Key takeaways from WS and playoffs and thoughts on the Angels

[DoubleOffTheWall]

This was an excellent postseason, full of some pretty talented teams. I didn't get to watch as much as usual as I was traveling internationally for work but it was great to see teams like the Royals, Mets, Cubs, Blue Jays and even the Astros do so well. The game has changed significantly in recent years and due to this, I think we all know the Angels need to implement some changes in the way they approach team building going forward, and I think this postseason informs on that effort greatly. Here are some of my takeaways from this postseason:

 

- Hitting and starting pitching? No, more like bullpen and great defense - I think the mantra for awhile has been - you need great hitters and starting pitchers, and that is true no doubt. But I think what we saw from the Royals is that a lockdown pen and great defense are just as important. The Mets had a somewhat soft underbelly within their bullpen ranks, and it got exposed, while the Royals pen was so strong, that it allowed the starters to just concentrate on going 5-6 innings and keeping the damage to a minimum (hmmm, sounds familiar angel fans...) We also saw the ranks of other pens exposed such as the Doyers and Astros. 

 

What is good here is that you can always build a pen. It takes forever to develop top notch starters, and not everyone pans out. But every offseason, you have a chance to build a strong pen. 

 

The other thing here is defense. The royals have incredible defense. They are not error-free (see hosmer in game 1 of the WS), but in general, you simply cannot have defense lapses in the playoffs. Our Angels committed a plethora of errors in the 09 and 05 ALCS, and you see from the Giants and ROyals' recent runs - you don't have to hit amazingly well or even have three Aces, but you simply cannot make fielding mistakes. 

 

What this means for the Angels:

 

The pen - Our pen needs work. I am still confident in Street and in Gott, but aside from that, we probably need 2 more arms, preferably that throw heat. I think we need to see what we have in Rasmus as a 6th or 7th inning guy, and probably need to sign one established flamethrower out of the pen. 

 

In the minors, it seems we have not produced a legit reliever in years, with Jepsen being the closest thing. Its a shame that our system produced Percival, Donnelly, Krod and then has not produced a single noteworthy reliever since. 

 

Defense - In my opinion, our defense is lacking in three key areas: Left field, third base and 2nd base. I think we're all aware of the fact that we need offense from those positions as well, but I don't think we can afford to have a one-dimensional player in any of those spaces - As we attempt to fill those holes, we need players that can hit and field. I think of Freese. he can hit, but his defense leaves something to be desired. I think of Gia - he is a decent clutch hitter with some offensive upside, but I highly doubt he becomes a stalwart defensive player.

 

- Offensively, you need a blend of power, contact, and speed: When we think of the Royals, we say yeah they are great contact hitters, and this is true. They put the ball in play, and when that happens, you constantly test the other team. However, let's be real here - that offense was actually very balanced with legit power hitters, contact, and speed. The lineup was incredibly deep, with guys like Gordon and Rios hitting 8th and 9th, and the middle supported by solid hitters like Hosmer, Morales, Cain, Moustakous. Speed was present at the top of the order for KC and off the bench in spades. 

 

What this means for the Angels: When I think about offense (compared to pitching, defense and the pen), I realize this team is really in some trouble. We have some decent power hitters, but lack significantly in contact, speed and depth. We have too many players striking out including Calhoun and Trout, and the contact hitters are almost non-existent, as well as speed. But most of all, the lineup simply has no depth, especially at the top and the very bottom. While I wouldn't call Alcides Escobar a great hitter, he had the ability to simply cause chaos, as we saw in the ALCS. For the mets, Granderson has always been a dangerous force that can put up crooked numbers to start off any game. We pretty much have none of that. At the bottom, players like Ianetta, Featherston, and even Giavotella just aren't good enough. 

 

The offensive side of things is going to be difficult to fix.

 

Based on all the above, I think we need to focus first on things in this order:

 

- The pen (easiest area to build up in one offseason)

- Defense (too important to ignore) 

- Offense (with the focus on contact and speed more than on power. With such glaring holes, this area will take longer than this offseason to shore up and thus, I think if we want to remain competitive, we support the pen and defense first and plug in offense where possible)  

- Starting pitching (with our available resources, I'm not sure we even touch this area this offseason) 

 

 

 

[Angel Oracle]

Herrera, Hochevar, and Davis made mince meat out of the Mets.

That's what lockdown pens do.

Halos need an additional reliable late innings guy, and also hope for Smith to rebound, and for Gott and Morin to continue pushing forward, and for Bedrosian to finally get it together at the MLB level.  

[ten ocho recon scout]

Agree totally

Have really come sround on the heyward idea, but would prefer upton. Zobrist should be getting destroyed with calls from us already.

Upton/heyward plus zobrist would be amazing. Zobrist plus span would be great. Any one of those guys added would be nice.

If we cant land one of the big fish, zobrist plus span plus 2 real, shut down bullpen guys would still be huge.

[arch stanton]

Once you get into October where obviously all the teams are good I'm a big believer that lack of weaknesses is greater than any particular strength and that's why the Angels need to look at balancing the lineup and deepening the pen before looking at big names.

