because they never would have made the playoffs in the AL West, or the AL for that matter. That's why they aren't playoff worthy. Performance in the playoffs mean you deserved to get there. The Angels in 2011 might have been the most dangerous playoff team but rightfully didn't get in.

huh? the giants were 4 and 5 games worse than the best record in the MLB in 2010 and 2012. Last year is the only year out of the 3 where you can say they didn't deserve to be in the playoffs. Also in 2010, there was still no wild card play in game and in 2012, they won the division.

[Inside Pitch]

Yeah, I kinda like that Posey guy...

 

Angels drafted him in 2005....   Stupid Angels....

[Guest]

huh? the giants were 4 and 5 games worse than the best record in the MLB in 2010 and 2012. Last year is the only year out of the 3 where you can say they didn't deserve to be in the playoffs. Also in 2010, there was still no wild card play in game and in 2012, they won the division.

My gripe with 2012 was not the Giants so much as the Cardinals. 

 

 

Another issue I did not yet bring up is that the current schedule is too imbalanced. That leads to some divisions being much easier than others. I agree there should be some bias toward divisional play if for no other reason than travel logistics but 19 games with teams in-division and 6-7 against all other teams is way too extreme. Should be 13 games between teams within teams in the the division, 9-10 games with all others within the same league, and as little interleague as possible.

Edited August 21, 2015 by ScottLux

[Troll Daddy]

Thank god that Dusty Baker was manager in 2002.

[TroutField]

Because of the way the postseason is setup, a roster that is designed to do well in the postseason is often very different than one that can do well in the regular season. When constrcuting a team there is therefore somewhat of a tradeoff between signing and drafting with postseason in mind, or the regular season in mind. Teams that play in easier divisions have the luxury of putting all their eggs in one basket by focusing on obtaining a few elite players (e.g. an ace starting pitcher).

Baseball has a major element of chance--a couple good bounces and the worst team in baseball can beat the best team in baseball on any given day The best teams in the game usually win about 60% of their games, the worst win about 40% of their games, so determining which team is a meaningful way requires a lot of games. In other sports like basketball or hockey, great teams might win 75%+ of their contests. That never happens in baseball. That means the regular season should result in narrowing down the field to a very small number of teams who get the opportunity to roll the metaphorical dice.

Teams like the 2012 Cardinals should have never been allowed to get into a wild card spot when they were 6 games behind Atlanta Braves, only to win because of a bad infield fly call. If there must be two wild cards, it should be a best of three contest, all at the home park of the top seed, no days off.

So the Cardinals earned the wild card spot but didn't deserve to get into the playoffs because the Braves had a better regular season than them? I guess we should just play 162 games and just award whoever has the best record at the end of the season champions. Isn't that the whole reason of a playoff? So the royals didn't deserve to be in the playoffs last year? The Angels didn't deserve to be in the playoffs in 02 because the m's won the division. I just can't see your point of view. Edited August 21, 2015 by AngelintheTroutfield

[SlappyUtilityMIF]

@ Notti #1 So, the Dodgers got Chase to play 10 games in 12 days in place of Howie Kendrick while he recovers and returns on Sept 1st? Also, the Dodgers have plenty of kids ready to play in the Majors they could even move Guerrero to 3B and Turner to 2nd.... Though Chase will/Can play 2nd once Howie comes back they won't use a Platoon at the spot. And Chase will become a lefty pinch hitter like (Thome a few years ago) and Chase will break Turner at 3B. Hell they could even move Rollins to 2B for 10 games and call up Seager who is also ready for the Prime Time.

 

 

@Notti #2 The only place Utley would be good for us is if he switched to 3B. That wouldn't happen as Freese will be back soon enough. Gio has done fine at 2B and his few bobbles and errors haven't been the issues with us stinking it up lately. As a Team we haven't hit and Utley's stats as an Aging Vet and a League Change will not improve on his stats on a switch to the AL.

 

So, now that I have expanded on my 2 posts that you most rudely popped off about....Piss Off~

[Blarg]

Utley is batting. 214 for the Dodgers.

[fan_since79]

Utley is batting. 214 for the Dodgers.

 

Right, but the Dodgers also have a four-game lead in their division, and Howie won't be gone too much longer.

 

Tulowitzki isn't hitting either for the Jays, but they're on fire.

Edited August 31, 2015 by fan_since79

[Troll Daddy]

Utley is batting. 214 for the Dodgers.

You know better ... stats take a back seat in September.

[Blarg]

What?

[Guest]

What?

September and to an even greater extent October are more about clutchness than raw counting stats. 

 

meaningless solo homers in blowout, like our Angels are so fond of, are not looked on as favorably as they are earlier in the calendar year. 

[Blarg]

September and to an even greater extent October are more about clutchness than raw counting stats.

meaningless solo homers in blowout, like our Angels are so fond of, are not looked on as favorably as they are earlier in the calendar year.

Utley is 0-10.

Clutch.

[fan_since79]

When you've got Kershaw and Greinke giving you 30 starts each per year, Chase Utley not hitting is way down on the list of things the Dodgers are worried about.