Now begins the schedule of brutality.

[Angel Oracle]

All 18 remaining games are against 5 of the top 6 AL teams.    12 games at home (3 vs Cleve, 3 vs TB, 2 vs Oak, 4 vas Hou) and 6 games on the road (3 at NY, 3 at Hou)

Predictions?

5-13, maybe 6-12, seems about right, given the state of the rotation. 

[Taylor]

Wait, are you saying the season thus far hasn't been brutal?

[Taylor]

Prediction: They'll go 13-5 and finish 5 games back of the second WC.

[totdprods]

I love it. No better way to test Suarez, Sandoval, Peters, Barria, Middleton, Buttrey, Jewell, Del Pozo, Cole, Bard, Anderson, Thaiss, Rengifo, Ward, Walsh, Stassi, Bemboom, and Hermosillo. 

Put them up against the best teams fighting for playoff contention. Gonna go a long way to helping 2020.

If we win, good for the kids proving themselves, if they lose, better draft pick.

Personally I would rather see them kick ass and win as many as possible to end the year. That 2020 pick isn’t gonna make a difference for a couple years, but a strong finish from the 2019 team will. 

Edited September 9, 2019 by totdprods

[Stradling]

57 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Prediction: They'll go 13-5 and finish 5 games back of the second WC.

I’d be fine with that. 

[tdawg87]

Football.

[angelsnationtalk]

Love the Angels but i'm hoping for a top 10 draft pick. That way we still have a top prospect once we make some trades and our team will be better so we won't have a top 15 pick anymore. 

[AngelsFaninGA]

17-1

[totdprods]

32 minutes ago, angelsnationtalk said:

Love the Angels but i'm hoping for a top 10 draft pick. That way we still have a top prospect once we make some trades and our team will be better so we won't have a top 15 pick anymore. 

That draft pick won't help the Angels until something like 2023, and that's if we're Jo Adell lucky. More like, 2024 or 2025. 

I'd rather the Angels kick ass to end the year, because most of what's playing now is who we need to step up next year. 

Pick #10 and Pick #15 makes no difference for us the next few seasons, and likely won't make any difference in the long-run at all.

[Claude]

I would gladly watch each game if they would just play the youngsters only. Win or lose there’s nothing we can learn by watching guys that have already played for 13-19 years. Sit their asses down. Start your spring training now. 

[Jay]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

Prediction: They'll go 13-5 and finish 5 games back of the second WC.

Angels are 3-7 in their last 10 so it seems perfectly reasonable to expect them to go 13-5 the rest of the way.

 

[fan_since79]

They're not finishing 5 games back of the second wild card no matter what they do.

They're 17.5 out right now. The whole thing has fallen to pieces in the past couple of weeks.

But it's a nice thought. 

[fan_since79]

2 hours ago, Angel Oracle said:

All 18 remaining games are against 5 of the top 6 AL teams.    12 games at home (3 vs Cleve, 3 vs TB, 2 vs Oak, 4 vas Hou) and 6 games on the road (3 at NY, 3 at Hou)

Predictions?

5-13, maybe 6-12, seems about right, given the state of the rotation. 

Not to mention Trout's toe, and now Calhoun is back in a deep slump. 

 

[UndertheHalo]

I hope they go 0-18

[UndertheHalo]

Hopefully Suarez and Sandoval get some good innings in. 

[angelsnationtalk]

53 minutes ago, totdprods said:

That draft pick won't help the Angels until something like 2023, and that's if we're Jo Adell lucky. More like, 2024 or 2025. 

I'd rather the Angels kick ass to end the year, because most of what's playing now is who we need to step up next year. 

Pick #10 and Pick #15 makes no difference for us the next few seasons, and likely won't make any difference in the long-run at all.

So what if we draft a highly rated pitcher? Let's assume we get Gerrit Cole or another high end arm between now and next year. If we sign them or someone for a 4-5yr deal then once they leave we could have another arm ready to fill in. This offsets some payroll just how Adell is doing with Calhoun. I think it absolutely impacts the team, plus having more depth which is always a good thing for the Angels. More importantly let's say we draft a high end outfielder or someone else. We could also use them as a package deal for a pitcher. 

You and I discussed the Angels having a dominant window from 2022-2027 or so. Remember when Lackey was a rookie the year we won it all? Lackey was drafted back in 1999 the Angels finished 70-92 that year. Yes, he was a second round pick, but drafting now can absolutely make an impact during the future years. Eppler is very smart with the draft. Getting that higher pick can always give us a better selection and could be a solid player when he's ready during that time frame. 

I agree that it makes minimal impact for us during 2020 and 2021 (unless a trade is involved), but once the Angels are in a position to make a solid run our draft this year could really impact the team. Drafting a pitcher now can really help us as well. Eppler has helped build the farm system fairly well so far, but i'd care more about the 2020 and 2021 draft to see what top prospects will help us compete during that 2022-2027 timeframe.

[tdawg87]

Now begins to Chase Last Place

[fan_since79]

Houston and New York are tied for the best record in the AL and every game is important to them for home field advantage. They are also slightly ahead of the Dodgers and that would come into play in the World Series.

Cleveland, Oakland, and Tampa Bay are in a tight race for the wild cards, so there's plenty of motivation there. One of those three will be left out when it's over.

5-13 is a reasonable prediction. 72-90 gets us a top-ten pick.

 

 

[tdawg87]

1 hour ago, totdprods said:

That draft pick won't help the Angels until something like 2023, and that's if we're Jo Adell lucky. More like, 2024 or 2025. 

I'd rather the Angels kick ass to end the year, because most of what's playing now is who we need to step up next year. 

Pick #10 and Pick #15 makes no difference for us the next few seasons, and likely won't make any difference in the long-run at all.

You're certainly correct that the top pick won't likely help the Angels until 2023, unless of course it's a collegiate pitcher. 

Regardless, I don't think the idea is to get a good draft pick to help the team ASAP. We need good prospects. I think that can be agreed upon. 

Also, the difference between a #10 and #15 could be Adell and Thaiss.

[totdprods]

51 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Also, the difference between a #10 and #15 could be Adell and Thaiss.

Also, the difference between #10 and #25 could be Drew Storen, a college arm from Stanford, and Mike Trout, a HS OF from New Jersey.

Or, say, 2016, a Zack Collins (#10), a college catcher vs other college catchers Matt Thaiss (#16) or Will Smith (#32).

Point is, its really impossible to tell what you’ll get. 

If the 2019 team finishes strong, more than likely it’ll be due to positive contributions from our future core. That’s much more important than five draft slots.

[tdawg87]

13 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Also, the difference between #10 and #25 could be Drew Storen, a college arm from Stanford, and Mike Trout, a HS OF from New Jersey.

Or, say, 2016, a Zack Collins (#10), a college catcher vs other college catchers Matt Thaiss (#16) or Will Smith (#32).

Point is, its really impossible to tell what you’ll get. 

If the 2019 team finishes strong, more than likely it’ll be due to positive contributions from our future core. That’s much more important than five draft slots.

[totdprods]

58 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

That works too. No problem if they lose every game left as a result of Cahill or Garcia blowing a well-pitched kid game led by the young bats. 

[halomatt]

3 hours ago, tdawg87 said:

Now begins to Chase Last Place

This.  Is.  Brilliant.

[Mark PT]

19 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Not to mention Trout's toe, and now Calhoun is back in a deep slump. 

 

Calhoun is done, cant hit.

[Docwaukee]

21 minutes ago, Mark PT said:

Calhoun is done, cant hit.

we should have traded him when we could have gotten a top pitching prospect.