What do you feel is management's plan?

[Ohtaniland]

26 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

To be fair, Upton is a longer term fix and has vastly outplayed all Halos LFs since Matsui in 2010.   Maldonado, some questions about pitch framing aside, could well be another one if they re-sign him.

Right now, it's about getting a real bullpen and healthy starting pitchers, and seeing if Cold Calhoun can morph back into Kole Calhoun.

Question for you AO. 

How old will Upton and Maldonado be in 2020? We are talking about the possibility of getting a lifetime commitment from Mike Trout. 

If we truly want to convince Trout to stay and win we have to stop surrounding him with the Lakers version of Stockton, Malone and Nash. It’s time for Eppler to start checking birth certificates and try to get the old folks moved out of the way ASAP. 

 

[Inside Pitch]

5 minutes ago, Lou said:

I completely agree with IP

i'd sooner he slam his dong with a car door repeatedly than bring Cam into any game that's on the line. 

then again, I'm a team player. 

Guarantee you the team wouldn't suffer for it either..   The other team might actually lose focus watching it happen...    

[Lou]

i have a great plan to fix the BP problem . . . 

[Lou]

On February 12, 2018 at 3:18 PM, Angelsfan1984 said:

Well we do have Johnson who  has a ton of closing experience. I feel like if anyone will be given the first crack it will be him. Ideally Bedrosian comes in and steals it and never gives it up.

 

On April 1, 2018 at 5:21 PM, Angelsfan1984 said:

I would make Jim Johnson the closer until he I see better. Great velocity and closer experience. Why hand it to the guy getting shelled every game? 

 

On May 2, 2018 at 11:58 AM, Angelsfan1984 said:

Jim Johnson is the only one that makes sense to be the closer at this point until Middleton comes back and/or they trade for someone. This carousel of relievers closing out games is stupid.

 

On May 3, 2018 at 7:55 AM, Angelsfan1984 said:

I agree 1000%. He hasn't given you a reason to doubt him, once he does then you will need to make a move for an arm. He came into the season with the most saves by a reliever on the team and yet he wasn't even the 2nd 3rd or 4th option to lock down games. That's head scratching even from the most casual fans perspective.

 

On May 3, 2018 at 10:08 AM, Angelsfan1984 said:

He is the most experienced reliever and has the most saves of anyone on the team. He still has capable closer abilities yet he hasn't been even the 4th option to close games. Thats idiotic.

 

[Angel Oracle]

1 minute ago, OHTANILAND said:

Question for you AO. 

How old will Upton and Maldonado be in 2020? We are talking about the possibility of getting a lifetime commitment from Mike Trout. 

If we truly want to convince Trout to stay and win we have to stop surrounding him with the Lakers version of Stockton, Malone and Nash. It’s time for Eppler to start checking birth certificates and try to get the old folks moved out of the way ASAP. 

 

Maldonado and Upton are both 30/31, iirc, and thus 32/33 in 2020.   Not terrible age wise, and Upton only has two more seasons after 2020.   If BOTH Adell and Marsh are ready by sometime in 2020, they can move Upton to 1B/DH.  

[Lou]

8 minutes ago, UndertheHalo said:

Be sure and ask Chuck how to find the button. 

no chance he actually puts you on ignore. he loves the attention 

[Docwaukee]

What will management do?

What I hope they do it not mortgage the future for a chance at the wild card.  

Even if Billy went out and added three pen arms, everyone got healthy, Calhoun went back to being his career self and guys like Fletcher, JMF and others made meaningful contributions at the major league level, I don't think we're going to catch Houston.  

Do I think we can catch Seattle if a lot goes right?  I do.  But I wouldn't push all in to see if I could make that happen.  It's a bad bet at this point.  

So I hope that Eppler can grab a couple of David Hernandez types now.  Right now.  And then we'll see how we do over the next 35 games.  

There is one bit of upside to consider.  We are 8 games out of the second wild card but there is no one else in front of us to pass and the two closest teams are seattle +8 and oakland -2.5 from us.  Everyone after that is a dog.  Minnesota might make a run, but I doubt it.  Toronto might but I doubt it.  I don't see Tampa being in the way.  

So we do control our fate to some degree ie, we need to kick the snot out of seattle and oakland as well as be above .500 otherwise.  But that ain't gonna happen without being able to keep leads.  

