Gameday Thread: Angels vs. Rangers (4/10/18)

[Chuck]

No Ohtani, Calhoun or Kinsler. 

 

#Angels lineup vs a lefty. No Ohtani. No Calhoun. No Kinsler. pic.twitter.com/707nHAi31l

— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 10, 2018

[Chuck]

Seriously lame that Ohtani is not in there. I get that Kinsler is still recovering and that Calhoun could use a day off, Young has hit lefties well... but no Ohtani is baffling to me. 

Especially when Sosh said his splits vs. lefties/righties in Japan were even. 

[krAbs]

Literally unwatchable.

[Angelsfan1984]

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Seriously lame that Ohtani is not in there. I get that Kinsler is still recovering and that Calhoun could use a day off, Young has hit lefties well... but no Ohtani is baffling to me. 

Especially when Sosh said his splits vs. lefties/righties in Japan were even. 

This is the crap i'm talking about with Scioscia. He overthinks the game when he's supposed to be the "old school" guy. The entire damn world sees that Ohtani is on fire and only meatball would put him on the bench.

[Chuck]

2 minutes ago, krAbs said:

Literally unwatchable.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons, the main reason, that Sosh has frustrated me over the years. He's so GD stubborn when it comes to platoons. 

Also, why can't Marte play 3B and Ohtani DH, Pujols play 1B. 

I wonder if this is a situation where Pujols feet hurt so he asked to DH? 

[Ohtani&Trout]

Cannot wait until Scioscia's contract expires. 

[krAbs]

Or, Ohtani is tired.

I mean honestly....I feel like there are to many variables here for us to do anything but trust management (or I guess, if we are so inclined, trust management to make the wrong choice). Maybe Scioscia incorrectly thinks Pujols is the better DH. Maybe he is incorrectly leaning into the platoon thing. Maybe Ohtani wants an extra day to recoup. Maybe they feel like he can only play 3 games out of the week, and they figure its better to bench him now then the middle of the week, where he may break up his hitting rhythm.

All that being said...tomorrow they also face a lefty. If he's benched then, I might be pissed.

[Angelsfan1984]

Just now, krAbs said:

Or, Ohtani is tired.

I mean honestly....I feel like there are to many variables here for us to do anything but trust management (or I guess, if we are so inclined, trust management to make the wrong choice). Maybe Scioscia incorrectly thinks Pujols is the better DH. Maybe its a platoon thing. Maybe Ohtani wants an extra day to recoop. Maybe they feel like he can only play 3 games out of the week, and they figure its better to bench him now then the middle of the week, where he may break up his hitting rhythm.

All that being said...tomorrow they also face a lefty. If he's benched then, I might be pissed.

I don't trust mike scioscia to watch my spot in line let alone how to manage a lineup.

[Second Base]

4 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Honestly, this is one of the reasons, the main reason, that Sosh has frustrated me over the years. He's so GD stubborn when it comes to platoons. 

Also, why can't Marte play 3B and Ohtani DH, Pujols play 1B. 

I wonder if this is a situation where Pujols feet hurt so he asked to DH? 

They were going to keep their schedule for Ohtani flexible. It's a marathon, this 162 game season. Shohei pitches a heck of a game on Sunday. He was really pumping heat. He might just need an extra day right now.

[Dave Saltzer]

1 minute ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

This is the crap i'm talking about with Scioscia. He overthinks the game when he's supposed to be the "old school" guy. The entire damn world sees that Ohtani is on fire and only meatball would put him on the bench.

Not to be an ass, and not to purely pick a fight, but Scioscia has said all along that they will work in conjunction with Ohtani to develop how to use him. So, let's say that Scioscia or a coach asked Ohtani how his arm is feeling today, and Ohtani said "a bit sore". Or what if Ohtani woke up with a bit of the flu? Scioscia then takes Ohtani out of the lineup, and he would never reveal that potential soreness or illness to anyone.

