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The Blame Game of 2018


Torridd

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I believe Eppler has to take some blame for the bullpen, but I also put a lot of blame on Kinsler, Cozart, and Calhoun. If they were doing even a bit less than average, the team would be better off. We've also had a lot of injuries, but that's part of the game.Even with the injuries, I think we had the players to offset them. We shouldn't be this bad.

Ultimately, my blame assessment would be:

1. Eppler - no bullpen and no moves of note (Young, Hermasillo, Paredes, Morris, Drake, Blash, Robles, etc.) Most of these moves haven't made a difference.

2. Kinsler, Cozart, Calhoun - With the investments that Eppler have made (and I like them), management was forced to give all these guys a long look. That's a third of the lineup. Plain and simple, they underachieved and the whole team suffered for it

3. Injuries - Ohtani, Richards, Skaggs, Simmons, Middleton, Johnson, etc. - It's funny even with Ohtani's injury, we had the personnel to offset it.  We never figured that Middleton was the cog in the engine. His was the most devastating and we have yet to replace him well.

 

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I mean really it's a little bit of all three. Eppler definitely deserves some blame for not doing something to address the pen - Jim Johnson and minor-leagues when we were losing 3 key arms was a big miss. Kinsler and Cozart have underwhelmed, but neither have tanked us. Calhoun absolutely deserves some. I think there are players who have a higher OBP than his OPS. Historically bad. And we've suffered an abnormal amount of injuries once again, and to key players.

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I blame Kinsler.  His high-fives have killed the team.  Plus his inability to get on base early in the season - wasted a lot of Trout's AB's. I'm certain he's here to sabotage the team.

There's certainly a lot of blame to throw around and deservedly so.  The rally monkey hasn't lived up to expectations either.  AND... things were supposed to change once we got rid of "buttercup." 

Truth be told, assessing blame doesn't make me feel any better about the season.  It's just strange on so many levels.  There have been some great highs 13-3 start, Ohtani, Trout, Simmons and then the ultra low-low's - being destroyed by Boston early in the season and, well... no need to re-visit all of them.  Angels baseball was a lot of dang fun early on... now, it just sucks.

I'm holding on to the idea that once the team gets healthy (hopefully soon) - they'll make up some ground when they go head to head with Seattle.  It's hard to ignore all the warts - but I have no control over any of it.

Right now, I'm just hoping Ohtani gets back on the field. 

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1 hour ago, Lou said:

I blame they millionaire players who are sucking ass. 

We’re not asking for much, career norms would be good.

Also, I blame the training staff with the injury issues. This has been going on for awhile now and someone needs to get blamed. If they would drink the Louie Juice before limbering up, these issues would surely go away.

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I'm going a with a little bit of "Boogie Man" and a little bit of "Lou" on this one:

Eppler had a pretty solid BP last season and I'm sure he assumed he'd be able to work his magic again because "why not?".  In previous seasons, he was able to find J.C. Ramirez, Deolis Guerra, Bud Norris, Blake Parker, Noe Ramirez, David Hernandez, and Blake Wood off waivers or for cheap so go with the plan again.  Well, best laid plans have a way of getting kicked in the balls sometimes, especially when your offense sputters leaving you in a lot of close games, and those solid BP options start getting taxed to the breaking point meaning you value fresh, readily available arms with options as opposed to good arms because they are 1) harder to find and time is of the essence 2) the cost to acquire is prohibitive.  In this case, what would be considered your "go-to" guys are either injured (Middleton, Johnson, Wood) or on pace to set career marks in appearances and innings pitched (Parker, Ramirez, Bedrosian, Alvarez) while you depending on not ready for Prime Time (Anderson, Peredes) at the same time.  Essentially, what happened to the starting rotation last season, happened to the BP this season.

On the "millionaire players sucking ass", guys are not doing their job...period.  Pujols is sub-.700 OPS for the 2nd season in a row, Kinsler is batting lead-off with a .280 OBP, Calhoun is trying his best to re-define "shittiness" as we know it, and Cozart, sweet Jesus...I don't think anyone expected a .900+ OPS again but .219 .296 .658 OPS 83 OPS+ 0.1 WAR?  FFS.  Even Upton at .248 .337 .795 120 OPS+ would be under greater scrutiny if 75% of the team wasn't already injured or underperforming.

My fear, though, is they do the BP equivalent of the "Vernon Wells trade" or "Pujols signing" as an overcorrection.  The temptation may be there but they need to resist and spend the rest of this season building the BP for next season.

