The Blame Game of 2018

[stormngt]

1 hour ago, floplag said:

pretty sure i said earlier this was a very small part of the issues, but sarcasm away we all need to vent. 

My comment basically was venting about all the Pujols must be moved down the lineup comments.  The only person in the lineup that arguably bat ahead of him is Simmons.  And to be honest I am not sure Kinsler is the one that should be moved down.

Pujols is not playing as bad as the commentary on this board.  He is the least of our problems.  

A bullpen, lead off hitter, Calhoun, and Valbueno are far bigger issues.

[GrittyVeterans]

Not sure how any rational person can conclude that Pujols is the least of our problems. He’s a huge problem

not the ONLY problem but a very big one that needs to be dealt with this offseason

[Stradling]

3 hours ago, Angelsfan1984 said:

I can appreciate that, however its too long of a drought to be acceptable. Eppler is turning the farm into a treasure trove of talent, while still staying within a finite budget left by the previous regime so the manager has to be able to work within those same parameters. Unfortunately, at no point over the last 8 years has he had a successful attempt with a variety of players, coaches and circumstances. Its not feasible to me that with as much variety that has been presented that at least 1 combination in an 8 year period would be successful. 2014 they played extremely well and when push came to shove they got steam rolled when strategy and managerial skills are at center stage.

That in a nutshell is why I consider all circumstances at this point excuses. I as a fan don't find it acceptable, I have higher expectations for a franchise with as high of a payroll as they have. They have gold glovers, all stars and an otherworldly talent on the roster. Injuries have hurt, the bullpen is a turd on fire and the starters while being question marks have actually performed at or higher than most peoples expectations. That's a recipe for a lot higher than .500 baseball considering how bad the AL is outside of the few top heavy teams.

Excuses are different than reasons.   You look at it as the last eight years but each year there are legitimate reasons.  If you have a shit pen that’s a reason not an excuse.  If you have last years starters that’s a reason not an excuse.  In 2016 we ran shit out there offensively and on the pitching side, reason not excuse.  2015 we had a below league average staff and offense, and still won 85 games, reason not excuse.  Incomplete rosters with injury prone one dimensional players.   

[Docwaukee]

I blame the Astros for being so damn good.  

This team was never going to win 100 games even if everything went right.  The hope was that we'd win 90 and maybe even up to 93 or 94.  If that were to happen and if Houston were to have had a WS hangover, we could have sneaked into a division win.  Otherwise, our realistic chance was to have a shot at one more game.  

So Eppler hedged his bets.  He didn't know how our starting pitching was going to perform so he made some moves that improved the team for 2018 but he also didn't decrease the opportunities to improve for 2019/20 and beyond by much.  

Was the 2018 off season the time to go all in and spend your best prospects on a 2b or 3b as well as a closer and maybe even a starting pitcher?  Would any of that given us a chance to win 100 games?  If we had Cesar Hernandez, Mike Moustakas, and Alex Colome would that have kept Calhoun, Valbuena, Pujols, and Maldonado from sucking at the plate?  or Middleton, Ohtani, JC Ramirez, Tropeano, Shoemaker and Richards from getting hurt?  Would it have allowed Cam, Noe, Johnson, Akeel Morris, and a slew of other pen guys to suddenly be more talented?  

I am super disappointed by the litany of crap performances.  I am disappointed in many of Eppler's choices for this team.  I am bummed about all of our injuries.  

But I am super happy that Billy didn't gut the farm and take away all payroll flexibility so we could still be looking up at a team on pace for 106 wins and that it was all for the chance of playing 1 more game.  

[Angelsfan1984]

18 minutes ago, The Boogie Man said:

Excuses are different than reasons.   You look at it as the last eight years but each year there are legitimate reasons.  If you have a shit pen that’s a reason not an excuse.  If you have last years starters that’s a reason not an excuse.  In 2016 we ran shit out there offensively and on the pitching side, reason not excuse.  2015 we had a below league average staff and offense, and still won 85 games, reason not excuse.  Incomplete rosters with injury prone one dimensional players.   

That's fair, I just think more could have been done. I definitely believe eppler should have done more with the pen. Its an absolute dumpster fire, but I also think given the limited budget he filled it with what should have been 3 offensive players who will be playing every day vs a reliever who "could" make an appearance a few times a week. Its Scioscia's job to take what he has and get the best out of them while putting them in positions to succeed. I don't think he's doing that well enough.

[floplag]

44 minutes ago, stormngt said:

My comment basically was venting about all the Pujols must be moved down the lineup comments.  The only person in the lineup that arguably bat ahead of him is Simmons.  And to be honest I am not sure Kinsler is the one that should be moved down.

Pujols is not playing as bad as the commentary on this board.  He is the least of our problems.  

A bullpen, lead off hitter, Calhoun, and Valbueno are far bigger issues.

i completely agree that Pujols isnt doing that poorly as most think.  I just dont really want to see him at the 4 anymore.  Thats my only comment on him.   id be perfectly happy so see him slide down one spot to make room for Simmons near the top. 

[Dick Enberg]

we started out strong this year. Ohtani playing like Ruth, Bullpen working with Middleton closing. Offense getting by and starting pitching, pitching above everyone's expectations. When Middleton went down, the bullpen was exposed. When Othani and Simmons went down, weak ass hitting was exposed. When Ohtani, Trop, Richards went down, the starting pitching was exposed and the cookie crumbled..

[Angel Oracle]

I blame myself for letting the 13-3 start cloud my earlier thoughts.   This rotation was always going to be a work in progress in 2018, due to virtual lack of any kind of innings over the past 2-3 years.   Even with a solid bullpen, the bullpen may still end up being overused by August and possibly wilt.    And of course, the offense was not nearly as good as that 13-3 start said.

