Gameday Thread: Angels vs. White Sox (Opening Day 4-1-2021)

[Lou]

11 minutes ago, Adam said:

It’s early

In the season or in the day?

[halonatic13]

8 hours ago, PattyD22 said:

I have to say, and maybe @rafibombcan concur, but even with 13,000 in the stadium, it was legitimately loud in the stadium.  You could feel the excitement and it was awesome.  Maybe it was the 18 month layoff, whatever.

Great team win.  Pitching, defense, and a little luck.  I’m stoked, at least for tonight.  

I heard somewhere that they were still planning on playing crowd tracks over the speakers.  So that might be why.  But I agree, it was loud even from the TV speakers.

[halonatic13]

Anybody else cringe when every flyball was hit to Fowler last night?  Hopefully his errors stayed in AZ.

[PattyD22]

24 minutes ago, halonatic13 said:

I heard somewhere that they were still planning on playing crowd tracks over the speakers.  So that might be why.  But I agree, it was loud even from the TV speakers.

I don’t recall hearing any piped in crowd noise last night, even though for the first 4 innings, we probably could have used some.  After the Stassi home run, the dynamic of the crowd changed and from, I’d say that point forward, the crowd was really into the game.

The 8th inning especially, was really great.  The chants of “MVP” for Trout was awesome and something our crowd rarely does.  I hope that came across on TV because it was pretty cool.

Oh and by the way....we might just have a closer now which really put the cap on the night.

[Angels 1961]

Great win, need other starters to keep halos in games. Angels will have solid bullpen.

[Stradling]

9 hours ago, PattyD22 said:

I have to say, and maybe @rafibombcan concur, but even with 13,000 in the stadium, it was legitimately loud in the stadium.  You could feel the excitement and it was awesome.  Maybe it was the 18 month layoff, whatever.

Great team win.  Pitching, defense, and a little luck.  I’m stoked, at least for tonight.  

It was loud for the amount of fans for sure. It wasn’t playoff loud but it felt great. 

[St1ck]

7 minutes ago, PattyD22 said:

I don’t recall hearing any piped in crowd noise last night, even though for the first 4 innings, we probably could have used some.  After the Stassi home run, the dynamic of the crowd changed and from, I’d say that point forward, the crowd was really into the game.

The 8th inning especially, was really great.  The chants of “MVP” for Trout was awesome and something our crowd rarely does.  I hope that came across on TV because it was pretty cool.

Oh and by the way....we might just have a closer now which really put the cap on the night.

I think the crowd noise started right around the time people realized they weren't getting their hotdogs in a timely manner. 

[PattyD22]

8 minutes ago, Stradling said:

It was loud for the amount of fans for sure. It wasn’t playoff loud but it felt great. 

I didn’t know until this morning you were at the game @Stradlingor I would have included you in that post.  Awesome to see and hear that crowd last night, and I’d agree.  Not playoff noise, but hell, it was noise nonetheless which was nice.

[Stradling]

Am I the only one that would have more confidence in Albert than Walsh in that 8th inning scenario?  Maybe I’d feel different if Walsh looked great in spring.  But it was a situation where you wanted someone who could slow it all down (go ahead make the Albert is slow joke) and get the job done.  It wasn’t pretty but the job got done.  With Walsh I could easily see him try to hit it out and ultimately strike out. It’s pretty much the situation where Albert would come off the bench and pinch hit. 

[Stradling]

I think Fowler will get a month or two of regular starts. If he isn’t performing then we will see Ward brought up. 

[Mark68]

My takeaways from this game:

That one play that Jose Iglesias made (dove to his right and then made the bouncing throw to first) made me realize that the loss of Simmons may not have been as horrible as it seemed.

Upton hit the ball hard, even that double play that Moncada snagged was crushed. And I think that AB he had in the 8th where he fouled off several pitches before getting the walk was HUGE.

And Rasiel is just flat nasty.

I'm cautiously optimistic.

[PattyD22]

36 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Am I the only one that would have more confidence in Albert than Walsh in that 8th inning scenario?  Maybe I’d feel different if Walsh looked great in spring.  But it was a situation where you wanted someone who could slow it all down (go ahead make the Albert is slow joke) and get the job done.  It wasn’t pretty but the job got done.  With Walsh I could easily see him try to hit it out and ultimately strike out. It’s pretty much the situation where Albert would come off the bench and pinch hit. 

My buddies and I discussed this last night and our only issue was the fact that Albert has really become an “dead pull” hitter for the last several seasons.  In that scenario with the bases loaded, a simple contact play would have been enough, but a ground ball to the left side should have been the end of the inning (with Albert running I mean).  As it turned out, a 60 foot dribbler was just what the team needed and it worked out.

To your point @Stradling, we’ll never know.  You are spot on with Walsh and he didn’t exactly light spring training up, and he for sure, would have been super pumped up.  That usually leads to over pressing, especially for a young player.  
 

it all worked out in the end, but to be honest, who on the bench would anyone have wanted in that scenario?  I ask because I don’t know, but we discussed the shit out of it last night as “bleacher managers”.

Edited April 2, 2021 by PattyD22

[Warfarin]

28 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Am I the only one that would have more confidence in Albert than Walsh in that 8th inning scenario?  Maybe I’d feel different if Walsh looked great in spring.  But it was a situation where you wanted someone who could slow it all down (go ahead make the Albert is slow joke) and get the job done.  It wasn’t pretty but the job got done.  With Walsh I could easily see him try to hit it out and ultimately strike out. It’s pretty much the situation where Albert would come off the bench and pinch hit. 

Actually, against a LHP, I felt sticking with Albert was the right call.  If they had pivoted and taken out Bummer, I would have said either Walsh or Rojas would have been a better bet to come through. 

