Fire Scioscia

[tomsred]

you know what man....GTFO..  You're an alright dude in my book... but seriously?

 

You think arte signing Pujols and Hamilton while refusing to go over the luxury tax didn't limit Dipoto? Holly **** man. 

 

I think they did limit what Dipoto could do.  But the question I was trying to answer was exactly what move did Dipoto want to make did Arte or Scioscia or anyone else say "no" to?  I don't know of any, do you?  And let's go back to your first point, if Dipoto thought those moves were so horendous why didn't he make a fuss about them at the time.  The evidence (his comments) seems to support them.

 

Personally, I liked Pujols' performance this year, if he can continue at this rate there's a spot for him on this roster.  The guy is a hell of a competitor. Hamilton is a mess on the other hand, and the whole situation stinks.

Edited October 5, 2015 by tomsred

[tomsred]

I put this entire season on Jerry Dipoto. We needed a utility infielder, a left fielder, and bullpen help from day 1. He quit before solving any of those problems and they were all solvable problems. 

 

I think they were solvable as well.  I really liked Dipoto as many of you do, but I'm on record as saying I didn't like the manner and timing of his leaving.  It was ugly, it was distracting, and too much of it wasn't kept in house and handled privately.  You don't play out situations like that in public, some of it is on Dipoto and some of it is on the organization.  I wish Jerry the best, he's a fine man, and I believe him when he said at his Seattle presser that it became a way overblown situation, and that he learned some valuable lessons from it.  Good for him.

 

It's time to move on - Billy Eppler come on down, get to work, we got a lot to do here.

 

By the way, I appreciate Stoneman not overplaying his hand and restricting the next GM from being able to implement his solutions.  

Edited October 5, 2015 by tomsred

[Inside Pitch]

 

The stats tell a different story.  These guys are capable of better OBP but it didn't happen this year. 

 

2015: 661 runs scored (20th overall)  26th in OBP

2014: 773 runs scored (1st overall)  7th in OBP

2013: 733 runs scored (7th overall)  5th in OBP

2012: 767 runs scored (4th overall)  5th in OBP

 

Those numbers are partially why I have a hard time pegging it on coaches or front office....   That sort of a sudden massive decline is hard to explain and impossible to predict.   Aybar having an off year is one thing, Ianetta and Joyce completely falling off a cliff -- nobody believed that would happen..   

 

The bench being so awful didn't help any..

[Blarg]

Aybar was due for age regression, so was Ianetta as a catcher starting to fade in his 30's but holy crap he went completely Mathis with the bat this season. Joyce, I never expected to amount to anything more than a lefty 4th outfielder and neither did Dipoto before the Hamilton debacle. That should have been countered before the season began but... yeah, feet in quicksand about making roster improvements.

 

But it isn't just limited to those three guys. Pujols had a .307 OBP. This is a guy that was historically a 100+ points above his average hitter and now the guy is in Aybar territory with the only upside is his home runs. He talked about retiring when he couldn't do it anymore, well he should be choosing a recliner real soon. 

 

Rolling down the lineup it goes Freese .326 to Giavotella .320 Calhoun .310 then falls off the map of acceptable. Not that those three were great, they just weren't pure crap. And the entire lineup after these guys were just that. 

 

You would think all the reserves were schooled in Hit to get off the Island and a walk is something that will get  you tossed off the boat. CJ Cron, even with all that potential power and a few great at bats showed no qualities of a true power hitter and that is take a walk instead of force a bad pitch into play. He had two excellent months then in September he realized he was named CJ and nothing good could come from that and went back to being the guy they shipped to Salt Lake to fix. 

 

There isn't a single guy (outside of Trout) on the roster that emulates Tim Salmon's zone control. Half is talent and the other 90% is training. 

 

There must be something in the water, maybe Hatcher is secretly spiking the Gatorade because guys like Murphy that the Angels picked up as part of the three stooges to replace the Shemp we already had in left field, went from a .344 OBP to .281 and he didn't even have the changed league excuse. He just changed, inexplicably and without any reason fell off the edge of the world with the rest of the team on the HMS Scioscia that believes the world is still flat and is proving it every season.

 

The point is half of the lineup couldn't find first base without aid of a seeing eye dog and the bench was almost incapable of finding the batters box to swing wildly at every pitch that bounced in front of the plate. In that manner we never really missed Hamilton all season because there were plenty of guys incapable of seeing the difference between a wild pitch and a strike. 

 

Eppler has his work cut out for him and really the first thing he needs to do is start cutting out all of the crap in the 25 man roster. Then work on the crap in the dugout and most of the crap in the minor leagues that manages to send up a bunch of guys that can't hit, bunt or field their position.

 

It is time for that complete overhaul of how the Angels become and continue to be Angels. 

[nate]

New manager

New third-base coach

New pitching coach

New hitting coach

New left fielder

New catcher

New 3rd baseman

New 2nd baseman, or stick with Gia

Three or four new relievers

Another starter or two

 

Other than that, we're pretty good.

 

Welcome to the team, Eppler!