2014 vs 2018 Angels

[Troll Daddy]

Who wins?

I was listening to the AM830 radio show on the Angels last night. Apparently the host believes this 2018 club is better than the one in 2014 .

discuss

[JustATroutFan]

2018 Angels haven't even play a single regular season game, yet. But I don't see them being better than the 2014 team, even though they got swept by the Royals in the postseason. The 2014 team had a good starting rotation (Richards, Weaver, and Shoemaker) to go along with a great bullpen (Street, Smith, Rasmus, Jepsen, etc.). I don't think the 2018 team will have as good of a pitching staff as the 2014 team. 

[nando714]

Do we lose 3-1 in the 2018 alds and not 3-0? 

[Second Base]

The 2018 club has more talent. But as we learned from the Fipoto era, looking good on paper and looking good on the field are two very different things.

[Troll Daddy]

33 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

2018 Angels haven't even play a single regular season game, yet. But I don't see them being better than the 2014 team, even though they got swept by the Royals in the postseason. The 2014 team had a good starting rotation (Richards, Weaver, and Shoemaker) to go along with a great bullpen (Street, Smith, Rasmus, Jepsen, etc.). I don't think the 2018 team will have as good of a pitching staff as the 2014 team. 

I believe the 2018 roster as it sits is better. Of course there’s question marks but no different than in 2014. Nobody saw us coming in 2014 ... the team was definitely under the radar.

I don’t see this team winning as many games ... the competition has changed. 

[AngelArcher]

18 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

The 2018 club has more talent. But as we learned from the Fipoto era, looking good on paper and looking good on the field are two very different things.

They had a +143 run differential. They were good on the field. Just not when it mattered most. 

 

[Ace-Of-Diamonds]

53 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

2018 Angels haven't even play a single regular season game, yet. But I don't see them being better than the 2014 team, even though they got swept by the Royals in the postseason. The 2014 team had a good starting rotation (Richards, Weaver, and Shoemaker) to go along with a great bullpen (Street, Smith, Rasmus, Jepsen, etc.). I don't think the 2018 team will have as good of a pitching staff as the 2014 team. 

This years Rotation (Richards, Ohtani, and Shoemaker) plus Skaggs, Heaney, Bridwell, Tropeano, and Barria. Bullpen Parker, Bedrosian, Ramirez, and Middleton. We'll see...

[Ohtaniland]

So 99+ wins forthcoming. Cool

[Jeff Fletcher]

Interesting to look back at the 2014 team and think what happened that you didn’t expect or think about before the season.

Santiago and Skaggs hadn’t even pitched for the Angels. Chris Iannetta probably didn’t figure to have a great offensive year. Matt Shoemaker was not someone anyone was counting on. David Freese was coming off a significant decline. Kole Calhoun had only played 2 months as a regular. Garrett Richards had only been a good starter for 2 months (after lots of inconsistency). Kevin Jepsen had been an inconsistent reliever. Huston Street was a Padre.

Point is that wasn’t a team that looked great on paper in February 2014, but a lot of stuff went right. 

[Blarg]

And then Josh Hamilton went very wrong.

[Lou]

. . . but J.B. Shuck hit a home run 

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, AngelArcher said:

They had a +143 run differential. They were good on the field. Just not when it mattered most. 

 

That's a very unfair assessment. They ran into the Royals who swept their way to the World Series and took it to game 7. 

They Angels had them beat in games one and two, just a couple key mistakes and the Royals pulled off the upset.

Make jo mistake, if those two games went our way, as they easily could have, the Angels would've been World Champs in 2014. 

They were the best team in baseball. Just a ton went right, more than you could ever figure to count on in any given year.

2018 is a more talented team than 2014. They really are. But it will never matter what it looks like on paper, only on the field.

 

[stormngt]

3 hours ago, Troll Daddy said:

Who wins?

I was listening to the AM830 radio show on the Angels last night. Apparently the host believes this 2018 club is better than the one in 2014 .

discuss

The 20124 was not a great club.  They greatly over achieved.

[Troll Daddy]

Just now, stormngt said:

The 20124 was not a great club.  They greatly over achieved.

The club has been over achieving for years.

[Ohtaniland]

1 hour ago, stormngt said:

The 20124 was not a great club.  They greatly over achieved.

Could the 2018 club underachieve. Wouldn’t that be deflating. Oh and to use some @Lou perspective “what the hell does 2014 have to do with 2018”.......Nothing!

[Blarg]

Players still in the Angels organization that played in 2014

Pujols

Trout

Calhoun

Richards

Shoemaker

Skaggs

Bedrosian

Alvarez

There was a total of 54 players that wore an Angels uniform that season. That means 46 players didn't make the cut to the 2018 season. Most didn't make it to 2016 the year Eppler took over.