 

  

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8 minutes ago, mulwin444 said:

I'm going a with a little bit of "Boogie Man" and a little bit of "Lou" on this one:

Eppler had a pretty solid BP last season and I'm sure he assumed he'd be able to work his magic again because "why not?".  In previous seasons, he was able to find J.C. Ramirez, Deolis Guerra, Bud Norris, Blake Parker, Noe Ramirez, David Hernandez, and Blake Wood off waivers or for cheap so go with the plan again.  Well, best laid plans have a way of getting kicked in the balls sometimes, especially when your offense sputters leaving you in a lot of close games, and those solid BP options start getting taxed to the breaking point meaning you value fresh, readily available arms with options as opposed to good arms because they are 1) harder to find and time is of the essence 2) the cost to acquire is prohibitive.  In this case, what would be considered your "go-to" guys are either injured (Middleton, Johnson, Wood) or on pace to set career marks in appearances and innings pitched (Parker, Ramirez, Bedrosian, Alvarez) while you depending on not ready for Prime Time (Anderson, Peredes) at the same time.  Essentially, what happened to the starting rotation last season, happened to the BP this season.

On the "millionaire players sucking ass", guys are not doing their job...period.  Pujols is sub-.700 OPS for the 2nd season in a row, Kinsler is batting lead-off with a .280 OBP, Calhoun is trying his best to re-define "shittiness" as we know it, and Cozart, sweet Jesus...I don't think anyone expected a .900+ OPS again but .219 .296 .658 OPS 83 OPS+ 0.1 WAR?  FFS.  Even Upton at .248 .337 .795 120 OPS+ would be under greater scrutiny if 75% of the team wasn't already injured or underperforming.

My fear, though, is they do the BP equivalent of the "Vernon Wells trade" or "Pujols signing" as an overcorrection.  The temptation may be there but they need to resist and spend the rest of this season building the BP for next season.

 

  

But how do you rebuild the BP without making a trade? It seems like Eppler has dredged the minors for any help on that front and come up with mud. I don't know if we can improve it within the organization.

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3 minutes ago, mulwin444 said:

I'm going a with a little bit of "Boogie Man" and a little bit of "Lou" on this one:

Eppler had a pretty solid BP last season and I'm sure he assumed he'd be able to work his magic again because "why not?".  In previous seasons, he was able to find J.C. Ramirez, Deolis Guerra, Bud Norris, Blake Parker, Noe Ramirez, David Hernandez, and Blake Wood off waivers or for cheap so go with the plan again.  Well, best laid plans have a way of getting kicked in the balls sometimes, especially when your offense sputters leaving you in a lot of close games, and those solid BP options start getting taxed to the breaking point meaning you value fresh, readily available arms with options as opposed to good arms because they are 1) harder to find and time is of the essence 2) the cost to acquire is prohibitive.  In this case, what would be considered your "go-to" guys are either injured (Middleton, Johnson, Wood) or on pace to set career marks in appearances and innings pitched (Parker, Ramirez, Bedrosian, Alvarez) while you depending on not ready for Prime Time (Anderson, Peredes) at the same time.  Essentially, what happened to the starting rotation last season, happened to the BP this season.

On the "millionaire players sucking ass", guys are not doing their job...period.  Pujols is sub-.700 OPS for the 2nd season in a row, Kinsler is batting lead-off with a .280 OBP, Calhoun is trying his best to re-define "shittiness" as we know it, and Cozart, sweet Jesus...I don't think anyone expected a .900+ OPS again but .219 .296 .658 OPS 83 OPS+ 0.1 WAR?  FFS.  Even Upton at .248 .337 .795 120 OPS+ would be under greater scrutiny if 75% of the team wasn't already injured or underperforming.

My fear, though, is they do the BP equivalent of the "Vernon Wells trade" or "Pujols signing" as an overcorrection.  The temptation may be there but they need to resist and spend the rest of this season building the BP for next season.

 

  

Ok so let me ask you this per your own statement, a solid bullpen existed last year, but...where did they finish in the standings? Yes I agree the bullpen is trash this year, but there are so many circumstances year in and year out that can be used as justifications for poor results. If they are crushing the ball and they lose its the bullpens fault, if they can't score its the offenses fault, if their starters get hurt its bad luck with injuries. If the pitching is just outright bad, its the bad pitching coach, if the hitters aren't performing properly its the hitting coach. The GM just isn't doing enough to get better players etc etc etc...

If this were a 1-2 year sample size sure, I agree with everything you stated. Were talking 8 years now with no playoff wins to show for it. 6 of which are with the best player in baseball and what should have been at least 4 MVP seasons. I look at this team like I look at every other year; while yes I agree the talent isn't optimal at every position, you its imperative to use people in places to maximize what they bring to the table.