[ELEVEN]

This was an excellent postseason, full of some pretty talented teams. I didn't get to watch as much as usual as I was traveling internationally for work but it was great to see teams like the Royals, Mets, Cubs, Blue Jays and even the Astros do so well. The game has changed significantly in recent years and due to this, I think we all know the Angels need to implement some changes in the way they approach team building going forward, and I think this postseason informs on that effort greatly. Here are some of my takeaways from this postseason:

- Hitting and starting pitching? No, more like bullpen and great defense - I think the mantra for awhile has been - you need great hitters and starting pitchers, and that is true no doubt. But I think what we saw from the Royals is that a lockdown pen and great defense are just as important. The Mets had a somewhat soft underbelly within their bullpen ranks, and it got exposed, while the Royals pen was so strong, that it allowed the starters to just concentrate on going 5-6 innings and keeping the damage to a minimum (hmmm, sounds familiar angel fans...) We also saw the ranks of other pens exposed such as the Doyers and Astros.

What is good here is that you can always build a pen. It takes forever to develop top notch starters, and not everyone pans out. But every offseason, you have a chance to build a strong pen.

The other thing here is defense. The royals have incredible defense. They are not error-free (see hosmer in game 1 of the WS), but in general, you simply cannot have defense lapses in the playoffs. Our Angels committed a plethora of errors in the 09 and 05 ALCS, and you see from the Giants and ROyals' recent runs - you don't have to hit amazingly well or even have three Aces, but you simply cannot make fielding mistakes.

What this means for the Angels:

The pen - Our pen needs work. I am still confident in Street and in Gott, but aside from that, we probably need 2 more arms, preferably that throw heat. I think we need to see what we have in Rasmus as a 6th or 7th inning guy, and probably need to sign one established flamethrower out of the pen.

In the minors, it seems we have not produced a legit reliever in years, with Jepsen being the closest thing. Its a shame that our system produced Percival, Donnelly, Krod and then has not produced a single noteworthy reliever since.

Defense - In my opinion, our defense is lacking in three key areas: Left field, third base and 2nd base. I think we're all aware of the fact that we need offense from those positions as well, but I don't think we can afford to have a one-dimensional player in any of those spaces - As we attempt to fill those holes, we need players that can hit and field. I think of Freese. he can hit, but his defense leaves something to be desired. I think of Gia - he is a decent clutch hitter with some offensive upside, but I highly doubt he becomes a stalwart defensive player.

- Offensively, you need a blend of power, contact, and speed: When we think of the Royals, we say yeah they are great contact hitters, and this is true. They put the ball in play, and when that happens, you constantly test the other team. However, let's be real here - that offense was actually very balanced with legit power hitters, contact, and speed. The lineup was incredibly deep, with guys like Gordon and Rios hitting 8th and 9th, and the middle supported by solid hitters like Hosmer, Morales, Cain, Moustakous. Speed was present at the top of the order for KC and off the bench in spades.

What this means for the Angels: When I think about offense (compared to pitching, defense and the pen), I realize this team is really in some trouble. We have some decent power hitters, but lack significantly in contact, speed and depth. We have too many players striking out including Calhoun and Trout, and the contact hitters are almost non-existent, as well as speed. But most of all, the lineup simply has no depth, especially at the top and the very bottom. While I wouldn't call Alcides Escobar a great hitter, he had the ability to simply cause chaos, as we saw in the ALCS. For the mets, Granderson has always been a dangerous force that can put up crooked numbers to start off any game. We pretty much have none of that. At the bottom, players like Ianetta, Featherston, and even Giavotella just aren't good enough.

The offensive side of things is going to be difficult to fix.

Based on all the above, I think we need to focus first on things in this order:

- The pen (easiest area to build up in one offseason)

- Defense (too important to ignore)

- Offense (with the focus on contact and speed more than on power. With such glaring holes, this area will take longer than this offseason to shore up and thus, I think if we want to remain competitive, we support the pen and defense first and plug in offense where possible)

- Starting pitching (with our available resources, I'm not sure we even touch this area this offseason)

This is a great post.

[TroutCron]

Minor points- the Angels didn't develop Donnelly but did develop Scot Shields. The emphasisin the draft should be on pitchers with plus fastballs as the offspeed stuff can be taught. For the offense there should be an emphasis on drafting athletes who can be plugged into multiple positions. Hopefully, Eppler can put a strong emphasis on connrcting with the foreign markets especially Latin America.

[Angel Oracle]

Totally agree, but Eppler has to convince the seemingly anti-foreign prospecting Moreno that they indeed can contribute to a MLB team's success.

Otherwise, isn't Moreno limiting his potential targets to improve this franchise? 

Edited November 2, 2015 by Angel Oracle

[Ohtaniland]

Totally agree, but Eppler has to convince the seemingly anti-foreign prospecting Moreno that they indeed can contribute to a MLB team's success.

Otherwise, isn't Moreno limiting his potential targets to improve this franchise?

