Top 10 things wrong with this team

[fan_since79]

In no particular order:

Starting pitchers with no guts who are afraid to throw strikes or close out innings

Much of the bullpen, extremely inconsistent or just plain bad

Shaky fielding at inopportune times

Lack of situational hitting, too many men left in scoring position

Hitters dominated by no-name pitchers

Trout's injury. 2 months, 3 months, 4 months??

Rendon's slow start, and it appears maybe the entire season

Suzuki

Slow development of minor leaguers. What decade will Marsh, Thaiss, and Adell be ready?

The manager and his head-scratching game decisions

The owner. Time to sell, Arte.

Okay, that was 11 things.

[tdawg87]

Joe Maddon 10 times.

[bloodbrother]

Where to begin

 

[Jason]

Imagine if they didn’t have Ohtani? There would be nothing positive to talk about 

[Vlad27Trout27]

game one against sf: Rengifo. he make's the [lay and we could be out of the inning 0-0

Game 2 against sf: stassi....Twice

Game 3; Ward

 

 

[fan_since79]

1 minute ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

game one against sf: Rengifo. he make's the play and we could be out of the inning 0-0

Game 2 against sf: stassi....Twice

Game 3; Ward

 

 

It's maddening. We shouldn't be doing this crap so frequently.

Teams like the A's and Astros do these things very rarely.

 

 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I feel as if we've been blaming the pitching a lot this year, yes there is blame on that side, but I feel like our defense should have bigger blame. We've lost winnable game's too many times thanks to the defense. 

Suzuki, sucks dude blows, yets he has 38 games, while producing a War of -0.3

Ward is still playable, but he should be in Rf. He's had experience in that spot and should stick to it. 

Iglesias fricken blows, swings at junk and has like 10 error

 

[fan_since79]

I agree on the defense, and as for the pitching, our guys just aren't very good except Ohtani. We're getting from them what they basically are. 

Team needs a total rebuild in my opinion.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Vlad27Trout27 said:

I feel as if we've been blaming the pitching a lot this year, yes there is blame on that side, but I feel like our defense should have bigger blame. We've lost winnable game's too many times thanks to the defense. 

[Jeff Fletcher]

2 hours ago, fan_since79 said:

Lack of situational hitting, too many men left in scoring position

This one isn’t a problem.

Last I checked they had the highest OPS in the majors with RISP

[Angel Oracle]

Biggest concerns are lack of bullpen depth, and defense.

The starters have pitched much better since May (Bundy excepted).

It’s not just about the defense itself.  It’s about Maddon doing his Dr. Frankenstein impression with all of the odd shifts and the seemingly intense desire to have so many players learning different positions at the MLB level.  Two of the past 3 games saw it cost them big time (Rengifo in RF and Ward in LF).

[Jeff Fletcher]

In order….

1. Underperforming starters 

2. underperforming relievers 

3. Injuries 

4. defense 

5. underperforming hitters 

(They honestly ought to be worse than 3 games under.)

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 minute ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

In order….

1. Underperforming starters 

2. underperforming relievers 

3. Injuries 

4. defense 

5. underperforming hitters 

(They honestly ought to be worse than 3 games under.)

So it's just about all bad luck?

[Angel Oracle]

2 hours ago, bloodbrother said:

Where to begin

 

1004 ways for Maddon to mess up the defense 

[Jeff Fletcher]

1 minute ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

So it's just about all bad luck?

I didn’t say that. So I’m not sure what you’re asking. 

[AngelsLakersFan]

Just now, Jeff Fletcher said:

I didn’t say that. So I’m not sure what you’re asking. 

Well, saying they are under performing is sort of implying that we should expect them to turn it around, and I don't see that.

[Blarg]

The biggest problem with this team is that next year is the same cycle as previous years and that is an incomplete rotation. Strangely enough one of the problems of the rotation is Ohtani, himself. 

