Positives and minuses from ChiSox series

[Angel Oracle]

We’re only 2.5% into the season, but I thought it might be a cool thing to do one of these after each series for all to give their thoughts on the just concluded series.

Positives:

3/4 of the starters gave up just 7 earned runs between them, and averaged 5 2/3 innings.

The bullpen pitched well except for the 9th inning hiccup on Friday.

The defense was very good, except for a case of the Knoblauchs last night.

Walsh hammered the ball in his two starts.   Move over Albert, here comes Jared.

JUp is a different player from the past two seasons.   Thank you, good health.

They got solid offense from the catcher’s spot, continuing the 2020 emergence.

They took 3 out of 4 from a seriously good hitting/pitching team.

Negatives:

Just two really, one was being the case of the Knoblauchs last night.

The other is, of course, Heaney’s continued meltdowns after sailing along.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Angel Oracle

[Justin]

12 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Positives:

Ohtani did not get seriously injured on that freak play. I have no doubt that in past seasons he would have. 

Something feels just a little bit different this season... and that is a good thing. 

[PattyD22]

There really isn’t much more to add to you list, AO.  
 

I’ll add a couple to your positive list.

1.  I honestly feel like playing in front of a crowd, regardless of size, is a big positive for this team it seems.  The electricity the crowd showed over this series was pretty awesome and hopefully it had something to do with how the team finished some of the games.

2.  To kind of dovetail that last point, I wholeheartedly feel that this team is just different this year.  I mentioned it in another post regarding spring training, but they just seem relaxed.  Maybe it’s Maddon, maybe new clubhouse leaders are emerging, maybe the new guys are bringing in some much needed energy, who knows?  Last night was a game that many Angel teams would have folded and lost that game.  To strand that runner in the 9th after the brain fart was so crucial.  The rest is history..it’s early, but I’m very impressed so far.

3.  Having Upton and Stassi squaring up the ball is a great sign early.  Walsh??  Come on....dude is continuing where he left off.

Negatives?

Not too many.....The Angels just need to get a few players going offensively, and they will.  Just glad baseball is being played in front of crowds and glad to finally be a part of it again.

[totdprods]

4 minutes ago, Justin said:

Ohtani did not get seriously injured on that freak play. I have no doubt that in past seasons he would have. 

Something feels just a little bit different this season... and that is a good thing. 

Yup. Any other year that would have been Kendrys Part II.

[totdprods]

The starters were mostly good, but should be elaborated on more...

Bundy looked better than last year, and Cobb's swing-and-miss stuff was much more impressive than I expected.

Very encouraging.

And Heaney's start wasn't anything weird for him, just happened to be his first start of year. Not worried yet. Giving up a grand slam to the reigning MVP happens sometimes.

[Justin]

1 minute ago, totdprods said:

Yup. Any other year that would have been Kendrys Part II.

After so many years of terrible luck, it would be great to have some good luck.

Or, at the very least, merely the absence of shitty luck this season would be a welcome change. 

[Jason]

Not a lot of negatives other than Heaney still being Heaney.  I think it's safe to say that the bullpen performed above our expectations. Hopefully the starters can work deeper into games as to not put unnecessary work and stress on them

Edited April 5, 2021 by Jason

[Angels in 2030]

I’m a huge fan of Walsh.  I believed that last year was real and he’d continue it into 2021+.  Dude needs to be playing 80%+ of the time.   Having said that, I thought those two wild throws (early & late) to first were played badly by him.   Maybe I’m being too hard on him, idk, those are tough to dig out.  But he seemed like he had no chance and was a non-1Bman trying to play 1B.  It’s a huge asset to have a guy defensively at 1B who you know will stop Anything coming his way.   Hopefully it was just early season learning curve.  

[Erstad Grit]

Sutton is awesome. I love listening to home broadcasts again. 

RF still looks problematic. I'd like Lagares to get a long look. I wonder if Puig would make sense?

[Mark PT]

56 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

We’re only 2.5% into the season, but I thought it might be a cool thing to do one of these after each series for all to give their thoughts on the just concluded series.

Positives:

3/4 of the starters gave up just 7 earned runs between them, and averaged 5 2/3 innings.

The bullpen pitched well except for the 9th inning hiccup on Friday.

