FiveThirtyEight: How this Angels season went straight to hell

[Taylor]

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-this-los-angeles-angels-season-went-straight-to-hell/

 

[Justin]

It's nice to be good at something, I guess. 

[Jason]

Just an extra level of suck 

[AngelsLakersFan]

Despite the article saying the opposite, Trout probably does deserve some of the blame. I mean the team is built around the assumption that he will play like a star, and he flat out played like shit during that 14 game stretch, and again not long after. Pitchers tend to do worse from the stretch, and the first basemen holding a runner on first opens up the infield. Trout forgetting how to get on first base this year has certainly had a negative impact on the other bats in the lineup.

[Docwaukee]

this felt historically bad in a weird way.  It's interesting to see that it actually is.  Because for all the team's nits, there really is no good explanation for them suddenly becoming THIS bad.  Everything just fell apart all at one for everyone in every facet of the game.  It feels like it should be an outlier, but I just don't know what to believe anymore.  

About Walsh and Marsh and Stassi and Trout and Rendon and Ward and Iglesias and Loup and Tepera.  

It's just catastrophic for this franchise.  Plain and simple.  They've done a lot wrong over the last several years but there is some good stuff they've done and they have some very good or at least very solid/capable players yet it's giving me the feeling of just utter hopelessness.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 minute ago, Docwaukee said:

this felt historically bad in a weird way.  It's interesting to see that it actually is.  Because for all the team's nits, there really is no good explanation for them suddenly becoming THIS bad.  Everything just fell apart all at one for everyone in every facet of the game.  It feels like it should be an outlier, but I just don't know what to believe anymore.  

About Walsh and Marsh and Stassi and Trout and Rendon and Ward and Iglesias and Loup and Tepera.  

It's just catastrophic for this franchise.  Plain and simple.  They've done a lot wrong over the last several years but there is some good stuff they've done and they have some very good or at least very solid/capable players yet it's giving me the feeling of just utter hopelessness.  

It actually felt to me like other teams had figured out what they were doing, or they figured out something about the Angels approach. Seemed like the scouting caught up with them or something. It just couldn't all go south at the same time like that randomly, right?

[Docwaukee]

2 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Despite the article saying the opposite, Trout probably does deserve some of the blame

of course he does and I bet he 100% owns it.  But the days of relying on him to be an 8 win player are gone.  If they can't figure out how to win with him being a 4-5 win player instead they are screwed beyond belief.  

Has there been a single positive?  

Trout was on pace for about a 6-7 win season before the injury.  I bet he ends up close to that by the time it's said and done.  But certainly the team went as he did.  

Ward maybe.  He's tailed off but has been a very nice surprise?  

Ohtani is probably about what I expected on offense.  Maybe a bit better on the pitching side.  

Rengifo has come around but still not exactly making it move on regular.  

Detmers seems to be progressing. 

Sandoval is really good despite more baserunners than I'd like to see.  But he's been a bright spot.  

Quijada maybe?  He's still hard to trust for me.  

 

[Docwaukee]

6 minutes ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

It actually felt to me like other teams had figured out what they were doing, or they figured out something about the Angels approach. Seemed like the scouting caught up with them or something. It just couldn't all go south at the same time like that randomly, right?

that's the thing.  For those of us who have watched so much friggin' baseball our whole lives, it just doesn't make sense.  I figured they might regress a bit or even possibly have one of those seasons where the peripherals didn't exactly match the performance, but it's gone so far in the opposite direction that my head is spinning.  

[AngelsLakersFan]

6 minutes ago, Docwaukee said:

that's the thing.  For those of us who have watched so much friggin' baseball our whole lives, it just doesn't make sense.  I figured they might regress a bit or even possibly have one of those seasons where the peripherals didn't exactly match the performance, but it's gone so far in the opposite direction that my head is spinning.  

It was a light switch

[Jeff Fletcher]

Funny story:

The guy who wrote this story was in Baltimore and one day we were talking to Mike Frostad, the trainer. He comes up and asks this super long winded question about how the team was playing because he didn’t realize we were talking to the trainer, and not the manager. 

[Stradling]

7 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Funny story:

The guy who wrote this story was in Baltimore and one day we were talking to Mike Frostad, the trainer. He comes up and asks this super long winded question about how the team was playing because he didn’t realize we were talking to the trainer, and not the manager. 

So take this story with the appropriate level of grains of salt?

