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Optimism for this season


Glen

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I’m optimistic that Justin Bour plays relatively well and takes at bats away from Pujols. Pujols just grounds into too many rally killing double plays. Pujols better be on the bench if he isn’t playing decent when Ohtani returns. Also I look forward to watching the young players get more experience and hopefully a young player establishes himself as the closer. 

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12 hours ago, Inside Pitch said:

Did you know that the Boston Red Sox got negative WAR contributions out of C, 3B, and 2B last season?  Not the individual players mind you, the actual positions.   Every team has question marks, the trick for us will be to avoid having black holes.   Pretty much every projection system in use sees the Angels offense as being better than average albeit very dependent on Trout.   The pitching staff is where the boogeymen are...   ST hasn't really done anything to dispel concerns regarding the SPs imo, but they also haven't really put up a lot of innings yet.   The rotation is suspect until it proves otherwise.

The fact that the starters have not stretched out is a major concern. The bullpen is going to be taxed early on. It is hard to believe that the Angels will go into too many games with the edge in starting pitching. 

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The position player part of the team is fine. Given the circumstances and what he could have done Eppler did a good job. It's the pitching part that leaves a lot to be desired. Signing 1 year deals is fine especially if they want to go after a real stud next year in Verlander, Cole, Sale.

But seeing what other 1 year deals like Miley, Buchholz, etc. got - feels like Eppler overpaid for Harvey, Cahill.

I'd rather have kept Parker & Shoemaker over signing Allen too.

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i get it. The Angels didn't make exciting off season moves. There are a slew of ifs.  It seems unlikely that that they will be better than the Astros, Red Sox, Yankees, and Indians.  It seemed a lot less possible for the Angels to make a run 17 years ago.  I'd rather not hang my hopes on that kind of one year turn around.... but we don't have to... it could be a lot worse. (see roughly 10 other MLB teams). The Angels may have three of the top 20 players in baseball.  They have a pitching staff that has/is showing a lot of upside.  They are seemingly far more capable of making a run at it than the year they actually did win it all.  I get it.  That was a fluke.  There are surprises every year, though.  This is a game played by humans. 

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4 hours ago, Second Base said:

Weird... the guy who was freaking out that we might lose Trout in two years now believes the Angels aren't very good? Say it ain't so. 

It's been a rough few weeks.

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11 hours ago, Ace-Of-Diamonds said:

I hope your right about Ohtani being the everyday DH throughout the entire season. I've been getting the impression that when he is doing his pitching rehabbing he won't be the DH that day. Brad has said that he won't do 2 things at the same time.

What Ausmus/Eppler have said is Ohtani wouldn’t add multiple new things in pitching/hitting in the same week. Once he’s active, he won’t be adding anything else hitting wise. He’ll be done. I don’t see the pitching rehab affecting his hitting until he’s all the way to bullpens, and maybe not even then. Last year when he was coming back after the PRP he hit on days he threw bullpens. And the bullpens are a long way away anyway, like maybe August. 

As for the original topic, based on the comments people tweet at me, this is the most negative Angels fans have been in spring training in my 7 years covering the team.

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17 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

What Ausmus/Eppler have said is Ohtani wouldn’t add multiple new things in pitching/hitting in the same week. Once he’s active, he won’t be adding anything else hitting wise. He’ll be done. I don’t see the pitching rehab affecting his hitting until he’s all the way to bullpens, and maybe not even then. Last year when he was coming back after the PRP he hit on days he threw bullpens. And the bullpens are a long way away anyway, like maybe August. 

As for the original topic, based on the comments people tweet at me, this is the most negative Angels fans have been in spring training in my 7 years covering the team.

can I buy my playoff tickets now?  

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6 hours ago, TroutTrumbo said:

The fact that the starters have not stretched out is a major concern. The bullpen is going to be taxed early on. It is hard to believe that the Angels will go into too many games with the edge in starting pitching. 

Look around baseball....   You'll find a ton of guys sitting at 10 or so total innings.... Porcello, Sale, Price, Eovaldi, have combined for 13 innings... An average of 3 innings.    These guys are throwing more than in just the games but as it stands Barria, Cahill, Pena, and Peters are all above 11innings .... Harvey threw 4+ yesterday..   We already know Heaney won't be ready for opening day but it's not as bad as you'd think by just looking at IP totals...

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4 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

As for the original topic, based on the comments people tweet at me, this is the most negative Angels fans have been in spring training in my 7 years covering the team.

A winter where ever other day there's an article about Trout leaving will do that to people.   If only they had been reading this board they would have built up a resistance to it having read Claude's non-stop rhetoric the previous four years...  

The lack of name brand purchases will do that as well.   Last year there were people upset at missing out on LoMo, and Chase Headley... This year Machado and Hairflipper were available and the Halos weren't invovled...

West Coast Yankee fans don't like that.

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Let's get this seasons started, already. We're reaching the paralysis by analysis stage at AW. Everything in baseball, much like life, can't be fully predicted with numbers.