Yes, the Angels went through a rebuild.

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Blarg

[Second Base]

54 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Players still in the Angels organization that played in 2014

Pujols

Trout

Calhoun

Richards

Shoemaker

Skaggs

Bedrosian

Alvarez

There was a total of 54 players that wore an Angels uniform that season. That means 46 players didn't make the cut to the 2018 season. Most didn't make it to 2016 the year Eppler took over.

Yes, the Angels went through a rebuild.

 

Oh they absolutely did.

Just because there wasn't an Astros style fire sale and decade of sucking to collect draft picks doesn't mean it didn't happen.

How else can we explain Nava-Gentry and the diligent work in gathering actual talent on the farm? It was a soft rebuild that occurred between 2015-2017. Eppler's actions have made it clear that he views 2018 and beyond as their window of contention.

Hopefully the farm can continue to be infused with talent so that after we spend a billion on extending Upton, Trout, Maldonado, Simmons, Richards, Ohtani and Heaney, we can infuse some league minimum value through Adell, Maitan, Marsh, Jones, Herm, Thaiss, Canning and Barria.

[Docwaukee]

I would be interested to know what % of rosters are still intact from 2014.  

the 2014 team overachieved.  Let's hope for the same in 2018.  

But I agree that the 2018 team is better on paper.  

[Troll Daddy]

Upton raved about the team chemistry and his fondness for Scioscia ... which played a big part in landing Upton, Kinsler, Cozart, and Ohtani.

 

[KDWells]

The 2014 team overachieved to be sure, but Richards knee exploded and the team ended up resting for most of September after they clinched only to run into a red hot buzzsaw of a Royals team that was making every clutch play possible while the Angels looked rusty by comparison. That combined with throwing a floundering C.J. Wilson out there instead of rolling with the Rasmus led bullpen games that they had success with in the final month made for a tough end to a great season. I don't see the 2018 having as great a regular season, but on paper they are certainly better positioned to do some damage if they sneak into the postseason.

[Stradling]

I think the 2014 team overachieved, and then in the playoffs the offense, minus Aybar and Kole fell asleep.  This team could very well be a better team and not win as many games.  One thing is that 2014 bullpen was much better than what we are starting the season with.  That being said the 2014 team didn’t start with a great bullpen.  

[Lou]

20 hours ago, OHTANILAND said:

Could the 2018 club underachieve. Wouldn’t that be deflating. Oh and to use some @Lou perspective “what the hell does 2014 have to do with 2018”.......Nothing!

he said 20124, not 2014

ya big dummy

[OregonLAA]

If I remember correctly a man would get on and Scioscia would have Calhoun bunt. They’d walk Trout and pitch to Hamilton who shouldn’t have even been on the roster in the playoffs. One of Scioscia’s worst moments as an Angel. He did it several times that series

[Stradling]

57 minutes ago, OregonLAA said:

If I remember correctly a man would get on and Scioscia would have Calhoun bunt. They’d walk Trout and pitch to Hamilton who shouldn’t have even been on the roster in the playoffs. One of Scioscia’s worst moments as an Angel. He did it several times that series

Yes Calhoun tried bunting in game one I think where the offense wasn't doing anything.  As far as walking Trout to face Hamilton, you aren't remembering correctly.  Trout batted 2nd and Hamilton batted 7th.  So it probably wasn't on Scioscia but rather than offense.  I know I sound like a Scioscia apologist, but when Trout doesn't get his first hit (his only hit) until the first inning of game three and he drew one walk in game one and one in game two and Albert had no hits in game one and one a piece in games two and three, it is probably a little bit of revisionist history going on.  I don't blame you at all, it has been repeated as fact for years.  If you ask most of the guys who repeat this they would tell you Hamilton came off the DL and then Scioscia batted him clean up, which wasn't the case.  

[OregonLAA]

18 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Yes Calhoun tried bunting in game one I think where the offense wasn't doing anything.  As far as walking Trout to face Hamilton, you aren't remembering correctly.  Trout batted 2nd and Hamilton batted 7th.  So it probably wasn't on Scioscia but rather than offense.  I know I sound like a Scioscia apologist, but when Trout doesn't get his first hit (his only hit) until the first inning of game three and he drew one walk in game one and one in game two and Albert had no hits in game one and one a piece in games two and three, it is probably a little bit of revisionist history going on.  I don't blame you at all, it has been repeated as fact for years.  If you ask most of the guys who repeat this they would tell you Hamilton came off the DL and then Scioscia batted him clean up, which wasn't the case.  

Was Kole 5th then? I remember him bunting and the man in front of Hamilton was repeatedly walked only for Hamilton to strike out or ground out to 2nd