As if the in-house issues weren’t bad enough

[Chuck]

 

The baseball gods are doing the on-field equivalent of trolling the Angels right now. It's not just that they're 11-20, with Josh Hamilton slumping and every facet of their team -- starting pitching, relief pitching, baserunning, defense, production -- in a rut through the first five weeks of the season. It's that so many of the players they've discarded recently are, well, thriving.

 

See for yourself ...

 

RF Torii Hunter (offered little more than a $5 million base salary, plus incentives, this offseason before he inked a two-year, $26 million deal with the Tigers): .361/.406/.479 slash line through his first 27 games in the No. 2 spot for first-place Detroit.

 

LF Vernon Wells (dealt to the Yankees for the financial relief of getting under the Competitive Balance Tax payroll, with New York picking up $13.9 million of the $42 million owed to him over the next two seasons): .280/.339/.486 with six homers team while batting mostly third -- yes, third -- for an injury-riddled Yankees team that's somehow six games over .500.

 

SP Ervin Santana (essentially given to the Royals because the Angels weren't going to exercise his $13 million option for 2013): 3-1, 2.00 ERA with 31 strikeouts and five walks in 36 innings for a Kansas City team that -- of course -- is 17-11.

 

SS Jean Segura (traded alongside Ariel Pena and John Hellweg for Zack Greinke last July): .333/.380/.523, with a league-leading three triples and one very interesting sequence on the basepaths.

 

RP Jordan Walden (dealt straight up to the Braves for Tommy Hanson in November): 2.92 ERA, with 14 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings.

 

RP LaTroy Hawkins (unsigned as a free agent): 2.77 ERA, 1.23 WHIP in 13 innings for the Mets.

 

SP Patrick Corbin (dealt -- by then-Arizona interim GM Jerry Dipoto -- to the Angels along with Tyler Skaggs, Rafael Rodriguez and Joe Saunders in exchange for Dan Haren in July 2010): 4-0, 1.85 ERA in six starts.

 

What does all this mean to the Angels? Well nothing, of course. In fact, in my mind, almost all of these moves were justified (you could certainly argue in favor of bringing Hunter back and using the additional funds on pitching). The fact anyone would take on that much for Wells was flat-out shocking; it made little sense to pay Santana $13 million for 2013 given how his 2012 season went; I'll do Walden-for-Hanson any day of the week; the Greinke trade was a good one considering Dipoto didn't have to give up Peter Bourjos and/or Garrett Richards, and he would've been applauded for it had they made the playoffs last year; and, well, there was little reason to give a 40-year-old Hawkins a guaranteed contract, or a likely shot at winning a bullpen spot, given the group the Angels had going into Spring Training.

 

But still ...

 

Unrelated subject (well, sort of): Here’s a look at who’s shining, and who isn’t, in the Angels’ system so far …

 

HOT

 

INF Luis Rodriguez (AAA): .314/.344/.496, 4 HR, 24 RBI

RP Jeremy Berg (AA): 1.65 ERA, 13 SO, 1 BB, 16 1/3 IP

SP Austin Wood (A+): 2.41 ERA, 4 GS, 17 SO, 9 BB, 18 2/3 IP

 

NOT

 

RP Mitch Stetter (AAA): 5.56 ERA, 11 1/3 IP, 12 SO, 10 BB

SP A.J. Schugel (AAA): 0-1, 6.21 ERA, 6 GS, 30 SO, 14 BB, 29 IP

OF Randal Grichuk (AA): .186/.262/.351, 2 HR, 7 RBI

 

-- Alden

[Glen]

This is like seeing your ex get with somebody more successful and handsome than you. 

[disarcina]

today's LA TImes article notes the Halos right now have one of the lowest rated minor league organizations (in terms of top level prospects) in MLB.

 

the listing you provided is part of the reason.

 

The Haren deal that looked pretty good at the time, really killed us in that regard.

 

every deal mentioned above made sense (well, we did give up a lot for a Greinke rental) at the time.

 

Santana? I think we made the right move. Truly a case of a change of scenery having a positive impact on his fortunes. You may recall like some other former Halos hurlers who were let go and then did well -- Santana's outings at the end of 2012 were awful......he wasn't getting many folks out and was giving up a lot of dingers.

 

The Tommy Hunter for Jerome Walden was a deal that was questioned a bit at the time -- but we needed a rotation guy and had to give up something to get him.......Walden's another one who needed a change of scenery -- after being thrust into the closer role that one year (was it 2011?) and had all those saves only to sort of hit the wall IP wise at the end of the season.....never quite the same sense but always had potential -- Atlanta now probably limiting his use to a set up and pre-set up guy and he's probably doing well in a place where pitchers always seem to develop well and do well.