In order to sustain Ohtani's two way versatility the Angels must have a 6 man rotation. They have problems enough finding five reasonable arms, but this year they went into free agency to fill 2 roles all to give Ohtani that 6th role. 

Before of the start of next season the Angels have to put in place 4 new pitchers of the 6 man rotation, only Canning and Ohtani remain. Pitchers will be promoted to full time roles between Sandoval, Barria, Saurez and Rodriguez but certainly not all four. My guess is two. 

So next season we are back to two holes in the rotation. Not moving one step forward from 5 years ago. It's a wash, rinse, repeat cycle of finding starters and bullpen arms on a budget while hoping your primary offensive contributors stay on the field. They haven't the last 5 years. 

Taking away Ohtani's bat would also take away one more crappy starter. Is that more likely to cause more wins than Ohtani provides from the DH role?

Quality starters are hard to find, DH not so much. Putting Ohtani in a 5 man rotation reduces the amount of games between his starts, making finding 4 reasonable arms less of a challenge. In fact it would require only one good arm in free agency next season. Concentrating the money spent on Bundy and Cobb into one pitcher would probably bring a better pitcher in to shore up the one hole. 

But that isn't going to happen. They will keep with the two way player and you will see two crappy pitchers filling what should only be one position on the roster.

And wash, rinse, repeat. 

[Jeff Fletcher]

Just now, AngelsLakersFan said:

Well, saying they are under performing is sort of implying that we should expect them to turn it around, and I don't see that.

All it means is they have not performed to expectations so far. Maybe they’ll get better and maybe they won’t. I suspect some of them will though. 

[Jeff Fletcher]

4 minutes ago, cals said:

Sir, can I ask you to comment: Where does Joe Maddon and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Decisions come in?

17th

[AngelsLakersFan]

The Angels among the 15 AL teams are...

7th in the AL in starting pitcher fWar
13th in the AL for relief pitcher fWar
4th in the AL in offense (wRC+)
14th in the AL in defense (fangraphs DEF)

What really stands out to you? If you told me the Angels would have a top 4 offense and an average starting rotation near the half way mark of the season I would've taken it. The bullpen is surprisingly bad, but looking at the guys actually in the pen, are any of them truly under performing? The atrocious defense is surprising, and perhaps we can call that under performance but don't they like to say that "defense doesn't go into a slump." Something is wrong with the defense and right now it's been nearly 30 runs below average.

[failos]

[Docwaukee]

I'm most surprised that the defense is so bad.  To me that's #1.  

The pen is 1b but I expected that.  I was pretty concerned from day 1 that this wouldn't be a very good bullpen.  

The number of innings the starting staff has pitched is a problem and I put some of that on Joe for sure.  

Rendon has been miserable.  

Trout being out has been rough.  

[PattyD22]

The combination of defensive shifts and the pitchers inability to pitch to the shift has been atrocious all season.  It works every once in a while, but it has been exposed more times than I care to count.  That’s on Maddon and the pitchers.

Also, the lack of executing simple fundamentals of baseball is inexcusable.  Not just the bullshit errors, but that crap Ward pulled last night should have got his ass benched.  I’ll give Renigfo a pass on his gaffe, but everyone who has played the game of baseball knows that the outfielder who is coming IN on a ball has the play.  Every time.  I know he’s out of position, but that play wasn’t a player being out of position.  That was a flat out bullshit play, coupled of course, with a bad shift by the defense.

Cishek hitting a batter with the bases loaded is just a microcosm of a pen that has been crap all year.  Unreal how bad it’s been.  
 

I almost went to the vent thread last night and channeled my inner Angel Oracle, but I thought better of it.  But son of a bitch, I’m getting close.  The last 4 games have pushed me from frustrated fan to pissed off fan.

 

 

[Waybackman]

Amen

[Second Base]

Underperforming starting pitchers? You mean to tell me our short term acquisitions of Bundy, Cobb and Quintana didn't work out? 

When has that ever happened to the Angels...... for five consecutive years?