This is a fun team

[TheLordofOuts]

Cause winning is fun. 3 wins with no starter getting a W, Late inning run scoring.  They got stars in Trout, Rendon, Ohtani. And, they got up and comers in Fletcher, Walsh, CRod. Maybe, 2021 will be the start of another golden age of Halo fandom with the first being the Vlad years. 

[sammyscioscia]

None of our 'best' hitters have begun to rake yet, so there's still room for improvement.  But man, this team is great in late innings already.

[bloodbrother]

RF is still prime for a massive upgrade if one of Marsh or Adell can take the reigns at some point this season too.

[stormngt]

59 minutes ago, sammyscioscia said:

None of our 'best' hitters have begun to rake yet, so there's still room for improvement.  But man, this team is great in late innings already.

Amazing what a good bullpen does for a team.

[Jason]

5 hours ago, stormngt said:

Amazing what a good bullpen does for a team.

That was my first thought. The pen has looked much improved the first couple of games of the season 

[WicketMaiden]

18 minutes ago, Jason said:

That was my first thought. The pen has looked much improved the first couple of games of the season 

The line-up seems much improved too. Watching the 9th inning yesterday I still felt confident even after Trout's S/O that the Angels would get it done - a feeling I haven't had for years. Ohtani is a helluva weapon to have in the two spot, and after Trout and Rendon's usual on-base excellence at the heart of the line-up Walsh and Upton are zoned in and raking, with Iglesias and Stassi also contributing behind those two. The line-up just keeps on going and really doesn't give opposing pitchers any respite until the 9 spot. Props to Fowler for his timely 9th inning hit btw, was most unexpected and very gratefully received.

[Warfarin]

There are various things we can cite, but really, the team is pulling out close games this year when last year, we were blowing all of the close ones.

Our pen is not flawless, but they played respectably and kept the games close.  Iglesias had the throwing mistake, but that aside, he did fine.  Mayers has looked great again, Slegers has been solid.  Even our middle relievers have pitched well.

Oh, and Jared Walsh is still awesome and should be starting daily, IMO.  

[Warfarin]

19 minutes ago, WicketMaiden said:

The line-up seems much improved too. Watching the 9th inning yesterday I still felt confident even after Trout's S/O that the Angels would get it done - a feeling I haven't had for years. Ohtani is a helluva weapon to have in the two spot, and after Trout and Rendon's usual on-base excellence at the heart of the line-up Walsh and Upton are zoned in and raking, with Iglesias and Stassi also contributing behind those two. The line-up just keeps on going and really doesn't give opposing pitchers any respite until the 9 spot. Props to Fowler for his timely 9th inning hit btw, was most unexpected and very gratefully received.

With Ohtani crushing the ball and Upton hitting well, this lineup is incredibly stacked.  An optimal, healthy lineup:

2B Fletcher, DH Ohtani, CF Trout, 3B Rendon, 1B Walsh, LF Upton, SS Iglesias, C Stassi, RF Lagares

I'd opt for Lagares over Fowler, simply for defensive purposes at this point, as we saw what he could do with that fantastic diving catch.  Stassi's offense has been rather remarkable, enough that he could start hitting ahead of Iglesias.  If his offense is indeed legit, our 1-7 is incredibly tough, and 8-9 aren't bad either.

[Junkballer]

1 hour ago, cals said:

This is like talking Angels baseball with Hugh Grant.

I had my wife read the post before bed to save me some foreplay effort.

[Chuck]

6 minutes ago, bloodbrother said:

RF is still prime for a massive upgrade if one of Marsh or Adell can take the reigns at some point this season too.

Or dare I say Jared Walsh in RF with Rojas at 1B? 

[Inside Pitch]

2 hours ago, cals said:

This is like talking Angels baseball with Hugh Grant.

He needs to mention pubes.

[DMVol]

We will go as far as the starting pitching takes us....the other parts seem to be fine.....although there is reason to be optimistic, RP is still a bit of a question mark...RF could still be tinkered with but the offense and defense appear plenty good enough....

[totdprods]

23 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Or dare I say Jared Walsh in RF with Rojas at 1B? 

I think we'll see this quite a bit before the year is out.