[mota_madness]

all i can say is we are cursed! definitely problems within when is arte going to realize that the buck stop with him.

[gurn67]

Never thought I'd say this but God I miss Stoneman!!!

[AZMike]

This is like seeing your ex get with somebody more successful and handsome than you. 

with you paying for it after her lawyer cleaned you out in the divorce

[Angel Oracle]

F'n burial grounds

[Erstad27]

Let bygones be bygones.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  There are plenty of reasons these guys are no longer on the Angels roster.  Change of scenery did them good. 

 

Would we like to trade them back?

[SmallSampleSize]

Too small of a sample size.

[Angel Oracle]

How come our acquisitions don't fare as well seemingly?

Has this coaching staff outlived its' usefulness?

[EE_]

From 2008 to 2013 Santana has had the best slider in the game (pitch value-fangraphs). There was never a question about his stuff.

 

The problem was that over that same 5+ years his fastball was the 2nd worst pitch in the game. It was clear that after losing so much velocity (elbow problems) after 2008 that his fb was no longer a plus pitch. It quickly turned into a homerun pitch but no changes were made. No change to a cutter or 2 seamer. No additional reliance on a change. Just keep throwing it. He kept throwing the fb about 56% to 58% of the time.

 

This year he's throwing the fb only 43.7% of the time but has added a 2 seamer (11.9%) and he's throwing the slider a career high  40.7% of the time.

 

Nice adjustment.

[SmallSampleSize]

How come our acquisitions don't fare as well seemingly?

Has this coaching staff outlived its' usefulness?

 

 

#1 - You know the answer.  It just doesn't sit well on a fan site.

#2 -  See #1.

 

Try and find a post where a Scioscia-supporter can list one condition where #2 is met.   *crickets*

[Angel Oracle]

I get what you are saying, and it's not a pretty picture.

Complete mess from here through the farm to foreign presence.

[HaloCory22]

Glen always has a perfect analogy for everything. 

[mancini79]

This is like seeing your ex get with somebody more successful and handsome than you. 

 

Hmmm.. wouldn't know what that feels like.

[AZMike]

Thought this was interesting:

 

Ferndando Rodney

 

ERA 5.06

WHIP 1.78

W/L 1-1

SV 4

K 12

[Glen]

Hmmm.. wouldn't know what that feels like.

 

 

 

Yeah, me either.  I was imagining what it was like.

[disarcina]

Angel Oracle -- 'how come our acquisitions don't seem to fare as well, seemingly/"

 

Well, we probably don't mention them as much as we do the flops -- and there are plenty of those deals --- but the Ernesto Frieri pick up from San Diego has worked out real well for us.

 

And that was another 'change of scenery' thing -- Frieri got lit up in his final SD appearance and was not that effective in the appearances before that one.

 

He came over to the Halos and become our closer and put up some great stats the second half of 2012..........now he's in that role again because, quite frankly, Madsen isn't going to be able to fill that role at any point in 2013 unless they're using there in September as the equivalent of a late season call up or early starting ST for 2014.

 

but the Frieri acquisition has been a good one for the Halos.

[VariousCrap]

From 2008 to 2013 Santana has had the best slider in the game (pitch value-fangraphs). There was never a question about his stuff.

 

The problem was that over that same 5+ years his fastball was the 2nd worst pitch in the game. It was clear that after losing so much velocity (elbow problems) after 2008 that his fb was no longer a plus pitch. It quickly turned into a homerun pitch but no changes were made. No change to a cutter or 2 seamer. No additional reliance on a change. Just keep throwing it. He kept throwing the fb about 56% to 58% of the time.

 

This year he's throwing the fb only 43.7% of the time but has added a 2 seamer (11.9%) and he's throwing the slider a career high  40.7% of the time.

 

Nice adjustment.

 

 

 

 

That is what a real pitching coach can do for you.

[VariousCrap]

Thought this was interesting:

 

Ferndando Rodney

 

ERA 5.06

WHIP 1.78

W/L 1-1

SV 4

K 12

 

 

 

Nice to see him come back to reality.

[Jay]

thanks Dipoto

[tdawg87]

I see Ervin still looks like he got bit in the face by a radioactive super wasp.

[Troll Daddy]

Jean Segura is the one player Dipoto should of never traded.

[Angel Oracle]

Segura >>>>>> Kendrick.

[Reveille1984]

Thanks Obama