I’m disappointed

[AngelsLakersFan]

9 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

I don't know what it is but I believe they as a team were 100% more focused, and better prepared under Scioscia.  Say what you will about the fat man he ate, slept, baseball.  But me saying that isn't based on anything concrete, I'm not in that clubhouse and I'm guilty of making assumptions built around what I did know about MS and things I don't know about Ausmus and Maddon.

As I said in my previous post, it's maybe nothing but dumb luck because it's not even been a month and you have a bunch of new coaches and potentially philosophies being put out..  We have seen teams have bad starts before then put it together, including last year's WS Champs, and this team could easily go on a run..   All I know is this team consistently finds ways to lose winnable games and that's NOT something that was common previously.

It's been the most frustrating Angels season in a long time..

This is probably the worst place to be. To suck but not really understand why. Normally these things would play out over the first ~60 games of a season and then you'd make adjustments. Now the season will just be over.

[fan_since79]

There's absolutely zero quantity of that intangible thing called "grit", like we had in 2002. Erstad, Eckstein, Salmon, Spiezio, Percy...etc.

Bunch of guys going through the motions before cardboard cut-outs and weird fake crowd noise. Playing out the 60-game string.

 

[Inside Pitch]

19 minutes ago, RendZone said:

Except that he no longer can catch up to a fastball like he used to. That’s a declining skill level that causes players to swing at bad pitches. He does a lot of that. 

Except the data doesnt really say that and you're incapable of offering an unbiased view of Upton. 

Baseball Savant has him having faced power pitchers for a total of 9 at bats this season.  9....   Both his HRs,.... off FBs, but that's just noise IMO -- they could have been shitty two seamers.  I wouldn't consider the HRs as evidence he can still hit a quality heater... Mostly I'm saying you're incorrect to make a statement in either direction.  The dude is getting under FBs, not missing them entirely.  His uptick in Ks has been elsewhere.  Just a really odd mix of crap.

He's looked bad, but other than an uptick in soft contact due to a huge number of pop ups/FBs, the batted ball profile isn't extremely worrisome.

The asshat needs to bat his way out of it and unfortunately the team can ill afford that right now

[Taylor]

I hate when the team sucks and we have all these stupid arguments.

[AngelsLakersFan]

8 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Except the data doesnt really say that and you're incapable of offering an unbiased view of Upton. 

Baseball Savant has him having faced power pitchers for a total of 9 at bats this season.  9....   Both his HRs,.... off FBs, but that's just noise IMO -- they could have been shitty two seamers.  I wouldn't consider the HRs as evidence he can still hit a quality heater... Mostly I'm saying you're incorrect to make a statement in either direction.  The dude is getting under FBs, not missing them entirely.  His uptick in Ks has been elsewhere.  Just a really odd mix of crap.

He's looked bad, but other than an uptick in soft contact due to a huge number of pop ups/FBs, the batted ball profile isn't extremely worrisome.

The asshat needs to bat his way out of it and unfortunately the team can ill afford that right now

He's popping up a lot of pitches. He has not really had a lot of chances to play since missing most of last season and then this covid shut down. He is also at an age where we start to see a lot of decline, especially from a guy who doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape (not that it's a requirement in baseball).

[hangin n wangin]

[kevinb]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

The team needs better pitching, that really is it.  So if you want to say they need to replace 7 or 8 pitchers, ok.  Sure Albert is not a useful player anymore but they could put La Stella there.  So they need to upgrade the staff, still.

I didn’t say they need 7 or 8 I was responding to someone who did. I don’t think this team needs 7 or 8 players I think this team Should be good now. What’s missing from this roster is an ace and a shut down bullpen arm. But I disagree that it needs 7-8 new pieces. 

[Angel Oracle]

20 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

Except the data doesnt really say that and you're incapable of offering an unbiased view of Upton. 

Baseball Savant has him having faced power pitchers for a total of 9 at bats this season.  9....   Both his HRs,.... off FBs, but that's just noise IMO -- they could have been shitty two seamers.  I wouldn't consider the HRs as evidence he can still hit a quality heater... Mostly I'm saying you're incorrect to make a statement in either direction.  The dude is getting under FBs, not missing them entirely.  His uptick in Ks has been elsewhere.  Just a really odd mix of crap.

He's looked bad, but other than an uptick in soft contact due to a huge number of pop ups/FBs, the batted ball profile isn't extremely worrisome.

The asshat needs to bat his way out of it and unfortunately the team can ill afford that right now

Sounds exactly like Wells’ 2011 season.

[Claude]

10 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

He's popping up a lot of pitches. He has not really had a lot of chances to play since missing most of last season and then this covid shut down. He is also at an age where we start to see a lot of decline, especially from a guy who doesn't appear to be in the greatest shape (not that it's a requirement in baseball).

