Brad Ausmus Named Angels Skip

[tomsred]

10 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

the more I think about it, the more I like that he's got some experience. Now I'm curious to see who he picks to be in the dugout with him . 

That will be interesting.

[Troll Daddy]

 

[ukyah]

5 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

According to many Detroit fans; he's not great as a coach, and he's too nice to the players...and favors veterans too much over young guys who are better. 

I'm giving Eppler the benefit of the doubt but it sure looks like his first go-around as manager was not that great.

here's a deeper perspective, what's more important? hiring brad ausmus or incorporating analytics into on field management? since the latter was eppler's stated goal, which is what i really wanted to see, then i got what i wanted. do i really think it's going to be massively different from espada, chavez, or whoever their #2 was?

the important change from scioscia is having a deeper understanding of a player's effectiveness and production, and not just the traditional matchups, uses, etc.

at least that was my perspective on scioscia as a manager. that's what i was looking to move away from, not necessarily the man in the dugout.

[arch stanton]

I mentioned this before but guys like Torre, Francona, Hinch were all retreads who did ok. Sometimes that first job gives you a better understanding of what doesn't work and what you can learn to get to the next level. I'll trust Eppler and crew to know what they're looking for

[ten ocho recon scout]

2 hours ago, Dochalo said:

the more I think about it, the more I like that he's got some experience. Now I'm curious to see who he picks to be in the dugout with him . 

Im wondering who if any of the coaches will be kept. Are they considered sosh's guys, or the teams?

[UndertheHalo]

12 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Im wondering who if any of the coaches will be kept. Are they considered sosh's guys, or the teams?

I suspect that mostly it’ll be new people.  

[stormngt]

9 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

No manager we brought in would bench Pujols.  He is owed 28 million.  He will be playing.  Get used to it.  The bigger question is where Ausmus bats him in the lineup.  Hopefully no higher than 6th assuming no bats will be signed to bump him even lower. I'd bat him 7th but I'm sure he won't start lower than 6th to begin the year. 

Who are the five better hitters the Halos have now?

[ukyah]

11 minutes ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

Im wondering who if any of the coaches will be kept. Are they considered sosh's guys, or the teams?

any chances of ebel or others staying on were probably increased by hiring an in house candidate, although i wouldn't plant any trees were i one of them. it probably boils down to their understanding of and willingness to accept the changes to their roles. if they have those qualities and ausmus, eppler is happy with their performance, then they've got a decent shot at being retained.

[stormngt]

9 hours ago, eligrba4ever said:

If Billy and Mr. Moreno love Brad, I'm in, too. If Mike joins a team I despise, Mike will be dead to me. (Unless it's the Dogs. He'll get a pass on that. I won't despise him. I'll be simply disappointed.)

Angel's had the right of first refusal.  They passed on an extension.  I cannot blame Scioscia no matter where he goes 

[ukyah]

2 minutes ago, stormngt said:

Who are the five better hitters the Halos have now?

fair enough question, but if at the beginning of next season the halos don't have five better hitters than pujols, then they're still fighting for .500.

as far as the question goes, i know in 2017 pujols was supposedly the worst qualified hitter in all of baseball. if that were true, then wouldn't the answer to the question be every angel who got enough at bats to qualify?

[Pancake Bear]

7 minutes ago, stormngt said:

Who are the five better hitters the Halos have now?

Trout, Ohtani, Upton, and Simmons are all plainly better options.

Cozart and Calhoun might be. Hard to say on other options. 

But how many of those guys will lead off or bat 2nd? If you have a lead off guy not in that group, that bumps Pujols back to at least sixth. 

[Hubs]

1 minute ago, stormngt said:

Who are the five better hitters the Halos have now?

Trout, Upton, Ohtani, Simmons, and sometimes Calhoun.

I think getting a platoon bat for 1st / OF will help with production out of Pujols, even if Calhoun is that bat. (Meaning getting a new RF, like McCutchen)

 

Assuming Cozart is back and looks like somewhere between 2018 and 2017, while slotting in at three infield positions and Ward and Fletcher means all three can get 100-120 games started in the infield. 

 

Catcher then is the only weakspot, and maybe Briceno and Hudson do well as a young catching duo. 

 

[Stradling]

5 minutes ago, stormngt said:

Who are the five better hitters the Halos have now?

Ohtani, Upton, Trout, Simmons, Fletcher, Kole and Cozart.  This is my list of hitters that are currently on the Angels and will be better than Albert next year.  Obviously I could be wrong and I don’t hate Albert, I just have no faith he will be better and I expect him to be worse.  

[tomsred]

9 minutes ago, ukyah said:

fair enough question, but if at the beginning of next season the halos don't have five better hitters than pujols, then they're still fighting for .500.

as far as the question goes, i know in 2017 pujols was supposedly the worst qualified hitter in all of baseball. if that were true, then wouldn't the answer to the question be every angel who got enough at bats to qualify?