I'm clearly NOT in Texas and have no way of knowing if this is or is not true, but it is possible. I don't want anyone claiming that I've said that Ohtani is sore or injured or anything. I'm just pointing out as fans, we are only able to see such a tiny amount of the information that goes into a manager's decisions. Things like this do happen (I've been aware of reasons why a player wasn't in the lineup that I couldn't reveal), and fans were going nuts about the decision. I'm just pointing out before the board flips out and goes crazy over this decision that it is possible that other factors could have weighed in on the decision.

 

[Ohtani&Trout]

Yea, sure. That's why he has sat against multiple lefties on days he was available to hit.

[krAbs]

Just now, Angelsfan1984 said:

I don't trust mike scioscia to watch my spot in line let alone how to manage a lineup.

Honestly then, its gonna be a hard year then. Ohtani is an extremely unusual player, and I would imagine that would require extremely unusual treatment as far as playing time goes. I can guarantee that this will not be the last strange choice made with him, and that most strange choices will be due to factors that have to do with Ohtani's work load more than anything else.

All that being said...Ohtani is a big reason why I like watching the team right now, and I've been looking forward to seeing him hit since the end of the game on Sunday. I'm bummed.

[GrittyVeterans]

Gonna give Sosh the benefit of the doubt here. This Ohtani situation is something the game has never seen before

[Dave Saltzer]

Question here for everyone: What if Mike Trout said that he really wants to play for Scioscia for his career and wants to be an Angel for life? Would you be willing to keep Scioscia as the manager for that scenario?

[Ohtani&Trout]

Trout would never say that, so it's irrelevant. 

[Chuck]

3 minutes ago, krAbs said:

Or, Ohtani is tired.

I mean honestly....I feel like there are to many variables here for us to do anything but trust management (or I guess, if we are so inclined, trust management to make the wrong choice). Maybe Scioscia incorrectly thinks Pujols is the better DH. Maybe he is incorrectly leaning into the platoon thing. Maybe Ohtani wants an extra day to recoup. Maybe they feel like he can only play 3 games out of the week, and they figure its better to bench him now then the middle of the week, where he may break up his hitting rhythm.

All that being said...tomorrow they also face a lefty. If he's benched then, I might be pissed.

Maybe, but more like Pujols is tired.

Oh well, looks like we'll just see Ohtani in the lineup tomorrow through Friday, assuming he starts on the mound this Sunday.

[krAbs]

1 minute ago, Chuckster70 said:

Maybe, but more like Pujols is tired.

Oh well, looks like we'll just see Ohtani in the lineup tomorrow through Friday, assuming he starts on the mound this Sunday.

Right, and if that's the issue, Scioscia really is a moron.

[krAbs]

On the bright side, we now have some real left handed power of the bench. Who knows - maybe Ohtani will still hit a home run tonight.

[Dave Saltzer]

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Maybe, but more like Pujols is tired.

Oh well, looks like we'll just see Ohtani in the lineup tomorrow through Friday, assuming he starts on the mound this Sunday.

Don't get me wrong, I WANTED to see Ohtani in tonight's game. While the whole team is doing so much to make this season fun so far, he's electrifying. One of my boys has already declared that he will switch to #17 next year. So, I get it. But, there are times when I see people going off on Scioscia when it isn't always the wrong decision by Scioscia, but he can't or won't say all the factors that led to the decision.

[Jay]

I don't know... given the condition of our starting pitching we should be happy to see Ohtani play every 5th day, much less 4 times per week. If we get to see him in the lineup that's just icing on the cake.

[Stradling]

7 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Maybe, but more like Pujols is tired.

Oh well, looks like we'll just see Ohtani in the lineup tomorrow through Friday, assuming he starts on the mound this Sunday.

No Chuck.  This isn’t about Albert.   Ohtani pitches a helluva game on Sunday, was lights out and went 7.   He can use an extra day off.   They said from the beginning that these decisions would be on how Ohtani and the strength and conditioning team felt he his body had recovered.   

[Stradling]

I called this from the beginning, no matter how he gets used Sosh will be wrong.  People forget he’s doing something that hasn’t been done in 100 years.  People will literally never be satisfied,   It’s just stupid.   

[yk9001]

[Dick Enberg]

LOL! I bet Arlington field is packed tonight, all wanting to see Othani..

[krAbs]

I think we can safely assume he is out for the season?