This was always a team that in 2018 was improving, but still not truly ready yet for post-season play.   By 2019, they are another year further along in the retooling.  Hopefully, the rotation will be better equipped to pitch deeper into games, and two new solid relievers will have been added by then.  

[Puget Sound Angel]

I'm  blaming the guy who STILL won't do anything about our bullpen.

[Torridd]

1 hour ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Not sure how any rational person can conclude that Pujols is the least of our problems. He’s a huge problem

not the ONLY problem but a very big one that needs to be dealt with this offseason

He is the least of our problems. We have bullpen issues and runscoring issues in which Pujols is not the main culprit. Look who've been regular starters - Kinsler, Cozart, Calhoun, Hermasillo, Young. Pujols is hitting about .250, not great but workable. He's not a major problem.

[Torridd]

48 minutes ago, Dick Enberg said:

we started out strong this year. Ohtani playing like Ruth, Bullpen working with Middleton closing. Offense getting by and starting pitching, pitching above everyone's expectations. When Middleton went down, the bullpen was exposed. When Othani and Simmons went down, weak ass hitting was exposed. When Ohtani, Trop, Richards went down, the starting pitching was exposed and the cookie crumbled..

Actually, the starters haven't been bad.

[GrittyVeterans]

4 minutes ago, Torridd said:

He is the least of our problems. We have bullpen issues and runscoring issues in which Pujols is not the main culprit. Look who've been regular starters - Kinsler, Cozart, Calhoun, Hermasillo, Young. Pujols is hitting about .250, not great but workable. He's not a major problem.

He's also batting 4th and the organization has given no indication that that will not continue. He also has an OPS+ over the last 2 seasons of about 86, which is garbage. He's not the biggest issue of the team, but he's one of the issues that is looking like it will linger on into next season.

 

[Torridd]

1 minute ago, GrittyVeterans said:

He's also batting 4th and the organization has given no indication that that will not continue. He also has an OPS+ over the last 2 seasons of about 86, which is garbage. He's not the biggest issue of the team, but he's one of the issues that is looking like it will linger on into next season.

 

Let's say we have a list of 10 items we have to fix with 10 being the least important. Moving Pujols in the order is probably 8 or 9. 

[Dick B Back]

58 minutes ago, Dick Enberg said:

we started out strong this year. Ohtani playing like Ruth, Bullpen working with Middleton closing. Offense getting by and starting pitching, pitching above everyone's expectations. When Middleton went down, the bullpen was exposed. When Othani and Simmons went down, weak ass hitting was exposed. When Ohtani, Trop, Richards went down, the starting pitching was exposed and the cookie crumbled..

And when Mikey hurt his pinkie, it showed the inconsistence pile that it is.

[Dick B Back]

12 minutes ago, Torridd said:

Actually, the starters haven't been bad.

Sincerely,

John (I’m on the DL now so can smoke me some bowls) Lamb

[Dtwncbad]

Somebody, somewhere is blaming Donald Trump for the 2018 Angels, and fully emotionally serious about it.

[AngelsLakersFan]

Society

[stormngt]

16 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

He's also batting 4th and the organization has given no indication that that will not continue. He also has an OPS+ over the last 2 seasons of about 86, which is garbage. He's not the biggest issue of the team, but he's one of the issues that is looking like it will linger on into next season.

 

Everyone bitches about him batting 4th yet he us the fourth best hitter on the team? 

[AngelsLakersFan]

5 hours ago, floplag said:

Pujols has been better overall than he was.  Hes still certainly not worth his contract but he was never going to be we all knew that. Statistically hes is over 2 WAR better than last year,

That's because he was like... -2 war last year.

[floplag]

24 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

That's because he was like... -2 war last year.

Yes, and hes not this year, you werent expecting him to be much better were you?  i wasnt. 

[70runner]

1 hour ago, Dtwncbad said:

Somebody, somewhere is blaming Donald Trump for the 2018 Angels, and fully emotionally serious about it.

Maxine?

As to Pujols, moving him down the lineup is a low priority as noted.  Moving him out of the lineup should be a higher priority.  The "ain't got no one better" argument is valid, not because he's so awesome, rather the FO hasn't been interested in an alternative to the 250M dollar man.

[GrittyVeterans]

1 hour ago, Torridd said:

Let's say we have a list of 10 items we have to fix with 10 being the least important. Moving Pujols in the order is probably 8 or 9. 

Ok, I totally disagree but that's fine. It's nice that you can disagree without being a dick about it...becoming rare. Cheers to you for that

[GrittyVeterans]

1 hour ago, stormngt said:

Everyone bitches about him batting 4th yet he us the fourth best hitter on the team? 

Trout, Simmons, Ohtani, Upton. 

Let's not pretend he wouldn't be hitting 4th still if Ohtani was in the lineup.

Regardless, I somewhat agree with the point you are making. Eppler has to stop paying mediocre to bad players. Its getting tiresome watching guys that don't have upside to be better than mediocre at best.

[stormngt]

1 minute ago, GrittyVeterans said:

Trout, Simmons, Ohtani, Upton. 

Let's not pretend he wouldn't be hitting 4th still if Ohtani was in the lineup.

Regardless, I somewhat agree with the point you are making. Eppler has to stop paying mediocre to bad players. Its getting tiresome watching guys that don't have upside to be better than mediocre at best.

Ohtani has been smashing the ball recently.  I dont think he has been put out the last three weeks.  My bad, your right!

[GrittyVeterans]

1 minute ago, stormngt said:

Ohtani has been smashing the ball recently.  I dont think he has been put out the last three weeks.  My bad, your right!

Where was Pujols batting when Ohtani actually WAS smashing the ball?

I'll take your answer off the air