This merrigoround of trashcan relievers is 100% on eppler, however, theres no reason for Scioscia to be bringing them in tie games in the 8th and 9th. How many of them in a row has he done that with and how many of them have shit the bed?

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As far as all the complaining on here I blame the expectations some people had.  I was excited for the season because they added some pieces in Kinsler, Cozart and Ohtani trying to address some needs but I knew 2017 Kinsler was him declining (still hoped for some kind of bounce back) given his age, Cozart had a career year in a contract year and Ohtani (better than advertised) was a wildcard.  Pitching was a question mark because of the guys coming back from injuries.  They're on pace to win almost as many games as I thought they would before the season started and given all the injuries that's pretty good in my book.  As far as the bullpen I think they need to make a move to get at least one solid guy because between injuries and the guys who haven't worked out that's something they don't seem to have.  I realize they could use more than one piece but I'm talking about someone who can hopefully be the closer for the next 2-3 years at least and that means paying up via trade or FA.

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13 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

Ok so let me ask you this per your own statement, a solid bullpen existed last year, but...where did they finish in the standings? Yes I agree the bullpen is trash this year, but there are so many circumstances year in and year out that can be used as justifications for poor results. If they are crushing the ball and they lose its the bullpens fault, if they can't score its the offenses fault, if their starters get hurt its bad luck with injuries. If the pitching is just outright bad, its the bad pitching coach, if the hitters aren't performing properly its the hitting coach. The GM just isn't doing enough to get better players etc etc etc...

If this were a 1-2 year sample size sure, I agree with everything you stated. Were talking 8 years now with no playoff wins to show for it. 6 of which are with the best player in baseball and what should have been at least 4 MVP seasons. I look at this team like I look at every other year; while yes I agree the talent isn't optimal at every position, you its imperative to use people in places to maximize what they bring to the table.

This merrigoround of trashcan relievers is 100% on eppler, however, theres no reason for Scioscia to be bringing them in tie games in the 8th and 9th. How many of them in a row has he done that with and how many of them have shit the bed?

Last year our starting pitching consisted of Nolasco, Chavez, Meyers, Bridwell and JC Ramirez.  No manager ever is taking that staff to a playoff spot.  

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17 minutes ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

Ok so let me ask you this per your own statement, a solid bullpen existed last year, but...where did they finish in the standings? Yes I agree the bullpen is trash this year, but there are so many circumstances year in and year out that can be used as justifications for poor results. If they are crushing the ball and they lose its the bullpens fault, if they can't score its the offenses fault, if their starters get hurt its bad luck with injuries. If the pitching is just outright bad, its the bad pitching coach, if the hitters aren't performing properly its the hitting coach. The GM just isn't doing enough to get better players etc etc etc...

If this were a 1-2 year sample size sure, I agree with everything you stated. Were talking 8 years now with no playoff wins to show for it. 6 of which are with the best player in baseball and what should have been at least 4 MVP seasons. I look at this team like I look at every other year; while yes I agree the talent isn't optimal at every position, you its imperative to use people in places to maximize what they bring to the table.

This merrigoround of trashcan relievers is 100% on eppler, however, theres no reason for Scioscia to be bringing them in tie games in the 8th and 9th. How many of them in a row has he done that with and how many of them have shit the bed?

What choice does he have? You play the cards you're dealt.

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11 minutes ago, Catwhoshatinthehat said:

As far as all the complaining on here I blame the expectations some people had.  I was excited for the season because they added some pieces in Kinsler, Cozart and Ohtani trying to address some needs but I knew 2017 Kinsler was him declining (still hoped for some kind of bounce back) given his age, Cozart had a career year in a contract year and Ohtani (better than advertised) was a wildcard.  Pitching was a question mark because of the guys coming back from injuries.  They're on pace to win almost as many games as I thought they would before the season started and given all the injuries that's pretty good in my book.  As far as the bullpen I think they need to make a move to get at least one solid guy because between injuries and the guys who haven't worked out that's something they don't seem to have.  I realize they could use more than one piece but I'm talking about someone who can hopefully be the closer for the next 2-3 years at least and that means paying up via trade or FA.

Cat, you didn't think this team had playoff potential? I think that's most of the reasons for frustration here. 

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5 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

Last year our starting pitching consisted of Nolasco, Chavez, Meyers, Bridwell and JC Ramirez.  No manager ever is taking that staff to a playoff spot.  

Was going to post something but, yeah, THIS ^^^

The offense was decent, the BP was good, but, 75% of the time you had AAAA scrubs or BP long-men making starts.  

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