The defense was very good, except for a case of the Knoblauchs last night.

Walsh hammered the ball in his two starts.   Move over Albert, here comes Jared.

JUp is a different player from the past two seasons.   Thank you, good health.

They got solid offense from the catcher’s spot, continuing the 2020 emergence.

They took 3 out of 4 from a seriously good hitting/pitching team.

Negatives:

Just two really, one was being the case of the Knoblauchs last night.

The other is, of course, Heaney’s continued meltdowns after sailing along.

Pretty much said it all. The Iglesias Knoblauchs, as you put it, really bothered me because it looked to me that he was extremely nervous (my opinion) and this does not bode well for a closer.

[Warfarin]

14 minutes ago, Erstad Grit said:

Sutton is awesome. I love listening to home broadcasts again. 

RF still looks problematic. I'd like Lagares to get a long look. I wonder if Puig would make sense?

Please no Puig.  I think we're fine out there.  If Fowler struggles a lot, Lagares will get a shot, and if he struggles, then Ward, etc.  They're keeping the seat warm for one of Marsh or Adell to emerge, which could be by mid-season.  I think we have enough options to cover us until then, especially if the rest of the lineup keeps playing as it has been.  

[Warfarin]

24 minutes ago, Fourts said:

I’m a huge fan of Walsh.  I believed that last year was real and he’d continue it into 2021+.  Dude needs to be playing 80%+ of the time.   Having said that, I thought those two wild throws (early & late) to first were played badly by him.   Maybe I’m being too hard on him, idk, those are tough to dig out.  But he seemed like he had no chance and was a non-1Bman trying to play 1B.  It’s a huge asset to have a guy defensively at 1B who you know will stop Anything coming his way.   Hopefully it was just early season learning curve.  

If Walsh keeps playing like he has, he won't be on the bench much, IMO.  Maddon seems realistic with Pujols and I think we'll see Albert down to maybe 2 starts at 1B per week and an occasional one at DH when Ohtani doesn't hit there.  Maddon won't routinely sit Walsh hitting like this.

[fan_since79]

Walsh is looking like the real thing, and he came along at just the right time to take over from the future Hall of Famer at 1st base.

Baseball Reference projecting Albert for 475 PA this year?? No way! More like 275, if that.

 

[Warfarin]

1 hour ago, Angel Oracle said:

We’re only 2.5% into the season, but I thought it might be a cool thing to do one of these after each series for all to give their thoughts on the just concluded series.

Positives:

3/4 of the starters gave up just 7 earned runs between them, and averaged 5 2/3 innings.

The bullpen pitched well except for the 9th inning hiccup on Friday.

The defense was very good, except for a case of the Knoblauchs last night.

Walsh hammered the ball in his two starts.   Move over Albert, here comes Jared.

JUp is a different player from the past two seasons.   Thank you, good health.

They got solid offense from the catcher’s spot, continuing the 2020 emergence.

They took 3 out of 4 from a seriously good hitting/pitching team.

Negatives:

Just two really, one was being the case of the Knoblauchs last night.

The other is, of course, Heaney’s continued meltdowns after sailing along.

Well said.  Overall, it was an enjoyable opening series.  We took 3 of 4 from a very good team in a series in which previous iterations of this club would have probably taken 1 of 4 instead.  Our offense is looking very good, our bullpen improved, and our rotation looking rather solid.  There's a TON of reason to feel optimistic.

[Stradling]

Both Walsh and Upton are continuing where they left off last year. 

[Vlad27Trout27]

A few other things;

 I loved the fact that we were work working counts and getting the pitch count high against the sox's pitchers. 

The one downside i noticed, was that we got a lot of help from the Sox's defense. Most other teams won't have that crappy of a defense. 

[Sully151]

Positives-

There seems to be some fire and swagger. It was goody see Trout get a little fired up on a single opening night. Walsh’s walk off swagger was awesome. This will make. Them fun to watch.

Trout has not even been Trout yet and they took 3/4.

 

Negatives-

Trout isn’t Trout yet. This offense will be really good when firing on all cylinders.

[Slegnaac]

Positives

Ohtani easily stole 2nd base.

Upton is clearly over any issues with his injured toe.