All of those JeDi genius backloaded contracts have arrived. We won't have much flexibility until 2017.

[mrwicked]

I don't think we need to start changing our organizational gameplan based on what the latest WS winning teams do.

Remember we just won the world series a couple years ago - so let's stick with what's obviously working.

[Chris]

stop sucking and play more like the Royals

[DoubleOffTheWall]

I think the approach I've proposed here is markedly different than what is being discussed in other threads, with people going back and forth on adding offense vs. adding a frontline starter. I myself was on the frontline starter bandwagon for some time but am changing my tune slowly.

 

The approach here is to spend resources on the pen first and foremost, and second, add players at the weak positions (LF, 2b, 3b) who are multidimensional if possible, but to actually work backwards - ensure they are solid defenders first and if that checks out, pick the guys who also have solid bats. I think most people would propose working the other way - find the big bats who also happen to be good defenders (i.e. Cespedes). I think my approach would then hone in on a guy like Heyward (known as a solid defender) who also brings a solid bat, OBP and speed on the basepaths. 

Edited November 2, 2015 by DoubleOffTheWall

[ettin]

Eppler was quoted as wanting to improve the "defensive spectrum of players" so defense is probably something they are looking hard at as you suggested above DOTW.

Additionally if they spend big they are likely to fix most of these issues in one fell swoop.

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Wouldn't mind trying to dip into free agency for someone like Ben Zobrist to primarily play 2B (but could give guys rest at SS/3B/LF) and bolster the pen with one arm, maybe two.  Would also love to jump into the trade market and see if we could pry away an everyday LF (someone like A.J. Pollock, Adam Eaton, Brett Gardner) and 3B (Martin Prado?).  Wouldn't be opposed to sticking Kubitza in the lineup at 3B and save the $$$ and prospects since this is a pretty veteran-laden lineup as constructed. 

 

New lineup if completed:  

LF  Pollock/Eaton/Gardner

2B  Zobrist

CF  Trout

1B  Pujols

RF  Calhoun

DH  Cron

3B  Prado or Kubitza

SS  Aybar

C   C. Perez

Edited November 3, 2015 by HaloWHAM!

[KevinJ14]

Broxton or Janssen?

[HaloMilliVanilli]

Broxton or Janssen?

I'm thinking Tyler Clippard realistically, with Wade Davis as my #1 pen option if the Royals didn't exercise his $8 million club option.

[halobob]

The Dodgers pen was exposed?  I believe the starter took the loss in all 3 losses and the pen didn't give up an ER in 4 out of the 5 games.  Also wasn't the Mets pen great in the DS and CS?

Edited November 3, 2015 by halobob

[fan_since79]

Kansas City also had the ability to move a runner from first to second to third and then to home, like clockwork.

 

An ability that we sorely lacked this year.

[yk9001]

The Astros looked like they had already won the ALDS - so much that the Texas governor was tweeting out congrats.

 

Its a fine like between WS champs and first round failure.

[tomsred]

The Astros looked like they had already won the ALDS - so much that the Texas governor was tweeting out congrats.

 

Its a fine like between WS champs and first round failure.

 

Parity.  It's what all commissioners want.

[70runner]

Allow me to summarize...the Angels are too old, too slow, and too offensively dependent on one exceptional player. 

 

Lotsa good ideas here.  The team absolutely needs to get younger, more athletic, and more OBP.  There are some bright spots, of course the guy in CF, a decent starting staff with Richards having the potential as solid #1 guy, Perez showing promise with more playing time (Scioscia finally throwing in the towel on Iannetta), Aybar remains a top flight SS and can still run (a rare commodity on the Angels), Calhoun, Johnny D's clutch hitting albeit with mediocre defense, Cron with some power, and a decent relief crew.

 

However, no matter what OBP improvement is accomplished in front of Trout, the RISP black hole remains behind Trout.  Hoping for a turn around at Pujols age (whatever it is) and condition is fools gold.  How many potential rallys did he kill with either an inept AB or GIDP?  He was mush at the plate down the stretch.  Scioscia sticking around only cements Pujols hold on cleanup hitter.  Unless Cespedes or someone of that ilk appears in an Angels ST uniform, hit Calhoun at cleanup, Cron (while teaching him to hit offspeed stuff), then Pujols.  

 

Street, usually dependable but increasingly reliant on offspeed deception.  Bullpen version of Weaver, ultra competitive but not someone who will crush the 9th like so many of the top flight teams.  Gott has the stuff to become a crusher and should be given the opportunity.  Teach him how to throw a consistent changeup to offset his 98mph heat. 

 

If nothing changes in front of (and directly behind) Trout, the Angels are a 500 team in 2016, miss the playoffs, and Scioscia is gone.    

[KevinJ14]

How about Joe Nathan?

[Guest]

How about Joe Nathan?

lol

[DoubleOffTheWall]

I don't think I would roll with Joe Nathan. 

 

We need someone like O'Day or Clippard. 

[KevinJ14]

Joaquin Benoit would be nice too

[ten ocho recon scout]

^agreed