[Stradling]

23 minutes ago, floplag said:

what too many holes?  This is nonsense?  If the pen was doing its job were in the race, end of story.  Any other hole is irrelevant to that fact.

No it isn’t.  If you need a first baseman a DH a third baseman a right fielder and a bullpen

[JarsOfClay]

16 minutes ago, Lou said:

i have a great plan to fix the BP problem . . . 

 Some guys are a completely different pitcher when they are the closer and the pressure is on them. 

I remember many closers would shit the bed when it was a non save situation, but give them the lead and it was light's out.

And when you have no other alternatives in the pen, then I'd go with a guy who has the experience until he proves me otherwise. Johnson was never given a real chance.

[T.G.]

19 minutes ago, Lou said:

no chance he actually puts you on ignore. he loves the attention 

I think more people SHOULD use this option.  I currently have six people on ignore... Works great.

[Barrett]

2 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

It has become a legitimate breeding ground of mediocrity with the willingness to accept such poor results. People in LA want Dave Roberts fired for his bad decisions less than 6 months after they lost in the world series...yet after 8 years of 0 playoff wins, people can still (with a straight face) say that what is going on in Anaheim is ok...disgusting.

because you don't understand what the Angels have been.... Please tell me other than Simmons and Upton this year and 25% of last year with Upton what good position players the Angels have had outside of Trout? You are delusional as hell if you think this Angels line up is good enough to face a top team. Take out Trouts numbers on this teams batting average, OBP and SLG and what is this team. Trout masks everything this team does on offense because he is so far out and ahead of everyone in the league or on this team. Out of yesterdays starting line up... 6 of their players have an OBP!!! of under 300!!! are you kidding me... 5 of the guys have a SLG % under 400 that's more than half the Facking line up.

I don't care if Mike S is the Manager of the Angels or not but you are Facking kidding yourself if this isn't also on Eppler and his inability to put a Facking offensive line up together. 

[Docwaukee]

7 minutes ago, JarsOfClay said:

 Some guys are a completely different pitcher when they are the closer and the pressure is on them. 

I remember many closers would shit the bed when it was a non save situation, but give them the lead and it was light's out.

And when you have no other alternatives in the pen, then I'd go with a guy who has the experience until he proves me otherwise. Johnson was never given a real chance.

because he sucks and has sucked for the better part of two years.  He blew 9 of 31 saves for atlanta last year.  That's enough of a sample for me to not want to give him a chance.  

He's come into 7 games with a Leverage index of above 1.0.  He decreased our win probability in all but 1.  

Overall, he's decreased our team WPA by 1.62 total for his appearances.  That's almost 2 wins.  That's the second worst in baseball.  

[DMVol]

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

because he sucks and has sucked for the better part of two years.  He blew 9 of 31 saves for atlanta last year.  That's enough of a sample for me to not want to give him a chance.  

He's come into 7 games with a Leverage index of above 1.0.  He decreased our win probability in all but 1.  

Overall, he's decreased our team WPA by 1.62 total for his appearances.  That's almost 2 wins.  That's the second worst in baseball.  

[floplag]

30 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

No it isn’t.  If you need a first baseman a DH a third baseman a right fielder and a bullpen

All of which would be just fine and little more than minor issues if the pen hadnt given away 10 games in the freaking standings. 
Fix that, the rest arent near as important. 

[Stradling]

Just now, floplag said:

All of which would be just fine and little more than minor issues if the pen hadnt given away 10 games in the freaking standings. 
Fix that, the rest arent near as important. 

Ok if you say so.  

[Blarg]

6 hours ago, nando714 said:

Manager needs to be fired 

shake it up

It’s been stale for the last 9 seasons.

 

That is not going to improve the bullpen, get Ohtani off the DL or remove Valbuena, Young and Marte from the roster and replace them with MLB quality players. Changing the manager is only useful when the pieces are in place. Right now the Angels are in pieces. There are at least 5 (2 position, 2 bullpen, 1 starter) replacements needed in order to justify changing the team management because otherwise you are just spending more money for the same results paying for two manager contracts. 

[Docwaukee]

since our 13-3 start:

offense has a 100 wRC+.  11th best in baseball over that period.  completely league avg.  

SP has an era of 3.61.  8th best in baseball.  peripherals support this as well.  