But..............we DO need to make our final prediction on the Angels' overall record for 2019. Yes, many have already been postulated. But other teams are still signing players. Injuries are still happening (don't we know!).  Probably by the end of this week would be a good time for the final prediction. 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Blarg said:

Harper is on the DL without a hit, Machado is batting .148. Imagine the mood had the Angels spent the money for those two. 

Imagine thinking Bryce was on the DL (or IL these days) when he just played yesterday 

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Having optimism for this season is a tough assignment.

The starting pitching looks like a MASH unit, and many dont have patience for this specifically because of last year.

There are still major question marks at RF, 1B, 2B, 3B and C.  Question marks are much more digestible if the floor isn't a disaster.  I think the floor on 3 of the 5 is possibly a disaster (RF, 1B, 3B).

And the finite window of Trout on paper (with no extension done) is now basically in our face.

There is no question the overall condition of the entire organization is better now than a couple years ago, but in terms of optimism for THIS 2019 season it is very easy to not be excited at all.

There are just too many reasonably predictable negatives that will result in a reasonably predictable 80-82 win season.

I guess the upside is if the planets align and the Angels have a great season it will be an unexpected treat.

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13 hours ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

What Ausmus/Eppler have said is Ohtani wouldn’t add multiple new things in pitching/hitting in the same week. Once he’s active, he won’t be adding anything else hitting wise. He’ll be done. I don’t see the pitching rehab affecting his hitting until he’s all the way to bullpens, and maybe not even then. Last year when he was coming back after the PRP he hit on days he threw bullpens. And the bullpens are a long way away anyway, like maybe August. 

As for the original topic, based on the comments people tweet at me, this is the most negative Angels fans have been in spring training in my 7 years covering the team.

It makes sense to me.  I think Angels fans entered this winter with some high hopes and instead were left with the acquisition of a couple of injury prone starters to add to our already stacked list of injury prone starters, a reserve infielder, a back up 1B and a catcher, but not the one anyone wanted.  To make matters worse, Trout declined to discuss an extension this Spring, and the Angels fans have been inundated with daily doses of "Trout will join Bryce Harper in Philadelphia is 2 years and counting" as well as "The Angels are wasting Trout's prime".  Couple that with a lineup that still features Cozart, Calhoun and Pujols, strong performances from the A's and Astros and it all equals a bunch of unhappy fans. 

Even the most optimistic among Angels doesn't expect more than contention for the second wild card. 

But the way I see it, I was certain that last winter's moves would surely push the Angels into the 90 win territory and result in a playoff appearance.  It ended with an 80 win season and more let down.  So maybe the answer is to simply make a bunch of peripheral moves that no one likes, because it sure isn't to spend lots of money, we know that. 

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15 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

Having optimism for this season is a tough assignment.

The starting pitching looks like a MASH unit, and many dont have patience for this specifically because of last year.

There are still major question marks at RF, 1B, 2B, 3B and C.  Question marks are much more digestible if the floor isn't a disaster.  I think the floor on 3 of the 5 is possibly a disaster (RF, 1B, 3B).

And the finite window of Trout on paper (with no extension done) is now basically in our face.

There is no question the overall condition of the entire organization is better now than a couple years ago, but in terms of optimism for THIS 2019 season it is very easy to not be excited at all.

There are just too many reasonably predictable negatives that will result in a reasonably predictable 80-82 win season.

I guess the upside is if the planets align and the Angels have a great season it will be an unexpected treat.

I disagree that the floor for 1B is a disaster. Bour was a nice pickup. Agree that the rest of those positions have a good chance to be very bad

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As an aside, I'm doing my predictions right now, and I think maybe the idea that there's only one wild card spot available for the Angels is not true.

The more I look at the Red Sox, the more I think they are primed for a major dropoff. Their bullpen looks highly questionable, having not replaced Kimbel or Kelly. Ryan Brasier may be their closer. Sale is coming off a year in which he was hurt and declined (and he barely pitched in spring training). Porcello is always up-and-down. Eovaldi had always been up and down. Betts and JD Martinez can't possibly be as good as they were again. (Betts had an .839 career OPS before last year, when he jumped to 1.078.) Their everyday lineup still includes Moreland, Holt, Bradley Jr. and Vazquez. Bogaerts and Benintendi also took huge jumps offensively last year.

Obviously they still look, on paper, to be better than the Angels, but it's not by an insurmountable gap. I think there are realistic outcomes that see the Red Sox winning 85 games and the Angels winning 88.

Just off the top of my head, here's how I'd put the over-under at the AL wild card contenders (assuming the Astros, Indians and Yankees win the divisions)

Red Sox 88, Twins 85, Rays 85, Angels 84, A's 81. 

Edited by Jeff Fletcher
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22 minutes ago, GrittyVeterans said:

The cherry picking of when Spring stats matter and when they don't around here is really something else. Make up your minds. I can't wait for the actual season to start.

I totally agree.  If you’re going to shit on the pitching because of their efforts you should then be praising Albert and Bourjos. If you don’t then you lack common sense.  

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