Area for improvement 

Increased movement on the bases in front of the 3,4,5 hitters.

 

[Dtwncbad]

If Angels win tonight, would it be too early to start talking about the magic number?

[DMVol]

1 hour ago, Warfarin said:

If Walsh keeps playing like he has, he won't be on the bench much, IMO.  Maddon seems realistic with Pujols and I think we'll see Albert down to maybe 2 starts at 1B per week and an occasional one at DH when Ohtani doesn't hit there.  Maddon won't routinely sit Walsh hitting like this.

I want to believe.  I guess Walsh controls the narrative....he keeps hitting and it puts Maddon in a position where he has to play him....But I keep remembering times that Scioscia gave vets a long, long, leash.....I liked Scioscia, not starting that argument up again, and Maddon isn't Scioscia, even if he is a protege of sorts....but it is hard not to be a little concerned....battered Angel fan syndrome, I guess....

[Warfarin]

1 minute ago, DMVol said:

I want to believe.  I guess Walsh controls the narrative....he keeps hitting and it puts Maddon in a position where he has to play him....But I keep remembering times that Scioscia gave vets a long, long, leash.....I liked Scioscia, not starting that argument up again, and Maddon isn't Scioscia, even if he was a protege of sorts....but it is hard not to be a little concerned....battered Angel fan syndrome, I guess....

Walsh played a lot last year.  In fact, Maddon hit him second once he started crushing the ball regularly.  I wouldn't worry about Walsh's playing time, as Maddon has already established a precedent that he'll play him if he's playing well.

[Jason]

1 hour ago, Warfarin said:

Please no Puig.  I think we're fine out there.  If Fowler struggles a lot, Lagares will get a shot, and if he struggles, then Ward, etc.  They're keeping the seat warm for one of Marsh or Adell to emerge, which could be by mid-season.  I think we have enough options to cover us until then, especially if the rest of the lineup keeps playing as it has been.  

I agree with this. If they can get average production from that position then it shouldn't be to big of an issue. I can't say that I've paid close attention to Marsh but I don't think Adell is going to upgrade RF as we've seen he is terrible with the glove and he hasn't shown enough on the offensive side to make up for it. 

[Warfarin]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

I agree with this. If they can get average production from that position then it shouldn't be to big of an issue. I can't say that I've paid close attention to Marsh but I don't think Adell is going to upgrade RF as we've seen he is terrible with the glove and he hasn't shown enough on the offensive side to make up for it. 

I think Adell needs to spend the entire year in AAA to really work on his game.  He is extremely talented and the sky's the limit, but he's still really raw and needs a lot of reps to hone his craft.  I think Marsh looks a lot closer to being ready.  Defensively speaking, Marsh can also back-up CF too, so perhaps next year, Marsh takes over RF and also serves as the backup CF for Trout.  Maybe he even takes over sometime this year, who knows.

That said, this team is so well built at most positions on the field that we can take our time trying to find a decent RF in the interim.  Fowler and Lagares should hopefully combine to at least be "replacement level," which with the rest of our offensive firepower, should be enough.  The problem with Adell last year is that hew as so bad, he was statistically close to being the worst player in baseball, and that is something we need to avoid having, lol.

[Inside Pitch]

2 hours ago, Fourts said:

I’m a huge fan of Walsh.  I believed that last year was real and he’d continue it into 2021+.  Dude needs to be playing 80%+ of the time.   Having said that, I thought those two wild throws (early & late) to first were played badly by him.   Maybe I’m being too hard on him, idk, those are tough to dig out.  But he seemed like he had no chance and was a non-1Bman trying to play 1B.  It’s a huge asset to have a guy defensively at 1B who you know will stop Anything coming his way.   Hopefully it was just early season learning curve.  

They were played poorly ..... and the easiest way to remedy that is to give him more reps at 1B. 

AP needs to accept his role as elder statesman and be there to support Walsh, pinch hit, and fill in when needed.  He's reached all the milestones he realistically could -- the Angels have given him every chance.  The best way to finish his career now is to reach the postseason one last time.

They have honored AP and his legacy enough.  Time to honor the present and the future.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Stradling said:

Both Walsh and Upton are continuing where they left off last year. 

Upton actually looks better this year than at the end of last year... The defense has really been night and day.