Gameday Thread: Angels @ Twins (7/25/21): Barria on the mound

[Angels_Make_Me_Drink]

Really impressed with the way Barria settled down after the first. Hopefully he earns himself a couple more starts and can prove himself against better lineups. 

Marsh has been awesome. Can't wait to see his average and ops start to creep up as more of these balls he's putting in play start to fall. He does not look overmatched at all right now. 

[Dtwncbad]

1 minute ago, stormngt said:

I am betting Barria is traded.

Not a bad bet.  If the Angels want to make a deal happen to get better in the front half of the rotation, they are going to have to be willing to trade some arms that look “promising.”

[JustATroutFan]

If I had told you a few seasons ago that in 2021, Ward would put up an OPS of .748, you would feel good. Ward was really bad at the dish in 2018 and 2019. He was a contributor during Trout being out of the lineup. He also has a lower strikeout rate than GOAT (Trout) this regular season. 

[Chuck]

8 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Barria at 95 today?  That could change some things for him if sustainable. 

He looked like a German Marquez clone out there today.

[Second Base]

2 hours ago, Lou said:

2-1 loss upcoming because Angels.

I agree.

[Dtwncbad]

Just now, Angels_Make_Me_Drink said:

Really impressed with the way Barria settled down after the first. Hopefully he earns himself a couple more starts and can prove himself against better lineups. 

Marsh has been awesome. Can't wait to see his average and ops start to creep up as more of these balls he's putting in play start to fall. He does not look overmatched at all right now. 

Marsh is just fun to watch play.  I know it’s the look that contributes to it, but he just has this grinder, blue collar vibe about him that is fun.

[stormngt]

1 minute ago, Dtwncbad said:

Not a bad bet.  If the Angels want to make a deal happen to get better in the front half of the rotation, they are going to have to be willing to trade some arms that look “promising.”

If he could be part of a package for a front line starter you trade him.  As much as I like him he is strictly back of the rotation.

 

[Dtwncbad]

3 minutes ago, JustATroutFan said:

If I had told you a few seasons ago that in 2021, Ward would put up an OPS of .748, you would feel good. Ward was really bad at the dish in 2018 and 2019. He was a contributor during Trout being out of the lineup. He also has a lower strikeout rate than GOAT (Trout) this regular season. 

Comparing his strikeout rate to Trout is meaningless.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Dtwncbad

[Docwaukee]

19 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

I don’t hate Ward.  I just hate the use of the draft pick and the outcome.

Your expectations for the 26th pick should be lower. 

[Chuck]

3 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I agree.

@Lou just got Lou'd.

[Second Base]

1 hour ago, rafibomb said:

The story of Barria's start so far has got to be his velocity. I don't think he's ever had a start where he's sitting 94-96.

He's sat 94 a couple times in Salt Lake. It's one or two ticks up, but it comes with considerably less movement and he doesn't spot it as well. But the new trend in baseball is high velo at the letters, and he can do that. 

[UndertheHalo]

 I dont think we would have been any worse off if we just gave Barria a spot instead of dealing with Quintana.  Ah well.  

[Inside Pitch]

6 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

He looked like a German Marquez clone out there today.

There was a Spanish language newspaper article that had an interview with him a while back.  Barria said that marriage and fatherhood had changed his outlook on a lot of things, made it easier to take a breath and look at baseball differently.  I don't recall how it was he actually said it but the gist of it was that when all he had was baseball, he had a hard time walking away from a bad outing and now that he's a Dad, he's not feeling like he's defined by baseball anymore.   Dude is expecting baby number 2.   Like Suarez he seems a lot more relaxed than in the past.  

I think Angels fans always forget Barria is in his age 24 season, Suarez age 23.   They got thrown to the wolves.

 

[Dtwncbad]

1 minute ago, Dochalo said:

Your expectations for the 26th pick should be lower. 

The original problem is he was overdrafted. If you recall this was a pick that most baseball people scoffed at while the Angels war room was high fiving.

[Lou]

9 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I agree.

I jinksed the loss.

[Jason]

Outstanding job by Barria today. Hopefully he can find some type of consistency moving forward 

[Second Base]

18 minutes ago, Dochalo said:

Barria at 95 today?  That could change some things for him if sustainable. 

It is and it's not. Yes, Barria can sit 94 like he did today. He's done it before in Salt Lake and there were a couple games where he sat 93 a couple years ago. 

While I love the result today, I feel like he's a better pitcher at 92 with movement. 

[Docwaukee]

3 minutes ago, Dtwncbad said:

The original problem is he was overdrafted. If you recall this was a pick that most baseball people scoffed at while the Angels war room was high fiving.

