Talk me down or confirm my reality

[Erstad Grit]

What's the old saying..... you can't win the division in April but you can lose it. 

It occurred to me last night angels could be done before my kids get out of school for the summer.  That's a lot of season left to have zero hope.  

Can't even blame Upton injury because Goodwin has exceeded my expectations of what Upton would do.  

Rotation sucks.  3b sucks.  1b/dh sucks.  Calhoun is not a starting OF. Our closer is our worst option in the pen.  

I guess enjoy trout,  moments by Simmons,  wait for ohtani, and see what eppler can get in trades again.  

Sigh 

Anyone else or is it still early? 

[eligrba]

I am told it is early.

[arch stanton]

I prefer to just enjoy the game I'm watching and not fret over what may or may not happen 5 months from now. If everything comes together and they manage to make the playoffs I get a bonus

[T.G.]

I think Angel fans have every single stinking right to be angry and feel like there isn't any light at the end of the tunnel.  There isn't a single starting pitcher who give us any confidence what-so-ever.  Not a single one.  Seeing the team give up runs early night after night is just demoralizing.  Then watching late inning come backs fall short - adds to the frustration.

Adding to the misery is the fact that Houston is still a very, very good team.  Seattle is exceeding expectations and that doesn't help matters either - especially when you just watched your team lose 3 out of 4 (plus the two earlier in the season).

The hole is getting deeper and darker.  This sucks.  It blows. 

I still go to games and will continue to go to games, but it's getting easier and easier to find reasons not to.   Baseball is supposed to be fun.  This brand of baseball is hard to stomach.  I have season tickets... I'd like to get my money's worth out of having them. I feel like I'm wasting my time and my money.  I don't like it. 

It all adds up. The lousy pitching.  The poor hitting.  The stupid mistakes in the field by guys like La Stella and Bour.  The questionable decisions by Ausmus , etc. 

For 19 years - we were used to a certain style of Angels baseball. When it was going good - there was aggressive base running.  There was solid fundamental defense. They forced the issue on the bases.  They did the most with the talent they had.  They frequently out performed projections - or at least I thought they did.  This team looks like it's falling into the abyss.

It's on Eppler. It's on Ausmus.  It's on Arte Moreno. 

Last night's dismal crowd was shocking to see.  It was like we were back in the 70's and 80's when people didn't show up and those that did - were there to root for the other team. 

[Blarg]

Jump.

[GrittyVeterans]

The rest of the season is worth watching but expecting them to win ballgames is pretty silly when you look at the lack of depth on the roster in every area.

Reasons to watch: Trout, Ohtani, Simmons, potential call ups of Adell/Canning (maybe Suarez/Sandoval too?), Fletcher's emergence as the Angels' best utility player since Izturis

[Stradling]

Bad baseball is better than no baseball.  Change your expectations and enjoy the game.  Why be miserable with your hobby?  I know that is an oversimplification but it works pretty well.  

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, GrittyVeterans said:

The rest of the season is worth watching but expecting them to win ballgames is pretty silly when you look at the lack of depth on the roster in every area.

Reasons to watch: Trout, Ohtani, Simmons, potential call ups of Adell/Canning (maybe Suarez/Sandoval too?), Fletcher's emergence as the Angels' best utility player since Izturis

I am not looking forward to writing you that check.  And I totally agree with your second sentence.

[fan_since79]

20 minutes ago, Erstad Grit said:

What's the old saying..... you can't win the division in April but you can lose it. 

It occurred to me last night angels could be done before my kids get out of school for the summer.  That's a lot of season left to have zero hope.  

Can't even blame Upton injury because Goodwin has exceeded my expectations of what Upton would do.  

Rotation sucks.  3b sucks.  1b/dh sucks.  Calhoun is not a starting OF. Our closer is our worst option in the pen.  

I guess enjoy trout,  moments by Simmons,  wait for ohtani, and see what eppler can get in trades again.  

Sigh 

Anyone else or is it still early? 

It gets late early around here.

-- Yogi Berra

[GrittyVeterans]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

I am not looking forward to writing you that check.  And I totally agree with your second sentence.

I'll buy you a beer (whiskey shot?) to numb the pain my friend

[fan_since79]

2 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Bad baseball is better than no baseball.  Change your expectations and enjoy the game.  Why be miserable with your hobby?  I know that is an oversimplification but it works pretty well.  

Sorry, can't do. You're a better man than I.

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, fan_since79 said:

Sorry, can't do. You're a better man than I.

What is the alternative though?  I do not mean this in a dickish way at all.  The alternative is being super frustrated by your hobby.  I don’t know if it was 2002 that has helped me no longer get bent out of shape about losing or if it is the normal maturing process, but I don’t get nearly as pissed off.  Don’t get me wrong I still have my moments.  I remember being incredibly close to throwing a soda can at my new TV when Frieri gave up a grand slam against the Nationals a day after giving up a walk off home run in Cleveland.   I will always have perspective of growing up and never thinking we would win in our lifetime, then we did.  I will never watch the game the same way. 

[AngelsFaninGA]

7 minutes ago, fan_since79 said:

Sorry, can't do. You're a better man than I.

Yeah i fully admit that I'm not gonna watch cynical, bad baseball (or other sports for that matter) and i'm just gonna show up every once in a while to complain and that's really it. 

[T.G.]

12 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Change your expectations and enjoy the game.