[Stradling]

49 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Or dare I say Jared Walsh in RF with Rojas at 1B? 

We would be worse defensively at both positions.  Let’s not over complicate it.  Legares should start if Fowler doesn’t get it going.  

[tdawg87]

I've made venting posts about how this is "the same Angels" but in reality, this series felt different. 

It's 4 games. We can't draw any conclusions one way or the other. But we played 4 games we would have lost last year (and the year before that, and before that...) and we're 3-1.

Something's different, I'm telling you.

[failos]

Eh we’d all be singing a different tune if Walsh hadn’t hit that HR. This is a good team though.

[Taylor]

I've never felt this confident in an Angels lineup since like 2009. Every inning feels like there's someone batting who can at least get on base. When we get to the Fowler territory at the bottom of the lineup, it's only a matter of time before Fletch and Ohtani are up again.

[Dtwncbad]

I am excited about this team.

The Angel on my left shoulder tells me I can see that if a couple of starters “level up” a notch, this team could be really dangerous. Happy!

The Devil on my right shoulder tells me to imagine how I might feel if they found a way to get Bauer or Snell.  Mad!

Let the emotional turmoil continue, and hopefully the Angel will be right and make me stop hearing the Devil.

[tdawg87]

9 minutes ago, Randy Gradishar said:

This team is going to be good thanks to the all-time job that Eppler did, but they win games like this every year. See the Dodger games in 2019.

I'm sure they will have some CJ Wilson-type games this year too where they blow 8-0 leads.

Do they win 3 of the first 4 games of the season like this every year? Come on, this series last year we'd be 1-3 at best.

As for your second point, I mean yeah, that happens to every team. But it's rare.

[Jason]

30 minutes ago, Randy Gradishar said:

This team is going to be good thanks to the all-time job that Eppler did, but they win games like this every year. See the Dodger games in 2019.

I'm sure they will have some CJ Wilson-type games this year too where they blow 8-0 leads.

That's what Heaney is here for. Outside of him, the rotation does seem to have some upside and hopefully they can eat a lot of innings. If the rotation can do that then I think the Halos win the division 

[tdawg87]

5 minutes ago, Randy Gradishar said:

Well imagine what we'd be saying in 2019 if those Dodger games were the first 4 games of the year.

We'd be understandably excited. What's your point?

[Warfarin]

32 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

I am excited about this team.

The Angel on my left shoulder tells me I can see that if a couple of starters “level up” a notch, this team could be really dangerous. Happy!

The Devil on my right shoulder tells me to imagine how I might feel if they found a way to get Bauer or Snell.  Mad!

Let the emotional turmoil continue, and hopefully the Angel will be right and make me stop hearing the Devil.

If they spent 35mil on Bauer this season, they likely wouldn't have made any of the acquisitions they did, as that would have sucked up their entire budget.  If they traded for Snell, we would have traded at least one of Marsh/Adell and a whole host of other prospects.

You have no reason to be upset, as those possibilities were never good ones for this team.  And we are better off in that context, IMO, as all of our offseason acquistions cumulatively are superior to "just" signing Bauer, or burning down a middling farm system to acquire Snell (who didn't pitch 5 innings in his first start, BTW).

[tdawg87]

Just now, Randy Gradishar said:

You originally said that the Angels would lose these types of games in seasons like 2019. But in 2019 they won games just like this.

If you meant they would lose these games specifically in the first week of the season, well then fine. 

Ok so you have no point. You're just arguing for the sake of it. 

[Dtwncbad]

3 minutes ago, Warfarin said:

If they spent 35mil on Bauer this season, they likely wouldn't have made any of the acquisitions they did, as that would have sucked up their entire budget.  If they traded for Snell, we would have traded at least one of Marsh/Adell and a whole host of other prospects.

You have no reason to be upset, as those possibilities were never good ones for this team.  And we are better off in that context, IMO, as all of our offseason acquistions cumulatively are superior to "just" signing Bauer, or burning down a middling farm system to acquire Snell (who didn't pitch 5 innings in his first start, BTW).

This team COULD have been exactly the same with Bauer.

I get it.  There is a budget.  Sometimes there is a time to break the budget.

 

[tdawg87]

1 minute ago, cals said:

No he’s not.

Or is he?