$18m Batting Practice Pitcher

[itsTroutahere]

I understand a lot of your points.  As far as Lackey being an asshole:

• showing up players in the field by giving the sighs or rolling eyes when they made errors
• yelling at scioscia for pulling him in the playoff game
• complaining about the anaheim fans after signing with boston
• he signed with the Red Sox

 

My point is, even though our fans (me included) are as petulant as almost any other group, I don't think people got on Lackey for taking more money.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Good post, Lackey like any player should take the money.  His passion for success is why he still is a bull dog on the mound.  could you imagine if Ervin Santana had that type of passion, he would have been an ACE with his stuff.

[itsTroutahere]

Literally anyone could have done better than Joe Blanton that year.

 

We tried Tommy Hunter he wasn't any better. LOL

[Stradling]

There's also the part of the equation that Blanton was in the first year of a two year deal. There was probably some pressure from Dipoto to keep Blanton in the rotation.

[itsTroutahere]

You mean Tommy Hanson? He was awful, but at least he had a positive WAR that year, as bad as he was. Blanton had a -0.5 WAR that year.

 

We had pitchers in the minor leagues who could have easily produced better than that.

 

Yes, Tommy Hanson.    and Yes we had pitchers in the Minors but we had Dipotto and it was his job to provide the pitching options.

[Jay]

I understand a lot of your points.  As far as Lackey being an asshole:

• showing up players in the field by giving the sighs or rolling eyes when they made errors
• yelling at scioscia for pulling him in the playoff game
• complaining about the anaheim fans after signing with boston
• he signed with the Red Sox

 

My point is, even though our fans (me included) are as petulant as almost any other group, I don't think people got on Lackey for taking more money.

 

Just my opinion.

 

Agree.

 

The Angels did not want to re-sign Lackey for the amount of money he was seeking.  If I recall correctly the fans here were pretty much on board with that decision.

 

The problem came when he signed with the Red Sox and then badmouthed Angels fans.

[UndertheHalo]

The Weave just needs a vacation in Germany, he can visit one of those "clinics" he'll be back good as new. ! Nothing a little stem cell therapy cant fix.  

Edited March 11, 2016 by UndertheHalo

[yk9001]

The Weave just needs a vacation in Germany, he can visit one of those "clinics" he'll be back good as new. ! Nothing a little stem cell therapy cant fix.  

 

Good point. He needs the ol' Kobe rejuvination - without the rapey-rapey.

[ten ocho recon scout]

I understand a lot of your points. As far as Lackey being an asshole:

• showing up players in the field by giving the sighs or rolling eyes when they made errors
• yelling at scioscia for pulling him in the playoff game
• complaining about the anaheim fans after signing with boston
• he signed with the Red Sox

My point is, even though our fans (me included) are as petulant as almost any other group, I don't think people got on Lackey for taking more money.

Just my opinion.

fair points yk. I think his attitude when being pulled is similar to weaver though, and a lot of other big name pitchers. If lackey had stayed here i dont think the label on him would have been the same though. And the comments about angel fans, yeah, it sucks to hear, but in all fairness its pretty true. Angel stadium is pretty mild compared to a place like fenway.

But i agree, you shouldnt say it. I cringed when we signed hamilton and he said the same about texas. Just say "im excited to be here"...no need to talk about yesterday.

Personally as far as lackey, i think he was pretty much a scapegoat to the boston media. The sux were bad at the time, he was the new big contract. The chicken and beer thing comes up, and its a "big deal". But when the sux were winning nobody in boston cared about his diet. Same as when manny was being manny

[stormngt]

Literally anyone could have done better than Joe Blanton that year.

Easy to say that. I can essily say i can dunk on Lavron James ad well. Who did the Angels have?

Of I am not mistaken Sosh had the choice of Barry Enright or Buddy Boshers. Your right Sosh had a lot of options.

As you guys continue to bash Sosh favoring vets keep in mind that in 2010 he moved veteran Torii Hunter to RF and benched veteran Juan Rivera for a rookie named Peter Bourjos. In 2011 another rookie started by the name Mark Trumbo. In 2012 he benched veteran Bobby Abreu for a rookie named Mike Trout.

Scioscia plays the players he believes (not you or I) that would put the team in the best position to win. When there has been a clear better younger alternative he used them.

[stormngt]

We tried Tommy Hunter he wasn't any better. LOL

Hanson. Sad thing is we had both Blanton and Hanson in the starting rotation.

[stormngt]

You mean Tommy Hanson? He was awful, but at least he had a positive WAR that year, as bad as he was. Blanton had a -0.5 WAR that year.

We had pitchers in the minor leagues who could have easily produced better than that.

Who?

[stormngt]

I don't know why you're putting so much into this.

I said Blanton was left in the rotation too long. He was. You don't need 21 starts to figure out how terrible he was.