I am curious what criteria were used to rank him the worst qualified hitter in all of baseball in 2017?  There are some pretty horrendous hitters in the MLB by average, home runs, RBI's, Hitting with RISP, Slugging, OBP,  etc..  Do you have a link to that list?  And where did he rank in 2018, he should have had enough AB's to qualify.

[stormngt]

5 hours ago, Homebrewer said:

Scioscia is now officially, totally, gone. I couldn't be happier.

 

Like Scioscia, Brad will get a 2 -4 year pass from me. It wasn't until 04 that Scioscia earned my wrath. (He should have been fired right there)

Brad is not fat or stupid (yet)...so he has that going for him.

GO ANGELS!

What the hell did Scioscia do th hat deserved getting fired two years removed from the WS title and just winning the AL West.

[tomsred]

15 minutes ago, stormngt said:

What the hell did Scioscia do th hat deserved getting fired two years removed from the WS title and just winning the AL West.

According to Homebrewer he got fat and stupid, and he didn't get issued a pass from Homebrewer.

You asked a good question about who the five better hitters than Pujols were on the Angels in 2018.  Here is my attempt - Trout, Simmons, Ohtani, Upton, and I can't think of a number 5 better than Pujols.  3B, 2B, C, RF, they were all miserable hitting positions.  Maybe Cozart can come back and outdo Pujols, or perhaps Calhoun can rebound.  By the way, there is no guarantee that Ohtani will be ready to hit by the beginning of the season.  Looks like we have positions to fill, and a pitching staff to rebuild as well.

Hey, I get it.  Pujols is old and slow, and gets injured a lot (which he works hard to play through),  and he hits into too many double plays.  Yes it's a terrible contract, and everyone would like to redeploy the money flowing to him, but that is not going to happen in the next three years.  It's not all bleak, we have young guys trying to provide a better alternative, but they have not proven to be ready yet.  A good question is how much opportunity does Ausmus give to the youngsters, and is the organization willing to exhibit gobs of patience is letting them develop, or unfortunately even failing.   And will Trout have the patience to stick around while all of this is happening.

[Hubs]

As far as coaches go, I can see most returning, but I can also see Wally Joyner and Omar Vizquel both who coached for Ausmus in Detroit taking over for Hinske and Griffin. Plus Chavez could get a job or could get the AAA managers gig.

[stormngt]

16 minutes ago, Sean-Regan said:

Trout, Ohtani, Upton, and Simmons are all plainly better options.

Cozart and Calhoun might be. Hard to say on other options. 

But how many of those guys will lead off or bat 2nd? If you have a lead off guy not in that group, that bumps Pujols back to at least sixth. 

Neither Cozart nor Calhoun were better in 2018.  Do we want to compare career statistics instead?

[Hubs]

Calhoun was better at times than Pujols in 2018 and Cozart was far superior in 2017. 

[stormngt]

15 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Ohtani, Upton, Trout, Simmons, Fletcher, Kole and Cozart.  This is my list of hitters that are currently on the Angels and will be better than Albert next year.  Obviously I could be wrong and I don’t hate Albert, I just have no faith he will be better and I expect him to be worse.  

I might buy Fletcher.  Guys get off Cozart and Calhoun.  Neither hit as well as Pujols in 2018.  That just showed how bad we are.

[Stradling]

2 minutes ago, stormngt said:

Neither Cozart nor Calhoun were better in 2018.  Do we want to compare career statistics instead?

Yes let’s compare career stats because we know Albert is playing right about his career norms.  

[Stradling]

Just now, stormngt said:

I might buy Fletcher.  Guys get off Cozart and Calhoun.  Neither hit as well as Pujols in 2018.  That just showed how bad we are.

I haven’t looked it up, but I am willing to bet second half Kole outhit Albert.  Cozart will out perform Albert next year.  

[stormngt]

1 minute ago, Hubs said:

Calhoun was better at times than Pujols in 2018 and Cozart was far superior in 2017. 

Lol....Calhoun was better for two monghs....Pujols better for the whole year.

As for Cozart 2017 was a long time ago.

 

[ukyah]

8 minutes ago, tomsred said:

I am curious what criteria were used to rank him the worst qualified hitter in all of baseball in 2017?  There are some pretty horrendous hitters in the MLB by average, home runs, RBI's, Hitting with RISP, Slugging, OBP,  etc..  Do you have a link to that list?  And where did he rank in 2018, he should have had enough AB's to qualify.

the claim is going by WAR alone. he finished at -1.8 the worst in all of baseball, including pitchers.

here's an in season link, just for reference: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/albert-pujols-is-the-worst-player-in-baseball/

in 2018 he improved, in fact he had positive value, .5, which i would suspect (though not proven) is due to his playing in the field significantly. although his defense is bad, the fact that WAR weighs defense and also starting from such a low hitting value, then i'd suspect that raised his "value" .

[stormngt]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Yes let’s compare career stats because we know Albert is playing right about his career norms.  

Lol and how are Calhoun and Cozart playing? That's my friggin point.