[Taylor]

24 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

Funny story:

The guy who wrote this story was in Baltimore and one day we were talking to Mike Frostad, the trainer. He comes up and asks this super long winded question about how the team was playing because he didn’t realize we were talking to the trainer, and not the manager. 

That is funny. He mentions interviewing Sandoval during the series in Baltimore. For all we know he was actually interviewing Tyler Wade.

[Angelsfan1984]

10 minutes ago, Taylor said:

That is funny. He mentions interviewing Sandoval during the series in Baltimore. For all we know he was actually interviewing Tyler Wade.

I bet it was adell. 
 

“and you’re sure you’re mike trout?” Ya bro I’m sure

[AngelsLakersFan]

Damn, shots fired.

[cysomeawfulpitcher]

They hit when the pitching sucked and pitched when they didn't score any runs.  Now, today's fluke aside, they're terrible all around.

 

[UndertheHalo]

The Angels are stupid and bad and I think it’s funny that they’re getting attention for it.  Haha. 

[Taylor]

14 hours ago, Stradling said:

So take this story with the appropriate level of grains of salt?

The two charts I screenshotted were built from Fangraphs info. So if anything those statistics are worth noting.

[Stradling]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

The two charts I screenshotted were built from Fangraphs info. So if anything those statistics are worth noting.

I agree that data is data. 

[Angelsjunky]

15 hours ago, Stradling said:

So take this story with the appropriate level of grains of salt?

It doesn't change the numbers involved.

[Angelsjunky]

Anyhow, this jives with what I've been saying: The team isn't--or shouldn't be--this bad. Something went wrong, and the whole thing snowballed. A lot of this is psychological, I think, or there's some mysterious factor involved.

 

[Angel Oracle]

Is Rendon’s leadership THAT important?

Because his injury is the ONLY long term one this season.

Just after he originally went on the IL after the first of 14 straight losses, the season really went south fast.

Edited July 25, 2022 by Angel Oracle

[70runner]

[totdprods]

32 minutes ago, Angelsjunky said:

Anyhow, this jives with what I've been saying: The team isn't--or shouldn't be--this bad. Something went wrong, and the whole thing snowballed. A lot of this is psychological, I think, or there's some mysterious factor involved.

 

Yup. This feels reminiscent of the Collins-era and when the rift formed. 

There has to be some massive disconnect between players, coaching, FO...one, two, all of these elements. Something. Some contingent isn't bought in to the plan or trusts another chunk anymore. 

[ThisismineScios]

40 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

Is Rendon’s leadership THAT important?

Because his injury is the ONLY long term one this season.

Just after he originally went on the IL after the first of 14 straight losses, the season really went south fast.

No but it's probably understated how having his bat in the lineup stretches it out, helps guys like Walsh and Stassi (Rendon still gets base a lot), and puts more pressure on the opposing pitcher. 

31 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Yup. This feels reminiscent of the Collins-era and when the rift formed. 

There has to be some massive disconnect between players, coaching, FO...one, two, all of these elements. Something. Some contingent isn't bought in to the plan or trusts another chunk anymore. 

I'd guess it's the players and coaches. I don't think the players and FO interact with each other enough to develop a rift. Some subtle comments from Sandoval about his strategy, Detmers going down for a single start and working with his AAA coach and coming back up and setting the world on fire, and Ward and Walsh about the hitting strategies make me think there's a rift there. Either way, it shouldn't have resulted in something like this.

I think they broke when they experienced some success and suddenly faced some adversity and bad luck. In the Blue Jays series, they got unlucky several times and made some really stupid mistakes (Lagares, Adell, relievers).
Next series, Ohtani got picked by the Yankees like they were calling the signs. Bradley blows a save game 2 DH.
Next day is Silseth's HR derby in Philly. 
Next day Lorenzen give up 5 in the 1st.
Next day is the blown 6-2 and 7-6 leads. Iggy and Herget Hrs. Put them below .500.
Next day lose a 1-0 pitching duel. 
Next lose in extras.
Next another 1-0 pitcher's duel.

Finally they win an Ohtani game, but how many of those games were just plain bad luck, one bad pitch, or just things going the wrong way? I think that much bad luck and bad chance broke them. 

[Angel Oracle]

Seems that this coaching staff is vastly ill-equipped to work with MLB players?

Hoping that Minasian finally takes care of that with a solid managerial hire in the off-season, who will bring in solid coaches