[failos]

I don't know if it's because of the pandemic, but man was it exhilarating just watching a game with fans. Seeing the team so pumped up and on fire was a sight to see. I'm envious of the people who were there in person!

I'm not saying we're going to be the best team this year (I hope we will be though), but last night was some of that pure Angels magic I remember from when we were good and it was something I really needed on a personal level.

[failos]

2 hours ago, halonatic13 said:

Anybody else cringe when every flyball was hit to Fowler last night?  Hopefully his errors stayed in AZ.

I actually got worried for a sec, too. He's undoubtedly the team's bottleneck right now...I fear we will see him quite a bit due to his relationship with Maddon.

[Warfarin]

2 minutes ago, failos said:

I actually got worried for a sec, too. He's undoubtedly the team's bottleneck right now...I fear we will see him quite a bit due to his relationship with Maddon.

I do too, but I am hopeful we will at least platoon him such that Lagares will start against LHP.  I do think, if Fowler shows he really has nothing left in the tank, they won't stick with him all year.  It's not a Pujols-type situation where they are obligated to keep playing him out of respect.  If Fowler looks terrible, they'll move on, though they will likely at least give him 2 months at the minimum to show that.

[totdprods]

Sticking to my theory that Albert sort of has a pick and choose approach...when it's a situation where all he needs to do to drive in a run is take a walk or make contact, he gets it done as good as any still. 

When it's just a typical at bat however, he doesn't try to draw a walk or make contact or go the other way, he just shoots for a HR, and since this is a majority of his ABs. 

Hoping Lagares has a moment early in the season where he delivers something clutch and just runs with the job with Maddon playing the hot-hand/fan-favorite.

[fan_since79]

9 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Pujols on pace for 162 RBI.

Eat it, haters.

Career RBI: 2,101.

That's a freaking large number.

[stormngt]

5 hours ago, Warfarin said:

 

Yep!  This is actually the opposite of how a game would have gone for us last year.  It felt like last year, we would get an early lead and be up by a run or two heading into the late innings, then either Robles, Buttrey, Bedrosian, etc would blow the game for us.  We kept "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory," so to speak.

Last night was a blueprint of how much different this season could be.  It's only one game, but we beat a strong team and weathered a difficult battle against one of the best pitchers in baseball.  Our offense cobbled together a good inning, eked out a lead, and our bullpen pitched 3 shutout innings to seal the victory.

Iglesias and Mayers should form a great 1-2 punch in the late innings.  I'm actually rather optimistic on Slegers as a reliever and think he can be a really solid high-leverage reliever too.  CRod has all the stuff to be one, but we'll have to see, as experience does matter.  The rest (Cishek, Watson, Guerra, Claudio) should be serviceable relievers that can at least avoid meltdowns.

Last season's pen was so bad that towards the end, when we were making our late charge for the playoffs, Maddon was literally just using 3 relievers non-stop every single game (Mayers, Pena, Andriese) and literally nobody else.

On a side note, our defense looks significantly better, too.  I can't believe that Upton actually looks pretty decent out in LF!  He's clearly put in the work and Maddon/the FO has likely helped provide him with guidance as to how to improve.  If he can actually be an average defender in LF, that's huge.  And the quality of his ABs last night were tremendous!  He worked the count, drew a walk, put up good battles.  Even his DP was crushed.  If Upton can hit like he once did and actually play good defense, that's an incredible boost to our team.

Last year was more like:

Angels down a run when starter is pulled.  Then bullpen gives up 5 runs.

Or as you said, Angels up 1 late in the gane Nd bullpen blows it.

[Lou]

15 hours ago, Lou said:

4th inning on Opening Day and everyone's talking about food. 

 

The day after Opening Day and everyone's still talking about food.

[Angels in 2030]

4 hours ago, Stradling said:

Am I the only one that would have more confidence in Albert than Walsh in that 8th inning scenario?  Maybe I’d feel different if Walsh looked great in spring.  But it was a situation where you wanted someone who could slow it all down (go ahead make the Albert is slow joke) and get the job done.  It wasn’t pretty but the job got done.  With Walsh I could easily see him try to hit it out and ultimately strike out. It’s pretty much the situation where Albert would come off the bench and pinch hit. 

idk if i'd give any type of credit to albert in that AB.  The only thing that kept it from being an easy inning over double-play was the fact he couldn't even get solid wood on the ball.  That was weak sauce.  I guess i give him minor credit for not striking out.  But really a DP is the norm for him and likely what he does next time (& then -- if it wasn't such a bad swing).  Hey, in the box score it looks like a line drive and game winner so who-ray!    

[tdawg87]

Nah Pujols is done. I don't care about his experience, I'll take the better hitter in that situation.

He tried to GIDP he just didn't hit it hard enough. Pitchers know exactly what to throw him in those situations now and he doesn't adjust.

[Slegnaac]

Lost among all of the amazing plays of the night, Trout making a great running catch in CF look routine. 

[Stradling]

26 minutes ago, Fourts said:

idk if i'd give any type of credit to albert in that AB.  The only thing that kept it from being an easy inning over double-play was the fact he couldn't even get solid wood on the ball.  That was weak sauce.  I guess i give him minor credit for not striking out.  But really a DP is the norm for him and likely what he does next time (& then -- if it wasn't such a bad swing).  Hey, in the box score it looks like a line drive and game winner so who-ray!    

The norm? Once every 30 or so at bats the last 3 seasons.  We are blowing this out of proportion 

[Angels in 2030]

3 minutes ago, Stradling said:

The norm? Once every 30 or so at bats the last 3 seasons.  We are blowing this out of proportion