How do we turn things around?

[Blarg]

Solid advice while waiting on the trade deadline.

 

[Angelsfan1984]

1 minute ago, Inside Pitch said:

Dude...  If you think pointing out the rotation was a mess last year is an excuse....  then the problem is your line of thinking and not anyone else's.    

I'll bite.   Can you please give us a list of teams in the last century to have playoff wins despite featuring a lineup that combined for a 92 OPS+ and a rotation where the only pitcher to manage even 150 innings had an ERA+ of 86.    

Your entire point only holds if people pretend that last years team was anything other than a bad team and that given over management would have been a playoff caliber roster. Nobody said last years team was great. There were still several winnable games that he let get away.

LOL..  Last year's Twins has the second best OPS+ in the AL.  They had a SP with a 131 ERA+ pitch 211 innings, and 3 guys who topped JC Ramirez's IP totals.   But other than that they had nothing the Angels didn't have.  So a bunch of no named turds other than Buxton can do that but proven vets brought in year after year suddenly fall apart on our roster? Must just be a total coincidence. That only furthers my belief that its not the players that are the issue.

Enjoyed your synopsis of opinion .vs logic, I do hope you apply it to yourself in the future.

Ok, so what's the excuse for the last 8 years? Most wins in the league a couple of years ago, to only be swept in the playoffs where management is amplified. Give me some actual reason other than he's been unlucky?

[Angelsfan1984]

5 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

This message brought to you by the same person who argued it was clearly obvious the best choice to close out games is Jim Johnson.   Because he didn't suck once a long time ago.

 

 

I said he wasn't given the opportunity to close and he should be until he proves otherwise. Do you think bringing him into the mess Bedrosian made is an ideal thing to do? He's the only one who has the mental makeup to do it in the pen. He doesn't have the best stuff and is exactly the reason someone should have been brought in to do that job. However, when faced with the choice of a bunch of mediocre pitchers you would assume that the logical choice would be to go to the one with experience in doing the job. He has no problem doing it with position players...

[Blarg]

3 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

Ok, so what's the excuse for the last 8 years? Most wins in the league a couple of years ago, to only be swept in the playoffs where management is amplified. Give me some actual reason other than he's been unlucky?

Lost in the playoffs to the eventually World Series Champion but still managed to force extra innings in two of the three games in a short series in spite of Trout and Pujols amassing a total of 3 hits combined. 

You are excelling at what you do.

[Angelsfan1984]

2 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Lost in the playoffs to the eventually World Series Champion but still managed to force extra innings in two of the three games in a short series in spite of Trout and Pujols amassing a total of 3 hits combined. 

You are excelling at what you do.

Horseshoes and hand grenades. That's all "close" counts for.

[Inside Pitch]

42 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

Ok, so what's the excuse for the last 8 years? Most wins in the league a couple of years ago, to only be swept in the playoffs where management is amplified. Give me some actual reason other than he's been unlucky?

You want me to give subjective reasons why something happened in 2014, IMO the actual reasons are in the box score.  The big unknown -- who's decision was it to force Hamilton back on the roster.. 

You're mistaking my position as being pro MS..  I'm neither.... I believe he''s been both good and bad -- but I'm not delusional enough to pretend the problems didn't go a lot further than MS.   And I'm not stupid enough to think a "new voice" would have be enough to change anything.....  I would welcome change that might actually make a difference.

I'm a big Tim Bogar fan and would love to see him replace MS as our manager.    If this team was willing to chase a guy known for being a firebrand, I'd give money to see them give Chili Davis a look.   I think both these guys will eventually be really good managers -- I'm less certain about Chili, it's mostly personal and my having heard of how much of an impact he had on guys like Salmon, Anderson Edmonds -- basically that entire generation of Angels.

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by Inside Pitch

[Angel Oracle]

31 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Lost in the playoffs to the eventually World Series Champion but still managed to force extra innings in two of the three games in a short series in spite of Trout and Pujols amassing a total of 3 hits combined. 

You are excelling at what you do.

And in spite of Nibs pitching like a HS pitcher in game 3

[Inside Pitch]

27 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

I said he wasn't given the opportunity to close and he should be until he proves otherwise. Do you think bringing him into the mess Bedrosian made is an ideal thing to do? He's the only one who has the mental makeup to do it in the pen. He doesn't have the best stuff and is exactly the reason someone should have been brought in to do that job. However, when faced with the choice of a bunch of mediocre pitchers you would assume that the logical choice would be to go to the one with experience in doing the job. He has no problem doing it with position players...

Oh?