RP has a 4.43 era.  ranked 23rd over that period.  peripherals support this rank as well.  They also have a 6.62 era during medium and high leverage situations during that time.  ranked 27th.  FIP of 5.07 during that period.  Ranked 29th.  

[Barrett]

15 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

since our 13-3 start:

offense has a 100 wRC+.  11th best in baseball over that period.  completely league avg.  

SP has an era of 3.61.  8th best in baseball.  peripherals support this as well.  

RP has a 4.43 era.  ranked 23rd over that period.  peripherals support this rank as well.  They also have a 6.62 era during medium and high leverage situations during that time.  ranked 27th.  FIP of 5.07 during that period.  Ranked 29th.  

take Trout out of the line up and whats our offense then?

[Docwaukee]

20 minutes ago, Barrett said:

take Trout out of the line up and whats our offense then?

If you take his 6.1 WAR out for the season and replace it with 0.6 WAR, it would give the team 7 total war.  That would rank 19th in baseball.  

[Barrett]

Just now, Dochalo said:

If you take his 6.1 WAR out for the season and replace it with 0.6 WAR, it would give the team 7 total war.  That would rank 19th in baseball.  

My point exactly. Mike Trout covers up a lot of this teams inefficiencies. The teams offense outside of Mike Trout is putrid! Eppler did a horrible job putting it together. You can say they are middle of the road but they aren't as I pointed out earlier. This team sports 6 players who just shouldn't be in an every day line up and sometimes 7 depending on if it's a week where Upton is streaking his way up or slumping his way to boring. I don't feel bad for Trout because the guys getting paid 35 million this year, but man this line up is a real bummer and that is not on Mike S it's on Eppler.

[2020worldseries]

Eppler took over a team with the worst minors in all of baseball and a horrendous Albert contract.. he did the best he could signing/trading for middle of the road players till the minors can actually produce major league level talent 

[UndertheHalo]

1 hour ago, Dochalo said:

since our 13-3 start:

offense has a 100 wRC+.  11th best in baseball over that period.  completely league avg.  

SP has an era of 3.61.  8th best in baseball.  peripherals support this as well.  

RP has a 4.43 era.  ranked 23rd over that period.  peripherals support this rank as well.  They also have a 6.62 era during medium and high leverage situations during that time.  ranked 27th.  FIP of 5.07 during that period.  Ranked 29th.  

I have to disagree that the offense is average.  When they’ve hit they hit, but it does skew the performance on balance.  The offense has been  poor imo.  

Eno Sarris has a great piece in the Athletic today that covered 3 things that can happen for the Angels to get right.  Because teams tend to undervalue 1B he suggested that be our spot to target for improvement.  Also, because we have the 3rd worst 1B output in the majors.  Anyway, as a lot of us have been saying.  It’s time for the Angels to accept the situation with Albert.  If we we desire success the Angels can’t continue to pretend he’s an everyday player.  The guy is killing us.  Maybe not as plainly the as the problems in the bullpen or RF.   But it’s extremely bad.  There’s no way we can have playing for another 4 years.  We need to just get it over with and move on.  For me personally, I don’t want to see him in the line up beyond this season.   Hopefully the Angels see it the same way. 

He also suggested we turn to SD for Brad Hand.  I’ve been a huge fan of that idea.  Pretty obvious target imo.  He’s under club control until 2021 and he’s better then just about anyone else available.  Somehow quietly. 

Edited June 18, 2018 by UndertheHalo

[ten ocho recon scout]

8 hours ago, nando714 said:

Manager needs to be fired 

shake it up

It’s been stale for the last 9 seasons.

 

He'll be gone after this year. (Although id expect he'll be in the front office in some capacity).

But the last nine years of problems will remain. Pujols will be back next year. Ohtani will likely still be out. We will have to replace richards most likely.

And unless we spend huge (instead of on a bat for RF and 3B) we will have the same bullpen as the last nine years.

[Barrett]

33 minutes ago, 2020worldseries said:

Eppler took over a team with the worst minors in all of baseball and a horrendous Albert contract.. he did the best he could signing/trading for middle of the road players till the minors can actually produce major league level talent 

If this is the best he can do. Ouch...

[2020worldseries]

Drafting 3 top 100 prospects in 2 years, signing Shohei + braves, all while hands are tied with international $$...