He’s become Vernon Wells 2.0

Actually he’s worse.

[tdawg87]

22 minutes ago, Taylor said:

I hate when the team sucks and we have all these stupid arguments.

I preferred when the team was good and we had all these stupid arguments.

[Claude]

Just now, tdawg87 said:

I preferred when the team was good and we had all these stupid arguments.

Pre-Eppler or Pre-Dipoto?

[failos]

Just now, RendZone said:

Pre-Eppler or Pre-Dipoto?

Pre-cum

[AngelsLakersFan]

Food for thought... looking at base runs, we should only be a game behind Oakland right now. We are significantly under performing our pythagorean expected winning percentage which is also under performing the underlying base runs expectation.

[tdawg87]

4 minutes ago, failos said:

Pre-cum

I had absolutely no business laughing at this.

[Claude]

7 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Food for thought... looking at base runs, we should only be a game behind Oakland right now. We are significantly under performing our pythagorean expected winning percentage which is also under performing the underlying base runs expectation.

Bases loaded and....

[Stradling]

51 minutes ago, RendZone said:

Except that he no longer can catch up to a fastball like he used to. That’s a declining skill level that causes players to swing at bad pitches. He does a lot of that. 

Send me the data on this, I would love to read it.

[Angels_Make_Me_Drink]

Every season we roll into with mediocre pitchers, expecting guys to have a "bounce back" year or finally break out and be consistent will be a year wasted of Trout's prime. Its the same story every season; hoping a couple of pitchers pave their way and prove they can be a solid #1 or #2. Rendon is nice and has had a nice impact on the players around him in the lineup and I think with Trout for the next few years will be a key piece of our offense. With Pujols coming off the books, I hope Arte isn't done spending because at some point he's going to have to open the pocket book for a pitcher and we're going to have to trade for another one. Until we have a solid and consistent 1-2-3 in the rotation and a key consistent bull pen piece; we're going to be trash. 

[Stradling]

19 minutes ago, Kevinb said:

I didn’t say they need 7 or 8 I was responding to someone who did. I don’t think this team needs 7 or 8 players I think this team Should be good now. What’s missing from this roster is an ace and a shut down bullpen arm. But I disagree that it needs 7-8 new pieces. 

I know, I was agreeing with you.

[Claude]

10 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Send me the data on this, I would love to read it.

“You have to start seeing the ball better,” Upton said. “The game sped up on me. When teams know they don’t have to make perfect pitches against you, they make perfect pitches. It’s one of those things where I have to start seeing the ball better and get the barrel on it.”

[Stradling]

1 minute ago, RendZone said:

“You have to start seeing the ball better,” Upton said. “The game sped up on me. When teams know they don’t have to make perfect pitches against you, they make perfect pitches. It’s one of those things where I have to start seeing the ball better and get the barrel on it.”

Oh, ok.  So no data.  

[Inside Pitch]

15 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Sounds exactly like Wells’ 2011 season.

Nah.... the batted ball information actually supported the belief Wells was done.   I mean, Wells started showing signs he was going sideways as early as age 28.   His OPS in 2009 was 86 -- right in line with his Angels career.  If anything Wells had his dead cat bounce the year before they acquired him and Reagins and company made the mistake of thinking he was back.  He wasn't.
Check out Wells' hard hit ball percentages

2009 - 27.1%
2010 - 39.0%
2011 - 25.1%
Career - 30.2%

Upton is only 2% off his career norms and most of that has to do with a 17% spike in his FB% from his career norms.   He's completely lost but not Wells level broken.

 

 

[Inside Pitch]

2 minutes ago, RendZone said:

“You have to start seeing the ball better,” Upton said. “The game sped up on me. When teams know they don’t have to make perfect pitches against you, they make perfect pitches. It’s one of those things where I have to start seeing the ball better and get the barrel on it.”

That in no way supports your view..   He's saying he's not barreling balls, which I pointed out statistically in a different thread (1 barrel all year), and is exactly what I am talking about when I say he's getting under balls.   

[Claude]

1 minute ago, Stradling said:

Oh, ok.  So no data.  

He himself said this two years ago. He's admitting that the game has sped up on him. You're too blinded by him wearing an Angels uniform to admit it.

[Inside Pitch]

5 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Oh, ok.  So no data.  

100% narrative as per usual.  Well, as per 2018 when the Angels acquired Upton.

[Stradling]

Just now, RendZone said:

He himself said this two years ago. He's admitting that the game has sped up on him. You're too blinded by him wearing an Angels uniform to admit it.

Dude, just stop, you are blinded by your dislike of the guy because he makes money and isn’t performing to be anything other than unbiased.  You say his bat slowed down.  But you can’t actually show that it has slowed down.