THE ONLY one that makes sense....   Not a lot of room for discussion -- every other choice would have been "senseless".

In this one you're giving your reasons.   "Great velocity" because you know "velocity" is the end all be all and because he has "closer experience".   Meanwhile, I'm sure you're one of those guys who thinks MS always plays the vets over the younger unproven players.  Try as I might, I couldn't find a post of yours that argued "until he proves otherwise".  

Honestly dude, this post was more a throwaway comment, playful smack and not intended as anything else really.

The pen's been a shit show, the only thing they have done consistently is find the most inopportune moment to blow games.  Guys have been going good, stepped into a high leverage situation and shit the bed.   You'd think at some point it will even out, but RP volatility is a real thing and it's probably magnified when you have a bunch of guys who are at best league average. 

[Torridd]

4 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

That's your opinion. The narrative is the same every year...they are in the wild card hunt until the last week of the season and come up 3-4 games short. Those are games in April where Scioscia sat on his hands hoping guys who are scuffling figure it out. Wouldn't it be nice for once to go into the final week preparing for the first round of the playoffs instead of shitting your pants because every single stupid game could eliminate you?

Unfortunately, those three games each we lost to Tampa Bay and Detroit will be remembered if we barely miss the playoffs. All the games matter.

[Lou]

1 hour ago, Torridd said:

Unfortunately, those three games each we lost to Tampa Bay and Detroit will be remembered if we barely miss the playoffs. All the games matter.

ok, but just dont forget all of the games we win that our opponent's fans think they should have won, too. 

[Torridd]

6 minutes ago, Lou said:

ok, but just dont forget all of the games we win that our opponent's fans think they should have won, too. 

Excellent point.

[tdawg87]

The offense is getting BABIP'd a bit, although they did last year as well. Still, the hitters will be fine going forward. I don't think Kinsler is done. He may not be good but he's certainly not a .190 hitter. He puts the ball in play far too often to continue that path. 

Cozart is another guy who has been getting a bit unlucky this year. But between him and Kinsler the improvement won't be terribly significant.

The biggest issue with the offense (other than Pujols) is Calhoun. He has nearly 200 plate appearances and a 5 OPS+. He has a -1.2 WAR and it's July 1st. He's been the worst player ever, on pace for a -3 WAR. The Angels CANNOT keep trotting him out there into July. If they get even replacement level production from RF for the remainder of the year that's like 3 wins over Calhoun. I don't know what happened but to me it looks like the shift broke him. Everything he hits is right into the shift and whatever "adjustments" he has attempted to make have caused him to completely suck monster dick. He gets a longer leash because of his history but he's absolutely killing the team this year. 

The starting pitching, overall, is fine. They're 6th in the AL in ERA, 3rd in K/9. They're young and improving as the year goes on. The walks NEED to improve, as do the innings pitched. I think they will. Worst case, they stay the course and we have a slightly above average rotation. I can deal with that.

Then comes the bullpen. This is going to surprise a lot of people but the pen isn't THAT bad. They're 6th in the AL in ERA and 6th in K/9. They've also been 3rd best (!!!) in LOB%, in other words, they're among the best in stranding runners. The biggest issue...we need a legit closer. Throwing turds like Bedrosian and Johnson at close games has resulted in the 2nd most blown saves in the AL. I do think Scioscia gets some of the blame for how he has handled the bullpen, but so does Eppler for filling it with fecal waste. We also grossly underestimated the loss of Middleton. A lockdown closer takes a ton of pressure off the other guys. Guys like Noe Ramirez and Jose Alvarez have been quite good. Parker has also been very good but shouldn't be a closer. A 7-8-9 of Ramirez, Parker and Herrera would look pretty damn good. Although Herrera's peripherals suck complete ass, he's still better than what we have by a long shot. Oh, and just for shits and giggles, the Angels bullpen has a .313 BABIP, 4th highest in the AL and 6th highest in the majors. There's some bad luck involved too.

So make Calhoun a replacement level player and add a legit closer to the first 2 months and we're 3 games better than we currently are. Just 2.5 out of first and things are looking much better. 

We're still in this. We just need a closer and Calhoun (and Young) needs to go. Everything else will work out.

Edited June 2, 2018 by tdawg87

[Jobu]

The old saying goes: "Play good enough, until last out, until also something good happens for you."

[Pujols4MVP]

Quote

How do we turn things around?

Sign Superman to replace Kinsler or Calhoun, Superman actor Tyler Hoechlin from Supergirl played for UC Irvine, he's an Anaheim Duck fan so odds are he likes the Angels too.

I mean the Ducks already got their man of steel aka Sam Steel.