This team the past three games...

[Chuck]

They've been as flat as I've seen in a long time. 

What's going on? Thoughts?

[tdawg87]

I'm telling you right now man, if this shit goes down tonight I'm done for the year. Call me a weak fan or a fairweather fan or whatever but after the Skaggs tribute you absolutely cannot fuckin do this.

[tdawg87]

But my thoughts are this: This is a .500 baseball team. That's it. Their offense is good enough to carry them through the occasional hot streak but the pitching is so. Damn. Bad. They can't really sustain any consistent success. 

[bloodbrother]

7 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

They've been as flat as I've seen in a long time. 

What's going on? Thoughts?

What's going on is pretty common for what is essentially a very mediocre team. Look good for a stretch, look very bad the next, and so on. The end result will be a record similar to what we've seen the last few years. 80-82 wins.

[Lhalo]

9 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

They've been as flat as I've seen in a long time. 

What's going on? Thoughts?

Are you at the game?

[Jason]

15 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

They've been as flat as I've seen in a long time. 

What's going on? Thoughts?

Trout was hurt and their pitching is dog shit. The post Skaggs emotional high has worn off 

[Jay]

my god Leake still perfect through 7.

[mmc]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Trout was hurt and their pitching is dog shit. The post Skaggs emotional high has worn off 

Pretty pathetic for it to wear off already...

[Jason]

2 minutes ago, mymerlincat said:

Pretty pathetic for it to wear off already...

The pitching staff got some motivation from it. Unfortunately they have very little talent and aren’t capable of carrying the team when the offense struggles. 

[popo85]

Eppler, Assmus and co shittin themselves 

[Jay]

holy shit.

[m0nkey]

At least they hit Marisnick!

[Jay]

Nice, Walsh is pitching.

 

[UndertheHalo]

It is what it is.  They win a few, and they lose a few.  Whatever.  

Obviously, they’ve gotta win these next 2.  

[Jay]

Well I guess I did stick around, after all.

We'll see what happens.

 

[Chuck]

29 minutes ago, Lhalo said:

Are you at the game?

No I'm in Laughlin at my son's house. Watching here.

[Jay]

Ha, there it is! Rengifo...

[Lhalo]

2 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

No I'm in Laughlin at my son's house. Watching here.

Same weather lol. 

[mulwin444]

We were going good then we had to send a message.

Lesson: don't mess with a winning streak

[Claude]

This team has been on an emotional roller coaster. They’re spent. They’ll have to come home and attend Skaggs memorial service on Monday. It’s never easy. 

[Second Base]

Even the most optimistic among us predicted the Angels were likely an 86 win team at the start of the season. The pessimistic thought we were more like a 78 win team. Split the difference and the consensus would've been the Angels finishing with an 82-80 record.

Right now, that looks about right. And that's the frustrating part about .500 ball clubs. They will go on a run and play inspired ball for a week and make you think they've got a wild card run in them. Then they'll fall flat on their stupid faces just to remind you that they aren't a playoff team.

Seriously, Eppler has got to shake things up. He really screwed the pooch on Harvey, Cahill and Allen. Tending Ramirez a contact looks like a mistake too. Chris Stratton was a stupid trade too. The only thing he did right past winter was trade for La Stella. But this team can't afford to stay in the same bubble of mediocrity for another year when their window of contention is finally going to open up.

I'd like to see Eppler get a little drastic and deal away Calhoun and La Stella, see if we can't score some more Buttrey or Robles type of bullpen arms ahead of next season. Maybe buy low on Chris Archer and see if Doug White can help him... Not that that has worked out this year either.

Edited July 20, 2019 by Second Base

[rageous]

1 hour ago, Chuckster70 said:

They've been as flat as I've seen in a long time. 

What's going on? Thoughts?

The bottom line is that the team is not that good.

 

[Claude]

This team the past four seasons...

[Duren, Duren]

162 games define exactly where a team is. Barring catastrophic injuries, what you see is who they are. 

Still enough time to get hot and have a legitimate winning season, but with each passing week the window closes. And what we have seen so far isn't encouraging optimism for a radical improvement the rest of the way. 

Probably the fan interest  will revert from team focus to individual performance. 

And the inevitable projections about the future. The present only being an audition for next year a d beyond.

So Trout competing for the MVP may be the most exciting thing the rest of the year. Albert's career records are kind of minor things now that he passed the big milestones. Ohtani's progress as a hitter is important, but his status as a pitcher has to be deferred to the future. 

Sorting out the pitching will likely be inconclusive the remainder of this year because there are so many variables in play and little to get excited about. 

The rest of the roster will have the remainder of the season to work on their personal stats and upgrade their resumes for the future.

I don't expect more than an 85 win team at best, but hopefully one that makes progress along the way. They still can put on a good show and win games, but just aren't amongst the elite teams.

 

[Glen]

7 minutes ago, RBM said:

Our starting pitching is the issue. I think the bad decisions Eppler made this offseason have caught up with us. I don't think a GM has ever missed as badly as Eppler has this season.

Harvey, Cahill, Stratton as starters to open the season? 

Allen as closer?

100% fail rate.

A dart board would have done better.

 

We're almost guaranteed to pick up a starter from the DFA scrap pile in the next few days.