I said we had minor league pitchers who could have pitched better. They could have.

It's not hard to out produce a 6.04 ERA and a -0.5 WAR.

Shoemaker, Enright, Boshers, Buckner, Roth. Literally anyone. I'm not saying these guys are good pitchers, but I am saying Blanton was so bad that a minor league pitcher would have been a better option compared to him that year. Why even argue that? Blanton was probably the worst starter in baseball in 2013.

Is Dipoto to blame for the signing? Absolutely. But Scioscia left Blanton in the rotation too long.

We tried Enright and Bosses and they sucked just as bad. There is an argument for Shoemaker and Roth got shelled everytime he faced major league pitching. If your going to throw a shitty pitcher out there at least go with one that had at least a little success in his career.

[Blarg]

I don't know why you're putting so much into this.

I said Blanton was left in the rotation too long. He was. You don't need 21 starts to figure out how terrible he was.

I said we had minor league pitchers who could have pitched better. They could have.

It's not hard to out produce a 6.04 ERA and a -0.5 WAR.

Shoemaker, Enright, Boshers, Buckner, Roth. Literally anyone. I'm not saying these guys are good pitchers, but I am saying Blanton was so bad that a minor league pitcher would have been a better option compared to him that year. Why even argue that? Blanton was probably the worst starter in baseball in 2013.

Is Dipoto to blame for the signing? Absolutely. But Scioscia left Blanton in the rotation too long.

Scioscia does not choose the 25 man roster. Dipoto is the only one who could pull Blanton and give Scioscia an alternate 5th starter.

[gotbeer]

Good point. He needs the ol' Kobe rejuvination - without the rapey-rapey.

 

You said rape twice.

[JAHV76]

You said rape twice.

This has Blazzing Saddles written all over it.

[Inside Pitch]

 

Is Dipoto to blame for the signing? Absolutely. But Scioscia left Blanton in the rotation too long.

 

Yep, and Dipoto had no say in that at all ..  It wasn't his experiment in FIP gone wrong at stake, he wasn't the guy that gave him 15 mil to be awful...  It was all MS being stubborn.   

Edited March 12, 2016 by Inside Pitch

[stormngt]

My thought is, we had nothing to lose. Blanton was that bad that it was worth the risk of trying someone else, regardless of their little success. What's the worst that could happen? We lose by more than we would have lost with Blanton starting? That would have been near impossible to do.

It's on Dipoto too. Like notti said, Dipoto didn't pull Blanton and call someone else up quick enough, but Scioscia seemed to be the main guy in control of the Angels at that time anyway, which is why Dipoto left. It falls on both of them since they were supposed to work together.

Blanton absolutely did take starts away from Richards though.

Was Scioscia the main guy in control when the Angels fired Hatcher that same season?

[Angels#1Fan]

It's real simple, Dipoto signed Blanton to a two year 15M dollar deal. The guy stunk but the manager (and I don't care who that is) isn't going to take him out of the rotation after 8 or 10 starts. You don't pay a guy 15 million to sit on the bench especially if there isn't a suitable replacement (and in this case there wasn't one)..that's just the way it is. Can anyone imagine the conversation between Scioscia and Dipoto if Scioscia had benched Blanton after say 10 starts? Dipoto would have been down there asking why his guy that he just signed for 15m isn't playing?  Scioscia would have said "hey the guy stinks" and Dipoto would have said "I just gave the guy 15m 10 weeks ago so give him time to work it out".

 

Blanton no doubt stunk but blaming Scioscia for his stench is just more of the same blame Scioscia for everything baloney imo. ymmv

[stormngt]

It's real simple, Dipoto signed Blanton to a two year 15M dollar deal. The guy stunk but the manager (and I don't care who that is) isn't going to take him out of the rotation after 8 or 10 starts. You don't pay a guy 15 million to sit on the bench especially if there isn't a suitable replacement (and in this case there wasn't one)..that's just the way it is. Can anyone imagine the conversation between Scioscia and Dipoto if Scioscia had benched Blanton after say 10 starts? Dipoto would have been down there asking why his guy that he just signed for 15m isn't playing? Scioscia would have said "hey the guy stinks" and Dipoto would have said "I just gave the guy 15m 10 weeks ago so give him time to work it out".

Blanton no doubt stunk but blaming Scioscia for his stench is just more of the same blame Scioscia for everything baloney imo. ymmv

Exactly

[Billy_Ball]

On 3/10/2016 at 7:29 AM, The God of Runs said:

Since when is a 78mph pitch called a fastball?

 

[John Stellman]

Weaver won't be back next year unless he agrees to a huge slice in his salary. It's all about what have you done for me lately.

[Angel Oracle]

The rest of this month will tell the story for the rest of the season.  

If he continues to struggle too much, then Weave needs to be moved to the pen on July 1 to see if he can shore up a putrid part of this team so far.