That was one gritty win tonight

[Chuck]

Way to go Halos! 

 

[bloodbrother]

Yep. With how banged up the pen is...going into extra innings is rough but they managed to gut it out

[JustATroutFan]

Pujols knows how to drive them in. Too bad he is basically useless when no one is on base.

[bloodbrother]

Angels been Jekyll and Hyde team so far. Start out 6-2, then go 2-10 and have followed it up by going 7-1

[ten ocho recon scout]

Think dipoto watched his bullpen blow it and felt like groundhogs day?

[Angel Oracle]

Several clutch happenings 

Guerra's work was huge.

Hitting finally came though in the late innings.

Shoe kept them in the game.

 

[wopphil]

One of the best wins of the year. Would have been easy to roll over and take the loss, but they battled and were clutch when it mattered.

[Dick B Back]

Tied with half the league for the 2nd wild card spot. Woo hoo!

[LooneyPlatoons]

I just don't get why they play Cano on a shift when he burns them for it and continue to shift on him.  Should have been game over in the 9th.  Good win though.

[Stradling]

14 minutes ago, LooneyPlatoons said:

I just don't get why they play Cano on a shift when he burns them for it and continue to shift on him.  Should have been game over in the 9th.  Good win though.

I hate the shift, but there is an obvious reason why virtually all teams shift.  They are playing the odds/percentages. 

[Jobu]

10 hours ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Think dipoto watched his bullpen blow it and felt like groundhogs day?

Dipoto can build a bullpen... But it'll only last for 6 months and cost the entire farm.

[Troll Daddy]

27 minutes ago, Stradling said:

I hate the shift, but there is an obvious reason why virtually all teams shift.  They are playing the odds/percentages. 

I think we all understand the shift .., unfortunately, Cano has good bat control and has shown he can beat the shift. Tonight should be interesting. 

[Jobu]

10 hours ago, bloodbrother said:

Angels been Jekyll and Hyde team so far. Start out 6-2, then go 2-10 and have followed it up by going 7-1

I think this has only shown that the A's, Rangers, and M's are the bottom of the division and the AL West is again overrated. Houston and the rest of the league will he the real test for the Angels. Texas can still turn it around.

[Stradling]

The problem with a shift against a guy like Cano is when your pitcher misses location and instead of the pitch being in it drifts towards the outside part of the plate and easily poked the other way beating the shift.  That is what happened last night, just watch the catcher.

[LooneyPlatoons]

3 minutes ago, Troll Daddy said:

I think we all understand the shift .., unfortunately, Cano has good bat control and has shown he can beat the shift. Tonight should be interesting. 

Yeah because of that and because he isn't a one dimensional power only kind of hitter who pulls everything, they should reconsider shifting on him all the time.

[Jeff Fletcher]

4 minutes ago, LooneyPlatoons said:

Yeah because of that and because he isn't a one dimensional power only kind of hitter who pulls everything, they should reconsider shifting on him all the time.

If everyone assumes Cano is a good enough hitter to control the bat to hit it where the defense isn't, isn't he just going to do that no matter where the defense is playing?

You know why it's hard to defend Cano? Because he's a very good hitter. That's why he got 240 million bucks. 

All teams shift on Cano because, over studying his last 2,000 ABs or whatever, that's what the data says to do to improve your chances of getting him out. (In the AB between the hits he hit the ball up the middle, exactly where Simmons was standing.)

You are only improving your chances to get him out. Still not going to get him out every time because... he's good. 

[well_red]

15 minutes ago, Stradling said:

The problem with a shift against a guy like Cano is when your pitcher misses location and instead of the pitch being in it drifts towards the outside part of the plate and easily poked the other way beating the shift.  That is what happened last night, just watch the catcher.

This is the main problem to me, if you are serving up meatballs on the outside part of the plate then someone like Cano is going to take advantage.  Shift falls apart if your pitching strategy isn't complimentary.   Clearly the use of the shift across the league is driven by data, not by a hunch.

 

That said, this article shows Cano is pretty successful against the shift:

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/2016/11/11/13599868/how-robinson-cano-beat-the-shift

[LooneyPlatoons]

22 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

If everyone assumes Cano is a good enough hitter to control the bat to hit it where the defense isn't, isn't he just going to do that no matter where the defense is playing?

You know why it's hard to defend Cano? Because he's a very good hitter. That's why he got 240 million bucks. 

All teams shift on Cano because, over studying his last 2,000 ABs or whatever, that's what the data says to do to improve your chances of getting him out. (In the AB between the hits he hit the ball up the middle, exactly where Simmons was standing.)

You are only improving your chances to get him out. Still not going to get him out every time because... he's good. 

There was also a big gap between 5.5 and 2nd base to make it easier to shoot for with Escobar covering 5.5 and Simmons shading towards the right side of 2b.  That combined with a pitcher not implementing his pitches with the shift in mind and it gets exposed very easily by a good hitter.  Maybe Simmons should shade more towards the left of second base if they keep shifting on Cano.

[Troll Daddy]

Calhoun has been very gritty lately.

[Jeff Fletcher]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats.cgi?full=1&params=oppon|ANA|canoro01|bat|AB|

Well, in recent years, as the Angels have shifted more and used more analytics for defensive positioning, they have done better against Cano. 

He hit .241 against them in 2016.

[Chuck]

Cano beat the shift three times last night and can find large holes and go the other way. I say play him straight up because he sprays the ball around generously. 

When there's a large hole on the left side and you're facing a hitter that can go the other way successfully, you need to adjust your shifts accordingly. 

[Inside Pitch]

3 hours ago, LooneyPlatoons said:

I just don't get why they play Cano on a shift when he burns them for it and continue to shift on him.  Should have been game over in the 9th.  Good win though.

Because the last time they didn't the GM quit.....     

[Blarg]

10 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats.cgi?full=1&params=oppon|ANA|canoro01|bat|AB|

Well, in recent years, as the Angels have shifted more and used more analytics for defensive positioning, they have done better against Cano. 

He hit .241 against them in 2016.

@Jeff Fletcher Fans are pretty much focused on what happened that they didn't like. For us, Cano beating the shift once in the 9th scoring a runner erradicates every other time he was put out.

[Jeff Fletcher]

By the way, what the Angels did isn't even technically a shift since Simmons was still on the left side of the bag. 

[Angel Oracle]

5 hours ago, LooneyPlatoons said:

There was also a big gap between 5.5 and 2nd base to make it easier to shoot for with Escobar covering 5.5 and Simmons shading towards the right side of 2b.  That combined with a pitcher not implementing his pitches with the shift in mind and it gets exposed very easily by a good hitter.  Maybe Simmons should shade more towards the left of second base if they keep shifting on Cano.

This!    With Escobar almost like a statue in range, that makes the shift even more inviting for a Cano.