Maybe about the overdrafted thing. They got their guy and he’s a fringe major leaguer like most of the guys drafted around where he was. Sure it’s a bit of a bummer but pretty standard. 

[Second Base]

I also feel it's appropriate to give some credit to @stormngt, he's been talking about the Angels wasting Barria for a while. Not every outing will be this impressive, but many of them can be with this kid. Nothing seems to shake him and he's consistent. 

I think if nothing else, you have to consider dealing Heaney away and letting Barria take what's rightfully his (and has been for two years), which is a spot in the Angels rotation. 

[Second Base]

13 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

There was a Spanish language newspaper article that had an interview with him a while back.  Barria said that marriage and fatherhood had changed his outlook on a lot of things, made it easier to take a breath and look at baseball differently.  I don't recall how it was he actually said it but the gist of it was that when all he had was baseball, he had a hard time walking away from a bad outing and now that he's a Dad, he's not feeling like he's defined by baseball anymore.   Dude is expecting baby number 2.   Like Suarez he seems a lot more relaxed than in the past.  

I think Angels fans always forget Barria is in his age 24 season, Suarez age 23.   They got thrown to the wolves.

 

Dad-hood does change everything, many of us can attest to that. I don't think hiring Doug White helped Barria and Suarez out at all. Sandoval either.

 

Edited July 25, 2021 by Second Base

[Inside Pitch]

2 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I also feel it's appropriate to give some credit to @stormngt, he's been talking about the Angels wasting Barria for a while. 

I don't believe I've ever actually seen @stormngtmention Barria at all..

I'm kidding Storm, hope you enjoyed his performance.

[Docwaukee]

6 minutes ago, Second Base said:

It is and it's not. Yes, Barria can sit 94 like he did today. He's done it before in Salt Lake and there were a couple games where he sat 93 a couple years ago. 

While I love the result today, I feel like he's a better pitcher at 92 with movement. 

We’ve had this discussion before and I still disagree.  He’s never had 95+ before like detmers. If guys were more effective with movement at lower velo then that would be the trend. Being able to regularly dial it up to that is a game changer as far as I’m concerned.  Especially if his other stuff and command stay similar.  We’ll see. It was just one start so it may be an outlier anyway. 

[stormngt]

2 minutes ago, Second Base said:

I also feel it's appropriate to give some credit to @stormngt, he's been talking about the Angels wasting Barria for a while. Not every outing will be this impressive, but many of them can be with this kid. Nothing seems to shake him and he's consistent. 

I think if nothing else, you have to consider dealing Heaney away and letting Barria take what's rightfully his (and has been for two years), which is a spot in the Angels rotation. 

Let's put this into perspective:

Since the 2018 season  when Barria had a 3.41 ERA and ERA+ of 123:

here is a list of pitchers the Angels preferred to start over Barria:

Chris Stratton,  Felix Pena, Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill, Dillon Peter's, Julio Theron, Jose Quintana.

[Second Base]

Just now, Dochalo said:

We’ve had this discussion before and I still disagree.  He’s never had 95+ before like detmers. If guys were more effective with movement at lower velo then that would be the trend. Being able to regularly dial it up to that is a game changer as far as I’m concerned.  Especially if his other stuff and command stay similar.  We’ll see. It was just one start so it may be an outlier anyway. 

I do recall the discussion. There is one point that I would like to concede here to you. The trend of pitchers living up in the zone has put an emphasis on velo, so if a pitcher wants to pitch that way (and more major leaguers seem to be doing it this year), I think he can forget about movement or even hitting his spot. 

And really, I think a truly successful pitcher won't be so one dimensional that he's one way or the other. He might dial it up and move up in the zone the first time through the order and then dial it back and focus on movement and hitting his spots the second time through. Third time through, a lot of veteran pitchers basically just turn into junk specialists, using every off-speed pitch they can get over and relying on their defense. 

Today isn't so much an outlier for him as much as it's to show what he can do, that he doesn't specifically have to be a movement and weak contact pitcher.

I don't think the Twins did a very good job of adjusting to him at all. And that can be misleading. 

 

 

 

[stormngt]

9 minutes ago, Inside Pitch said:

I don't believe I've ever actually seen @stormngtmention Barria at all..

I'm kidding Storm, hope you enjoyed his performance.

I feel vindicated yes, but my issue was not hyping the greatness of Barria but throwing trash out there ahead of him after he has shown he can pitch in the majors.

I feel he is a solid back of rotation pitcher and the Halos kept screwing him by bringing spending more money on trash.