That's easier said than done.  How exactly should one change their expectations?  I don't see how anyone can enjoy the games that the team keeps losing.  If I have to go to a game and expect them to lose - I'm not going.  My expectations are that this team wins and that they put the best possible lineup on the field and that the manager make good decisions.  I'm not asking for too much.  I know the team has injuries.  So do the Yankees.  They're beating the crap out of the Angels.  I bet their fans haven't changed their expectations.

[GrittyVeterans]

I don't get nearly as frustrated and upset by the team doing bad as I did when I was 8-20 years old.

There's too many other stresses of adulthood to let the game consume you like that. It absolutely Facking sucks that we aren't a good, fun team but you just need to take a step back if you get frustrated on a daily basis by it. And honestly not watching is a decent idea for someone that's letting it affect their daily stress level.

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, True Grich said:

That's easier said than done.  How exactly should one change their expectations?  I don't see how anyone can enjoy the games that the team keeps losing.  If I have to go to a game and expect them to lose - I'm not going.  My expectations are that this team wins and that they put the best possible lineup on the field and that the manager make good decisions.  I'm not asking for too much.  I know the team has injuries.  So do the Yankees.  They're beating the crap out of the Angels.  I bet their fans haven't changed their expectations.

Yes which is why I said it was an oversimplification.  I don’t know how I do it, like I said I am wired differently.  Work is challenging, real life can be challenging, baseball is just fun for me.  Sure it is more fun when they win,  but I’d rather watch bad Angels baseball than no baseball.  Don’t get me wrong, at the end of a long losing season I am ready for the season to be over.  As stupid as this sounds, I even enjoy missing baseball in the off season.  

[fan_since79]

Go back and edit the beginning of your fourth sentence, Strad. Surely you don't mean that.

[totdprods]

What motivates me is the growing realization we're on a great track, or at least, as good of a track as one could hope for. There isn't a tried-and-true formula for MLB success right now, or we'd all be following it. I suppose the tanking method, losing 500 games in 5 years thing is the closest there is, and that's no more fun than this...

At the time, I failed to see just how bad our root system had become in the late '00s and early '10s. 

I knew we were torpedoing our farm, our international presence, jumbling payroll (even before things like Dipoto, Pujols, Baldoquin), but I didn't realize how badly it was going to affect things, and for how long, and how indicative it was of systemic, organizational failures. Really, it started in the mid-00's when guys like Wood, McPherson, Mathis, Conger, Rodriguez, didn't pan out, and we befell awful luck with Adenhart and Morales and the disastrous 2010 draft with Cowart, Bedrosian, Clark, Lindsey, and Bolden all being picked within the first forty choices. Fortunately, our MLB team was so good '04-'09 it concealed a lot of the cracks. Those cracks tore us apart starting in 2010, and Jerry Dipoto somehow made everything worse. 

It was always real easy to blame the Napoli trade, or Baldoquin, or Dipoto, or Pujols, or Hamilton, Scioscia having too much control or being here too long...but when you really take a look at the last two decades, there was a lot going wrong before and aside from the usual AQ targets.

The farm is in good shape - we have a good young core, a good wave of AAA prospects set to influence the 2019-2021 teams, and a second wave set to hit the 2021-2023 teams - or to deal to support sooner. 
We've reset the button on 20 years of similar coaching, renewed international presence, and adopted data and analytics in ways the org has never seen. 

Take a big step back and look at the team with a 5-yr or 10-yr view and it becomes a lot easier to enjoy the little things now - the future is no guarantee, but at least there are signs of encouragement.

[Blarg]

8 minutes ago, fan_since79 said:

Go back and edit the beginning of your fourth sentence, Strad. Surely you don't mean that.

[T.G.]

It's just hard to invest so much time and money into something that doesn't bring you nearly the amount of joy that it should for the time and money you put into it.  I won't stop going to games or watching because I just love baseball.  If I didn't have season tickets, I probably wouldn't make the effort to go to the stadium nearly as much.  Most days, I don't let the losing get to me because there's more to life than baseball for sure.  Never-the-less - baseball and Angels baseball is a big part of my life.  I choose to invest the time, energy and money into being a fan.  I think that being a season ticket holder makes it harder.  I almost gave them up after last season, but I didn't.  I'm not some super fan. I don't do it out of blind loyalty.  I would just miss it if I didn't have it. 

I guess I just don't expect others to feel like I do.  I understand the need to vent and be angry.  I understand the frustration. 

[Jay]

37 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Bad baseball is better than no baseball.

If you can have a sense of humor and laugh at how bad the Angels are.

Otherwise you should watch some other team. Maybe take up golf.

[Angel Dog and Beer]

It's funny, I find that after a loss I'm usually pissed right after the game. The next morning anger turns to frustration, and then, by gametime I'm back to being Angels Superfan #1. I experience a full circle of emotions. 

So basically I'm AO --------> Fan Since 79---------> Stradling, all within 24 hours. 

[Jay]

2 minutes ago, Angel Dog and Beer said:

So basically I'm AO --------> Fan Since 79---------> Stradling, all within 24 hours. 

I prefer a more even keel.

 

[Erstad Grit]

Just to clarify. I've been a fan since 1986 so I'm not going anywhere and losing isn't anything new.  Yet this year's team is starting to become a team I check the score on rather than watch daily.  I don't even know who the SP is tonight which is crazy for this early into the season.  

[kevinb]

Angels will win the division. Eppler has put them in a great place to succeed. Once Upton and Ohtani are back we should be golden.